General Instructor Training Checklist: Fill & Download for Free

I was a professional flight instructor for almost 7 years.Definitely in that time I ran into 2 or 3 students that I personally recommended they give up flying. They did not have the aptitude to be successful.I taught mostly advanced students to get instrument ratings or multi-engine ratings. One day a guy parked his beautiful Mooney 231 in front of our operation. He was my next appointment. First lesson for instrument training.I was intimately familiar with the 231 and had close to 100 hours in the bird. At the time I held an ATP, MEL, SEL, Seaplane, rotorcraft with close 2500 hours under my belt. This was a brand new richer than hell private pilot with 75 hours. He was close to 65 years old.Things didn’t start well. I wanted to do a basic IFR intro flight. We talked for 15 minutes about that the plan was. We would pre-flight the aircraft, take off and go to our practice area. I would have him do basic maneuvers for me so I could judge his skill level. Then I’d put him under the hood and let him fly some straight and level and some turns. Then we’d had back to the airport.He was angry with me instantly that we were not gonna start shooting ILS approaches right way. He then informed me that he needed his IFR ticket in a month as he was going on a trip across the country in his new plane. Red Flag Number 1 had just gone up for me. This guy was less interested in learning and just wanted the ticket.I went with him to my chief pilot to resolve the issue. Unfortunately my chief was motivated by money and this guy had a lot of it. So my chief had my schedule cleared and put this idiot down for 4 hours a day of training. I complained bitterly but I needed my job too.Now there are some people that can get 4 hours of IFR training a day and probably their their IFR ticket in a few weeks. But this guy was not one of them.We went out the airplane. With new students I ALWAYS go with them to observe their pre-flight. Now this guys pre-flight consisted of kick the tires and lets go. I asked if he’d flown the airplane before our lesson. He said no, he’d just brought it over from this hanger and everything was good.I asked for his fuel bottle to check the fuel. He didn’t have one. So I got one from our FBO. I had him get out of the airplane and we did a pre-flight together. I could tell he was pissed. But we found the right wing take to have significant water settled to the the fuel drain. We also found his engine oil was close to quart low.Once I was satisfied the airplane should be good we hopped in. I was still getting my seat belt on when this guy called “CLEAR” and micro-seconds later cranked the engine. As soon as it fired I pulled the mixture and shut it down. He screamed at me asking what the hell I was doing.I politely explained that I expected him to do a checklist. I also told him that when you finally decide to start the engine, especially in a busy area like where he was parked, you need to call CLEAR, look around, and give people time to get out of the way. I told him I expected him to complete the checklist and when ready to start the engine, check with me to see that I am ready, call CLEAR, wait at least 10 seconds while you look around out side then crank the engine.He then informed me he did not have a checklist and didn’t need one. I unbuckled my belt and got out. He asked where I was going and I said, inside. Come and get me when you’ve located your checklists and you are really to follow them.I went back in and poured some coffee. 15 seconds later this guy storms in right past me and barges into my chief pilots office who was giving an oral exam and demands to talk to him right away.I figured I was about to go job hunting. But this time my chief backed me up.So the guy went away for about an hour and came back. Once again he parked his plane right in front of our entrance as if he owned the place. He totally ignored our line person trying to direct him to a parking spot. Getting out the airplane he said he’d only be a moment.He came in and found me and said, Ok we got off to a bad start. Can we try this again? I have my checklists and I am ready to go.I said sure! He was a different man. He asked if we needed to redo the preflight and I said, no a walk around is probably ok since you have taxied to make sure nothing was hit. So we did that and he seemed to be actually looking.Inside the plane he began to follow his start checklist and things were going reasonably well. I reminded him our plan was some basic maneuvers and then some hook work. He said ok.His taxi and takeoff were ok however I observed he was what I would call a “twitchy pilot” There was no smoothness to him at all. When told by the tower to turn right it was like a fighter bank and I hit my head on the Mooney glass.We climbed to 5500 feet and I noted and reminded him he had after takeoff and climb checklists. He did them quickly missing items. Already he was falling apart a little from the almost ok pilot on takeoff.At 