Tag: instructing

Learning to Fly — Without An Instructor?

Just how important is the instructor when it comes to learning to fly? That might be a surprising question for an CFI to ask, but the longer I teach, the more cognizant I become of the many ways in which an instructor can function as a barrier to the student’s progress. And apparently I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Last month, Paul Bertorelli penned (keyed?) an editorial about simulator maven Redbird stepping into the training void created by Cessna’s shift away from the piston market. What caught my eye about the piece was this line: Read more →

Breaking the Rules: Teaching Snap Rolls

Efficient aerobatic instruction is challenging enough when you’re doing a loop, hammerhead, or Cuban. Those figures last ten or fifteen seconds. A snap roll is over in about one second, and what’s happening is far more involved. So how does one teach the ‘snap’ when this complex maneuver is over almost before it starts? The method I’ve settled upon involves using techniques I normally avoid like the plague. Read more →

Preventing Stall/Spin Accidents

Angle-of-bank limitations have been suggested by flight instructors, alphabet groups, pundits, and most recently by Richard Collins of all people. I’ve touched on this subject before (see Aviation Myth #14), but for some reason the idea keeps rearing it’s ugly head that arbitrary bank limits make flying safer. They don’t. What they WILL do is make a stall/spin more likely. Here’s why. Read more →

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