Student afraid of banking

[shdw]

Spot on. This is fun to watch though. I've actually had to reach over and straiten somebodies head once, they wouldn't believe me they were tilting their noggins.

:rotfl: I definitely had a some headset tugger students. Instructors here have criticized me for it, but I find it necessary if they don't listen to repeated verbal instruction. I don't mean a slap in the head, just a gentle pull/push on the side of their headset.


To OP:

Since you haven't replied to the questions I don't know how useful we can be to helping you with this. However, here is a list of ideas:

1) Teach him to relax and look at the horizon like he is watching TV at home. Even bring in a sweatshirt to stuff between the door and give him an arm rest.

2) Cover the instruments. Tell him the horizon is eye level, like it would be at the beach, driving down the road, or any other time he has seen it on the ground. (It changes by 1 degree between ground level and 4,000 feet (Source: Stick and Rudder))

3) Once he is relaxed and focused on flying by the horizon get him to start doing some turns. Make sure he stays relaxed and build up from there to steeper and steeper turns.

I have found most new guys will go well beyond 30 degrees because they are so focused on that horizon. Often they will descend because they keep themselves feeling 1G, which we know is a descent when you are banked. That is simple enough to correct by later adding in kinesthetic or flying by the seat of your pants.

Keep repeating and overemphasizing the first step, RELAX. Good luck.

 

[futurepilot1]

Speaking from a students perspective, I have a little bit of that fear as well. Mine seems to happen more when turning to the right. But I have self-diagnosed my fear. I need to stop looking out the side window when I turn. It gives me the false sensation that I am falling, the result of which is that the steeper I bank, the more I want to insinctually pull back on the yoke.( i realize that you do need back pressure at steeper angles, but mine is more like 15 degrees of bank, and i'm yanking back like im turning at 45) I need to keep my head straight and focused on the horizon, and occasionally glance at my heading and altitude.

 

[DaveC]

Cover the attitude indicator. Go out on a windy day and do rectangular patterns, forcing him to really bank to keep the ground track.

Thanks, I'll try that one. He seems more comfortable with banking in the pattern, which makes me think that having something to think about other than the bank angle is helping.

He doesn't tilt his head at all, and he has no real preference to left or right turns. I'm trying to convince the owners of the school to get something aerobatic, and I think I'll have them worn down in a month or so. Until then, no inverted flight for me. It's been almost a year since my last acro. I think I'm going through withdrawl.

 

[sr22driver]

Has this guy gone for a medical yet? I had a student that had an inner ear problem, guy would damn near hurl if you went past 10 degrees. Try getting him to tilt his head while you're on the ground and see what happens.

 

[splash]

Has this guy gone for a medical yet? I had a student that had an inner ear problem, guy would damn near hurl if you went past 10 degrees. Try getting him to tilt his head while you're on the ground and see what happens.

Sometimes I can be a little slow after a long day, but um, did your student hurl tilting his head pass 10* on the ground? Does he sleep standing up? Did you mean tilt head while walking maybe?

 

[sr22driver]

Sometimes I can be a little slow after a long day, but um, did your student hurl tilting his head pass 10* on the ground? Does he sleep standing up? Did you mean tilt head while walking maybe?

Guess I should have called him the guy I flew with twice instead of a student, never really got into the sleep habits of the guy. I was only offering a suggestion.

 

[shdw]

Sometimes I can be a little slow after a long day, but um, did your student hurl tilting his head pass 10* on the ground? Does he sleep standing up? Did you mean tilt head while walking maybe?

It is the acceleration that is an issue. One can slowly lay down without much acceleration. However, I would assume if this was an issue for him he would already know about it or have some ideas.