CFI Shennanigans - How does your CFI distract you during lessons?

kimberlyanne546

kimberlyanne546

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Kimberly
Posted this thread on another pilot site because at the time I was pre-solo and my instructor was putting me through a bunch of "tests" where he would do everything in his power to distract me in the pattern.

If you are a CFI - what do you like to do to distract your students?

If you are a student, what does your CFI do to you?

Here are (only some) of my favorites - done to me by my CFI:

- Slowly increasing the volume inside my ears / headset over the intercom of a Giants game on the AM radio and trying to convince me I was hearing voices inside my head as it got louder and of course I did not at first realize what was going on (we fly mostly in silence out of an untowered airport which is not busy).

- Pulling my seat out from under me (no I did not know it was him, we'd had issues with the Cessna seats on the ground during taxi). He pulled my seat back when I wasn't looking at the most dangerous time.... right after rotation. I flew back towards the back of the plane (I'm 5'6") and then couldn't reach the controls. Apparently he was trying to see how I handled mini emergencies and if I would use the yoke to pull myself back forward as I guess some students do. (No I did not do that, I got back up and was just fine)

- Silly comments on short final about mountains or sheep or unrelated topics when I'm trying to concentrate on my landing

You get the idea. I look forward to hearing your stories!
 
In the Piper, just slowly adjust the trim.
Drop a pencil on the floor, and when they pick it up, do something with the yoke.
Push on a rudder pedal slowly if their feet aren't on them.
Do different voices as if I am another plane making a radio call and I am VERY close to where we are.
 
Voices, that is sneaky. My CFI also turned my fuel to "off" (forgot about that one) just to make sure my preflight and pre engine start checklists were being followed. Apparently some students get into a routine and start to get too relaxed and forget important items like that so he wants to be sure I am staying sharp.

Kimberly
 
My CFI had a nasty habit of turning off switches when I wasn't looking. It's easier to get away with that trick on some airplanes (like a Warrior) than others. Then I'd get yelled at for not noticing things like the fuel guages reading zero or the volt meter being out of whack... Mostly, my CFI talked a lot - some was personality, some was just to see if I would ask for quiet.

Part of the distraction exercise is to get you used to the idea that as pilot-in-command, if someone is distracting you, you have the authority and responsibility to make it NOT be a distraction, either by ignoring it or telling them to shut-the-xxxx-up. I gotta admit that those shennanigans got a little old after a while!

On my checkride, the DPE kept trying to get me to get me to look at something while I was taxiing, in order to distract me from what I was doing. He was a good ol' boy, and a lot of fun to work with, so it was really tempting to chat with him, but I think that was some of what he was trying to do to distract me.
 
Matthew said:
My CFI had a nasty habit of turning off switches when I wasn't looking. It's easier to get away with that trick on some airplanes (like a Warrior) than others. Then I'd get yelled at for not noticing things like the fuel guages reading zero or the volt meter being out of whack... Mostly, my CFI talked a lot - some was personality, some was just to see if I would ask for quiet.

Part of the distraction exercise is to get you used to the idea that as pilot-in-command, if someone is distracting you, you have the authority and responsibility to make it NOT be a distraction, either by ignoring it or telling them to shut-the-xxxx-up. I gotta admit that those shennanigans got a little old after a while!

On my checkride, the DPE kept trying to get me to get me to look at something while I was taxiing, in order to distract me from what I was doing. He was a good ol' boy, and a loat of fun to work with, so it was really tempting to chat with him, but I think that was some of what he was trying to do to distract me.
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Some guy at a 99s dinner told me the DPE did that to him too and he threatened to use the "isolate" button - I didn't even know there was a "shut your passenger up" button!

Kimberly
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I didn't even know there was a "shut your passenger up" button!

Kimberly
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You are responsible for learning how to use the equipment in your plane. So, show some initiative, and tell your CFI to show you how it works, then use it at your convenience. It's a win-win!

--

Also, I re-read your original post. I'm no CFI, so I can't comment from that perspective, but I think that pulling your seat out from under you at rotation would not be a good idea. The potential for turning a simulated emergency into a real emergency just seems too great.
 
On short final on my private pilot checkride, the examiner said "there are naked girls on the runway."

Obviously, I went around. As we were turning crosswind he said "why did you go around?! Naked girls on the runway, I'm landing!"

As far as tricks by my CFI, he pulls the circuit breaker for the landing gear in the Arrow almost every flight at some point.
 
