How do you handle intro flights?

cficollegeguy

cficollegeguy

Well-Known Member
Just was wondering how you guys handle an intro flight with someone that has never been in an airplane before? What are your tactics?

Seems like in this market with a limited number of students you want to sell yourself and getting a license.
 
The easiest thing to do is to do all the boring things without the prospective student (preflight, planning, tfrs) and just get them in the air and once at cruise have them fly it.
 
Here's what i used to do. A quick chat inside before we go so they know what to expect. Out to the aircraft - brief explanation of the instruments, controls, etc and what they do. I would taxi and do a quick runup and have them ride along the controls (explain to them that this gives us more time in the air). Have them on the controls from takeoff to somepoint in the landing.
 
I do a preflight briefing so they get to know what to expect and I get to know if they have any prior experience.

We do the preflight with explanations by me as they seem appropriate.

I have them follow me on the controls during takeoff. Once established in the climb toward the practice area, I have them take over. Once level in the practice area, I use traditional telling and doing (although I skip "student tells") to go through the four fundamentals. I then have them fly us back to the airport (with a route that might be fun to see) and the follow me on the landing.

One thing I do as part of the four fundamentals piece is put the airplane in a 30° bank, trim to maintain altitude and take hands off the controls. I think it's a good demonstration of stability at this level, watching the airplane go a few times around before the bank decays and airplane either returns to level flight or steepens the bank.
 
I vary intro flights quite a bit depending on who I got and what they want and their experience. But most of the time its:

Ground: (15 minutes)
1. 4 fundamentals of flight
2. ARROW documents
3. IMSAFE checklist
4. Pitch attitudes for; climbs, descents and level flight (drawing it on paper)
5. Pitch, Power, Trim when changing pitch attitudes

Preflight: ( I do a full preflight before the student arrives, but this is just for a quick lesson on how the airplane works)
1. Flight Controls (what each one does and how it works including the pedals and brakes)
2. Fuel (sump and dip the tanks)
3. Engine, prop

Flight:
1. Go through checklist to start airplane
2. Taxi (I do a quick runup to so we can get to the flight without having to spend 10 minutes explaining everything)
3. Student starts the plane.
4. Takeoff (sometimes If the student wants to give it a try, I will let them do the first take off. I will give them a good brief on looking down the runway, once you get to Vr, go to climb pitch attitude (as I show them how high to pitch the nose) Some students would just assume to see me perform the first takeoff, but one will be amazed how students can do a takeoff on their first try with a good briefing.
5. After Takeoff, I take the controls and show them that we control airspeed with pitch (correlating a car driving up and down a hill)
6. Student takes controls and we practice climbs and descents using only pitch attitudes with pitch, power, trim, like we talked about beforehand (light bulb usually kicks in when they see how the sight picture really works)
7. After student is comfortable with climbs and descents, do some turns using rudder and aileron together.
8. we spend 10 minutes just flying around using basic flight attitudes.
9. If student seems overwhelmed, head back to the airport and I'll do the landing and talk him through the 3 different pitch attitudes during landing (1. pitch down attitude, 2. level pitch once the runway flattens, 3. then climb pitch attitude once we start sinking...)
10. Otherwise I may do a flap demonstration (show how it gives us lift and drag (airspeed decreases and nose goes up) and practice adding flaps while putting forward pressure on the yoke and vise-versa)
11. Trim demonstration (practice holding level flight pitch attitude while rolling the trim all the way up, down, and then back neutral)

Debrief:
1. Talk about what we would do on lesson two if they decide to come back
2. Price sheet and syllabus, explaining the different requirements they must meet.
3. how to get a medical
4. Schedule next lesson

I know I do a lot on an Intro flight, but I remember doing my intro flight when I was interested in learning to fly. Instructor did most everything. He gave me the controls and let me do a few turns, and then he did everything else. I did not learn anything and came out pretty disappointed.

Also Im a HUGE fan of primacy, if students dont learn that; 1. flying is pitch attitudes, 2. turns require rudder to start, and stop the turn, etc. on the their first flight, it takes them 5 times as long to learn to do it correctly.

I built the our small town student base from zero students to over 30 students and four full time instructors in the past three years and virtually created my own job. I remember how I struggled because of bad instructors. Over 4,500 hours of doing it, and I still love instructing and see as an art.
 
