Soloing Students

For the last two months, I have been instructing at LeTourneau building flight time and experience so that I can be more prepared for the mission field. Prior to LeTourneau I had only given a few hours of flight instruction, mostly I had been doing maintenance Instruction at Moody as I helped supervise students working on airplanes. Needless to say, Instructing/teaching while you have both feet firmly on the ground is a lot more relaxing than taking notes and teaching while you're in the air

Flight Instructing is like teaching someone how to drive, but a little more intense. Maybe you know the feeling of sitting in the passenger seat teaching someone how to drive. You're very alert ready for anything that might go wrong, coaching the new driver while constantly watching the road trying very hard to anticipate anything that might come because reaction times will be much slower.

In airplanes we have dual controls, which means that I have a control wheel right and brake pedals accessible from the passenger seat. I can easily step in and override my students if necessary, provided I can overpower my students. Usually this is not necessary as long as we have plenty of altitude between us and the ground.

Teaching my students to land however is another story. We're very close to the ground, and learning how to judge height and distance to the ground and set the airplane down softly. My hands usually lay flat on my knees, but are spring loaded to grab the controls if necessary. My feet ride along on the rudder pedals ready to jump in.

It is always a question of judgment whether I want to jump in or not. Often the landings aren't perfect, and I have to make a judgment call whether the landing is still safe or not. If the landing is unsafe, I will take the controls. If it's safe, I don't touch the controls and allow my student to learn from their mistakes.

This last semester, I taught three guys how to land. After flying with them for a few weeks and determining that they were safe and competent to land. I stepped out of the airplane and sent them out by themselves for a Solo flight. This Solo represents a huge milestone in their aviation careers. For the first time flying an $170,000 by themselves for 3 take offs and landings. For me it was with a little anxiety and a lot of pride that I saw these 3 guys fly their first solo.