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i Stop making it ditficult: feach your studen9 to manage workloadi By Larry Bothe&

Lany Bothe is anFAA designated pilotexaminer, FAASkamrepresentativ e, Ma sterCFI, an Gold Sealinstructor in Indiana.He has over 6,000 hottrs in morethan 60 types of aircraft.

fvine an airplane is actuallyf prelly easy. once you get someI instruction. But as an FAA des-ignated pilot examiner (DPE). timeand again I examine sport or pri-vate pilot applicants who are work-ing really hard-too hard-to flythe airplane.There are many things theselow-time pilots could be doing toease their workload, but nobodyshowed them how. When I talk totheir instructors after thecheckride. I find that theyknow these work-savingprocedures but justhaven't told their students.Why not? I hear thingslike "Oh, that's anadvanced technique," or "Ididn't think the studentcould do that," or "Weteach that in the instru-ment program." It's as ifinstructors are requiringstudents to "pay theirdues" at the entrv level bymaking things harder thanthey need to be.Here are some of themore egregious workoutitems I routinely see on sport andprivate checkrides. The number-one thing is in the levei-off afterclimb, while transitioning to cruiseflight. Most pilots climb up totheir desired altitude, then simul-taneously lower the nose andreduce power. The problem is thatthe airplane is initially still atclimb airspeed, and with thepower reduced it takes a relativelylong time, perhaps two or threeminutes. to accelerate to cruise

speed. During this accelerationperiod the pilot must repeatedlyadjust pitch, power, and trim whilethe airplanc is stabilizing in cruise.The airplane porpoises throughthe air while the poor pilot makesconstant corrections.The better way to do thc cruisetransition is to climb about 40 feetabove the desired cruise altitude,lower the nose all the way to levelflight attitude, and then make asingle gross nose-down trim move-

ment (one roll, bottom totop. works well in Cessnas)without touching the throt-tle. With the throttle stilluide open and the air-plane in lcvcl flicht. crursespeed uill shou up rapidlyon the airspccd indicator.Oncc at the erpectedcruise speed. reduce thethrottle to the desiredcruise power setting. Otherthan perhaps one smalltrim refinement, you're alldone. It takes about t5seconds. Lean the mixturewhen time permits.There are several otherwork-saving proceduresrelated to trim.Descent: Reduce the power as

appropriate, but don't touch thetrim Let the nose seek its ownattitudc. You'll get a -500- to 600-fpm descent. For level-off, take 10percent of the descent rate andinitiate the level-off that manyfeet above the desired altitude. Ifit's a 600-fpm rate of descent,then start the level-off 60 feetearly by promptly returning thethrottle to the cruise power set-

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ting. The nose will come up byitself and the airplane will usethat last bit of altitude to returnto lcvel cruise flight. No trimmingwill be necessary because the trimwasn't changed. Richen the mix-ture as necessary.Takeofft Setting the trirn indica-tor opposite the takeoff mark does-n't always yield the desired climbairspeed, usually because of wearin the system. A better procedureis to note the trim setting after youhave taken off and trimmed forclimb. Use that setting for takeoffin the future. Then, on subsequenttakeoffs, you won't have to trimonce airborne.Engine failure: We tell our stu-dents that the first thing to do afterengine failure is to pitch for best--elide airspced and then trim. Thestudent thcn proceeds to take half

course because VORs are laid outon the chart relative ttl magneticnorth, and the VOR radio signal isnot affected by wind. I often seeapplicants set the OBS to thecourse magnetic heading. whichthey have calculated using a windcorrection angle. The best way forstudent\ to get the magnetic c()urseis to simply read it from where thecoursc line on the sectional chartpasses through the blue compassrose around the VOR.