I'm hopefully not going to isolate my CFI (not sure if all radios have that feature). I'll take a look this weekend and see if mine does. I have used most of the other radio features like (VOR) NAV and COMM and even had to troubleshoot some bad radio stuff. Just never needed to isolate anyone. He likes to save his students money but you're right I should schedule some time for him to go over everything with me. If not I can download (hopefully) the manuals and mess around with the radios in my free time when I show up early to fill it with gas at the pump and pre-flight. I just can't leave the master on too long don't want to drain the battery.
 
Hmmm.

Had one guy pop a door on downwind during an Arrow checkout, to see if I'd forget the gear...

Other than that, nothing particularly memorable. Yet. I'm sure when more people start talking about their experiences I'll remember some others. I think.
 
- Reached over and pulled the mixture, not the throttle, at about 50 feet AGL after liftoff.

- My pencil rolled away down between and forward of the seats in a CE150. He picked the pencil up for me...and the damned engine quit shortly afterward. He took over, then knew he could make the grass strip nearby easily and let me have the plane as long as I kept it where he could get it down. Does anyone remember where the shutoff valve is in a CE150? I still do - I found the valve in the off position at just below pattern altitude on my own. No landing however we lost over 1000 feet before I figured it out.

- The best lesson and I do it on my own too: Sitting on the ramp, he blindfolded me and made me go through the emergency procedures by touch and memory, not a checklist, not with my eyes, and we did that until I got it right consistently. I can still find every individual switch on the panel of a Cherokee 180C just by reaching for it without looking. My hand knows where the switches are and my brain doesn't have to get involved which means I can think of other things like where to put down while my body tries to get the engine restarted.


The dumb one was a takeoff roll in a CE150 just as I lifted the nose wheel and the instructor suddenly flipped out about the cargo door in the back suddenly coming open. Both doors and windows were obviously closed and secure and I had absolutely no idea what he was going on about. What was coming out of his mouth and where he was pointing made no sense at all. I ended up completing the liftoff then set it down and stopped most of the way down the runway. I was worried about him being on drugs and killing us, not about anything being wrong with the no-cargo-door-anywhere airplane. I filed that under unrealistic scenario's for the given airplane since he made it clear that it was the plane, not himself, that the scenario was about.

There were plenty of others, I just can't think today.
 
fgcason said:
- Reached over and pulled the mixture, not the throttle, at about 50 feet AGL after liftoff.

- My pencil rolled away down between and forward of the seats in a CE150. He picked the pencil up for me...and the damned engine quit shortly afterward. He took over, then knew he could make the grass strip nearby easily and let me have the plane as long as I kept it where he could get it down. Does anyone remember where the shutoff valve is in a CE150? I still do - I found the valve in the off position at just below pattern altitude on my own. No landing however we lost over 1000 feet before I figured it out.

- The best lesson and I do it on my own too: Sitting on the ramp, he blindfolded me and made me go through the emergency procedures by touch and memory, not a checklist, not with my eyes, and we did that until I got it right consistently. I can still find every individual switch on the panel of a Cherokee 180C just by reaching for it without looking. My hand knows where the switches are and my brain doesn't have to get involved which means I can think of other things like where to put down while my body tries to get the engine restarted.


The dumb one was a takeoff roll in a CE150 just as I lifted the nose wheel and the instructor suddenly flipped out about the cargo door in the back suddenly coming open. Both doors and windows were obviously closed and secure and I had absolutely no idea what he was going on about. What was coming out of his mouth and where he was pointing made no sense at all. I ended up completing the liftoff then set it down and stopped most of the way down the runway. I was worried about him being on drugs and killing us, not about anything being wrong with the no-cargo-door-anywhere airplane. I filed that under unrealistic scenario's for the given airplane since he made it clear that it was the plane, not himself, that the scenario was about.

There were plenty of others, I just can't think today.
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This happened to me (sort of) when we did our first series of night landings after getting back from a cross country after work the other day. My 152's instruments do not light up at night and the cabin light does not have a red filter so turning it on destroys my night vision. By the end I was pretty much reaching for things in the dark by feel and memory only. We go on the night cross country next week hopefully so for that I'm buying a red LED head lamp because I'll need to see the heading indicator.... my plane is very low tech. The 172 has illuminated controls but not the 152. Thank goodness my landing light worked.
 
My new CFI went up with me for the first time on Tuesday. He is a PRINCE of a guy and has ENORMOUS flying and teaching experience. I wanted so much to please him.

All six of my recent hours with the other instructor have been in REALLY nasty, bumpy, gusty, thermal ridden air, but my first ride with him was in relatively smooth air, so I flew really good by comparison. He has a keen interest in my plane and we spent some time on the ground and in the air getting all the radios and everything working.

