Get your hand off the throttle!!

[Goonie]

To students,

If your instructor tells you to leave your hand on the throttle the whole flight find a new instructor. :banghead:

To Instructors,

Remember the law of primacy.

tanks

 

[v1valarob]

To students,

If your instructor tells you to leave your hand on the throttle the whole flight find a new instructor. :banghead:

To Instructors,

Remember the law of primacy.

tanks

I'll argue this one all day long. Anytime my students would take their hand off the throttle, I would pull it and say "whoops there goes your engine."

It's easier to have them keep it on all the time in the beginning, then to try and explain the times it's needed and not needed. My biggest pet peeve was when students would rotate and take their hand off of the throttle.

 

[subpilot]

During takeoff and initial climb... yes
During low altitude maneuvers... yes
During slow flight and stalls... yes
During steep turns... sure
During approach and landing... yes

All the time... no way in hell!

They only have two hands to begin with and if one must be on the yoke at all times and the other must be on the throttle at all times then what?

 

[Goonie]

I'll argue this one all day long. Anytime my students would take their hand off the throttle, I would pull it and say "whoops there goes your engine."

It's easier to have them keep it on all the time in the beginning, then to try and explain the times it's needed and not needed. My biggest pet peeve was when students would rotate and take their hand off of the throttle.

And you'll be wrong all day long. Any fed or DPE will tell you the same.

 

[ppragman]

To students,

If your instructor tells you to leave your hand on the throttle the whole flight find a new instructor. :banghead:

To Instructors,

Remember the law of primacy.

tanks

What can it possibly hurt to have them keep their hand on the throttle? What can it hurt?

 

[rdsoxpilot]

During takeoff and initial climb... yes
During low altitude maneuvers... yes
During slow flight and stalls... yes
During steep turns... sure
During approach and landing... yes

All the time... no way in hell!

They only have two hands to begin with and if one must be on the yoke at all times and the other must be on the throttle at all times then what?

Textbook answer. Does it hurt anything by keeping it on there when you have nowhere else to put it? NO.

 

[skydog]

As a pilot/instructor, there ought to be a reason for everything you do, and it has to be better than "because" or "I'm not comfortable with that." If you can't explain why you're doing something, than you ought not be doing it.

 

[adreamer]

Put your hand on throttle the entire time? nah.

In my opinion, I told my student pilots they have to put the hands on the throttle "most of time" because of possible pulling the wrong handle. :banghead:

Once they get used to cockpit, they can relax their hands.

 

[Ramsey]

Once I get the plane trimmed up and if it's smooth I put both hands in my lap. I find holding the yolk just makes more work. The plane is pretty good at flying itself and I'm pretty good at just sitting there review my flight planning etc

 

[Hacker15e]

Technique vs procedure.

Procedure has a black and white reference and is the law. Technique is just an opinion, and can't be graded.

This throttle thing is clearly technique.

Personally, I think the technique of keeping your hand on the throttle 100% of the time in a GA aircraft is dumb, but there's no reason why you can't/shouldn't do it if you want to.

Isn't that why there's a throttle friction setting?

 

[Hernandezcfi]

It's like people who drive around with their hand on the steering console shifter (I had an uncle who did that). It's a little retarded but who cares?

Have your student put it where Al Bundy puts his.

 

[jrh]

Technique vs procedure.

Procedure has a black and white reference and is the law. Technique is just an opinion, and can't be graded.

This throttle thing is clearly technique.

Personally, I think the technique of keeping your hand on the throttle 100% of the time in a GA aircraft is dumb, but there's no reason why you can't/shouldn't do it if you want to.

Isn't that why there's a throttle friction setting?

:yeahthat:

One of my pet peeves is instructors teaching technique as though it's procedure.

A while ago I flew with a customer who said he'd been confused because his first instructor told him to lower the first notch of flaps at 90 knots on downwind in the pattern, while his second instructor adamantly said 75 knots, so he didn't know which was right. I told him it didn't matter and went on to explain the whole procedure versus technique concept.

As for the throttle...my technique is to have pilots keep their hand on it after takeoff until reaching about 1000 AGL, but beyond that I'm not too picky. The main reason I have them do it after takeoff is to keep the throttle from slipping back to less than full throttle on old planes with weak friction locks. The rest of the time, it takes all of 0.237 seconds to reach for the throttle, so I don't consider it such a big deal to have their hand there.

 

[CRJDriver]

Back when I was instructing, I always told my students that if they take their hand off the throttle during take off, they would owe me a steak dinner. Let's just say I ate pretty good for a few months

 

[killbilly]

My CFI told me, "Hand on the throttle when you're at full power, and when you're setting up the approach. Other than that, relax. Here, lemme show you how to foot-fly...."

 

[kellwolf]

And you'll be wrong all day long. Any fed or DPE will tell you the same.

Why is it "wrong?" Like was mentioned, it's technique. There's no hard and fast rule saying you can or can't, so it can't possibly be "right" or "wrong." If a fed or DPE told one of my students he was wrong for doing it either way, that would be the last time I used that DPE and I'd have to have a chat with the fed.

 

[Murdoughnut]

I felt like keeping my hand on the throttle taught me to "feel" the aircraft better, and make power adjustments to maintain precise power settings. I don't think it's a bad thing for a student pilot - especially if the the stall warning horn starts screaming unexpectedly.

 

[kellwolf]

Going back to the law of primacy thing that Ryan brought up, apparently there are guys teaching their students NOT to touch the throttles, too. One thing that seriously irks me is FOs that have both hands on the yoke during an approach. On the approach, I think you should have a hand on the yoke and a hand on the throttle (yes, even if the autopilot is on). That way you can make the subtle power corrections the CRJ seems to need all the time in order to keep your speed right. Plus, if anything DOES happen to go wrong, you're already in a position to make the correction.

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

I felt like keeping my hand on the throttle taught me to "feel" the aircraft better, and make power adjustments to maintain precise power settings. I don't think it's a bad thing for a student pilot - especially if the the stall warning horn starts screaming unexpectedly.

Ryan's premise is that the student will jockey the throttle too much if their hand is on the throttle the whole time. The result: They cruise at 80 knots and 2000 RPM instead of the normal cruise range for the airplane and trimming it properly.

Me, I don't know. I don't really care, but I hate it when they do throttle jockey.

 

[tgrayson]

Ryan's premise is that the student will jockey the throttle too much if their hand is on the throttle the whole time.

Probably true, particularly in turbulence, but it's a far greater leap to therefore say the behavior is "wrong", and particularly egregious to say you should fire an instructor over it. Let's have a sense of proportion.

Better, I think, to point out to the student the undesirable results of the behavior and to encourage habits that lead to more desirable ends. Avoid the use of rigid ideas of "right" and "wrong", because this just erodes the instructor's credibility.

 

[Goonie]

How many airline pilots keep your hand on the throttle the whole flight?

How many instructors here keep your hand on the throttle when your flying by yourself?

Then why do we teach our students this??

Here is the problems with it...

1. Fluctuating between 2000 and 2400 RPM is annoying.
2. Correcting loss or gain of altitude with small power corrections is WRONG technique.
3. It doesn't help the student relax at all.
4. Its gonna be hard when they get to their instrument training and they cant look at charts and IAP's because they are used to keeping their hand on the throttle.

Keep your hand on the throttle during takeoff and climb or whenever you're in the airport environment. Once you get to a safe altitude then level off, cruise power setting and TRIM!