Fly_Unity said:
I vary intro flights quite a bit depending on who I got and what they want and their experience. But most of the time its:

Ground: (15 minutes)
1. 4 fundamentals of flight
2. ARROW documents
3. IMSAFE checklist
4. Pitch attitudes for; climbs, descents and level flight (drawing it on paper)
5. Pitch, Power, Trim when changing pitch attitudes

Preflight: ( I do a full preflight before the student arrives, but this is just for a quick lesson on how the airplane works)
1. Flight Controls (what each one does and how it works including the pedals and brakes)
2. Fuel (sump and dip the tanks)
3. Engine, prop

Flight:
1. Go through checklist to start airplane
2. Taxi (I do a quick runup to so we can get to the flight without having to spend 10 minutes explaining everything)
3. Student starts the plane.
4. Takeoff (sometimes If the student wants to give it a try, I will let them do the first take off. I will give them a good brief on looking down the runway, once you get to Vr, go to climb pitch attitude (as I show them how high to pitch the nose) Some students would just assume to see me perform the first takeoff, but one will be amazed how students can do a takeoff on their first try with a good briefing.
5. After Takeoff, I take the controls and show them that we control airspeed with pitch (correlating a car driving up and down a hill)
6. Student takes controls and we practice climbs and descents using only pitch attitudes with pitch, power, trim, like we talked about beforehand (light bulb usually kicks in when they see how the sight picture really works)
7. After student is comfortable with climbs and descents, do some turns using rudder and aileron together.
8. we spend 10 minutes just flying around using basic flight attitudes.
9. If student seems overwhelmed, head back to the airport and I'll do the landing and talk him through the 3 different pitch attitudes during landing (1. pitch down attitude, 2. level pitch once the runway flattens, 3. then climb pitch attitude once we start sinking...)
10. Otherwise I may do a flap demonstration (show how it gives us lift and drag (airspeed decreases and nose goes up) and practice adding flaps while putting forward pressure on the yoke and vise-versa)
11. Trim demonstration (practice holding level flight pitch attitude while rolling the trim all the way up, down, and then back neutral)

Debrief:
1. Talk about what we would do on lesson two if they decide to come back
2. Price sheet and syllabus, explaining the different requirements they must meet.
3. how to get a medical
4. Schedule next lesson

I know I do a lot on an Intro flight, but I remember doing my intro flight when I was interested in learning to fly. Instructor did most everything. He gave me the controls and let me do a few turns, and then he did everything else. I did not learn anything and came out pretty disappointed.

Also Im a HUGE fan of primacy, if students dont learn that; 1. flying is pitch attitudes, 2. turns require rudder to start, and stop the turn, etc. on the their first flight, it takes them 5 times as long to learn to do it correctly.

I built the our small town student base from zero students to over 30 students and four full time instructors in the past three years and virtually created my own job. I remember how I struggled because of bad instructors. Over 4,500 hours of doing it, and I still love instructing and see as an art.
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That's a very detailed introduction flight. I had one today and and did a lot of the flying. I did this because they were kids, 11 and 14. It was also pretty gusty so once I got the airplane established in a climb I gave them the controls. Your right, it really depends on the student. I sometimes feel like just getting them flying quickly or they may lose interest fast.
 
just do a normal flight, explain check list, preflight.
let them do engine start and taxi to discover rudder ,i do power/radio .

let him fly,turn, climb, approach to land. then I do the landing. ask him to read check list, show him where to flip switches.
keep him in focus, keep him in the loop.

log his flight, it s all saved for next lesson.

keep the guy busy, not just watching you to do everything, if the guy is relax, give him more to do (like power) , if too much, , take workload. never start with radio. do all radio yourself radio is too intimidating for some, specially for foreigners..

put very light pressure on the guy and take control anytime, most guy tell me they didn't expect that.they thought it was easier and are very interested by the challenge to learn to fly a plane.

you must do the difference between sitting in the back or a discovery flight.it shouldn't be called a discovery flight, but discovery wanabe pilot.
 
cficollegeguy said:
That's a very detailed introduction flight. I had one today and and did a lot of the flying. I did this because they were kids, 11 and 14. It was also pretty gusty so once I got the airplane established in a climb I gave them the controls. Your right, it really depends on the student. I sometimes feel like just getting them flying quickly or they may lose interest fast.
Click to expand...


Yes, each intro flight is different depending on the student. If one loses interest on the first flight, then Im not really interested in teaching them either.

Reminds me of the first time I went skydiving. Instructor let me pull the rip cord, steer, do steep turns, flare during the landing. He talked me through it but it was a blast. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to go again. This time a different instructor took me up, he pulled the rip cord, he did everything. I just sat there and wished I could be in control. Guess what Instructor I requested on my third skydive?
 
I made them do as much as they were comfortable, taxi, takeoff, turns and landing. It was all verbal coaching with a little help now and again. Worked pretty well for me in hooking people knowing they were going to be learning, not sitting and watching me fly all the time. (Although one intro flight with a 300 lb. dude with arms of steel did scare the poop outta me when his death grip made it difficult to verbally and physically direct. I ended up doing a lot of the flying from downwind on.)
 
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