So now to the question of the thread. He got me doing slow flight and then asked me to tune the NAV's to the two close by VOR's so we could check them out. I had the frequencies written on a sticky that was on my laminated check list setting on the glare shield. I pulled down the checklist for the frequencies, set it back on the glare shield and turned on both VOR's and set frequencies on both.

Both of them started moving the needles and I picked up where I left off with the slow flight. He then turned the OBS's to make sure they were indicating about where they should.

It didn't occur to me until later that this was probably a diversion. It also occurred to me that I had managed it and kept the plane flying at the same speed and altitude while I was doing it, then kept up the task of slowing the air speed. It made me quite proud of myself. I have so much respect for this guy, that I want to do everything at my very best.

Doc
 
MBDiagMan said:
My new CFI went up with me for the first time on Tuesday. He is a PRINCE of a guy and has ENORMOUS flying and teaching experience. I wanted so much to please him.

All six of my recent hours with the other instructor have been in REALLY nasty, bumpy, gusty, thermal ridden air, but my first ride with him was in relatively smooth air, so I flew really good by comparison. He has a keen interest in my plane and we spent some time on the ground and in the air getting all the radios and everything working.

So now to the question of the thread. He got me doing slow flight and then asked me to tune the NAV's to the two close by VOR's so we could check them out. I had the frequencies written on a sticky that was on my laminated check list setting on the glare shield. I pulled down the checklist for the frequencies, set it back on the glare shield and turned on both VOR's and set frequencies on both.

Both of them started moving the needles and I picked up where I left off with the slow flight. He then turned the OBS's to make sure they were indicating about where they should.

It didn't occur to me until later that this was probably a diversion. It also occurred to me that I had managed it and kept the plane flying at the same speed and altitude while I was doing it, then kept up the task of slowing the air speed. It made me quite proud of myself. I have so much respect for this guy, that I want to do everything at my very best.

Doc
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Doc,

One time during slow flight (stall horn blaring) my CFI did the same. He wanted me to look up some frequency on my little list so I had to get the list out then tune the radio then he had other tasks all while doing slow flight. I think it was more multi tasking than distraction though. He wanted to teach me how to juggle multiple priorities and tasks all at once..... all while keeping my heading / altitude / airspeed / etc the same. The first time it was a bit challenging but then again he is good and can load anyone up with enough tasks to the point of failure.

Kimberly
 
[quote Kimberly Anne]

- Pulling my seat out from under me (no I did not know it was him, we'd had issues with the Cessna seats on the ground during taxi). He pulled my seat back when I wasn't looking at the most dangerous time.... right after rotation. I flew back towards the back of the plane (I'm 5'6") and then couldn't reach the controls. Apparently he was trying to see how I handled mini emergencies and if I would use the yoke to pull myself back forward as I guess some students do. (No I did not do that, I got back up and was just fine)
[/QUOTE]

The other examples were ok, but this one showed pretty poor judgement on his part and could have caused a real accident. Professionals don't do this.

This one incident alone would be enough to consider firing the CFI and finding someone else.
 
Doggtyred said:
The other examples were ok, but this one showed pretty poor judgement on his part and could have caused a real accident. Professionals don't do this.

This one incident alone would be enough to consider firing the CFI and finding someone else.
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Why? If he's stronger than her, all he has to do is push the yoke forward.
 
My CFI likes to adjust the mixture after I do the run up; to lean it out so not to gunk up the spark plugs. Since we are constantly cleaning the spark plugs (172S I guess it's common) then on take off he says "I've got the mixture for you"...it's like geez quit playing with the controls!
 
Doggtyred said:
The other examples were ok, but this one showed pretty poor judgement on his part and could have caused a real accident. Professionals don't do this.

This one incident alone would be enough to consider firing the CFI and finding someone else.
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Let me explain: we had sqwaked (spelling?) to the maintenance man issues with the seat so it was VERY possible that this could happen perhaps he was just preparing me for that possibility.

What I mean is for weeks I had been doing flight training and the seat would (annoyingly) shoot back and I couldn't reach the pedals anymore. Never happened on runup thank goodness but it was a serious issue so we got it fixed.

Not making "excuses" for him but maybe I didn't tell the whole story.

And when I posted this on another site someone said the CFI took the keys and threw them out the window! (had spares in his pocket)
 
The only time I've had a CFI seriously distract me in an airplane was when I was still a student pilot and we were in the pattern to land at home base after a lesson. There was a yellow jacket in the cockpit and he decided he HAD to kill it if it was the last thing he ever did. He was swinging wildly at it every time it flew past him while I was maneuvering, turning downwind to base, then base to final. I was getting ready to go around because I was really scared he was going to get us both stung. Finally on final he announced he'd killed it with the A/FD (or maybe it was the sectional, this was in 2002). I landed and told him he was a flaming idiot who could have gotten us killed. It's the only time I've ever been really angry at a CFI or for that matter, anyone in an airplane.

