The rule of three

Well, maybe not a rule, but at least an observation.

So far, each of my instrument students has struggled on their third lesson. The first lesson has gone relatively well and they each have done a good job under the hood the second time out as well.

Then, on the third lesson they've all had difficulty with basic attitude flying. Nothing major, but they've each flown a little worse than they had the lesson prior.

Granted, three students is a small sample size but still, weird.

On the fourth lesson they fly great and from then on their attitude instrument flying is pretty darn good.

I don't know for certain why the third lesson seems to cause problems since it's basically the same maneuvers as lessons one and two, but so far it has.

The common error is over-controlling and I think the problem is totally between the ears.

On lessons one and two they're getting used to the scan and flying the airplane via instruments. Because it's a new sensation and people have a high-degree of self-preservation built in they all seem to be fairly cautious with their control inputs.

They're doing the same stuff on lesson three but, I think, they're actually seeing and reacting to deviations more quickly and since they're more used to the sensation of flying under the hood they're a little less cautious with their control inputs.

I think they're also concentrating harder on flying perfectly, whereas before they didn't expect they could fly perfectly so weren't as aggressive with their corrections.

The result is they wind up over-controlling, get frustrated and over-control some more.

I don't know how many time's I've said “just make nice, gentle corrections, don't try to get your altitude/heading all back immediately” but it's a lot. I teach half-bar-width corrections on the attitude indicator for altitude deviations less than 100 feet, for example, and small bank angles for small heading deviations.

The odd thing is they've each come down shaking their head and complaining that they were all over the sky. I've pointed out to each of them that they flew within standards (+/- 100 feet, +/-10 degrees) so it wasn't a big deal and that they'll fly even better the next time out, which in each case they have.

I know their brains are doing some rewiring to connect their visual instrument interpretation with their physical control movements so maybe there's a little bit of synaptic rebellion that goes on as well. Sort of like re-calibrating something by going a little beyond the desired parameters then dialing everything back a hair.

If anybody thinks being a flight instructor is about flying airplanes, well, they're about 95% wrong.

From day one I teach instrument students (and primary students) to think in terms of varying control pressures instead of movements and I suppose it takes an hour of over-controlling the airplane for the idea to really sink in. Stressing proper trim and a delicate touch on the controls helps too.

I've started coming up with metaphors to help get the idea across.

My current favorite is “Pretend the boss is in the back and your job is to fly without spilling his drink.”

I'll have to think up some others while I'm banging around the practice area.