When you master a skill in the aircraft, show improvement, or learn a piece of knowledge, does your CFI praise you? A simple “good job”? Or the more involved “check ride metrics have been reached”?
If the answer is no, both of you are missing out on an important part of the educational equation. Praise stimulates remembering, and one of the best parts of being a teacher is when the students under your charge demonstrate that learning has taken place.
It doesn’t have to be constant praise—that would be unrealistic. Training success comes in bite-sized chunks. For example, when the learner performs their first unassisted preflight inspection, or masters the radio in the pattern, correctly performs weight and balance, or they reach a bigger milestone like their first solo, celebrate these wins.
- READ MORE: Why Consistent Study Defines Great Pilots
- READ MORE: Success as a Young CFI Goes Beyond the Right Seat
Praise also lets the learner know they’re doing the task correctly. One of the most common complaints I hear from lapsed student pilots is that they became discouraged when they didn’t know if they were making progress in their training.
Recently one of my instrument candidates performed one of the most challenging flights of his career—the long IFR cross-country flight required for the rating.
For the unfamiliar, per 14 CFR 61.1, a legal cross-country flight usually means operating outside of your local area and flying to airports greater than a 50 nm straight-line distance from the original point of departure using navigation methods such as pilotage and dead reckoning or electronic means of navigation. The flight must include a point of landing.
For those working on instrument certification, the long cross country required for certification is 250 nm along airways or ATC-directed routing and include an instrument approach at each airport and three different kinds of approaches with landings at each airport.
That means you will be planning, opening, and closing three different flight plans and shooting three different types of approaches.
It can be a long day—for us in the mighty Cessna 172 the round trip was just under five hours. The combination of the noise, vibration, concentration and, if it is a hot day, dehydration takes its toll.
Both the learner and the CFI need to build up their cockpit endurance rather than just jumping into the flight. For those on the CFI track, be prepared to build this endurance from your first day on the job.
To the student pilots, the instructional block with the CFI is likely two hours of which 1.0 to 1.3 hours in the airplane or AATD for a non-cross-country flight. The length of time in the air for pre-solo students is usually much less. The first flight is .30, the next flight .40 and so forth. The savvy instructors watch for fatigue signs, such as missed radio calls, dropped checklists, or altitude deviation, and know when to end the lesson because the learner’s brain is full and learning is not taking place.
While 12-hour days are not uncommon for the CFI, per 14 CFR 61.195, Flight instructor limitations and qualifications, an instructor is legally limited to conducting a maximum of eight hours of flight training in any 24 consecutive hours. This is flight training only. You can extend your work day with ground instruction or AATD instruction.
In the summer, it’s easy for the CFI to reach their limit. During my busiest time as a full-time instructor I knew I had a full day of instructional flying ahead of me when I got to work and found a granola bar and bottle of water on my desk. That was the dispatcher’s way of telling instructors we could expect an eight-hour flight day. This happened frequently, especially during the summer as it was common to fly 100-plus hours a month working six days a week. You got used to it, and learned to watch that Hobbs meter carefully to avoid going over.
The learners, on the other hand, have lives outside the cockpit. Sometimes they show up at the end of their work day and are already tired. This is often detrimental to the learning process.
The savvy CFIs caution them to plan for the cross-country flights on days they can be well prepared, well rested, and properly nourished and hydrated because by the end of the flight, to use a horse racing metaphor, you may feel like you were “rode hard and put away wet.”
Cross-country instructional flights in particular can be exhausting mentally and physically, but there’s also a feeling of accomplishment when you get the skills and can truly check that box, especially if the instructor that accompanies you on a dual flight has the luxury of remaining relatively silent as you perform the tasks correctly.
For the dual flights for the instrument rating, the learner is usually under a view limiting device, even when going into the clouds. The learner’s job is to “stay inside the cockpit” while the CFI is both inside and outside the aircraft. IFR flight is radio-intensive.
On a VFR flight, the learner has the option to acquire flight following and be actively participating with ATC. Even if ATC is unable to provide flight following, it’s still a good idea to monitor the frequency so you can hear controllers warn the other aircraft about you. For example, if that Cirrus on approach to XYZ airport is advised “traffic at 12 o’clock, north bound, 3,500.” and you are on a heading of 010 at 3,500 feet, chances are that’s you.
The savvy CFIs introduce their learners to flight following early in their training so there isn’t so much of a learning curve when they begin their instrument rating. For many learners, the most challenging part of IFR is staying ahead of the radio and keeping situational awareness, especially as you start to fatigue. Signs of fatigue include missing radio calls, stumbling over a clearance, and losing situational awareness—that last one can be deadly.
One tried-and-true method for thwarting fatigue is having a bottle of water in the cockpit and taking periodic sips during the flight. especially before beginning the instrument approach or entering the pattern. You might even add it to your personal checklist. Drinking water wakes you up and helps you become more alert for this critical phase of flight.