As an instructor you don't get much opportunity to actually fly the aircraft. Lately all the flying that I've been doing is a small tap on the yoke or tapping on the rudder pedals to remind my student to keep it coordinated. So when I got the opportunity to work with an instrument instructor student I jumped all over it.
There are two nice things that made me jump all over this. The first is that the student is already an instructor, so he obviously knows how to fly. The second, and most appealing, is that as the instructor I am acting as the student which lets me sit in the left seat.
So this is where Bob comes in. Since he should be teaching me throughout the flight I can't just fly the airplane like I would normally. I need to role play as a student. So prior to the flight I let the student know that I will either be acting like a beginning instrument pilot, or a pilot who is about halfway through his training. So the beginning instrument pilots name is Bob.
For the first half of the flight I let the instructor fly(under the hood) and instruct at the same time. If he can fly the airplane, stay within standards, and instruct then they will be able to instruct when they are just sitting in the right seat and the student is flying.
For the second half I took over the flight controls and had the student, still under the hood, instruct me. Man was I happy to be flying the aircraft. And let me tell you I definitely was not in standards. I was doing my best to try and make the instructor work extra hard. How? Constantly missing altitudes, omitting instruments, missing radio calls and asking as many questions as possible.
This experience really was a blast for me, it showed me a couple of things. First, I love actually flying the aircraft. Secondly how much fun it can be to be an instructor. Everyday, or every flight, is a different experience. That day I flew with an Air China private pilot student, Air China Instrument student, and an Instrument-Instructor student. Each required a different teaching style and keeps you at the top of your game.
Teaching CFI, II, and MEI students can be a lot of fun...besides actually getting to fly, it lets you exercise some creativity in role-playing the students that your student will eventually instruct. The two sememsters that I instructed at UND before graduating and heading back west were spent teaching CFII students.
ReplyDeleteI remember ruing the lack of "stick time" when I was a CFI, but in retrospect I learned more from watching my students make mistakes than from the times I was actually flying myself. Sitting through a few hours with a ham-footed PPL student improves your own coordination more than anything outside of flying sailplanes or old taildraggers!