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 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.
- 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.
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I enjoyed the actuall tips or "techniques" you could use in helping a student grasp landings. I didn't put that in mine, and I guess I should have.
ReplyDeleteI also like the idea of limiting yourself to 2 review flights. That way you are not wasting the students money. I think if I can't figure out why my student can't figure it out after two review lessons, I would definatly seek help from senoir CFI's.
Great suggestions! I especially like the stabilized approach. I also agree that a good approach will set you up for a good landing, but if your approach isn't stabilized you won't a lot of times your student can't focus enough and get a good flare. Just being able to recognize some of the symptoms of what they are doing and then having the ability to give them some sort of corrective action is half the battle. Great post!
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