5500 feet he had the 231 going almost 200 mph. I asked him to slow the aircraft down to 120 knots. We were not going anywhere and zooming around at 200 mph was senseless. So he pulled the power back about an inch. That did almost nothing. We went from 200 mph to about 188. He said what next?I asked him what is your power setting and prop setting you use to slow down to about 120 knots? He couldn’t tell me. He said I just pull the power back until I can go down then I add flaps and land.I said, well in IFR work you need to fly approaches at known speeds. So lets first figure out what power settings you need to set to get this airplane to 120 knots IAS.I knew what they would be. But he had no clue. So told him to set my suggested settings (It’s been quite a few years so I don’t remember the numbers now). But he set those values and within a few moments the IAS settled down to very close to 120. He said that is amazing… how did you know that would work?I said, this is what you must learn. You will need to learn the various settings and configurations for your aircraft to attain various speeds. You will need to know these values both for level flight and decent.I explained to him that sometimes you were given a hold. You should fly holding patterns at a slower than cruise speed. For example 120 knots or maybe 140 is good as you can quickly slow down from there when cleared for an approach.I explained that when doing approaches you might enjoy the approach at 120 knots but then be asked by tower to fly it at 100 or maybe 130. You need to know how to configure your aircraft for those speeds.He said, well I’ll just fly the speed I want. To hell with what the tower wants. Well yes as PIC you have that right but you are likely not gonna be very popular when you force the 737 on final behind you to go around because you did the approach too slow.So getting away from this rapidly deteriorating discussion I asked him to show me the basic pilot training maneuvers: steep turn left and right 360 degrees, take off and departure stall and recovery, approach to landing stall and recovery.Basically he was a disaster waiting to happen. His steep turns turned into graveyard spirals where he would suddenly realize he was losing altitude and pull really hard on the yoke to recover. He couldn’t even remember how to setup for the stalls. When he finally did managed to stall the aircraft he almost spun it and lost a ton of altitude. He didn’t even add power on recovery.So I took the airplane from him. I demonstrated a 360 left and right steep turn. I showed him how to add in elevator as the bank increased and managed to get both turns done and stay within 50 feet.I had him follow me through the turns again. He said, I think I got it. So I gave him the airplane and soon the death spiral reappeared.We fought with this for about 30 minutes. I decided I wanted to see if he could even fly under he hood at all. Supposedly he was supposed to have had some hood training even for his private.So I reviewed with him what instruments did what. With the hood off I showed him how he could use the horizon, turn and band, vertical speed, and airspeed to keep the airplane where he wanted.He put the hood on and I said, just maintain heading 300 and altitude of 5500 feet. It didn’t last more than 30 seconds before he was pitching and diving and rolling left and right and jabbing at the rudder to get the heading back to 300. He was twitchy as he poked at the controls abruptly to try and get the changes he wanted. It made for a very uncomfortable flight.I took the airplane from him and leveled and trimmed it on heading 300 at 5500 feet. I explained to him that he didn’t need to “fly” the airplane, it was flying itself. All he had to do was make little corrections to keep things where he wanted.It went a little better. We made it to 45 seconds before we were porpoising and doing mini lazy 8s all over the place. He was also bitching the airplane out saying things like “you damned mother…… come on!”We’d been out here about 1.5 hours so I said we should head back. He said lets do the approach. I said, no, you are not ready for the approach. He said, I think I am but we will do it your way this time.He flew back VFR and I saw more of his poor skills and aircraft management. He entered the downwind at close to 200 mph. When he got a beam the numbers to land he yanked the power back put on full flaps, dropped the gear. We ballooned almost 500 feet up above pattern altitude then he nosed over and dove at the runway at almost maximum flap extension speed.As he got close to the runway on final we were so fast there was almost no way he was gonna get this thing down on the 5000 feet we had.So I picked up the mic and told the tower we were going around. I pushed the power in and he said, what are you doing angrily? I said, “My aircraft! HANDS AND FEET OFF!”He complied but told me he’d be talking to my chief pilot about this, that I had no right to take the aircraft from him. I said no problem. I’ll go talk