IFR Brief

[MidlifeFlyer]

The only reason to teach TOMATOFLAMES is because your poor student will be quizzed on it during the oral.

True story: On the morning of the checkride, my private pilot student pulled the aircraft logs and discovered something a number of others missed - the last annual had not been signed by an IA. There had been a number of 100 hour inspections since then but none had, even incidentally, been signed by an IA. The airplane was out of annual. Had been for months. We switched to another airplane.

What a fantastic example of understanding and applying Private PTS Area of Operation I, Task B!! I stood outside the room while my student told the DPE what had occurred and then left.

After my student passed his checkride with "flying" colors, I called the DPE to ask for details. His only comment was "I can't believe he didn't know TOMATOFLAMES!"

I think he's still in prison.

SMALS

 

[IslandFlyer]

Oooh! What's the mnemonic you have for airport signage and preflight action? I haven't heard those!

MILDDR-mandatory instruction, information, location, direction, destination, runway distance remaining

ADWARF-all pertinent info, delays, wx, alternates required, runway distances, fuel required.

...whatever works

 

[MidlifeFlyer]

MILDDR-mandatory instruction, information, location, direction, destination, runway distance remaining

I find it incredibly scary that anyone needs to regurgitate the "types" of airport signs. I can just picture someone crossing the hold short line and in the post-flight discussion explaining, "Well, maybe I didn't know what to do when I got to one but I sure knew what type of sign it was."

Then again, that's the whole purpose of mnemonics. ARWU.

BTW, lest anyone gets the wrong idea, I do use some mnemonics. They can be a great help for early stages when rote learning is needed before getting to the knowledge levels of understanding an application (correlation is a whole 'nother story) and for certain base rote tasks where thought isn't needed. (My big issue with burning red fruit is that it actually detracts from learning). And, of course,if you expect to be tested on the mnemonic .

For example, I teach RAFT and CRAFT for clearances and Class C departure instructions and even anticipate continued use for those who get this information very rarely (Suggestion to instrument pilots who still use it - no problem if you do but try a few times without it; the order of the information is probably so ingrained at this point it won't make any difference.)

 

[IslandFlyer]

I find it incredibly scary that anyone needs to regurgitate the "types" of airport signs. I can just picture someone crossing the hold short line and in the post-flight discussion explaining, "Well, maybe I didn't know what to do when I got to one but I sure knew what type of sign it was."

Then again, that's the whole purpose of mnemonics. ARWU.

BTW, lest anyone gets the wrong idea, I do use some mnemonics. They can be a great help for early stages when rote learning is needed before getting to the knowledge levels of understanding an application (correlation is a whole 'nother story) and for certain base rote tasks where thought isn't needed. (My big issue with burning red fruit is that it actually detracts from learning). And, of course,if you expect to be tested on the mnemonic .

For example, I teach RAFT and CRAFT for clearances and Class C departure instructions and even anticipate continued use for those who get this information very rarely (Suggestion to instrument pilots who still use it - no problem if you do but try a few times without it; the order of the information is probably so ingrained at this point it won't make any difference.)

Fair enough.

A lot of it is "nice to know" information. I wouldn't ding my students (when I was an active CFI) if they didn't know the type of sign, but if they didn't know what it meant or what it implied, that was another story.

Mnemonics are aids and nothing more. The flaming fruit in which you speak of are just one piece to the puzzle in determining whether or not an aircraft is airworthy. If CFIs are only teaching their students tomatoflames, then they are doing their students a disservice and setting them up for failure.

 

[Karnage]

If CFIs are only teaching their students tomatoflames, then they are doing their students a disservice and setting them up for failure.

A larger problem which this is a part of is that too many CFIs teach to the examiner. It doesn't help that there are examiners who, when asking about required equipment, actually ask the student to write out and list the equipment included in the burning fruit then simply move on. There are a lot of time building CFIs who simply want to teach the minimum and if all the examiner is going to ask is for a recitation of ATOMOATOFLAMES then move on there's no motivation for CFIs to go beyond that.

Then again, after a two hour briefing on required equipment and the relevant regulations I had a student flat out ask me when I was going to teach him ATOMOATOFLAMES. I think I still have the bruise on my forehead from smacking myself in the head when he said it.