No, he didn't do it purposely to distract me. He just had a phobia of bees and wasps.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
What I mean is for weeks I had been doing flight training and the seat would (annoyingly) shoot back and I couldn't reach the pedals anymore...
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The plane had a history of this and you still took it? Take it back. Write it up and don't take it out until you're satisfied that it won't do it when you're out solo. If the CFI tries to talk you out of it, find another CFI. You're learning how to be a PIC, so start exercising that authority.
 
Bobcat1 said:
The plane had a history of this and you still took it? Take it back. Write it up and don't take it out until you're satisfied that it won't do it when you're out solo. If the CFI tries to talk you out of it, find another CFI.
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At this flight, no it had been fixed already. From what I hear from other students on the other forum, lots of trainers have issues (mine too) from radios to seats to struts. Most if not all are fixed within a very short amount of time, sometimes same day. Others (like an old tire) take longer.
 
saracelica said:
My CFI likes to adjust the mixture after I do the run up; to lean it out so not to gunk up the spark plugs. Since we are constantly cleaning the spark plugs (172S I guess it's common) then on take off he says "I've got the mixture for you"...it's like geez quit playing with the controls!
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"I've got it for you" is CFI-speak for "You forgot to set the mixture to full rich for takeoff, but rather than abort I'll set it for you so that we don't have to waste time taxiing back."

Also, if you don't want to foul plugs, lean the mixture even more - I prefer to lean it ~800 RPM (full rich) until it goes up to 1000 RPM or so, and then just slightly more than that. If you're leaned like that, the engine will cough and stumble when you add takeoff power so that you won't forget the mixture when your CFI isn't there to push it in for you.
 
I try to do more mental distractions than anything else:

  • If we were to go do touch-n-goes at that airport over there, what frequency do we self announce our intentions on?
  • If you were to proceed from present position to XYZ and hold on the ### radial, ## DME, 1 minute legs, right hand turns, which hold entry would you use?
  • Change the CDI selected on the HSI
  • Turn the inset map on the G1000 off and the MFD to the EIS or AUX page and ask to take me to XYZ airport. What heading and how long will it take?
  • Change the standby frequencies
  • Switch the active COM radio (audio panel) in a non-critical phase of flight and suitable location
  • Temporarily disable WAAS capability when planning to fly GPS approaches
  • Make the student set up for slow flight and then ask them to grab their hood in the back (power on stall scenario)
  • Are you sure the POH is in the airplane? I can't find it. Don't we need that on board? (Hiding somewhere in the back seat)
  • Under the hood, make the student look in their lap but still maintain control of the aircraft. Ask the student to complete a left or right 45 degree banked turn and climb (or descend) at 1,000 feet per minute. Then ask them if they think that really feels like a 45 degree banked turn. Count to 3 and then say "recover"

The list tends to grow the more time I sit at the airport with students. :D
 
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Honestly, I dont remember my CFI doing too much for distractions, but my DPE for my private pilot certainly did.

He made me do the checkride with no headset, using a hand held mic. It wasnt too big of a deal, but it involved a hand not being in a convenient place at certain times.

When doing pattern work at a non-towered airport, trying to use a hand held mic, it was a pain. The DPE also asked me to explain a whole bunch of stuff about short field and soft field techniques while i'm trying to negotiate the traffic pattern and landing. It was quite a distraction. I ended up telling him to hold on, and i explained when my work load went down.


My CFI said one of his previous CFI's stuck something in the pitot tube, to see if he was properly inspecting his plane, and they took off with a dead airspeed indicator. Lesson learned on his part I guess.

I've heard of other CFI's start faking symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning to see how the student would react.
 
I had one CFI open the window on a 152 to prove it was no big deal. I lost my brand new sectional that day. Some have pulled breakers on me (lost the autopilot that day as he was teaching it to me). Mostly though, they all diddled with the loran or the nav radio. It was like riding with a child with ADHD.
I did tell the instructors (warn actually) that if they EVER shut down the engine during a flight, I'd throw them out of the plane. If they survived, I'd kill them myself.
Never had an instructor do that.
 
Dropped pencils, talk alot, ask me to read something for him (That one was my favorite, I told him I couldn't read nothin cause' I'm home schooled)
 
The CFI on my IPC today messed me up bad, by allowing me to continue doing what I was doing. The guy in the back seat laughing was the icing on that cake.
 