to him with you.I brought the airplane around on downwind at 100 knots. I dropped the power to a descent power and put in the first batch of flaps. Gear came down and we began a nice descent. Base turn got the second batch of flaps. Final flaps on short final.Power was never increased, only reduced. We touched down probably 75 feet past the main hash mark. We required virtually no braking to coast off the high speed and head to our FBO.I parked the aircraft in the designed parking area as directed by our ramp person. Again this guy complained that he preferred to put it in front. I said that the front is reserved parking for charter aircraft.Inside I asked him if he wanted to talk to the chief pilot and I guess he’d cooled down and said no. We we sat in my little office and I told him how I saw it.I laid out that his basic skills were not sufficient to undertake instrument training. Until he could handle his aircraft at the standards required for a private pilot rating in all private pilot maneuvers he could not begin instrument training.I told him that if he was interested I would first work on those basics with him then we would transition to instrument training when he was ready. The anger reappeared and he said, “no way… I have a trip to take in less than a month so we will start instrument training right now or I find someone else”.So I thanked him. I did not tell him it was a pleasure to fly with him because it was not. I said, I will have you removed from my schedule and you are free to find another instructor.He screamed at me: You are an idiot and stormed out of my office.Later that afternoon the chief pilot came and said I’d made quite a mess of things and asked me to reconsider. I said, I will reconsider if you fly with him on the next flight and you tell me that we should continue to instrument train him. I stated that I didn’t even think he was a safe visual flight rules private pilot and I was very close to recommending that he give up flying!My CP agreed. A couple days later he came and said, “Wow you were right… that guy is a real piece of work!” My CP told him that our operation would not be training him and that our recommendation was strongly that he seek to gain basic private pilot skills before he continued to fly his aircraft.My CP wrote a letter to our local FSDO about his pilot as well. Unfortunately the FSDO and GADO generally were too busy to do much unless there was some kind of incident.Over the next month I saw his aircraft depart and return to the airport a number of times. I could tell he was flying just by how the aircraft was flown.Then the fateful day came. It must have been his cross-country trip. Anyway our airport was IFR. We had a 400 foot ceiling, multiple layers up to 20,000 and rain. Not a great day for student training at all unless you were training IFR students.I was sitting the right seat of a Beech Baron as my student was going over the pre-start checklist when the Mooney taxied in front of us. It was LOADED with people! I could see the guy at the controls.I flipped on the master and listened to ground control reading the IFR clearance to the Mooney as he parked for runup. I flipped to our service freq and frantically called my CP. When he got on the line I let him know that our dreaded Mooney pilot was about to launch IFR with people on board!My CP called the tower. I listened on Ground as the ground controller asked the Mooney pilot if he was rated for IFR. “Yes” came the reply. We knew for a fact he was not rated.The ground controller asked the Mooney pilot to taxi to the base of the tower and shutdown and come to the tower. Over the radio the Mooney pilot bitched out the ground controller saying he didn’t have the time for a meet and greet and needed to go. The ground controller told him he would not receive a takeoff clearance until he visited the tower.As it turns out a FSDO guy was there and asked the pilot to present his ticket which did not have an instrument rating on it. They busted the guy right then and there.I did not hear the Mooney go out that day and on each flight I did I saw it sitting near the base of the tower. I felt like my CP and I might have saved 4 people lives that day.However the next day was not so pleasant when this guy burst into our operation screaming at the top of his lungs how much trouble and money we’d caused him. My CP had to get the police to escort him from our building.Over the years I instructed I saw the Mooney fly at times and I wasn’t sure if it was still his or if he was breaking the law again. I reported it to my CP several times but never heard anything as a result.Unfortunately about 3 years later I did hear this guy had managed to kill himself and a passenger. My understanding is that he’d purchased a twin and managed to lose an engine on take off and spun it in.I was sad to hear that. Taking your own life is one thing but his passenger didn’t deserve his arrogance.So yes, sorry for the long story but yes yes! There are people that simply should not fly.

