Flight Training
The following is what one guy did to help increase the shrinking pilot population. It might give some insight as to why our numbers are going down.
We live on a small airpark, so many of our neighbors are pilots and surprisingly, many are not.
The wife of one of the non-pilots, we will call her Sue, decided now that they live on an airpark it is time for her to learn how to fly. (They bought on the airpark last fall and use the hangar for her husband?s machine tools. He is a retired tool and die guy and has the best equipped ?hobby? shop that I have ever seen!)
Sue started taking flying lessons from a local instructor that was ?highly? recommended. The instructor charged her $175 for a ?run down 172?, her words, not mine. Both the first and the second lesson were an hour and a half long.
I don?t know about you, but my first lesson was something like 20 to 30 minutes long and even at that duration, I remember the mental overload from thirty years ago.
While that "overwhelmed" Sue, her words, not mine, what got her was at the start of her second 1.5 hour lesson the instructor let Sue taxi out with minimum instructions. Sue said she kept trying to steer with the yoke, which is no surprise for a beginner, and didn't know where the brakes were. While Sue was trying to figure this out, the instructor was in the right seat texting his wife and oblivious to Sue?s struggle. That is until the 172 went off the taxiway, almost hitting a taxiway light.
Sue completed that lesson and then called her instructor on the carpet regarding the lack of attention he was giving her during her lesson. She fired him on the spot and almost gave up flying altogether.
I say almost because when I heard she was starting to fly, I offered to take her up in my RV. So, Sunday morning, two weeks after he last lesson with the texting CFI, it was ?cool?, clear, and calm. Sue and I had made arrangements to go up in the RV the evening before.
What she didn't expect was that I treated her to a carbon copy of my first flight lesson from 30 years prior.
With the left seat moved forward, an extra cushion added, I had her climb in the left seat and handed her a copy of the POH and pointed out the key instruments. Once that was done, she climbed out and performed a complete pre-flight.
Back in the plane, with the pre-flight complete, she started the engine, performed a run-up. I taxied her down the street to our grass runway and then let her taxi my taildragger up and down the runway a few times before we took off, with her following me on the controls.
Once airborne, I let her fly us around, doing some gentle turns, climbs, and descents. Not really worrying about her holding a heading or altitude but just getting comfortable moving the controls around and seeing what each one of them did.
We then returned to our airport where we did one approach which ended in a go around and two complete wheel landings. Again, she followed me on the controls and once on the ground, I let her taxi us around, zig-zagging up and down our grass runway and in one case, a simple zig turned into a 270 degree turn with both of us laughing about it.
After we put the plane away, we talked about what we had done, why we did some things, and why the taildragger felt so funny on the ground.
As it turned out, she is going to make a great pilot, once we get her connected with a good instructor.
I sent her home with her confidence restored (and a KitPlanes, AOPA, and Trade-A-Plane in hand), she is very excited about starting her flight training with a ?real instructor?.
Her and her husband were surprised that as a private pilot, I didn?t go up and ?hotdog? with her on board, as some friend of theirs had done in the past. This prompted the discussion that I don?t know why pilots insist on ?showing off? with first time passengers (or anyone) onboard. All that seems to accomplish is to keep them from coming back for a second ride.
In short, if we are to grow GA, then we all need to be flight ambassadors and treat each passenger as if they are royalty; answer their questions, fly safe and smoothly, and encourage them to join in the fun.
__________________
Bill R.
RV-9 (Yes, it's a dragon tail)
O-360 w/ dual P-mags
Build the plane you want, not the plane others want you to build!
SC86 - Easley, SC
www.repucci.com/bill/baf.html
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