Flight training

“ THE WITNESS: I believe it's less than five times a year simulator training.
CAPTAIN MISENCIK: What are your duties as a instructor in the airplane? What do you mostly do as a instructor?
THE WITNESS: The duties of an instructor pilot is to train pilots assigned to me, for example, for simulator and actual aircraft instruction. ”

“ He was then allowed to attempt flight for himself, either on a machine fitted with dual controls, or with the watchful instructor on the pounce to save him from dangerous mistakes. If he prospered well, the great day soon came, which, however carefully it may have been prepared for, is always a thrilling experience and a searching test of self-reliance, the day of the first solo flight, sometimes ending in a too violent or too timid landing—that is, in a crash or a pancake. The training was almost wholly directed to producing airworthiness in the pupil. ”

“ Therefore, in teaching a beginner, I make it a point to have him make as many trips as possible with someone else operating the machine. In this way the pupil gains confidence, becomes accustomed to the sensation of flying, and is soon ready for a flight on his own hook. This is the method used in training army and navy officers to fly. I have never seen novices more cautious and yet more eager to fly than these young officers. They have always learned every detail of their machines before going aloft, and largely because of this they have developed into great flyers. ”

“ Final instructions flight: Review; instruction as necessary."
"Looks pretty complicated to me," sighed Dorothy, handing back the paper. "Gee, but there's a lot to learn!"
"More than the average novice has any idea of. But don't imagine that this course will make you or anyone else an experienced pilot. Additional time must be spent in the air before you can get an interstate commercial pilot's license. But after the instruction I've outlined here, your knowledge of flying should be sufficient to enable you to go on with your training yourself." ”

“ The only training necessary for the pilot is to fly as often as possible on the type of bus he will use in France, and to benefit by the [Pg 7] experience of the flight-commanders, who as a rule have spent a hundred or two hours over Archie and the enemy lines. As regards the mechanics, the quality of their skilled work is tempered by the technical sergeant-major, who knows most things about an aeroplane, and the quality of their behaviour by the disciplinary sergeant-major, usually an ex-regular with a lively talent for blasting. ”

“ This process -- this process involves maximum operational limitations for that aircraft, maximum crosswind, maximum tailwind, severe turbulences, wind shear conditions. We give them the opportunity that requires maximum performance on the part of the pilot proficiency and put 'em through that program. After that, simulator training simply.
After they've gone through that then they enter into route training that covers every air field that they will be qualified to fly into from that point. ”

“ Another facet of this part of the investigation was a review of the Boeing 727 flight crew training programs as conducted by the major air carriers utilizing this type aircraft. Because the several major 727 accidents which were reviewed occurred during the descent or landing position of the flight the examination of the various training programs was concentrated on the descent, approach, landing, and landing abort flight regimes. ”

“ After a pilot receives his type rating in an airplane, what further training does he receive regarding IOE or route qualification?
THE WITNESS: As I said before, after the person gets a type rating they would, depending on the aircraft type, receive further education starting with about 30 hours of ground school for the route. After that education's complete. After the academic portionwe perform 30 take-off and landing practices in the simulators. ”

“ They sounded like the hot fighter planes to end all hot fighter planes. And what do I find? They're so expensive to fly that we don't get any training missions. I've been up in one just once, and that was my familiarization flight, when I got into this assignment last year. And then it was only a ride in the second seat of that two-seat version they use for checking out new pilots. I just lay there through the whole flight. And as far as I could see, the pilot didn't do much more. ”

“ The long trail of wrecks of costly aeroplanes marking the progress in the art of flying marks also the 242 lack of preparatory training, which their owners either thought unnecessary, or hoped to escape by some royal road less wearisome than persistent personal practice. But they all paid dearly to discover that there is no royal road. Practice, more practice, and still more practice—that is the secret of successful aeroplane flight.
For this purpose the glider is much superior to the power-driven aeroplane. There are no controls to learn, no mechanism to manipulate. ”

“ The flying men fall naturally into two classes—pilots and observers. The latter, of course, act as aerial gunners. The pilots have to pass through three, and observers two, successive courses of training in aviation. Instruction is very detailed and thorough as befits a career which, in addition to embracing the endless problems of flight, demands knowledge of wireless telegraphy, photography, and machine gunnery.
Many of the officers are drafted into the Royal Flying Corps from other branches of the Service, but there are also large numbers of civilians who take up the career. ”

“ The peace training of these vast numbers of flying-men would represent an organisation of immense proportions, especially if the author's anticipations in such matters as aeronautical tactics, formation flying, etc., come to be realised. The multiplicity of flight-grounds, training-schools, workshops, sheds, etc., with the necessary staff of instructors, mechanics, and other non-combatant members of the organisation, will render the whole matter a very big undertaking. ”

“ On December 11, 1998, the FAA stated that, on October 30, 1998, it issued AC 120-51C, "Crew Resource Management Training," a revision to AC 120-51B. The FAA stated that Appendix 3, "Appropriate CRM Training Topics," paragraph 2 (m) , specifically addressed training for pilots in recognizing cues that indicate lack or loss of situational awareness in themselves and others and training in countermeasures to restore that awareness. ”

