Training Standards

[68volksy]

Just sitting here stuffing envelopes and got to thinking about our current training standards. Particularly interested to know just how competent people felt (and more importantly how competent they might now feel they actually were) in their abilities when they first got their licence?

 

I've been loitering around the pre-GFPT stage for many years now (not too fussed about it - just fly when I want for fun) but i've often thought it well and good to pass the test but having been around the aviation scene for 5 years now i'm quite comfortable admitting i've got nowhere near the situational awareness of any instructor i've ever flown with. Just sitting around the airport on weekends it's pretty obvious i'm not the only one in this boat. After many lessons with a 30,000-hour instructor and his responses when young or inexperienced pilots come wafting along and don't clearly state their location or intentions (if anything at all) it's often made me wonder about people's perception of their own abilities and whether the training we're doing can make any difference?

 

 

[ayavner]

Just barely getting started myself, but I can attest from the motorcycle scene that the only way to gain a great level of situational awareness is to have been in all of those situations at some level. I think training can make plenty of difference, but only to the extent that enough scenarios play out during those sessions over time for us to build a "repertoire" of reactions.

 

Great topic!

 

 

[Guest davidh10]

As is said so many times, the License / Certificate is a ticket to learn. If things are as they should be, one attaining that goal, one should be competent, but not expert. Where each individual goes from there is very dependent on their attitude.

 

If one can recognise one's own limitations, and fly within them, while continuing to learn and gain experience, then it becomes a journey of continuous improvement.

 

u

 

I have a great deal more knowledge, experience and capability now at 300 hours than when I received my Certificate. I don't however pretend to compare myself with those having 1,000s of hours under their belts. I do however enjoy continuous learning.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Volksy it's continuity and recency that makes the difference.

 

Even a lesson a week is not enough - you'll lose a bit of touch, forget procedures and so on.

 

As the weeks stretch into months your instructor may leave, or worse, the instructors palm you around from one to the other as they feel like it, and your progress slows down. (I had one who had very fixed ideas about downwind/base/final and crosswind procedure and checks, and another who also had fixed ideas but the procedures, checks, crosswind techniques and radio.

 

So it was like trying to learn French and German at the same time on alternate weeks, and I realised I was the poor bunny paying out hundreds of dollars per week, covering their costs and getting nowhere.

 

The upside of this particular process is that you will be exposed to many different weather situations while still yhaving the backup of an Instructor beside you, and you get to be able to tell a good instructor from a drop kick.

 

The other extreme is that you can save up your money and then do all the training in 21 days or whatever.

 

The continuity and recency is so good you don't forget anything and consequently get through in a lot less hours.

 

You may even get on this site and brag about getting through to solo in 1/3 the time and so on.

 

But you may have done it all in a period of fine weather, and then have to experience your first fog (and a diversion), your first gusty crosswind, your first wind shear etc when you are out solo, or worse when you have a passenger on board.

 

Of the two extremes, in my opinion the second one is the more dangerous.

 

Somewhere there is a happy medium, but unfortunately it involves a lot more money.

 

 

[facthunter]

You should analyse every flight that you do and try to work out how you could have managed it better, particularly the X-country ones. Take all opportunuties to look at, ride in, fly anything you can. It all helps. You never know it all and if you think you do you are becoming dangerous. Fly with different people and different instructors. Always keep your wits about you when flying and your eyes peeled. Nev

 

 

[68volksy]

I agree with the condensed version of training being more dangerous turbo. The CFI of my school is usually pretty blunt with people who turn up demanding a full-time course. She has always been more interested in creating the safest pilots possible rather than the dollars involved. I was one of the "quick as possible" brigade before I started and her answer changed my entire approach to training. Other schools seemed to see nothing more than the wad of cash in my pocket!

 

I pity anyone who's been sold the "package" licence deal (unless it's from one of the airline training schools). In my view they've bought nothing more than a lot of very scary and dangerous experiences once they're set loose on their own.

 

 

[ayavner]

I was one of the "quick as possible" brigade before I started and her answer changed my entire approach to training.

Interested to know what her answer was volksy, interesting topic!

 

 

[68volksy]

It was quite a long discussion from memory. It needed to be with a guy (me) who was very green on entering this aviation world. She basically explained all the factors that you're exposed to with flying (weather, other pilots, other instructors, different aircraft among others) and then how each of these factors might affect the aircraft and/or pilot. Main factor I always remembered and that has proved so true was the 4 seasons that we get and how the aircraft (and pilot) performs so differently in each season. Summer really bumpy with poor aircraft performance, the rainy periods when it's still ok for an amateur to fly (and the rainy periods when it's not!) etc. I've always marveled that you can look at a clear blue sky in the middle of summer and a clear blue sky in the middle of winter and the two are so very different once you're off the ground! Also how uncomfortable that "perfect" summers day of blue sky with scattered cloud can be once your feet leave the earth!

 

The longer I've spent hanging around the airport the greater the variation in flying experiences seems to get also. I'm a risk-averse kind of chap and have always figured the more of these experiences I can discover with someone who has been through them before beside me the better.

 

 

[ayavner]

makes perfect sense Volksy, makes me glad that my budget has somewhat tempered my enthusiasm for "getting er done", because I have been through about 3 seasons now and I hate to think how I would have handled some of those situations if i had just taken a month and knocked it out ASAP. I think a range of experience is just as important if not moreso than the length or number of them.

 

Just like a job really... i would rather hire someone with 5 years of experience than 1 year 5 times...

 

 

[facthunter]

The concentrated (live-in) is the military way of doing things. You still get it on conversion courses. One advantage is that you can get into discussions with your compatriots, but that can lead to confusion.( Can the blind lead the blind).

 

One on one is the best learning and any learning process that is rushed has the possibility of having poor retention. What you are taught in theory has to be applied in a situational hands on way fairly soon to be thoroughly consolidated and understood.

 

On the other side long periods of inactivity are wastefull as some things will be forgotten. There is some benefit gained by just being around the environment , reading and even being on forums. Nev

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

I'm not as worried about training standards as I am about peoples personal standards once they are certified.

 

 

[robinsm]

I have now got over 300 hrs up and the amount still to learn is very daunting. I learn something every flight, even when doing circuits. I make it a point to learn something new every day and every time I go flying. Tim's CFI taught me to fly and I have had a couple of instances when her high standards approach to flying has made the difference between some very bad moments and some minor dry cleaning incidents. Training for safety far outweighs training for dollars only.

 

I agree that recency is important. I find that even if I fly every fortnight, it takes a circuit or two to get back in the groove and the head in thew right place.

 

Basically if you do it right and think about it it could save your ar.. one day and will help to strengthen the perception of you as a "competent" pilot.

 

I can appreciate those pilots who are risk averse and fly to that level, but I also believe that to learn you have to push yourself a little to expand your horizons and knowledge.

 

 

[facthunter]

I met the person you are talking about on the Human Factors course in Canberra ( Second one I believe,) a few years ago now. You are fortunate to have been trained by her. I was very impressed, on the course. Subsequent courses were modified, incidently. This one was 2 days, and for instructors.

 

It is important to get it right first time. You are only an ab initio pilot once.. and most of those impressions good or bad, stay with you Nev