Check the directional gvro/head-ing indicator: If navigation isn'tworking out, the first thing to do isto check the DG against the wetcompass, and reset the DG if neces-sary. That usually solves the problemand gets students back on course.Tirrning: After clearing thedirection of the turn for traffic.have the student look straight

these low-timehere are nany things

nobody showed0rkl0ad,'pilots clald be doing t0 eas" their

butof forever to get the trim set usingthe trim-and-test method. A muchbetter way is to just trim full noseup; move the trim wheel or crankall the rvay to the stop. No, it won'tstall (a ccrtification requirement),and thc rcsultant airspeed will beven' close to bcst elidc. Don'tbe liere me'l Tn it.Thcre are several othcr cxtra-work-load items I often see n hcn pcrform-ing checkrides. Considcr teachingthese procedures to your students.Radio setup: Hare lour primarvstudents set up the VOR or GPSon the ground. They will be muchless likel;r to make errors. Once inthe air, they will have more time tolook for traffic since they won't befiddling with the radios. Setting upa VOR n.rust include both the fre-quencv and the omnibearing selec-tor (OBS). Approximate the OBSsetting if 1'ou haven't bothered tocalculate it.Magnetic course: The OBSneeds to be set lo the magnetic

then how,ahcacl rvhile setting the bank. If hecontinues to look in the directionof the turn. he'll usually overbank.Use the rudder correctly: Noflat-footcd turns Rudder andaileron arc used simultaneously;onc does not lead the other.Common errors are not using rud-dcl at rLll. continuing to hold rud-dcr pressure after the bank isestablishccl. and using rudder whilerolling into a turn but not whenrolling out. Plcase don't acceptshoddv ruclcler usage b,v vour stu-dcnts. becausc I won't."Sawing" the ailerons: Don't letyour students continuously "saw"the yokc hiick und iorth in a rainattempt [() eo|rcct for every littlebump they feel. Tell them to let theairplane fly itself. Initiatc correc-tion only when a trend (wing low)develops. That makes flying somuch easier.Here are some ideas for savingwork and effort during the land-ing phase.

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Continued fiom page 7Short-field landings: Have yourstudents start out by going a littlefarther downwind than normal,then everything else will fall intoplace. Also tell them to "aim"about 150 feet short of where theyactually expect to touch down.Soft-field landings: Use a finalapproach spced five knots fasterthan for a short-fielcl approach.

\\'hr shouldn't uc makc thingsas easv as \\e can for clut stu-dents'l lf a givcn task is more dif-ficult and time consuming than itneeds to bc. that spills over intothe nert task. If the student isstrug-eling for several minutes toget thc airplane stabilized in levelcruise flight. he or she may unwit-tingly fly past a checkpoint, creat-

Inslructor Report i\ published ti)f {he.\OIr.\ \ir Sriet\ Foundation b)\OP\ \lembcrship PubLications. Inc. aO lt)0E.EXECUTTVE IilnECf0nBruce Landsberg

EI]IfONUL CONSUITANTSJJ Green* a,v-Julie Summers Walker

MANAAHE EDI|ORJill W. TallmanANT DIRECTONN{ichael E. Kline

DESIAilENJiil C. Bentonlnstru(tor Reporl..\OPA \ir Seira) Foundation.-1ll \\irrion \\a). Ffccleriek. \lrnhnd 217011

tcleFhoDe -ll)l'695-lIE-1: tar.r(lI 695 l3l5I r'., l:...f i :."".r.r-\le rpprtciile vour comnrcnl\ ()n i\\ues relevanr m

the flisht in\lructiol cornnunil\'. Sencl vour commentsto Instruck)r Report ltr lhe c-r)reil address above.

Ensure a soft touchdown by carry-ing a little power all thc way totouchdown. About 200 rpm aboveflight idle should do the trick.Slip to a landing: Note the sidefrom which the crosswind is blow-ing and slip with that wing dolvn.It's much easier to use ail the rud-der there is (pin it to the firewall)and then "steer" with the ailerons.

ing an unnecessary navigationproblem.Often. during a flight review. Idemonstrate some of these tech-niques and lct the pilot try lhcm.Thc reaction I usually get is "Bov.that was easyl I'vc bccn doing itthe hard way for all these years. Iwish my primary instructor hadshowed me that."

i Why shouldn'l we makl things as easy as ii we can far Tur students?