Exciting Day

M

msmspilot

Filing Flight Plan
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Feb 23, 2005
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Daniel
I posted this on the red board earlier, but I had limited time and didn't get over here.

I had a wonderful day today. There is nothing so exciting for an instructor as seeing your student "get it."

I had a guy struggling horribly with his landings. The approach was good, just couldn't judge the flare. I told him he was probably looking too close to the plane, and he said he was looking down the runway. Well, after a couple times around the pattern today, he realized he was looking down the runway until it was time to flare, and when the sink started, he was looking down. So the next time around, I reminded him to look down the runway, he forced himself to, and flat greased it. Then had 3 more great landings. Too windy to solo, but we both got out of the airplane beaming. No better feeling in the world than seeing it finally click for someone. It's why I became an instructor.
 
msmspilot said:
I posted this on the red board earlier, but I had limited time and didn't get over here.

I had a wonderful day today. There is nothing so exciting for an instructor as seeing your student "get it."

I had a guy struggling horribly with his landings. The approach was good, just couldn't judge the flare. I told him he was probably looking too close to the plane, and he said he was looking down the runway. Well, after a couple times around the pattern today, he realized he was looking down the runway until it was time to flare, and when the sink started, he was looking down. So the next time around, I reminded him to look down the runway, he forced himself to, and flat greased it. Then had 3 more great landings. Too windy to solo, but we both got out of the airplane beaming. No better feeling in the world than seeing it finally click for someone. It's why I became an instructor.
Click to expand...

Congrats to both of you, in my limited time instructing I have grown very
addicted to the light bulb. There is nothing cooler than having a student
suddenly apply something you taught him without you having to tell him to.
I had one the other day turn on final and realize he was too high, then proceded to set up the prettiest slip. There was a jet waiting at the hold short line, and the pilot keys up the mike and says "that sure is a nice slip".
Left me grinning all day.
 
Truly an awesome feeling! My first student did his second solo today, first at our airport (first solo day was perfect wx, so there were about 324538 planes in the pattern; we went off-site so he didn't have the added pressure of 25 people watching from the deck). Even better for me was that he was able to use judgement and go around when he needed to, earlier than I expected. He already has the 'expect to go around' mindset burned in pretty well. He's gonna make an excellent pilot.
 
msmspilot said:
I posted this on the red board earlier, but I had limited time and didn't get over here.

I had a wonderful day today. There is nothing so exciting for an instructor as seeing your student "get it."

I had a guy struggling horribly with his landings. The approach was good, just couldn't judge the flare. I told him he was probably looking too close to the plane, and he said he was looking down the runway. Well, after a couple times around the pattern today, he realized he was looking down the runway until it was time to flare, and when the sink started, he was looking down. So the next time around, I reminded him to look down the runway, he forced himself to, and flat greased it. Then had 3 more great landings. Too windy to solo, but we both got out of the airplane beaming. No better feeling in the world than seeing it finally click for someone. It's why I became an instructor.
Click to expand...

Yep, things like that are what make the low pay and Ramen noodles all worthwhile...:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: . Truely, it is a good thing, it's why we teach and that feeling is why you will always be a good instructor, because it's part of your being.
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
Does that mean you might have soloed him if the wind was milder?
Click to expand...

Yes, and I did solo him the next day.

The winds on the first day were direct crosswind (which he can handle fine) but they were also very gusty, which was ok, except I thought "how would I explain to the NTSB that I sent a student on his first solo with the wind the way it is?" and I thought that would be a hard explaination. Maybe I was too conservative, but I made my choice.
 
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