Thinking back on your life, you can probably list a number of things that you learned to do alone – that is one-on-one with your teacher, parent, or perhaps a peer. Riding a bike or motorcycle, driving a car, bowling, flying a kite, even golfing - the list could be quite long. You most likely took flying lessons by yourself with just your flight instructor on board. Isn’t this the way things are supposed to be done? How else are you going to learn first hand how to correctly fly maneuvers, land, navigate and handle emergencies unless you “do it yourself?” Well, there could be a better way.
Have you ever considered the benefits of partnering with someone to get more out of each lesson? Someone else to share the joys, triumphs, good landings, bad landings, or that time when you just wanted to call it quits?
In my work with a local aviation college I find fitting all of my instrument pilot candidates into my schedule to be quite a challenge. Obtaining the required 50 hours PIC cross-country time to qualify for the Instrument Rating is even a bigger obstacle to the Private pilot who is usually time and money challenged.
IDEA! Why not team up with a partner? In this way two pilots get more out of each flight. One flies while the other observes, takes notes, silently critiques and makes a mental note not to make the same mistakes as his or her partner just did and gets a real time review of the lesson at no cost. Additionally I encourage each pilot to participate in debriefing each other’s performance.
To my delight this suggestion was eagerly received by four of this year’s instrument rating candidates and we immediately began scheduling two at a time. (Yes, the plane has more than two seats.) Because we often plan our flights to an airport that is more than 50 nautical miles away each pilot can fly a cross-country leg in nearly the same amount of time as a single pilot lesson would require.
Along the way the pilot can practice one or more of the required maneuvers from the Instrument Rating Practical Test Standards and then call for an approach as we near our destination. The candidates receive double benefit for each flying dollar and they each get to add cross-country PIC time – an area that normally suffers when a Private Pilot immediately jumps into instrument training. This approach to the IFR training has been extremely successful and has greatly enhanced the skills of each individual.
There is something to be said about young college males and their egos. I once made a comment about how well they all were performing and Dan responded with “it’s the competitive nature”. Another time A.J. remarked about how much he enjoyed being in the back seat observing because he could concentrate on the maneuver or approach and not have to worry about altitude and heading. No matter what the reason I plan to encourage and continue the “partner” approach to instrument training. This is not the first time that I have partnered prospective private or instrument candidates but it has been the most successful.
The partnership has served to enhance the excitement, skill, support, empathy, and enthusiasm of each pilot. During the post-flight debrief the non-flying pilot is able to encourage his or her partner by complimenting the tasks well performed and explain the errors and corrective action for those tasks that need improvement. Verbalizing to each other helps the pilot remember the problems so as not to repeat them during his turn at the controls.
With an eye on the future as a Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI) each partner is also gaining valuable experience in how to teach by carefully observing correcting, and encouraging each other.
An added benefit of course is another set of eyes in the cockpit since instrument instruction tends to be one of the more dangerous situations that we instructors encounter with regard to collision avoidance. It is human nature to get “caught-up in the moment” when things begin to happen too fast and the CFI needs to observe the candidate closely. So those back seat eyes are essential to safety.
When it comes to working with a limited budget, increasing your flight time, easily adding to your cross-country hours and the frequency of your flights, consider training with a partner and get the most for your training dollar.
Special Note: In no way am I advocating that two pilots can log time during the duration of the flight. They only log the time at the controls as PIC.
Jean Runner MCFI
Emeritus