The Crucial Flight Lessons You Can’t Rush

There are some flight lessons and ground lessons that, by their nature, should not be rushed or constrained to an hour. These are the foundational lessons, and they take as long as they take. 

Do not check the box until you have learned it, and learned it well, and, most importantly,  learned it correctly. Failure to do so can come back to bite you in a big way. That could mean failing a stage check or check ride, or having a situation become life threatening, such as missing something during the preflight inspection that results in an aircraft accident.

Checklist Application

It starts with the preflight inspection. Learning how to do one properly, as in using the checklist, following a predetermined path around the aircraft, and checking things in a logical manner can take up to an hour on the first try.

This is OK. With practice, the learner becomes aware of what they should be looking for, and by the third flight lesson they don’t need their CFI standing by.

Or do they? Smart CFIs will watch the learner from a distance the first time they preflight the aircraft on their own.

Bad Preflight Habits

It’s easy to spot a learner who hasn’t been taught to use a checklist during the preflight inspection. They run around the aircraft like they’re chasing something and sometimes leave the master switch and the lights on during the walkaround.

It doesn’t matter if it’s your 10th preflight inspection or the 10,000th: Use. The. Checklist. 

Pro tip: The preflight inspection is often the first opportunity the instructor has to model good behavior for the learner. It often begins during the introductory flight, with the instructor explaining the purpose of the checklist and why it’s always utilized. 

For the first official lesson, it can be useful to plan to spend at least an hour on the ground  learning how to do the preflight inspection. When neither the learner nor the CFI feel rushed and pressured to get into the air, it can make for a better educational experience.

The CFI should also advise the learner that the more experience they get doing the preflight inspection, the more precise their walkaround will be and the quicker the inspection will be completed.

Introduce the POH

If the checklist goes missing (and they sometimes do at flight schools when they’re accidentally stuffed into a client’s gear bag at the end of the flight), the learner should be taught to utilize the checklist that’s within the pages of the pilot’s operating handbook (POH) or airplane flying manual (AFM) for the aircraft—which is also supposed to be on board the aircraft for each flight.

CFIs: Show the learner where to find the checklist within the POH and where to find the information about the capacity of the oil sump, the minimal oil required for flight, and the information about tire pressure. Depending on the year of the POH/AFM, you may find the information buried in the text of the systems chapter, or it may be printed on the back cover of the book.

It’s also helpful to show the learner the performance charts in the book and describe how they’re used as part of the preflight procedures while letting them know they can expect to learn how to apply them in the next few lessons.

Introduce Fuel Tools

During the first preflight inspection the CFI should demonstrate the proper use of the fuel pipette. This starts by making sure you have the correct one for the aircraft to be flown. 

Warning: A pipette for a Cessna 152 could, in theory be used for a C-172, as it will show you there’s fuel in the tank but won’t provide the correct measurement for how many gallons.

The CFI demonstrates the use of the fuel sump jar, then the learner performs the rest of the sumps under the watchful eye of the instructor. Make sure to note where the fuel is dumped. There are some schools that put clean fuel back in the tank (at the price of fuel these days, can you blame them?) while others have designed jerry cans for removed fuel, and still others use the “kill a weed” method to dispose of fuel.

If the flight school uses GATS (gasoline analysis test separator) jars, be sure to follow the directions on how to use them.

At least once, preferably early in the training, the CFI should show the learner what water in the fuel looks like. Get a finger’s worth of fuel in the sump jar, then add a little bit of water—note the separation and color change.

CFIs: Be sure to teach the learners where to stow these tools when they’re done using them so the next pilot doesn’t have to go on fuel tool safari.

Weather Check

Learning how to access and interpret a weather report is another item that should be introduced early in the client’s training—by lesson three at least. Obtaining the weather and determining performance fall under cFAR 91.103 Preflight action: “Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.”

This lesson can be combined with weight and balance and aircraft performance for a longer ground lesson as they go hand in hand and should be considered before every flight. 

Learners: If the CFI asks you if you have accessed a weather report, that doesn’t mean read it to us: It is a yes-or-no question. I ask my learners to get into the habit of doing three weather checks before each flight—the night before, the day of the flight, and an hour before just to make sure nothing significant has changed. It helps them recognize weather patterns in the area—and see where the weather is coming from. This keeps them from doing something foolish like flying into a thunderstorm. 

The weather check also includes checking the NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen). Granted, a lot of the information may not apply until you start flying IFR or the big iron, but it’s a skill to be learned all the same.

W&B and Aircraft Performance

Weight and balance is critical. Accident reports compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) often list an aircraft being overweight or improperly loaded as a casual factor in a crash—for example, when the aircraft stalls at a seemingly safe flight speed because it’s 100 pounds overweight.

CFIs: Teach learners how to perform a weight and balance check and use the performance charts in the POH/AFM before you instruct how to calculate it with an app. You don’t want the learner to be caught off guard if they face a situation when they need to do it using analog tools—like during the check ride. 

Knowing how to calculate aircraft performance should be learned before first solo and be part of the aircraft dispatch procedures. How much runway is required for takeoff and landing? How much fuel will you use on a flight that’s 1.3 hours long if you are at 4,000 feet at 55 percent power? It’s theoretical, but knowing how to apply the math is what’s key here.

Check Inspection Skills

It’s disheartening for a CFI who thinks they’ve taught the learner to do the preflight inspection to walk out to the aircraft and discover the learner has left a fuel cap off or the control lock still in—did they even use the checklist?

After listening to a senior instructor lament this issue, I started strategically placing pennies on the aircraft ahead of the learner’s preflight inspection. Each penny represented a potential issue, such as a flat spot on a tire or piece of safety wire missing. This allowed us to have a dialog on if it was an airworthiness issue.

This technique evolved into using plastic toy frogs—they were more fun than pennies. My coworkers sometimes borrowed the frogs for their clients.

The line crew were sometimes asked to strategically place frogs on preselected spots on the aircraft after they refueled an airplane. It was fun for us and the learners—especially the ones who won Bose headsets in the preflight inspection contests at airshows because they had been trained with the fake amphibian technique.