I just read an interesting statistic. AOPA did some research that stated eighty (80) percent of students who start flight training never receive their certificate. Wow, if every licensed pilot comes from that population, then anyone with a pilot certificate in their back pocket is in the top 20 percent!
Congratulations! As a licensed pilot, you’re a very special person.
Seriously though- a more interesting tally would be number of pilots who start, yet never finish their instrument rating. I am sure that total is a much smaller number.
Learning to fly is difficult. Learning to fly instruments is much more so. With instrument flying we are negotiating a three axis realm, without the visual cues the inner ear uses to determine whether we are upright. This is difficult enough that the code of federal regulations requires the same amount of training for the instrument rating as it does for the private pilot license. To give some perspective, getting a private pilot license takes a minimum of forty hours of training. The instrument rating also requires forty hours of training but consider this, the instrument candidate already knows how to fly. They’re already licensed pilots, learning to control the aircraft solely by reference to instruments, which is considered confusing enough to require a license’s worth of training.
Recently I met a man who told me that he’s been finding his instrument training “harder than law school”. Here is a fellow who is an accomplished attorney, saying that instrument training is requring a greater effort than his post graduate degree.
This gentleman was struggling with the Bravo pattern. For anyone who is not familiar with the B pattern it is a great way to teach beginning instrument pilots aircraft control.
He stated he was doing well when he initiated it from a cardinal heading but when his instructor would make him start from random values he would have difficulty determining the correct orientation throughout the pattern. I started drawing my explanation on the white board by detailing on how to use the tick marks on the heading indicator to read the new course. He started shaking his head, so I paused while he continued -he was performing the maneuver partial panel. This man had perhaps 6 instrument lessons under his belt, and he was struggling with partial panel. Go figure.
Now I’ve heard of some instructors teaching partial panel from the start. I believe that it is best introduced after pilot has mastered controlling the aircraft on instrumentst. I want the instrument scan developed full panel prior to pulling the gyros from the mix. Teaching partial panel and unusual attitudes towards the end, when they've got the finish line in sight seems more practical to me.
The question I have is that by making students learn the most difficult tasks first, are we helping make them tougher more prepared pilots, or risking them discontinuing due to discouragement?
I’m reminded of the cliché “success comes before work only in the dictionary”. By making prospective instrument pilots learn the most difficult maneuvers at the start of their program, I believe we’re doing them a disservice. It’s like training a novice runner by starting them with marathons. From a stamina standpoint, it’s impossible for a new runner to finish a marathon. And it’s unlikely they will continue to pursue it for very long. But by training using manageable and incremental goals we raise the probability that the person will stay with the program long enough to be successful.
“Motivation is a five dollar word for a kick in the ass” a dentist once said as he started inflicting more pain on me than I had ever experienced in my life. I never returned to that dentist and the memory of it kept me away from every dentist for a full two years afterwards.
“Praise stimulates learning” we’re taught during the fundamentals of Instruction coursework. As instructors our primary role should be making sure that our students have the best opportunity to succeed. Balancing overconfidence and discouragement is a tough task but erring towards the encouragement side of the ledger will present the opportunity to ‘bring them down a peg ‘later in the syllabus.
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