Iflyfr8

A GREAT thread. Insightful and educational! A lot of good advice here.

Riverside

I like how the foi says you supposed to raise the bar with them. You can go only so high, until you want to hit them.

multipilot

Then I say hit them! ...j/k

Pilotpip

All the more reason to carry that 2-D cell mag light. Work smarter, not harder.

250 or point 65

pip, by smarter, do you mean an 80 hr work week? I think "Work smarter, Not harder" might be our college's office space equivalent of "Did ya get that memo?"

Feel kinda lame cause after I read about your situation, my advice was the same as everyone else's.

When I taught cross countries to someone who had never done one, I made sure before the flight that the student was able to identify each checkpoint 3 different ways. The conversation would go something like this;

"When you're over Vandailia, how will you know it's Vandailia?"

"VLA, has a highway that goes East-West through it"

"Well, so does Litchfield, how will you tell them apart?"

"VLA has a round lake north of it"

"Well, so does XXX, how are you sure that you're over VLA?"

"VLA has river on the east side that runs north/south"

"Ok, so you know that you're over VLA when you see X, Y and Z"

Using this kind of approach for a beginning student will quickly determine if they know their stuff or not, ensure the first flight is not a "S Show", and instill a lot of confidence in both you and the student when its solo x-country time. In your case, there is not really any way to tell one tower apart from another, so you're conversation may go like this:

"How do you know that you're over that tower?"

"Cause I won't be blown off course"

"Ok, but how will you know that its not XXX tower?"

"Cause there's a major interstate that runs north of the tower"

"Well, so does this tower..." and so on.

If he's hell bent on using a tower, make him determine 3 ways to identify that tower...by that time he'll be using something completely different to determine his location (but he still thinks he's using the tower).

"Sometimes its all about MIND GAMES" - Terry Tate

Pilotpip

You seem to forget how often I got in trouble for not coming in on the weekend.

You also seem to forget how many hours I wasted playing p-tizzle.

BTDT

I agree with those who say let the student get into trouble while you are with them.

I once had a student who repeatedly wouldn't listen to my whining about using the rudder in a stall. The next lesson I told him to climb to 7000'. He says "we never go that high". Well we are today.

I had him do a take off departure stall and wasn't going to help him. Ever try that in a Traumahawk? It did have the inboard and outboard flow strips. The effect is nothing like a 150. The first thing it did was flip over on it's back then went into a spin. He's freakin' out and said "what do I do"? Before helping him I told him he got himself into it, get himself out of it.

I was about 21 years old at the time and the student was in his early 50's. He was also the first person I took off the street and soloed. He took me out for a few beers at the end of the day and told me when he found I was to be his instructor he thought what the hell is this punk gonna be able to teach me. Then he told me he was very happy to have me as an instructor. The know-it-all attitude was gone.

papatango269

Let him get lost, very lost. I think that's the best.

I've never had a student like this, thank the Lord!!!