All flight instructors worth their salt have a few tricks up their sleeve to check just how well you actually know your stuff. In this post, we'll let you in on a few of those secrets of the trade, along with the antidotes, so when this troublemaker in the right seat tries to throw you off track, you'll be prepared.
Is this cheating, you may ask? Not at all! The beauty of it is that following the antidotes will in fact make you a better, safer and more efficient pilot -- precisely what the instructor is trying to achieve. And don't you worry -- a good instructor will always be able to come up with something that will keep you on your toes.
So, what might your flight instructor pull on you to see if he or she can catch you off guard?
So, what might your flight instructor pull on you to see if he or she can catch you off guard?
THE WALKAROUND
One of the deadliest pilot killers is complacency. And one of the places where the pilots get most complacent is on the ground, during the walkaround. It is after all, a tedious, repetitive thing that rarely reveals anything wrong, so it's little wonder that many students, as they get further along in the flight training and more confident in the airplane, get just a tad sloppy on the pre-flight.
The number of things instructors can do to check if you're doing a thorough pre-flight is practically limitless, so I won't even attempt to list them all. But just to give you an example, a common (and, what's important, safe) way to check if a student is paying attention is to pour a bit of oil or hydraulic fluid near the plane or scatter a few rivets, and see if the student brings it up as a concern. Another instructor used to place an empty coke can right in front of the air inlet of the engine cowling -- and he says it was frightening to see how many students complete missed it sitting right there in the open.
The Antidote: In addition to the obvious but boring piece of advice -- "do a thorough walkaround" -- here are a few more strategies that can help you catch every "trick" the instructor or the airplane might throw at you.
One: know your systems. We're not mechanics, just pilots, but a basic understanding of what different parts of the plane do will help you do a more thorough and meaningful pre-flight check.
Two: imagine scenarios. At every point at the walkaround ask yourself: "What can go wrong here?", then visualize what that might look like, then check to see it doesn't look like that. It doesn't help to "make sure everything is okay". Be specific, tell yourself what you are looking for. For example, when checking the right landing gear, you might tell yourself you're looking for: possible hydraulic fuel leaks, tire wear and bold spots, low tire pressure, frozen brake pads, worn out brake pads, rusted out brake disks, chocks or other obstructions that will be invisible once you're inside the plane ready to start... When checking fuel, you're checking for the wrong colour, the presence of dirt or water, the fuel levels, fuel drain leaks.
Three: pretend you're an instructor and see how you could try to trick your student -- will you pull out the plane's registration? stick the plane into a corner out of which it cannot be taxied safely and see if the student realizes this before starting the engine? Anything else? Let your imagination run wild and give you scenarios no instructor would dream of doing in real life (such as intentionally contaminating the fuel, cutting the alternator belt or deflating the tires) -- and then defend against those tricks through thorough walkaround! :)
One: know your systems. We're not mechanics, just pilots, but a basic understanding of what different parts of the plane do will help you do a more thorough and meaningful pre-flight check.
Two: imagine scenarios. At every point at the walkaround ask yourself: "What can go wrong here?", then visualize what that might look like, then check to see it doesn't look like that. It doesn't help to "make sure everything is okay". Be specific, tell yourself what you are looking for. For example, when checking the right landing gear, you might tell yourself you're looking for: possible hydraulic fuel leaks, tire wear and bold spots, low tire pressure, frozen brake pads, worn out brake pads, rusted out brake disks, chocks or other obstructions that will be invisible once you're inside the plane ready to start... When checking fuel, you're checking for the wrong colour, the presence of dirt or water, the fuel levels, fuel drain leaks.
Three: pretend you're an instructor and see how you could try to trick your student -- will you pull out the plane's registration? stick the plane into a corner out of which it cannot be taxied safely and see if the student realizes this before starting the engine? Anything else? Let your imagination run wild and give you scenarios no instructor would dream of doing in real life (such as intentionally contaminating the fuel, cutting the alternator belt or deflating the tires) -- and then defend against those tricks through thorough walkaround! :)
EMERGENCIES
In real life, emergencies often strike when you least expect them -- and your instructor should do his or her best to imitate real life in the advanced stages of emergency training. Not only might you get an emergency with no warning, your instructor may attempt to distract you first, just to be really mean (or really nice, since it could save your life one day).
