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So Now You're A Qualified Flying Instructor Okay, so now you're a QFI! You've completed all the exams, passed your final handling test and been checked out at your unit. Your prestige has just jumped up a notch or two, and you're probably well satisfied with your accomplishment, and rightly so! However, are you aware that historically, QFIs are involved in a considerable percentage of air incidents. "Why?" you ask, "I'm more proficient, more knowledgeable and more qualified than ever before, I should be less likely to be involved in an accident". You're right, you should be safer than the average driver, but the statistics show that it just isn't the case. QFIs have their own special place in the accident statistics. For a lot of reasons, you could be another instructor-involved accident just waiting to happen. "Oh yes, you're going to tell me about increased exposure and all that. I've read about how instructors are exposed more often and for longer periods of time to the more hazardous phases of flight than anyone else. That must be what you're driving at". Well yes, increased exposure is one of the things that I had in mind. There are several other things too. You see, there are a number of hazards that an instructor must live with that do not affect the average line driver. There are others that affect both, but are felt by the instructor in a different way. It's these hazards that are peculiar to the QFI's task that you need to know about. They have been discovered the hard way by your instructor and his instructor and his instructor before that. You've already mentioned exposure. Along with increased exposure goes FATIGUE. Fatigue brought on by an instructor's constant high level of physical and mental activity is the particular kind of fatigue I'm talking about. The instructor on board any aircraft feels responsible not only for this activity but for the actions of everyone else as well. He must be constantly paying attention to the actions of the student and all the while making sure that essential tasks are performed correctly. The stress brought on by increased activity causes the instructor to become fatigued faster than anyone else on board. You're aware, of course, of how fatigue can have an adverse on one's judgement, perception and reactions time. Here's our QFI on final approach at the end of a six hour route check. He's thirsty, hungry and his bladder is about to burst. his students have been in and out of the seat for relief a couple of times or more, but not our QFI. He's been too busy minding the store and keeping the whole game together. THINK ABOUT IT Then there is special hazard I like to call the STUDENT SYNDROME. It's a fancy label for a type of mental set experienced by a student when he's flying with a QFI. He tends to depend on the experienced QFI to make, or at least review, the aircraft that he would never do if he weren't "backed up" by the QFI. His decision making process is almost always altered by your presence. He nearly always considers what he thinks you want before he reaches a decision on anything. All this flip-flop thinking take time. Here he is closing on formation leader: Damn. I've never closed this fast before, but my instructor doesn't seem to be worried. Meanwhile, our QFI thinks: Looks like a high closure rate to me, but I'll wait a little longer to see it be corrected. THINK ABOUT IT COMPLACENCY is a tender trap that has killed many aviator, but it has a special meaning for instructors. It's the root of that old maxim: "It's the good student that will kill you". You can be dulled into complacency by a pilot who has been showing you a flawless performance. You may even temporarily forget why you are on board. It can be a temporary, but fatal, memory lapse. THINK ABOUT IT Most of the time while you are flying as an instructor you will really just be watching or monitoring. The other guy will be moving the controls. It is possible for him during critical phases of flight to make control inputs so quickly as is humanly possible, may not be soon enough to avert disaster. This is a CONTROL ENVIRONMENT that you live in as an instructor. Guard the controls, expect that other guy to make mistakes with them and take the aircraft at the first sign of a deteriorating control environment. Consider also that each time you change students the control environment will change. Adapting places stress on you, the more frequent the change the greater the stress. OVERZEALOUSNESS has taken its toll of eager young instructors. They want to do such a fine job and are so concerned that their student gets the full benefit of their expertise, that they completely overlook routine actions. Here's an example of overzealous instructor: He's talking his pilot through one of the best ILS finals the world has ever seen. Right on glide slope, the VSI is rock steady, power changes are minute. He is giving verbal encouragement and is reinforcing the learning process of the student by earned praise in the best possible manner. The only thing wrong is our instructor has forgotten to put the wheels down! THINK ABOUT IT PRESSURE: is one of the seldom mentioned items that can start you down the primrose path. Real or imagined, it makes no difference. It makes you do things you wouldn't ordinarily do. It can come from many directions to force you into a coffin corner. From programming: "Get this guy his night solo or you're going to cancel your leave to get him done". From the Flight Commander: "Try those flaps a few more times because SENGO thinks it's an electrical problem and not jammed segment". From student: "Isn't the weather good enough for just one more approach, Sir? I need it to finish my IRT requirements". From yourself: I"ve got to show this guy the superb skill that makes me a QFI. THINK ABOUT IT After a year or so of instructing you might feel like you've seen and done it all. You've had your share of hairy recoveries, you've seen all of the mistakes the students make time and time again. Because of your frequent flights as QFI you have honed your flying skills to a razor's edge. You take great pride in demonstrating aerial manoeuvres with flawless precision. There is still one little hazard that may trip you - OVERCONFIDENCE. THINK ABOUT IT Up to now I've been busy giving a lot of reasons why instructors are involved in more than their share of accidents. Really though, these things don't cause the human error accident that I'm talking about. The accident in which the instructor and student let a flyable machine make an unscheduled ground contact is caused by DISTRACTION. All the things I've talked about so far are only some of the many ways an instructor can become distracted. Distracted from what? From flying the aircraft of course. Now, there is another aspect of flying and flying accidents that you might consider. It deals with characteristic of human called emulation. By that I mean that some of your attitudes will rub off on your students. Your attitude towards professionalism, safety, and air discipline are aprticular important for your student's continued safety. If you, by word or deed, show him that attitudes of safety first are to be sneered at, or that bravado is a substitute for disciplined airmanship, you may be setting him up for disaster at some point in the future. The more impressive and liked you are as an instructor, the more likely your students are to acquire your attitudes. Probably no one will come back to you with an accusing finger after a former student of yours bites the dust, but you'll have to sleep nights won't you? You'll be asking yourself questions like these: "Did I teach him everything I could in the time available?" " Was he emulating me and my attitudes towards safety, discipline and airmanship when he crashed?" THINK ABOUT IT I don't have all the answers for you. I don't suppose anyone has. I do, however, have a few broad guidelines that think will help your chances of making it through to your retirement:
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