Originally Posted by BFMthisA10

I read a suggestion somewhere on these boards that to get ready for AirWis training one should become “an expert on visual approaches”. Not sure what that means…300/nm so at 4 miles I should be at 1200’ ATZE. Pitch/power settings, small corrections based on frequent crosschecks. Simple enough—this is not a passive sport, but it’s also based mostly on third grade level math and fine motor skills. Don’t overthink it.

Alternatively, I’ll offer up the following prep advice. Confidence, mental agility, ground game.

Confidence. Obviously, don’t skip step 1 up above, risk assessment. Honesty starts with being honest with yourself, brutally honest. But take the good with the bad: if you’ve assessed your risk and are confident, then be confident. Evel Knievel at the rim of the Snake River Canyon confident. Confidence means if you stumble, you can take credit for the mistake and right yourself with a positive attitude. If you spent some time as a CFI or in a crew environment, consider who you preferred as a student or crew member to work with. Was it the one who showed up with pre-loaded excuses and self flagellation with every error, or the ever-positive workhorse who expressed gratitude for constructive feedback? Confidence is contagious and also a force multiplier.

Mental agility. I recommend assessing what you’ve been doing for the past several years, and how that will compare to the working environment of the cockpit. With all of the other distractions, while maintaining a crosscheck, callouts, ATC comms, can you quickly compute and crosscheck your altitude at 3.5nm from the runway on a visual? Rolling terrain—s#!t…gotta compute off of ATZE not RadAlt in this case. Brain hurt? Do some mental agility prep. Luminosity, etc. Foot stomp iPad familiarity here: if you’ve never had one, I recommend getting one and working with settings, installing and working with apps, switching between apps while working on a task, search functions, etc.

Ground game: two parts, flashcards and active listening. I’m a big flashcard fan. If you prefer flashcards or some other method, my advice is to start on Day 1. I procrastinated generating my full stack of flashcards until the second week of sims preparing for my oral. Big mistake. Keep in mind, you’ll use (and continue to add to) this stack beyond IOE. My suggestion is that after you’re done with your homework the first night of INDOC, take the homework questions and load them up into your flashcards. I use gFlashPro, but theres several versions out there. I’d be wary of using a pre-built stack; for one, you could obviously be introducing some accuracy errors with a stack someone else built, and two, you building your own stack is yet another mental repetition that will help cement the learning.
Active listening. Don’t take my word for it: research it for yourself. I didn’t take notes in class. Fvc#in crazy, huh? I've found that if I'm focused on taking notes, I'm not listening as well, and missing some of the content. Didn’t get this idea on my own: Malcolm Gladwell talks about one of the foremost trial attorneys in the country, David Boies. Mr Boies is dyslexic, reads an average of one book a year, and took no notes in law school. He developed a strategy to counter his dyslexia, by listening intently to his professor, better remembering everything said in class. I brought this concept to ATW, and built my classroom strategy around it. Started with waking up in plenty of time to hit the gym, managed my breakfast and lunch to not weigh me down mentally, took every break as an opportunity to give my brain a 5 min rest with a walk to the water fountain, and pulled focus on the instructor for each class period. Sprinkle in some mindfulness exercises each day for good measure.