Flight Instructor Praise

The Question:

How often do you praise a student? I was once so frustrated with my performance I was in tears and ready to quit flying. Should I find another instructor?

My Thoughts:

It depends on the student. Some need lots of praise, others, they don't want to hear it until they've mastered a task. I find the carrot works much better than the stick.

If you start with another instructor, expect to have to repeat many maneuvers and re-learn the pattern to the new instructor's desires. You might solo faster with the current instructor. But, if the relationship doesn't work out, where you don't trust your current instructor, or he doesn't communicate the corrections and how to implement, it's time to find another instructor.

Don't worry about tears, I guess it's part of being female. My best "show" ever (*SIGH* I wish the tears would go away and stay away), was when the examiner told me I'd passed the CFI checkride, on the first try.

"WHY ARE YOU CRYING?" he asked, incredulously.
"I'm so happy," I bawled.

Learning to fly is a skill. It takes practice. Right now you are probably consciously incompetent of the landings not being consistently good, therefore you know you're not good at it. You are probably unconsciously competent in many areas, like preflighting the plane. You do it and do it well, but haven't noticed that you do it well and probably would have a hard time explaining it to others (consciously competent). Each skill builds on the other, like landings come from go-arounds, rectangular courses, descents, climbs, rudder coordination, crosswind tracking skills, slow flight, approaches to stalls, and so on.

I mention the conscious and unconscious competency to point out that some folks don't give themselves enough credit for the things they do right. Some folks will also negate anything positive said to them. Learning to accept that a flight will never be perfect is a big step in the flight training process for them. All straight and level is, is a series of climbs, descents, and turns, always trying to get back on course efficiently (no 90 degree heading change corrections when a 5 degree correction will do).

I once did a flight with an overly critical client. He was insistent that he'd never meet the PTS standard because of all of his mistakes. We were close to the checkride, so I had very little to say on the flight, and I briefed the flight as a practice checkride to excuse my "constant scribbling" during the flight. All I did during the flight, except for one reminder to contact ATC, was to write down what the client did right. His making a mistake was not important, his catching that he'd made a mistake and correcting it was. His being off heading by 5 degrees was not a big deal, his using the proper process of a one wingtip low turn to get back on heading was. Turning late on course was no problem, realizing the late turn and making a steeper turn that usual to get back on course was the proper reaction.

The debrief for that flight was astounding. I generally use the sandwich technique for debriefs, lots of good stuff and progress noted, a item or two that needs more practice, and finishes with lots more good stuff and progress noted. The critique part is always done in private. If I don't have a private office in which to discuss this, we stay in the airplane until it's done, praise in public, critique in private. I also spend time to ensure the client understands that I am only critiquing performance, which has very little to do, if any, with the person. I've worked with many pilots that thought if they made a mistake, they were a terrible person.

Anyways, here we are in the airplane at the end of the flight. The client is visibly upset, quite stressed at how much writing I was doing. I couldn't sign him off for the checkride yet because he wasn't quite able to meet the PTS under the stress he caused himself during the flight, a fairly advanced case of checkrideitis, otherwise known as test anxiety. He was speechless when I showed him my notes, three pages of proper and correct actions he had taken. Not only did it change his perspective on his flying, it changed his life for the better. He passed his checkride soon afterwards.

Another part of instructing that I've learned is to always make the training flight a success. I seem to get a constant stream of certificate or rating finish-ups. Many times the client hasn't even heard of the PTS, let alone know the contents of the introduction or any of the standards. All they know is that they can't solo, or can't get the checkride signoff. Also, not knowing the standards, pilots think they have to be perfect, when in reality the standards are very generous. While the PTS is the goal of flight training, it may not be the goal for that particular lesson. I've encountered pilots that were terrified of stalls. I used to be terrified myself. It usually turns out that one of their instructors previously was also terrified of stalls so passed that fear on to their student. Or, perhaps the student did some self-study and didn't fully understand why we practice stalls and recoveries, so managed to terrify him or her self. If the objective of the lesson per the syllabus is to go up and practice stalls, it's not going to be a successful lesson, and there will be very little praise from an instructor that does not understand fears and phobias.

Find an instructor that does understand fears and phobias, and the lesson will be completely different and a success, with lots of earned praise. Just think, instead of going up with a very real fear, being forced into it, perhaps being scared silly and having to have the instructor intervene to save your life, instead, the instructor briefs the flight beforehand. You learn that you might not have a complete understanding of the stall and its purpose, so having a fear of it is expected. You learn what you may not have understood about the stall and its practice, discovering that the maneuver is not at all violent if performed correctly, and, every time you land you do one. Then, having learned about the stall and filling in all the missing pieces, the instructor explains that even now, with the knowledge corrected, the physical reaction to a stall is still there, and will be until you've physically learned that a stall is not a violent out-of-control maneuver constantly stalking you ready to fling the plane into the ground with a big smoking crater. Thus, for the flight lesson, the instructor will have you approach the speed that bothers you, but still allows you to remain completely in control, not caring if that airspeed is 80 knots or 50, maybe not even into "slow flight" or hearing the stall horn. But that won't be the only part of the lesson. Perhaps some practice in trimming the aircraft to hands-off flight, where it stays on altitude without climbing or descending for ten seconds or so is in order. Or maybe some rudder coordination exercises are needed, so that the nose of the plane stays where you want, when you want. Or maybe there is a really good tri-tip sandwich at a neighboring airport, so on the way there you can practice slower-than-cruise flight, and on the way back, trim practice. And you'll be in control the entire time. You choose what to experience; you choose what to stay away from. The instructor won't be grabbing the controls out of your hands unless there is a true emergency, i.e. another aircraft on an immediate collision course, but that's what you're paying the instructor the big bucks for.

Say you do that flight, and only manage to feel comfortable around 80 knots. You try it a few times, stay in control, don't get overwhelmed, and recover back to cruise at 90 knots. There can only be praise for this. I'm truly humbled by my clients who, in spite of the fear, come out and try it anyways. Courage is acting in spite of fear. If there's no fear, you don't need courage. Just showing up is to be praised.

Back to the making mistakes, sorry to my clients that want it perfect the first time. This isn't grammar school. You have to make mistakes in order to learn. With some clients, I somewhat jokingly refer to needing one million mistakes before getting to the pilot's license, and thinking there is a list is number 2. Now I've taken making a mistake from a personal failure to a required completion item. Now what are they going to do? How can one self-punish for achieving a required item? They now have to give themselves praise for correcting the mistake as well as for making it in the first place.

The flight instructor is a practical psychologist and must be an observer of character to best know how to approach the student, to get that student over their stuff as needed, to best accomplish the training goal. The instructor can not operate in a vacuum, so if their method is not working, sit down and have a chat. Share your concerns and listen to what the instructor has to say. Sadly, some instructors are not themselves capable of receiving criticism, and might get defensive or angry about such a conversation. With those, finding another instructor is a must. With others, perhaps they can not adapt to your needs, thus you might need to find another instructor. When it is personality that conflicts, the instructor most likely already has another instructor in mind for you to try. Sometimes you may only need a flight or two with another instructor, and can finish with your primary one. This is one of the reasons part 141 schools require stage checks to be flown with a different instructor.

Perhaps a sit down chat is in order, and maybe you might want to bring some technology into your training flights. There’s a cockpit video camera that can record the flight as well as the audio. Record the flight, then sit down with the instructor and review it afterwards. You're now in a safe, calm, classroom environment where you have time to think, ask questions, get some coffee, and don't have to worry about rocks, trees, other airplanes, ATC, or numerous other distractions. You can also review the praise you missed...

Thoughts anyone?