“How do pilots practice autorotation in a helicopter?”Very carefully.Autorotation is a critical skill, one which is frequently learned and entered with a great deal of nerves on the part of the student. At least, that’s how I approached it; the thought of deadsticking a bleedin’ helicopter got my heart straight into my mouth.My nerves lasted right up to the first demonstration, a few flights before the actual lesson. As in most evolutions in flying, it turned out to be far less challenging and scary than I thought.As to how you train for autorotation, it’s important you understand how the rotor connects to the engine: While the engine is delivering power to the rotor (which is constant during normal flight), it is delivered through a freewheeling unit called a sprag clutch; a one-way clutch. What this means is that when the engine is delivering power, it is connected to the rotor. When power drops away the sprag lets the rotor pinwheel. Except in cases of extreme failure (incredibly rare) if the engine fails the rotor does NOT stop; it just keeps freewheeling like a maple seed.Part of a pilot’s checklist prior to takeoff is a check called ‘splitting the needles’. I’ll show you what it looks like on a Jetranger:This is a Bell 206’s N2/NR gauge. It’s the biggest gauge on the panel and it’s right in the middle where you can’t miss it. It shows the rotation speed of the engine’s turbine (Second stage, or in jet parlance N2) and the rotation speed of the rotor (NR); both in percentage of optimum speed. It shows this with two needles. The turbine is long and skinny, the rotor needle is short and fat. When the engine is spooled up and providing power to the rotor, both needles are lined up, as they are in the image above. (Note: in the image the engine is off and the rotor stopped. In flight they’ll both be on the 100 in the green arc.)In order to check that the sprag is working properly and not dragging the rotor, the pilot will suddenly close the throttle, causing the engine to slow down. The needles will ‘split’; the N2 needle dropping fast, the NR needle dropping slowly. After a couple of seconds power is restored and the engine and rotor return to takeoff speed.It’s important to know that, because that is how you practice autorotation in a helicopter. The engine doesn’t have to be off; it just has to be running slower than the rotor so as to let the rotor freewheel.The procedure is a little different depending on the aircraft type, but in general terms it works like this: After preflight briefing, ground practice and lessons, the student and instructor take off and fly to cruise altitude - any manoeuver is first done with a LOT of air under the bird. The student places the helicopter into that aircraft’s autorotation attitude - by this time in training this is second-nature. Under instructor guidance he closes the throttle a little bit, splitting the needles and flies the aircraft for a short while under ‘glide’. At any time the engine can quickly be snapped back to full power with a twist of the wrist.They do this a few times, then start the evolution from cruise attitude. The instructor closes the throttle, the student adjusts the attitude and takes the proper steps…or at least they do it until he does lol. It’s far from scary; it’s a comfortable, easy and confident progression.The last steps of learning to autorotate are the approach and landing; once again very carefully done. The aircraft is placed in approach attitude, the needles are split, and, at the end, the pilot greases the bird onto the ground in a toboggan skid.It’s far less dramatic than you might imagine.Oh - and before anyone says anything, I’m not going into any kind of detail here; while there is a lot of science involved there’s no need to get overly complicated when just describing the basics. :)Here’s an excellent and very clear vid that shows just what I’ve been describing:Cheers!Edit: Look guys; like all Quorans I am glad and very appreciative of the friends who offer edits to my posts; spelling corrections and the like. But like many pilots who post answers on Quora, I feel I speak for the group:If I write the word ‘Attitude’, then I damn well MEAN the word attitude!Look - I’m GLAD that you think you need to go through my post and change every instance of ‘attitude’ to ‘altitude’, but if you’re not a pilot and don’t know what ‘attitude’ means, don’t change it, FFS!If I use the term Attitude, I am referring to the position and flight of the aircraft. Altitude is something different.Thanks.