My CFI for the instrument rating would constantly be asking questions, mainly about my family life. It happens that I don't have a big family and there's nothing much to talk about. I remember telling a pilot friend that the CFI was really nosy and he reminded me that the CFI was probably just trying to distract me. :redface:

That happened again a few years ago in the sim. The instructor was talking to me as I was getting set up for an approach or something and I kept answering him. Finally he said, "That was supposed to be your distraction". Oh, I guess I didn't notice.
 
If my CFI or the DPE who tested me had been trying to distract me during training or the check flight, I guess I was either too dense to notice or I'm not easily distracted (probably both.)
 
CFI never did anything to me, but I did make a mistake that I never forgot. I took off without verifying that the transponder had the VFR code. ATC gave me the "teacher voice".

After that I always spin the knobs on the transponder when buttoning up the plane just to make some fun for the next renter. :)
 
ebacon said:
After that I always spin the knobs on the transponder when buttoning up the plane just to make some fun for the next renter. :)
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Yeah, 7500 can be a real hoot!
 
Bobcat1 said:
Yeah, 7500 can be a real hoot!
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I'm the opposite of that I guess. I always make sure 1200 is in the window before I leave. Primary student pilots dominate the flight school I'm at, and I know pitt wouldn't appreciate a foreign code popping up on their screens. I bet you that if they did take off with something other than VFR and pitt called them on it, they'd never do it again though.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
At this flight, no it had been fixed already. From what I hear from other students on the other forum, lots of trainers have issues (mine too) from radios to seats to struts. Most if not all are fixed within a very short amount of time, sometimes same day. Others (like an old tire) take longer.
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You've just described why I hated rentals. I get to choose what (if anything) gets deferred now (with my co-owners of course). I hated flying broken, ill-maintained, crap. And there's a lot of it out there.

My CFI called close-in traffic that wasn't there after l was busy in the middle of something too "heads down", right after asking me to show him how to calculate TAS with the whiz wheel at our current OAT.

Then as I came heads up he'd say "my airplane" like the traffic was too close, yank and bank a bit (disorient me) then pull the power to idle and say, "your airplane."

I didn't have time to be mad that I'd been tricked into not knowing what direction I was headed and where the landmarks were.

He did all this within gliding distance of an airport and made sure to turn the direction where it would be behind the aircraft and not visible.

I thought later that was a good trick. ;)

(And he did this very late in the training... And I did manage to re-orient myself, and head for that airport. Once the landing was assured, we went around since it was dirt and the club's insurance and policy didn't allow landing on "unimproved" surfaces. For a minute there I thought he was going to thumb his nose at that rule, which in and of itself was an additional nice distracting touch. :D
 
Distractions:

1.) Talking endlessly, either explaining something or going on about something that happened during his day. Then ask why I missed the radio call into the pattern, or into Class D.

I learned to quiet my passengers when I needed to concentrate.

2.) Constant flow of questions and work. Ok, divert to Oshkosh on the VOR. What causes the left turning tendencies? Ok, nice divert, oops... your engines out. (After I get best glide). Now you have flames coming up the cowl, what do you do?

Etc. etc. Hour of that, and I was soaking wet from sweat. BUT, my check ride was easy compared to it.

3.) Lights, gauges, switches, were all fair game. Frequencies were also a trick he'd play. Change from transmitting on Radio 1 to 2, but didn't change the frequencies and I was still listening to 1.

Always check the radio.... and the transmitter button.

4.) Clear tape on key locations (pitot, stall horn) during pre-flight. I never missed it, but I made sure to ALWAYS check.
 
Night flight under the hood CFI had me look at my lap as he proceeded to put my stomach on the floor then told me to recover.

Still under the hood told me to fly direct to the VOR. I tried but the darn needle kept going the wrong way. Took me awhile to figure out that while my head was down he turned the DG 180 degrees.
 
Swampfox201 said:
Night flight under the hood CFI had me look at my lap as he proceeded to put my stomach on the floor then told me to recover.

Still under the hood told me to fly direct to the VOR. I tried but the darn needle kept going the wrong way. Took me awhile to figure out that while my head was down he turned the DG 180 degrees.
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Oh man! Thats a good one! I never would have thought to do that to someone. I'm not sure I would have immediately thought to check against mag compass either.
 
Jeanie said:
Oooo, I like the clear tape idea!
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I'm not sure I'd use clear tape, but definitely the tape idea. Also, sometimes loosening screws on an inspection plate, or at least simulating that. I've pre-flighted an aircraft right out of annual and found the trim tab inspection plate still off of a Cessna, and also had a bird in a similar situation with blue masking tape over the static port to keep it from getting wet when it was washed. Oh, and Piper cowlings can be made to look latched - when they are not!

Ryan
 
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