Your experience as a brand new CFI

ATOflyer said:
I'm pretty overprotective of the controls at first. I guess that will just remedy with time and more dual given, and if the "students are out to kill me" attitude that I have will subside haha jk. Thinking back to when I was learning and how much I hated when I felt like my instructor was on the controls makes me want to rid this habit but it sounds normal and is probably for the better in some cases.
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when students are first learning to land, you can bet that my feet are hovering just above the rudder pedals and my hands are basically in my lap, also ready to move quickly. the gustier the wind, the greener the student, the closer my hands are and sometimes we'd 'fly together' on some landing approaches. in the air i'm not worried..very little a student may do that an instructor cannot undo just as quickly. you'll relax more in time, i promise. :bandit:
 
tprops4me said:
How nervous were you guys when you soloed your first? I think I would be sweating bullets.
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The first student I soloed was my wife in my plane. I'm not sure what I was more nervous about! :eek: I mean, sure I love my wife and it would be terrible to have to date again, but I also spent a lot of time getting my plane just right...new paint, new glass, avionics, etc., etc... :D

In all honesty, it's probably more fun for me than it is for the student. Flight instruction is one of those professions where your goal is to provide enough learning opportunities where your students don't need you anymore. When I get out of the plane for a first solo, I feel a certain amount of achievement because that's the first big indicator that I am working myself out of a job. You'll figure out when the right time is and in the beginning you'll probably error toward the conservative side, and that's okay. It won't take you very long to know when the time has come to get out of the plane. I personally start students with a very small box and gradually increase it as they get more experience. The first solo is always a part of a dual lesson where we've done at least 3 landings and 1 go-around. Sometimes we do more. I launched on a flight where I intended to solo the student, but he had an off day and after 4-5 landings I ended the lesson. I thought he was going to be disappointed, but it turns out that he was relieved. He also knew he was having an off day, so we stopped and talked about landings for an hour or so. It was a great opportunity to help him realize what was happening and what he needed to do to correct it. A few days later things were much better and his solo went smoothly.

Rob
 
How nervous were you guys when you soloed your first? I think I would be sweating bullets.
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I agree with Rob. I thought I would be extremely nervous when I first started soloing students, but in all reality it isn't as bad as you think it might be.

After flight with the student for X amount of hours you really start realizing that they know what they are doing and know they can handle the airplane in the way they should be. It is hard to explain, but you will know when your student will be up to the task of soloing.
 
I've got about 20 hours of dual so far and the learning curve for me is HUGE. I honestly felt a little incompetent those first few lessons. Teaching a rated pilot and a student pilot just wasn't the same at all. With the control thing, I found myself to be quite the opposite in that I would take over just a bit too late. My students expressed this to me as well. :) It was never a danger of crashing or anything, just my students scaring the hell out of themselves a little. You can bet my one student won't get hard on the brakes and lazy on the rudder at the same time ever again. :)

I'll remember that first day forever. It didn't hit me until we got settled in the airplane that I realized "oh crap, this is the real deal!!" :D
 
Sometimes I intentionally mess up a demonstration, the purpose being to give a low confidence student a boost; see you are not the only one making mistakes.
Sometimes I simple have a bad day and I can barely do a steep turn to private standards...lol
If I demonstrate a landing I always critique myself out loud in front of the student to let them know what I was not satisfied with and also to let them know never to be satisfied with your performance, no matter how much experience you have.
 
So how do you know when you're with a student pilot and he's making really nice landings--is he just lucky or does he get it? A trick the Chief Flight Instructor at my school uses to evaluate landing ability is to take the flight controls and fly the pattern up to the turn to final, then hand the controls back to the student. One time he will be high and fast, the next time he'll be low and slow. Then he'll watch what the pilot does to correct for it. That way he can get a better sense of a student's abilities. I've put that trick in my bag and use it to help me judge when a student is ready to solo. I also want to see them make a bad landing and correct it -- normally that means a big bounce and a go-around. Whatever the case, I want to see that he knows what to do when things go wrong.

