How do you introduce students to PTS items/tasks?

Cloud Surfer

Cloud Surfer

All Roads lead to Trantor
When I was training for my private and instrument certs under part 61, I never heard any of my instructors utter a word about what the PTS stand for or where they could be found; only that we had to do this and that because it was "required" to meet the requirements for the checkride. It didn't bother me much then, but now in hindsight it does a little.

To be fair, the schools where I was enrolled relied heavily on software for ground instruction which stated objectives and standards at the every end of the lesson under a separate section. From what I've gathered though after speaking to a few CFIs way after the fact, most students don't do their homework properly and still don't understand where these standards are coming from.

It wasn't really until I signed up at a part 141 pilot mill for my commercial and multi certs that I was at last introduced to desired "standards" for various maneuvers.

Why is it then that some instructors fail to familiarize their students with the PTS? For those of you who are teaching or had in the past, how do you introduce the PTS to your students? How heavily do you go in detail about them? Thanks in advance for your answers.
 
I work at a pilot mill, and my first ground lesson with them I spend a good 30 minutes going through the private PTS. Page by page, line by line so they fully understand the minimum requirements. I introduce the special emphasis areas but go more in depth with each one as their training progresses. I might be over doing but I cant see any harm in being over prepared.
 
I dont really bring them up until maybe 1/2-2/3 through primary, after they are already getting most maneuvers down fairly well.

Early on they just need to be learning the fundamentals of stick and rudder flying, feeling the airplane, etc... they dont need to be thinking about numbers in a PTS. I want them to be thinking about piloting, not passing a test.

As they are getting proficient enough to be polishing things up I explain the PTS so that they have some frame of reference to evaluate where they are at in their performance. I explain that it basically tells them exactly what they will be tested on and the performance standards, so it'd be pretty stupid to not know them very well. In the last few hours I'm evaluating all maneuvers and giving them feedback in regards to PTS.
 
Like I always say with my posts in here, take this with a grain of salt because I'm probably about the greenest CFI on here.

So far with all my students (~10 hour presolo guys) I haven't really brought it up, other than the special emphasis areas like positive exchange of controls, runway incursions, stalls and spins... those things are pretty easy to explain the importance of. So far with maneuvers I really just concentrate on getting them to get the technique down and the PTS standards kind of follow. I base it mostly on safety, like telling them why we want to hold altitude, why we want to bump up power in a steep turn so we don't bleed airspeed and stall, why we don't want to go below X speed on approach, so we don't get careless and stall, etc. Once I explain that I'm holding them to these tolerances mainly for safety they are usually doing them to PTS standards. For example with steep turns, I really work on them getting the right technique, then throw in a "By the way, you did that perfectly enough to pass the test", rather than barking "You're 101 feet low, that's busting the PTS!" As with anything I try to explain the why of it instead of "Because the FAA says so" because there's generally a good reason for holding them to that standard, beyond just passing the test.

I work at a pilot mill, and my first ground lesson with them I spend a good 30 minutes going through the private PTS. Page by page, line by line so they fully understand the minimum requirements. I introduce the special emphasis areas but go more in depth with each one as their training progresses. I might be over doing but I cant see any harm in being over prepared.
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Ouch. That seems a little overwhelming for the first go but I guess if they aren't overwhelmed by it it can pay off.
 
FoodStampsPilot said:
Why is it then that some instructors fail to familiarize their students with the PTS? For those of you who are teaching or had in the past, how do you introduce the PTS to your students? How heavily do you go in detail about them? Thanks in advance for your answers.
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The advice I've been given by local DPE's (that I agree with) is not to introduce the specifics of the PTS until a few hours before the checkride. Better to teach good habits of being a safe pilot, rather than teaching to the test. The PTS does not cover everything you need to know to be a pilot. It does a disservice to the student if you only teach the tasks it presents. I want my students to think about how to fly the plane, not how to pass a test.
 
This is what ive always done. If you do all the other lessons right they should be able to fly within the pts with just some fine tuning anyway.
 
I casually reference it during the solo, XC phase of training etc but introduce it and rely on it during the checkride prep phase. Pre flight brief is the maneuvers we will complete along with all of the required standards per the document (which I have them read to me.....any questions?). There is a lot of repetition (for example altitude, clearing turns etc) so once you get down to it there's not too much to it.

I should mention that each ground lesson and flight lesson I developed had performance standards that were taken from the PTS, which was referenced as appropriately.
 
I dont even mention it to primary students until it is time to prepare them for the checkride.
 
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