jrh
Well-Known Member
Today after introducing ground reference maneuvers to a student for the first time, I ran in to a problem I haven't dealt with much before--the guy has a terrible time visualizing anything while flying.
When we briefed the flight on the ground before flying, he had a solid academic understanding of everything...having the steepest bank angle when the groundspeed is highest, having the shallowest bank angle when the groundspeed is lowest, etc. He could explain it all, he said it made sense to him, and everything was good.
When it came to actually flying the maneuvers, he was mediocre. No single problem I could put my finger on, but I could tell he just wasn't getting it. If I coached him through a turn around a point he did alright, but as soon as I stopped talking, saying things like, "Ok, as we turn in to the wind here, shallow the bank angle a little..." everything went downhill. He'd either get way too close or way too far away from the point. He'd generally steepen or shallow the bank when he approximately needed to, but it didn't correspond with the wind nearly as well as it should have.
Another issue I've noticed with him was with his positioning of the controls during taxiing in wind. He had a hard time with it on the past flight or two, so today I showed him the trick of setting the heading bug to the winds from the ATIS recording. He positioned the controls perfectly during the whole taxi out since he didn't have to visualize it anymore.
During the debrief after our flight, he told me that he could never visualize where the wind was coming from, either in flight or on the ground. He said he had to keep looking at the heading indicator to tell which direction the wind was pushing him.
He also said it hadn't made any sense to him when I'd say things like "Since the wind is coming from the northwest, we need to crab a little to the left here," as we flew to the east. He said he can never make sense out of directions, like north/south/east/west without looking at the heading indicator. Even in his car, he said he still gets lost driving around town sometimes because he can't figure out which direction he's headed.
For what it's worth, this guy has also had a hard time visualizing traffic pattern entries, but I'm not so concerned about that, as pretty much everyone has a hard time picturing those during their first few flights. But in any case, it's more evidence of how this guy has a hard time visualizing intangible ideas while flying.
So, you have any tips to help this guy? Unfortunately all of these things came so naturally to me when I learned to fly, and many of the people I've taught have picked it up easily, so I've never had to get creative with teaching these basics.
When we briefed the flight on the ground before flying, he had a solid academic understanding of everything...having the steepest bank angle when the groundspeed is highest, having the shallowest bank angle when the groundspeed is lowest, etc. He could explain it all, he said it made sense to him, and everything was good.
When it came to actually flying the maneuvers, he was mediocre. No single problem I could put my finger on, but I could tell he just wasn't getting it. If I coached him through a turn around a point he did alright, but as soon as I stopped talking, saying things like, "Ok, as we turn in to the wind here, shallow the bank angle a little..." everything went downhill. He'd either get way too close or way too far away from the point. He'd generally steepen or shallow the bank when he approximately needed to, but it didn't correspond with the wind nearly as well as it should have.
Another issue I've noticed with him was with his positioning of the controls during taxiing in wind. He had a hard time with it on the past flight or two, so today I showed him the trick of setting the heading bug to the winds from the ATIS recording. He positioned the controls perfectly during the whole taxi out since he didn't have to visualize it anymore.
During the debrief after our flight, he told me that he could never visualize where the wind was coming from, either in flight or on the ground. He said he had to keep looking at the heading indicator to tell which direction the wind was pushing him.
He also said it hadn't made any sense to him when I'd say things like "Since the wind is coming from the northwest, we need to crab a little to the left here," as we flew to the east. He said he can never make sense out of directions, like north/south/east/west without looking at the heading indicator. Even in his car, he said he still gets lost driving around town sometimes because he can't figure out which direction he's headed.
For what it's worth, this guy has also had a hard time visualizing traffic pattern entries, but I'm not so concerned about that, as pretty much everyone has a hard time picturing those during their first few flights. But in any case, it's more evidence of how this guy has a hard time visualizing intangible ideas while flying.
So, you have any tips to help this guy? Unfortunately all of these things came so naturally to me when I learned to fly, and many of the people I've taught have picked it up easily, so I've never had to get creative with teaching these basics.
