Sailplane & Gliding 1966 - Lakes Gliding Club

IT'S ALL YOURS
.• _'.~ .. 0.·, _" _....
OME instructors let their pupils do
S everything themselves at the earliest
possible moment, on the grounds that
the beginner only learns when he is
using the controls himself. Other instructors
can hardly bear to part with the
stick and. particularly when soaring
of}ers, use the lift regardless. en the
excuse that the pupil will benefit from
the longer flight.
B'oth instructors may have the right
on their side when dealing with some
pupils. but will be wildly wrong when
dealing with others. But, however different
pupils are, there is one thing they
all need, and very often do not get, and
that is really thorough basic training.
Far too often the pupil is given, or
allowed to have, so many different things
to do in his early flights that he never
learns any of them properly. If he continues
through his training in this way
he partially overcomes his lack of understanding
by contriving a series of aids
which seem to give him the result he
wants (e.g., turning over a particular tree,
using the brakes for landing instead of
the stick). After a while he can superficially
handle the aircraft reasonably.
But big problems arise when he gets
even more to do while he is flyingresponsibility
for circuit planning, circlin2
to use lift, flying on strong-wind
days, or landing across wind. Suddenly,
it seems, his flying goes to pieces. Something
goes wrong on each flight; on one
his turns are awful, on the next they
ate all right but the landing is bad. He
becomes depressed at his lack of progress,
and feels that he is not going to
ever get solo. This feeling of failur.e
382
contributes to continued poor flying.
Of course, nothing has gone wrong
with the pupil or his ability. All that
has happened is that his lack of understanding
of basic flying techniques shows
as soon as he has the extra responsibilities
to cope with. It prevents him from
concentrating on the next immediate action,
because his flying is nol vet instinctive.
.
r am sure that we have' gone toa far
with tbe laudable idea of letting the
pupil try to do all the flying as soon
as possible. He is not getting solo any
quicker; in fact, the launches to solo
have in recent years been rising more
than would seem necessary to cope with
present needs.
A further disadvantage of a sketchy
b.asis to flying is that tbe early lessons
do not get "fixed" in the pupil's mind.
On post-soja checks his turns soon become
sloppy, he forgets to keep a good
look-Qut, he doesn't remember spin recovery
drill, he is hesitant following an
unexpected c.able break.
If one happens on a bad case of
ufoundationless" flying, thekindest thing
is to take a deep oreath and work steadily
through every stage of basic training
with the pupil, ensuring that he really
understands each step, and is confident
of his ability to carry it out. It may be
frustrating for the pilot to feel that he
has gone baf;k to school, but as soon
as the improvement in his flying begins
to show, he will think you less horrible.
The proper answer, of course, is good
basic training al the begillning:
J. The instrllctor should decide exactly
wbat be is trying to teach on any partic-