{"id":4156,"date":"2016-12-30T12:17:43","date_gmt":"2016-12-30T20:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=4156"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:54","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:54","slug":"170-bump-log","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/170-bump-log\/","title":{"rendered":"#170 Bump on a Log"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written June 15, 2013<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Most of my students have heard me say that a flight instructor has two roles:\u00a0 To teach and to protect.\u00a0 While I think that it\u2019s basically true, I suppose that there are some other, not so obvious, roles that the CFI performs.\u00a0 He also evaluates.\u00a0 He does that constantly.\u00a0 He does that at first so that he can figure out what he needs to teach and how much he\u2019ll need to protect.\u00a0 Part of that evaluation is to test.\u00a0 When the flight instructor reaches over and fails that engine, he\u2019s evaluating to see how the student will handle it.<\/h3>\n
Sitting behind him, I’m simply watching this guy (incidentally, he didn’t need much watching!)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sometimes the best thing a CFI can do is nothing.\u00a0 Sometimes he has to just sit there and let the student practice or to simply see how he performs a particular action without any input from the instructor.<\/h3>\n

My son, Hooper, and I were talking about a new role his employer had assigned him; to train other guides on a particular stretch of water.\u00a0 His boss told him that there would be just one rule:\u00a0 He was not allowed to \u201ctouch the sticks\u201d.\u00a0 For a guy who takes pride in his considerable ability to row and guide a boat through white water, this seemed terribly frustrating to Hooper.\u00a0 But to me, it demonstrated that his boss knew what he was doing.\u00a0\u00a0 It occurred to me that he was being asked to do what I\u2019ve been doing for years. A flight instructor so often \u201cflies with his mouth\u201d.\u00a0 Except for an occasional demonstration, his job is not to fly; it\u2019s to teach and to protect the student while he\u2019s learning.\u00a0 All my students have heard me whine, \u201cI just hate demos!\u201d. \u00a0\u00a0There\u2019s a reason.\u00a0 What flying skill I have has been developed while I was flying, not while I was teaching.\u00a0 That skill will gradually atrophy and that\u2019s why I try to allow myself at least an<\/h3>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0“…and that’s why I try to allow myself an hour a week in which to practice.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/h3>\n

hour a week to practice.\u00a0 That practice helps keep me looking less like a moron when it\u2019s time to demonstrate (I said it HELPS me.\u00a0 I still look like a moron\u2026 just less of one).<\/h3>\n

I was flying with a guy who did well.\u00a0 He was actually one of my favorite \u201ctypes\u201d: a guy who recognized that he had an area that needed improvement and who\u2019d asked me to help him with it.\u00a0 At one point, while blasting around the pattern, I told him, \u201cI\u2019m just going to sit back here like a bump on a log now\u201d.<\/h3>\n

He immediately replied, \u201cI\u2019m not paying you to be a bump on a log\u201d.<\/h3>\n

And that\u2019s what prompted me to write this little piece.\u00a0 You see, from time to time, I think they DO pay me to sit there like a bump on a log.\u00a0 \u2018cause I\u2019m THINKING, you see!<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m watching, feeling and evaluating.\u00a0 And THAT is one of the things a teacher does.<\/h3>\n

I recently watched the impressive documentary, \u201cBuck\u201d on Netflix.\u00a0 It deals with a guy who, it is said, inspired the story of the \u201cHorse Whisperer\u201d.\u00a0 As someone who grew up on the back of a horse, I found it fascinating.\u00a0 But what fascinated me the most was how horsemanship could be a metaphor for life.\u00a0 Thusly, the things I learned from \u201cBuck\u201d, are things which I can bring to flight instruction.\u00a0 You just may find me doing a bit more thinking and analyzing in the future!<\/h3>\n

<\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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