Rob
 
Nihon_Ni said:
So how do you know when you're with a student pilot and he's making really nice landings--is he just lucky or does he get it? A trick the Chief Flight Instructor at my school uses to evaluate landing ability is to take the flight controls and fly the pattern up to the turn to final, then hand the controls back to the student. One time he will be high and fast, the next time he'll be low and slow. Then he'll watch what the pilot does to correct for it. That way he can get a better sense of a student's abilities. I've put that trick in my bag and use it to help me judge when a student is ready to solo. I also want to see them make a bad landing and correct it -- normally that means a big bounce and a go-around. Whatever the case, I want to see that he knows what to do when things go wrong.

Rob
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i always say that i like to see students make errors for precisely that reason - you need to know if they 'got it right' because they knew their stuff or just 'got lucky'. there are many ways to skin a cat. i like your chief's idea in reference to helping to make this determination for whether a student is getting close to solo. :bandit:
 
My first students were Japanese and spoke very little English. After the first few days I started to wonder, "What the hell have I gotten myself into?"

Looking back, it just made me work harder and be more patient when teaching.
 
This happened when I was about 400hrs dual given. I went up with a student pilot who hadn't been flying in a month. I had flown with him before on several occasions and knew he was a solid stick but I was still watching everything he was doing like a hawk because of the time off. The flight was going good and we were entering the pattern to do some landings and i mentioned that he should put his carb heat on at that point. Well being an obedient student he reaches for the carb heat. As always I watch to make sure they pull the right knob and to my surprise he pulls the mixture to idle cut off at about 1000 agl. Soon as he pulled the mixture my hand was right behind his putting it back in one fluid motion. He sits there looking out ahead and I ask him if he knew what just happened. He replys "No" then i proceed to tell him he pulled the wrong knob. No harm no foul but always watch what that student does.
 
Having taught both foreign born pilots (Chinese) and home grown, the "Law of Primacy" is the most important. Teach them right the first time. This is especially true of procedures, use of checklist, engine run-up...etc. What is hard to teach at first with no experience, or dual given , is "how far to let it go" without intervening, or touching the controls. Most students NEED to learn from their OWN mistakes, jumping on the controls, or taking over is a difficult urge at first to overcome, but eventually you learn to manage the risks.
 
I used to have a primary student that kept his hand on the throttle and mixture during pattern work.

And yes, it drove me NUTS!!!
 
cfii2007 said:
I used to have a primary student that kept his hand on the throttle and mixture during pattern work.

And yes, it drove me NUTS!!!
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ever let him pull that mixture knob, abeam the numbers, when in the pattern? i'd bet that 'sudden silence' would only take one time to cure that.. ;) hand on the throttle during departure leg and when on final..otherwise i tell 'em like ronco's broiler oven thing: 'set it and forget it'...well, so to speak.. :)
 
As for the demonstration thing, it actually takes a bit of humility sometimes. With my current student, when we first started doing short field landings, I tried to demonstrate it twice, and floated WAAAYYYY past my landing point. I let him try it, and he did perfectly. All of his shorts since then have been just as beautiful. I hope he's not just getting lucky :D

Same student, we decided to do a power-off landing competition. He did very well, and landed about 40 ft short of the spot. I managed to land on the spot, but only after adding power for like 5 or 6 seconds :banghead:
 
XcalibeR said:
As for the demonstration thing, it actually takes a bit of humility sometimes. With my current student, when we first started doing short field landings, I tried to demonstrate it twice, and floated WAAAYYYY past my landing point. I let him try it, and he did perfectly. All of his shorts since then have been just as beautiful. I hope he's not just getting lucky :D

Same student, we decided to do a power-off landing competition. He did very well, and landed about 40 ft short of the spot. I managed to land on the spot, but only after adding power for like 5 or 6 seconds :banghead:
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yup, still happens here, too, sometimes..lol. i chalk it up to 'excellent instruction'.. :rawk:

:D
 
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