Prior to becoming a Marine, I served in the U.S. Army and eventually became an Army Aviator. As such, I served as an attack helicopter commander in both air cavalry and attack helicopter units during, and post, the “Vietnam-era,” and having served, and flown, with many, many outstanding fellow Army Aviators, warrant and commissioned, I offer the following analysis:It was a combination of the two (training and experience) coupled with the unique way the Army prepared and integrated its aviation assets into the ground combat environment.First, was a rigorous, and intense, very by-the-book (procedures, checklists, briefings, etc. verbatim) initial entry flight training which specialized from “Day 1” into producing a competent tactical helicopter pilot right out of flight school. While different aircraft (the Hiller TH-23 and the Hughes TH-55) were used for “Primary Helicopter School” at Ft. Wolters, TX, all initial entry rotary-wing Army Aviators were trained in the UH-1 (during most of the war) at the “Army Aviation School” at Ft. Rucker, AL. Instrument training was in the UH-1B with the “Contact” and “Tactics” phases being in the UH-1D or later UH-1H. A distinguishing feature of Army flight training over Naval and Air Force initial pilot training was that whenever an Army Aviator graduated from the Army Aviation School and received his “silver wings” as an Army Aviator, he was fully qualified as a “combat ready” UH-1D/H pilot and proceeded directly to an operating Army Aviation unit.In contrast Naval (Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard) Aviators and Air Force Pilots receive their “wings” at the end of their “advanced” training phases of pilot training but then must still proceed to “Replacement Air Group (RAG)/Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) for Navy and Marine Corps Aviators, or equivalent “follow-on” post-graduate pilot training for the Coast Guard and Air Force to become qualified in the specific aircraft they would/will fly in the “fleet,” or Coast Guard or Air Force operating forces, respectively. So, the Army had the “luxury” of focusing only on helicopter flight training, and specifically in the advanced phases of Instruments, Contact, and Tactics training, its new pilots trained in the same type of aircraft they would fly in combat. (Other types of Army aircraft, specifically attack and cargo helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft, such as the OV-1 and CV-2, were considered “advanced” aircraft and generally a pilot had to complete at least one “tour” in a UH-1D/H unit before selection for transition to the AH-1, CH-47, or CH-54, or the fixed-wing qualification, “Q” course.)Secondly, Army Aviation tactically was integrated into the ground battle plan and Army Aviation units (particularly UH-1D/H “Assault Helicopter Companies/Battalions”) were often organic to the Army divisions and brigades they supported. Tactically, Army helicopters were operated more as “flying tactical vehicles” rather than as purely “aircraft.” Meaning that they were generally operating from forward airfields and the crews were living in very austere conditions, very similar to their Army ground combat brothers. This lent itself to a very loose style of somewhat individually-tailored tactical flying and procedures that was extremely adaptable to the ground situation and flexibly responsive to the ground commander’s needs and requirements.A third factor was the Army, realizing that modern “helicopter warfare” would require literally thousands of more pilots than its traditional commissioned officer structure could support, made the “strategic” decision to massively increase its already existing “Warrant Officer Flight Training” (WOFT) program. While the Army and the other services had warrant officer pilots before the Vietnam-era (famously beginning with the Army Air Forces “Flight Officer” program during the Second World War), they were the “exception rather than the rule.” So, the Army began enlisting highly-qualified civilians (as well as accepting current and prior-service enlisted members) into its WOFT program. Many successful applicants were new 17 and 18-year old, high school graduates who displayed (confirmed by stringent testing and screening evaluations) an aptitude for flying as well as a potential for appointment as an officer. Essentially, these “high school to flight school” applicants had to meet, or even exceed, the same basic intellectual and aptitude scores (again as verified by testing) as well as meet the same physical/medical/psychological standards and moral/legal/security background requirements as did commissioned officer/bachelor’s degree holding flight school applicants. (A program very reminiscent of the former Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force “Aviation