Smoothness & accuracy

Two nights ago for the first time in a long time I got to go fly by myself. It was just a standard flight to get night current again but it was a rush to be sitting in the left seat again. Now in my life as a flight instructor I barely touch the controls, only to demonstrate or nudge the control column to send a subconscious message to the student.

While I was thinking about something to write about two things popped into my head. The first happened when I was getting current and the second was the following day with my student.

Like most aviation enthusiast I love to read anything by any other pilots. There are two blogs that I follow rather consistently, with one of the being Blogging at FL250 written by a pilot named Sam. The last post by him was about pilots loving flying, not so much the business or airline side of the job. There was however a particular bit in the post that really caught my attention the other night. Sam talked about the feeling of the wheels leaving the pavement and how all your worries disappear.

So having just freshly read that post I headed to the airport and jumped in to the mighty Piper Warrior. As the airplane accelerated down the runway and began to rotate I felt the mains leave the runway. "Yes, this is exactly what Sam was writing about." Flying for me has always been a way for me to get away from the troubles and annoyances of everyday life. Up there in the air your free from all that, free to go where you want, and you have to focus on what your doing. Like Sam, I too have always loved to fly, I don't think I'll ever not enjoy flying I just hope I can find a job where I enjoy the "job" part of the job.

The second thing that I wanted to write about became very obvious to me last night when I was doing a night flying with a private pilot student. Having just flown the night before I was shocked to see the difference in a low time private student and a CFII. Now I'm not saying I'm the best pilot, and my student is one heck of a pilot, but it was still quite a bit of an eye opener

Pilots are often judge on their smoothness, take-offs, landings, etc. Until you get that "feel" of the airplane and how to make small corrections, or not try and fight turbulence, a pilot will constantly be making jerky corrections. It was amazing for me to watch my student constantly wrestle with the airplane. Maybe I need to start preaching the two-finger flying method more. Or maybe no matter what I do it will just take time for the student find that smoothness & accuracy, hopefully before his final stage check.