Tristar
Pattern Altitude
As a flight instructor, sometimes it's tough to know exactly how to teach every subject to every student. Some subjects come much easier to an individual than others. I have a particular student that requires a little extra help learning how to fly but had the worst trouble learning how to land. He could do okay in the pattern but sometimes would get lost in what tower was saying or what to do if they didn't say anything at all. But what confused him the most was the actual touchdown phase. Now I understand this part is the toughest for most to grasp but what I couldn't understand is why I had spent two months (twice a week) teaching him landings. He had also flown with another instructor and he wasn't sure what to tell me either. I was at my wits end but expressed determination that we'd find out what clicked. In the end, I came to the conclusion that we just needed a break. Thankfully Christmas had come.
Well the second week back finally gave us the weather we had been hoping for to tackle landings once again. I wasn't very optimistic in all honesty but I knew if he had come this far, he must have learned something. Plus, he was just so happy about each flight and just as determined to get it as I was.
We jumped in the airplane and began pattern work. I started to notice slowly that I wasn't having to help as much. Eventually I was just talking him through the steps. Then it dawned on me, "he's actually doing...well!" I told him that I wasn't going to say anything for the next couple landings. And sure enough, he landed the plane fine. I told him to go ahead and stop. I asked him, "okay, so do you think that if I wasn't in the airplane, you could do this all by yourself?" "Yea, I think I could." (This coming from someone that was very unsure of what to do the last time I flew with him). I decided to solo him. I know this sounds like a typical solo story but to me it wasn't, because I couldn't understand why landings weren't clicking. To this day, I blame it on the "landing Plateau." In one day back, he soloed.
Although this leads me into an interesting story that happened during his solo.
His first takeoff and landing went pretty good. A little bump but he caught it. But what happened next as an instructor, you just wish you could reach up and catch the airplane. He took off for the second time and tried his best to climb with full flaps. He had forgotten to retract them. The airplane was wiggling all over the runway about 100ft in the air. I wasn't sure what he'd do and all I could picture was a power on full flap stall. The airplane climbed out and eventually I saw the flaps disappear. I asked him after he landed, "so what was with that second takeoff?" "Yea! I forgot to retract the flaps! but I remember what you taught me in slow flight and stalls, take the flaps out 10 degrees at a time." *tear* He remembered.. "Good job!" Soloed with 42 Hours...but soloed. On to cross countries!
The second time a student impressed me was today. One of my students was signed off to go on a cross country. I looked over the weather with him, listened in with flight service, and checked his flight planning. From what flight service was telling us, it's okay to go west but dont go east. So he went. About an hour later he returned...about an hour earlier than planned. I asked him why he was back so early, he told me he turned around because there was an unplanned solid layer of clouds and he felt safer just to come home than try to find a way around it. We talked about this before he went, "what do you do if.." scenarios. Thankfully he listened, turned around and just came home. I can't force pilot judgement but I'm glad he was smart enough to listen to my advice and not keep going.
Well the second week back finally gave us the weather we had been hoping for to tackle landings once again. I wasn't very optimistic in all honesty but I knew if he had come this far, he must have learned something. Plus, he was just so happy about each flight and just as determined to get it as I was.
We jumped in the airplane and began pattern work. I started to notice slowly that I wasn't having to help as much. Eventually I was just talking him through the steps. Then it dawned on me, "he's actually doing...well!" I told him that I wasn't going to say anything for the next couple landings. And sure enough, he landed the plane fine. I told him to go ahead and stop. I asked him, "okay, so do you think that if I wasn't in the airplane, you could do this all by yourself?" "Yea, I think I could." (This coming from someone that was very unsure of what to do the last time I flew with him). I decided to solo him. I know this sounds like a typical solo story but to me it wasn't, because I couldn't understand why landings weren't clicking. To this day, I blame it on the "landing Plateau." In one day back, he soloed.
Although this leads me into an interesting story that happened during his solo.
His first takeoff and landing went pretty good. A little bump but he caught it. But what happened next as an instructor, you just wish you could reach up and catch the airplane. He took off for the second time and tried his best to climb with full flaps. He had forgotten to retract them. The airplane was wiggling all over the runway about 100ft in the air. I wasn't sure what he'd do and all I could picture was a power on full flap stall. The airplane climbed out and eventually I saw the flaps disappear. I asked him after he landed, "so what was with that second takeoff?" "Yea! I forgot to retract the flaps! but I remember what you taught me in slow flight and stalls, take the flaps out 10 degrees at a time." *tear* He remembered.. "Good job!" Soloed with 42 Hours...but soloed. On to cross countries!
The second time a student impressed me was today. One of my students was signed off to go on a cross country. I looked over the weather with him, listened in with flight service, and checked his flight planning. From what flight service was telling us, it's okay to go west but dont go east. So he went. About an hour later he returned...about an hour earlier than planned. I asked him why he was back so early, he told me he turned around because there was an unplanned solid layer of clouds and he felt safer just to come home than try to find a way around it. We talked about this before he went, "what do you do if.." scenarios. Thankfully he listened, turned around and just came home. I can't force pilot judgement but I'm glad he was smart enough to listen to my advice and not keep going.
Last edited: