Taking newbies flying...
He's from Switzerland, they tend to avoid anything controversial.
Morgans wrote:
"Stefan" wrote
Have I got this right? You are not a flight instructor. (If you are,
please correct me.) Despite this, you hand over the controls to a
stranger. To a stranger nonetheless who sits the first time in his
life in a small plane. And you don't just hand over the controls at
altitude (which admittedly I have done myself), but right on the
ground and you let him fly the take off. Then you let him fly a 180 at
low altitude. And all this *with a passenger in the back*!
Yes, you screwed up royally. But for a different reason than you think.
What is the big F'en problem, here?
If the newbie happened to do it right, and it sounds like he did, there
is no problem. If he starts to get outside of the expected flight
parameters, you nudge and urge corrections, and if that doesn't work,
you say "my plane."
Do you think that he could not tell if something was happening that was
a trend in the wrong direction? Do you think that everyone who takes
the controls is going to horse them, and screw up? If that were the
case, there would be far less new students. Perhaps that is the
problem. People are so stuck on the fact that flying is for supermen,
and themselves, and nobody else deserves the chance to prove themselves.
So what difference does it make, if he is a instructor or not. I'm
willing to place money on the fact that there are many people who are
not certified flight instructors that are way better teachers than many
of the certified flight instructors out there flying people and
sometimes students with passengers around the sky. How many people
here, got to do the first takeoff that they were in the plane, and the
maneuvers following that, too? I'll bet over half got to do the
landing, with plenty of coaching and a few corrections, too.
I think your reaction is way, way over the top, on this one.
Remember the adage of many examiners, about predicting the students
abilities, and whether they will pass, or not? If you don't, it goes
something like " I can tell if the student will be able to fly, and
pass, while the plane is still being taxied out for takeoff."
So he was able to tell that the new person had a good feel for the
plane, right off the bat. It does not take a piece of paper with a
bunch of initials on it to be able to do that.
Good going, Allen. You may have just won another person over to our side.
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