Trick: without warning, and possibly with during some distraction, the instructor will pull an emergency on you. The most common one is, of course, engine failure. Airplane engines these days are very reliable, except, it would seem, when an instructor is on board -- then they seem to fail every other flight. ;) Showing you a "40-million dollar mansion" down below, or "this really cool dirt bike race track" and "accidentally" ending up in a spiral dive is another favourite.
In real life, emergencies often strike when you least expect them -- and your instructor should do his or her best to imitate real life in the advanced stages of emergency training. Not only might you get an emergency with no warning, your instructor may attempt to distract you first, just to be really mean (or really nice, since it could save your life one day).
Trick: without warning, and possibly with during some distraction, the instructor will pull an emergency on you. The most common one is, of course, engine failure. Airplane engines these days are very reliable, except, it would seem, when an instructor is on board -- then they seem to fail every other flight. ;) Showing you a "40-million dollar mansion" down below, or "this really cool dirt bike race track" and "accidentally" ending up in a spiral dive is another favourite.
Antidote: There is no way around knowing your emergency procedures cold. Study them, learn them, and run them through your mind often! And, once you get into the airplane, don't let yourself become complacent. Monitor your gauges, keep an eye on suitable emergency landing sites and never ever assume that "this is going to be a routine flight".
EXPECTANCY
Expectancy is when the air traffic controller says "taxi alpha hold short runway 15" an you hear "taxi alpha, cross runway 15" because this is what you've heard every single flight until this one. It's assuming something is a certain way because it's always been that way before.
EXPECTANCY
Expectancy is when the air traffic controller says "taxi alpha hold short runway 15" an you hear "taxi alpha, cross runway 15" because this is what you've heard every single flight until this one. It's assuming something is a certain way because it's always been that way before.
The effect is so strong, you might plainly see or hear evidence to the contrary and completely disregard it. It would not even register!
I once was in a plane with a student who misheard the above-quoted instruction. After he read it back incorrectly, the controller said it again -- and the student misheard and read it back wrong again the second time too! He didn't even realize he was being corrected -- he wondered out loud why they kept telling him the same thing twice, even though he read it back fine the first time! That's how dangerously powerful expectancy can be.
To put it bluntly, expectancy can kill.
This sneaky trick is somewhat a reverse of the previous: your instructor may try to fool you into expecting one thing and see if you fall into this trap.
I once was in a plane with a student who misheard the above-quoted instruction. After he read it back incorrectly, the controller said it again -- and the student misheard and read it back wrong again the second time too! He didn't even realize he was being corrected -- he wondered out loud why they kept telling him the same thing twice, even though he read it back fine the first time! That's how dangerously powerful expectancy can be.
To put it bluntly, expectancy can kill.
This sneaky trick is somewhat a reverse of the previous: your instructor may try to fool you into expecting one thing and see if you fall into this trap.
Here is an example: during the course of your flight training you will do some flying by reference to the instruments only, wearing some kind of a view-limiting device to shield the view of the outside. One exercise you will do is recovery from unusual attitudes: your instructor will have you put your head down and put the plane either in a nose-up or a nose-down attitude and tell you to look up and bring the plane back to normal flight upon hearing "Recover!" One day, when I was a student, my instructor and I went to practice this exercise. I recovered from a nose-up attitude, and when told to look down again, I figured the next one would be a nose-up. Upon hearing "recover" I looked up and immediately checked the airspeed indicator for a clue as to what the plane was doing. But the airspeed was neither dangerously low (as it would be in a nose-up attitude), nor rapidly increasing (as it would be in a nose-down one). It was just sitting at around 100 knots, well within the normal range. I checked the other instruments: attitude indicator was level and indicating normal attitude, turn coordinator showed no bank... "This is.... straight-and-level flight," I said incredulously, and my instructor laughed. He said I wouldn't believe how many students in this situation would yank the controls in the most ridiculous manner -- because they "knew" the plane was in an unusual attitude.
Antidote: Never. Assume. Anything.
Always expect something to go wrong or at any rate to go differently. It's easier said than done, but a good instructor will help you. Not in a small part by sprinkling tricks like this throughout your flight training!
Antidote: Never. Assume. Anything.
Always expect something to go wrong or at any rate to go differently. It's easier said than done, but a good instructor will help you. Not in a small part by sprinkling tricks like this throughout your flight training!