Have you ever feared a student would kill you?

A150K

A150K

Well-Known Member
Just a question for you CFI's. When I was doing my private I only had a few occasions where my CFI had rescue the landing and on another occasion while I was under the hood we were on a collision course with an Astra jet, so he had to take the controls to prevent a tragedy (not my fault, but we could have both been killed had he not taken decicive action):popcorn:
 
Many, many times.

It's part of the job, you either live with it or go get a law degree.
 
I've taken the controls away from students before, but I don't think I have ever been put in a situation where I feared for my life. I guess I've just been lucky.
 
If you are letting your student put your aircraft in a situation where your lives/pilot certificate could be compromised, then you aren't doing your job as an INSTRUCTOR.

It's not exactly a confidence builder when you, as an instructor, say that your students are trying to kill you. No matter how funny it may be. We are there to train and educate, not to berate and be disrespectful because of a student's inability.
 
A150K said:
Have you ever feared a student would kill you
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Never. If an instructor really thinks that, then he may be letting a student go too far outside the instructor's comfort zone. Rescuing your landings is all in a day's work for an instructor and shouldn't cause more than a high state of alertness. The proper way for an instructor to describe the incident is "the student's landing attempt caught my attention." ;)
 
LucasM said:
If you are letting your student put your aircraft in a situation where your lives/pilot certificate could be compromised, then you aren't doing your job as an INSTRUCTOR.

It's not exactly a confidence builder when you, as an instructor, say that your students are trying to kill you. No matter how funny it may be. We are there to train and educate, not to berate and be disrespectful because of a student's inability.
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I've never once told a student I feared they would kill me.

That said, I have let them scare the crap out of themselves doing something that could end badly if I weren't there. It's very, very common for students to do something completely unexpected that has the potential to bend metal. Thats how you learn.
 
At first when i started i was very cautious with the students and landing. After my 4th student i pretty much let them slam the runway....the 152 is quit forgiving. Now i'm flying the cherokee 140 and i'm back to being a little cautious. I figure the student has got feel what its like to land hard.
 
Yes, but you really don't think about that while it is happening. So "fear" never really plays a part of it. There are for sure close calls when it comes to instruction, and that includes all phases of flight.

I've noticed that I have a habit of letting the student get too far before taking control.
 
Feared for the life of my student had I not been there...yes. (Would he really have tried to execute a go-around at half power and full flaps at 4000' density alt if I wasn't there to correct him?? :eek:)

Feared for my life because of something someone around us did...yes. (Did that guy really just start his takeoff roll on the crossing runway after we did?? :mad:)

Feared for my own life as a result of a student's actions...thankfully, no. That's what I'm getting paid to be there for - to make sure they don't become a smoking hole in the ground, especially while I'm aboard. If it ever got so far that I feared for my life, it probably means I wasn't paying attention. ;)
 
My initial sit down with a new student: "I'll never let You put us in a situation I can't get us out of"

That said, I'll definaltely let them scare themselves (inadvertant spin) as long as I'm confident I can recover.
 
Yep, I've had at least 3 students who have attempted to kill me. Though in hindsight, 2 of them were just as shaken up by what happened as I was.

The one student who I was certain was attempting to kill me (and himself) took his hands off the controls at 300 ft. when I was checking the downwind for traffic, pulled out his camera, and asked me if I wanted my picture taken when I noticed what he was doing when I turned my attention back on him a few seconds later.
 
I've never been afraid I was about to die in an airplane. However, I had one student put me where I thought we were about to bend metal. Short final, he froze on the controls, and I had to um... encourage him to let me fly for a moment. Until that moment, I didn't know it was possible to grab the mixture, throttle, and carb heat, while not looking, all at the same time. ;)

My wife happened to be at the airport that day and said I was white when I walked in from that lesson.
 
When you wheel land a taildragger, just as your mains touch down, you give a little push to keep the tail off the ground. I once had a student attempt that while we were about a foot in the air.
 
Teaching a guy how to wheel land, he had a brain fart and stepped on the wrong pedal...all the way to the floor and held it there. Thankfully we never left the pavement, but it got my heart racing.
 
There were absolutely many many times where the student would have killed us or destroyed the airplane had I not intervened. That said, there were only really 2 or 3 times where the attempt caught me off guard and had I not been on my game (and/or had we not been in a veeeery forgiving airplane) things could have ended poorly in spite of my presence and actions.
 
I would always joke around and say that, but in reality I don't think I was ever out in a situation I couldn't get out of. I was always a little more nervous when students did their first solo, not that most of them did a bad job, in fact most did good. But I always thought that they might do something I hadn't seen them do in their training. Even if they did great T&L where I didn't say a thing, some students would get a little nervous flying alone. I always was a little worried about the foreign students, especially handling non-standard radio calls.

I did give them one bit of advice before soloing though... I said the airplane would take off and climb like a champ without me in there. :) Most were suprised at the extra performance... I am pretty big too, so it makes a difference.
 
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