Cheating on ILS
 

While training for my instrument ticket and on a practice ILS approach have I accidentally gotten a glimpse of the runway and realized how way off course I was? Yes. The said accident happened due to a gust or because I wanted to adjust my pants or merely because I was wearing foggles and sometimes you just get to see "outside" when the visibility is so good. After the said accident have I corrected my deviation? Sure. Have I purposely taken a peak to make sure I was on course? Never. After all I was paying good money to learn this all so important skill and cheating was last on my agenda. I believe I have a student who is a cheater on the ILS. The student is in his early 20s, rich, dad pays for flight training, and always I mean every single day he is 10-15 minutes late for his appointment. Long story short. He does a very poor job on intercepting the localizer. At times he blows right through the localizer when we are about 5 miles from the OM. After an embarrassing call from approach or after my intervention we get back on course. After passing the outer marker he does a phenomenal job of holding the ILS and glideslope right on! He always looks up without my permission and points out landmarks, when I feel like urging him not to do so. My demeanor does not allow me to be firm with him although I know I should. I have a reputation for being a good instructor and I want my students to respect me. However, I am getting very frustrated with this case. In all honestly I want to have a good talk with him. But his father is an airline pilot and I am in a very sensitive place. Only he has to lose. However when the day comes when he has to shoot an ILS to minimums then the stuff will really hit the ceiling and I cannot live with it.
On a side note. I am also prepping a CFII candidate who did the same exact thing yesterday. I thought the ILS was out of service so I even tried using the other nav radio. The same candidate later told me that during his checkride he would attempt to cheat and if he saw the runway he would correct for it. I was utterly bitter about what he said. I could not keep it in any longer. I point blank told him that it was wrong. You should know how to shoot an ILS without cheating, and of course I shared him the story of my other student who does it every time we shoot an ILS. I sometimes wish they kept the hood for IFR training those foggles are too easy to cheat with. I have heard numerous accounts of examiners placing pillows or covering the windshield with sectionals etc.

Schedule him when it's IMC. Are you going to sign him off?

You need the old (or new) tandem military trainers which have basically a canvas sack pulled over the entire rear cockpit! :D It is great for invoking vertigo too! :eek:

Nah....seriously - isn't much you can do if the student doesn't want too try and would rather take the easy way out. You can talk to them (you have done this), explain the importance of the training (you have done this too), and give them real life examples of the consequences should they not take their training seriously (I'm sure you covered this too PP) - - so there you have it.

I have no experience teaching ILSs and such, but I do have some experience with instrument training in an area that often had wonderful weather and we would be practicing PARs. It is almost impossible to be looking forward through a HUD at the airfield and yet follower the Final Controllers' heading changes that would clearly take the airplane off course. I would chide them to actually follow the directions (often the controller's were trainees too) and remind them that there would be a time when they would need those skills, and the Final Controller's skills, when that Tule Fog rolled in come the winter months! :eek:

You have a challenge ahead of you PP - but I'll remind you that being the *nice* guy isn't always the way to play the game. You want your students to respect you - that is understandable and the way it should be - but that respect ought to be earned through your professionalism, teaching skills, knowing that you hold your students to exacting standards, and that you truly care for their professional development as pilots - not whether you've ever had to firmly correct a student or have a little sit down at the debriefing table and sugarcoat it for them so that you don't offend someone.
I understand that you are teaching in a totally different culture; but those are my first thoughts.

You may be sharing the skies with them in the future.

USMCFLYR

There's not a whole lot you can do in this case.

Having a very stern talk with him about how looking outside will only do him harm is the first step. If he continues doing it really the only thing you could do would be to not sign him off until you feel he can accomplish the tasks properly.

If he continues looking outside and threatens to switch instructors if you don't sign him off, so be it. Don't put your signature on something that isn't safe. Period.

The CFII case is deplorable. If he can't fly an ILS without cheating there's something wrong there.

Hope this helps!

You can't cheat in a FTD. Do you have access to a sim or ftd? If so, use it to test their abilities. Set a good crosswind for intercepting the LOC. I used to catch students doing this. Don't hold back, have a talk and make it brutally clear that they are only shooting themselves in the foot and you will not sign off on it.
I remember doing this once or twice during my instrument training, not on purpose, but it happens, and I actually felt bad about it and made effort to focus inside with the foggles on.
If I were you, I might use a sectional or something to partially cover the student's side of the windscreen as long as you have full view in the VFR environment. Good luck, just don't be intimidated by the student or who their father is. It's your reputation and certificate on the line.

First off you need to come down hard on him...you can approach that tactfully at first. If your nature prevents you from being forceful with a student when needed you are not suitable material to be an airline captain (or even FO for that matter)...this is something that you can and need to work on.

If he blows you off, then don't sign him off. I would start doing all his training in IMC if that's feasible. If not, fire him as a student. I would also have a talk with the examiners commonly used by the school as well just so they have a heads up that he might try this on checkride day...pink slip if he's lucky, but you can also get ALL of certs yanked for cheating on an FAA test.

The fact that his dad is an airline pilot has nothing to do with anything. The guy won't make it past the sim at his regional interview (if he's even still alive at 1500 hours).

WOW ..:rolleyes::o:eek:

I knew a student who sneaked a peek, several peaks on his instrument checkride. Needles to say the examiner gave him a no gyro hold using his nav 2 (obs) and mag compass. Long story short, the student double busted and got taught a lesson.

Pearl,

Its a matter of moral convection and context. You know what to do because you have been actually teaching the stuff (I fella told me long time ago to never take advice from someone who has not actually done it), so just do that right thing.

thats a good post