Question 3

You have a brand new private pilot. On you very first lesson with them you do a “expectations” talk so they know what you expect them to do and what they can expect you to do. What items would you cover?

It is difficult for anyone to become a great pilot. It takes a great deal of time, energy, money, and sure will power.
the biggest factor that effected me in my private pilot training was money - i didn't have any. i was only ever able to fly maybe twice a month, this can really hurt your learning. in order for you to become proficient, you must be flying at least twice a week and hopefully you can fly more than that. however, staying with the twice a week format, two lessons take about 5 hours - that means you should spend 10 hours more a week studying for the next flight. when you think about it thats not a great deal to expect from you but this should only be a minimum. i mean it's not about how many hours you put in, but what you put into the hours that count. i mean given just how becoming a pilot involves i would expect you must have some real disire to proso this carrier path. if you dont have the money or the time to do this you, dont start. But above all else if you dont have the disire to learn, than you might as well figure out something else to do - becasue once you get started, its like a drug, flying is an addicting thing and if your not willing to commit than your going to find yourself in deep regreate.

question 2

You have a new student that you picked up from another flight instructor.

1. What are you going to look for in the students folder to give you an indication of where they are at?

• First, determine what kind of student you have; private, instrument, commercial, etc.
  
• Second, what lesson are they on and see how they have scored on prior lessons.
  
• Third, check to make sure they have all the documents they need to have done for there stage in flight.
• See if there are any comments or notes made on any section. this might give you a hint on how the student and instructor interact. however, do lean to heavy on this, just take it as a heads up overview.
  

2. What questions are you going to ask the students previous instructor?

• how long have you had the student?
• has the student told you what there overall goals are in there flying carriers?
• does the student have problems with attendance?
• how consistent are they with there flying?
• do you have any major concurs with the student in there ground or flight work?
• how is there flying? any major problems they might be having?

• on a side note, i would never ask what they think of the student themselves, as far as attitude, personality, or anything that goes beyond an opinion based question. its always been my experience to never take the judgment of a former teacher or any person for that matter to heavy. i don't need any negative opinions clouding my judgment prior to going into a teaching situation.
  

3. what questions will you ask the student?

• what do they want to do with there flying carrier? this is just a private test for me to see if there answer corrilates with there privious instructors answers. gives me a idea of how effective there communcation was.
• what are some of there hobbies? this is a relevant question because it might give us something relate to. this is important so we have some basis for communication. plus it might make the student a little more relaxed.
• ask the student how they fill about were they are in there flying?
• what maneuvers are they good at and why they think there good at them?
• do they have any questions about me, or for me about there flying or ground training?

4. what techniques will you use to figure out where the student is in their ground knowledge?

• Oral quizzing is probably the quickest way to figure out small point the student might know.
  
• However, when a person comes at me with a lot of questions with no real visible structure to them, it makes me defensive and forgetful. especially if its with a new instructor that may be intimidating. you can never tell what another person thinks about you.
  
• So i think this approach would be the best. Have the student instruct you on areas that they should be familiar with in there stage of training. it will give them time to prep and study, and it will give you the opportunity to see where they might have developed misunderstandings, have no real knowledge on the subject, or it might show you they really know there stuff in one area but not so much in another. i like this method myself and i know it works well from experience. now this might not work for everyone, so you'll just have to determine that as you go.
  

private pilot landing problems

You have a private pilot student on lesson #8 (the lesson just before the first stage check). They are really struggling with landings.

What are some different techniques you can try to help them get over their landing plateau?

• Insure there approach is established correctly by having the student treat the approach like taxing. Use ailerons for cross-wind corrections and ruder for lateral control. Have them pick a visual reference point on the nose of the aircraft to line up with.

• You should stress that a good landing starts with executing a stabilized approach, this can be determined when there appears to be no relative motion between you and the aiming point.

• Establishing consistent power and flap settings can make all the difference in the world to the student.

• Inform your student not to look too close or directly down during a landing or they may tend to begin the flare too high. At the same time don’t allow them to look to far ahead during the landing approach, this may cause them not to flair and have a nose-first touchdown.At what point do you tell your supervisor they are struggling?

At what point do you tell your supervisor they are struggling?

• At the end of lesson eight if the student has not shown consistent good landing techniques, than you should schedule one or two review flights to help develop the students’ proficiency. It could have just been a bad day for the student on lesson eight and when you took them up for the second time, they did great. However, if by the end of the second review flight the student hasn’t shown improvement than you should definitely ask for your supervisor’s assistance. Even before that you might want to inform them of the reason why you are doing the review flights and maybe ask for some advise.

After how many review or how many hours do you have "maybe aviation isn't for you talk?"

• If you have taken the student up for two review flights after lesson 8, and your supervisor takes them up for two or even three review flight, if by than the student is still not grasping the concept of landing than its time for them to face the hard reality that not everyone is capable of being a pilot. However, if during your flights with that student, you feel that they have the ability, than maybe you should ask them to take a break and come back to it at a point when there lives might not be so demanding of there time and energy.