“ There is going to be a strong demand for the best flying instruction that can be given. It should be noted that only the most perfect system of flying instruction should be used, for the best is safest, and the safest, no matter how expensive, is comparatively cheap.
There is no reason why there should be an extended period of ground instruction for the non-military pilot of the future. He should be taught the elementary principles of the theory of flight, should know something about the engine with which he is going to fly, and understand some things about the rigging of his airplane. ”

“ Without it, we could see no way to mastering the mechanical knowledge which we supposed must be required as a foundation for the training of a military pilot. In this connection, it may be well to say that we have both been handicapped from the beginning. We have had to learn, through actual experience in the air, and at risk to life and limb, what many of our comrades, both French and American, knew before they had ever climbed into an aeroplane. But it is equally true that scores of men become very excellent pilots with little or no knowledge of the mechanics of the business. ”

“ There the real, serious and thorough training begins.
Schools where the pilots are trained on the modern machines--écoles de perfectionnement as they are called--are usually an annex to the centres where the soldiers are taught to fly, though there are one or two camps that are devoted exclusively to giving advanced instruction to aviators who are to fly the avions de chasse, or fighting machines. When the aviator enters one of these schools he is a breveted pilot, and he is allowed a little more freedom than he enjoyed during the time he was learning to fly. ”

“ I have been flying for over four years and I feel that I don't know much about it yet.
The would-be aviator should go to a good school where the best facilities can be had and where there is a good large place to fly, without obstructions. The machine should be thoroughly mastered and every part understood. Training a man to fly does not, as I regard it, consist in putting him in an aeroplane and letting him go up before he knows how to get down again. Anybody may be able to go up in an aeroplane, but it requires skill and practice to come down without damage to man or machine. ”

“ Even in France, where the Aviation Service is constantly working under the forced draught of war conditions, no less than from four to six months are devoted to the training of finished pilots.
Although I have just come from France, the progress of aviation is so rapid that much of my own knowledge may be out of date before I again return to the front. But interest in flying is becoming so general among Americans that the way the aviators of France are trained, and what they are accomplishing, should attract more than passing attention. ”

“ The Central Flying School, he says, was the Mecca of all who wished to learn to fly. For serviceable machines, competent instructors, and the material and knowledge necessary to turn out a finished pilot, it was believed to be better than any other training centre. ”

“ But large sums of money were to be made by demonstration flights, and so pilots were found ready to run grave risks—ascending often from cramped and awkward grounds, and making flights over localities upon which, had their motors failed, they would have found no safe alighting point.
Among those who meet at a flying school—instructors, pupils, and mechanics—there is a feeling of friendly regard; and most men, after they have learned to fly, look back upon their training with a feeling of regret that it is ended. ”

“ With six weeks’ of wireless at the Cadet Wing, the pupil proceeded to the School of Aeronautics for further instruction, and heard lectures on picture target work and artillery coöperation from experienced observers. Requirements now demanded eight words per minute. After examination, his next step was to the elementary training wing at either Deseronto or Borden, where he not only carried on ground work, but also put into actual practice in the air the instruction already received. ”

“ My experience in the French Aviation Service early taught me what a difficult and scientific task it is to pilot an aeroplane. By piloting I mean flying understandingly, skilfully; not merely riding in a machine after a few weeks' training in the hope that a safe landing may be made. In America many aviators holding pilot's licenses are in reality only conductors. ”

“ Here is where the aviation school is situated, and where flyers are made. Over the smooth field, the pupils start with the four-cylinder "grass cutters," or machines hobbled so they cannot get but a little way off the ground. They hop, hop, hop, almost all day long, one after the other taking regular turns, and now and again varying the monotony by being called away by the flying instructor to take a real flight in the hydroaeroplane out over the lake to get accustomed to the upper air, and to the high speed of the big machine. ”

“ In the early days of the R.F.C., Canada, the job was not as exacting as in the later months of the R.A.F., Canada. The instructor was then a man who could fly. To-day he is still a man who can fly, but has, to boot, a peculiar and well developed art of infusing his own skill and courage into the pupil by following a certain recognized procedure which has been demonstrated to be the last word in training. There is nothing in this derogatory to the early instructors. ”

“ The pupil is a pilot, the air has no terrors, and he has learned the oldest truth of flying, that there is nothing to a spin unless you don't come out.
The natural result of training a pupil along those lines is that he graduates rapidly into a good stunting pilot. He realizes that he cannot tempt the devil at three hundred feet and hope to live, but he takes a good altitude, throws his machine upside down, and knows that, given enough air, he must come out. He does come out unless he loses complete control of his mind and body. ”

“ Many contributions of value to the general theory and practice of training for flying were made by these enthusiastic young men who toiled unceasingly over the problems set by our training fields. One young lieutenant, while studying the causes of airplane accidents and trying to find some means of preventing them, worked out a series of exercises which reproduce the positions that must be taken in advanced flying and so enable the cadet early in his work to find out whether or not he is physically unfit to undertake acrobatic work and also give him a measure of preparation for it. ”

“ The élève must follow every move of his pilot, until he appears perfectly at home in the machine, and then he is allowed to hold the controls alone. Each flight lasts only about five minutes, the French theory being that an aviator must take his instruction in small doses. In the interim, as in the preliminary courses, he remains on the field, observing and studying the mistakes of his comrades. If the progress of the instruction is too rapid, the pupil has not the time to grasp each step that has been passed and cannot, therefore, become an expert pilot. ”