Cadet” programs.)After completion of Army Basic Combat Training (for those who had not already done so) the new WOFT applicants proceeded to Ft. Wolters, TX to enter Primary Helicopter School (PHS) along with their commissioned officer fellow flight students. At the formal beginning of the program enlisted students, who were not already E-5s or above (some were already as high as E-8), were administratively promoted to Specialist Five (E-5) as a “Warrant Officer Candidate” (WOC) and began the six weeks of “Warrant Officer Preflight Training,” (WOPT) which was the first phase of what was then the equivalent of the Warrant Officer Candidate School. After successfully completing WOPT, the students (still WOCs) entered flight training, side-by-side, with their officer cohorts. Primary Helicopter School had two main phases; Phase I taught the new helicopter pilots the basics of helicopter flight up to roughly the same level of proficiency as required for an FAA Private Pilot Certificate with a Rotorcraft-Helicopter rating, Phase II increased that skill level to approximately that of a Commercial Pilot. Transferring to the Army Aviation School, meant Phase III – Helicopter Instrument Rating, and culminated with Phase IV – “Contact” (Pilot qualification in the UH-1D or H) and “Tactics” practical application of employing the UH-1D/H in simulated combat/tactical conditions and missions.Approximately nine months after beginning WOPT, the WOCs received Honorable Discharges from the Regular Army as enlisted soldiers and the next day received warrants appointing them as a Warrant Officer One (W-1) in the U.S. Army Reserve with immediate orders to active duty in the Army of the United States to fulfill a three-year active duty officer service obligation. The following day the new warrant officers, as well as their commissioned officer fellow graduates, were all awarded their Army Aviator wings, picked up their FAA Commercial Pilot Certificates, with Rotorcraft Helicopter and Helicopter Instrument Ratings (as long as they had taken and passed the optional FAA competency examination to earn one—most people did, a few didn’t care since FAA certificates are not required for military pilots), and then proceeded to their next duty station—most often, but not always, the Republic of Vietnam, viz, South Vietnam.In operational units most of the pilots were warrant officers (WO)/chief warrant officers (CWOs) (i.e., upon promotion to W-2, the warrant officers became “chief” warrant officers, CW2, and were “commissioned”), which at the time, ranged from CW2 up to CW4. (There is now CW5.) The CWOs served as aircraft commanders, flight leaders, instructor pilots, standardization instructor pilots, instrument flight examiners, post-maintenance check pilots, aircraft maintenance officers, etc. while the “traditional” commissioned officers (lieutenants and above) filled “normal” command and staff officer positions as section leaders, platoon commanders, and company operations, executive, and commanding officers, and as battalion staff officers, etc.This meant that the average Army UH-1D/H helicopter in the Vietnam-era was being piloted by perhaps a 21 to 23-year-old CW2 as the aircraft commander with a 19-21-year-old WO1 as his co-pilot. This is very young, especially considering that the average operational pilot in the other services is an O-3 (there being more Air Force and Marine Corps captains and Navy and Coast Guard lieutenants in their services’ operational flying units than there are O-1s and O-2s), who is typically going to be at least 25 to 26 years old before promotion to O-3, and in a two-pilot aircraft, such as are most military helicopters, it is not unusual for the senior pilot to be an O-4, or even an O-5.So, the highly programmed nature of Army initial entry rotary wing pilot training, specializing in the UH-1D/H, coupled with the rather adaptive and flexible nature of Army tactical helicopter operations, as being doctrinally employed more as “flying tactical vehicles” than as “traditional aircraft,” and the comparatively quite young and less highly formally educated (BA/BS degrees not required) warrant officers, less traditionally trained as military officers (no service academy, ROTC, or OCS/Officer Branch Basic Course qualification or training), made significant differences between Army Aviation and the aviation of the other services, These young warrant officer aviators were not as “rigid” in their attitudes and thinking as were their commissioned officer counterparts. Resulting in a somewhat “Wild West” culture among Army Aviators perhaps not unlike what one may imagine was true of service in the horse cavalry regiments serving in the American West during the “Indian Wars” of the 1800s.“Above the Best” (motto of Army Aviation) and “This We’ll Defend” (motto of the U.S. Army)