Eye of Experience #6:
Judgement

Can you teach good judgement? AVweb's Howard Fried questions how we impart this vital skill to pilots. Poor judgement will kill as quickly as poor flying technique. Combine poor judgement on the part of the instructor and the poor student is in double trouble. What is the best way to teach sound judgement? Howard offers some examples about what doesn't work.

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Eye Of ExperienceMuch has been written about the fact that judgement is very difficult,if not impossible, to teach. We have all seen examples of flightstudents exercising poor judgement, and even on fairly rare occasionsflight instructors demonstrating faulty judgement, but when botha student and an instructor exercise poor judgement in a singleepisode it is bound to lead to serious problems as the followingstory illustrates.

Several years ago the Chief Flight Instructor on the primary curriculumat the flight school I run had a particularly difficult studentwho was finally ready for solo cross-country work. Although nothis real name, we’ll call the student Bill. On a fine early summerday the instructor, Kenny, carefully reviewed the student’s planning,gave him a company credit card with which to buy fuel, and dispatchedhim on a cross-country flight involving three legs, the firstof which was well over one hundred nautical miles. The next legwas also about one hundred nautical miles and the final stretchback to the home airport, which is located in the middle of alarge city and is surrounded by homes, factories, and businesses,was about eighty nautical miles. After the student was on hisway, the instructor and his new bride took off for their honeymoontrip.

Brain Fade!

The student successfully navigated to each of his first two destinations,getting his logbook signed at each to attest to his safe arrival.At the second destination he used the company credit card to buya quart of oil, but he neglected to purchase any fuel! Hewas never able to explain this failure, a lapse which I can onlyattribute to “brain fade.”

Just as I was about to leave for the day, I got a call from thecontrol tower informing me that one of our training planes hadjust gone down a couple of miles northwest of the airport. AllI could think of was the residential area in that location. However,just as I hung up from talking with the Tower Chief, there wasa call on the other line from Bill, who informed me that his enginehad quit due to fuel exhaustion and he had made a safe landingat the racetrack. He was calling from a pay phone, and when Iasked him which gate he was near so I could find him when I arrivedwith a can of gas, he turned to a bystander and learned that hewasn’t at the racecourse at all, but at the fairgrounds some fouror five miles from the racecourse. I told him to stay put, thatI’d be right there.

I had one of our instructors drive me to the site, and that evening,on the six o’clock television news, I had the experience of seeingmyself take off from the fairgrounds, climb over the wires alongthe main road at the north end of the fairgrounds, and turn towardthe airport. To this very day that student still thinks he dideverything right! He kept repeating the statement that he’d handledthe situation just as he’d been taught. This is no doubt trueas regards his actions after the engine quit (I’m not sure thateven I could have gotten the airplane in where he had), but hisaction in failing to fuel the airplane at either of his firsttwo destinations certainly demonstrates poor judgement on hispart.

A second chance

So much for episode number one in Bill’s adventures as a studentpilot. This brings us to the series of events which exemplifymultiple instances of the combined bad judgement of both a studentand an instructor on the same transaction. After Bill’s off-airportlanding as a result of fuel exhaustion, stemming from his failureto fuel up at either of his two stops, on his return from hishoneymoon Kenny worked with Bill intensively. When it was feltthat he was finally ready to finish his cross-country requirement,Kenny gave him an assignment and told him to plan the trip. Thiswas to be an out and back expedition of about seventy-five mileseach way.

On the day Bill was scheduled to go on this trip, Kenny and Itogether flew a passenger charter trip of some three hundred miles,departing early in the morning in our Aztec with two corporateexecutives aboard. As we flew north, the weather worsened behindus until it reached a point that severe thunderstorms and eventornadoes were popping up all over the southern half of the state.It was so bad that on our return trip in the Aztec, Kenny andI had to deviate over two hundred miles to make an end-run aroundthe weather to get back in.

Meanwhile, Bill had showed up at the airport, ready to go on hisfinal student cross-country. In Kenny’s absence, one of our otherinstructors (who we’ll call Paul-also not his real name) reviewedBill’s planning. As is our policy with students embarking on cross-countrytrips, Paul listened on an extension while Bill got his weatherbriefing. He heard the Flight Service Specialist tell Bill everyway he could, “Don’t go!” As you know, a briefercannot refuse to permit a pilot to make an ass of himself. Allhe can do is tell the pilot what to expect.

“He wouldn’t let me go”

However, even after hearing about the simply horrible weatheralong the route, Paul signed Bill off and dispatched him on hisway! As he was leaving the office for the flight line, Bill saidto the office manager, a woman who held a Private Pilot Certificate,”I’m glad Kenny’s not here. He wouldn’t let me go.”

When he completed his pre-flight and called ready, first the groundcontroller and then the local tower controller told Bill everyway they could, “Don’t go!” Despite all this, Bill took off.

About fifty miles along the way, Bill, as might be expected, encounteredheavy weather. At this time he was in contact with an approachradar facility about twenty miles west of his position. The controllerwas attempting to vector him to a nearby airport when such a largecell grew up between Bill and the radar antennae that the controllerlost him on radar. This controller then handed him off to anothercontroller at a military airport about forty miles east of hisposition. That one had Bill on his screen, but not for long. Anotherpowerful cell grew up between him and that facility and againhe was lost on radar. Since he was over flat farmland, and sincehe was experienced at off-airport procedures, Bill opted to landon a pea farm. He did, however, neglect to turn off the masterswitch. When the weather improved a couple of hours later, themilitary sent a helicopter to bring Bill out. That makes two off-airportlandings that Bill accomplished safely as a student pilot, andthat’s two more than most pilots are required to make in a lifetimeof flying.

Kenny and I learned all this when we returned from our chartertrip. When Kenny went out to retrieve the airplane the next day,he found the battery dead as a result of Bill having left themaster switch on. With a jump-start, Kenny got it going and flewit back.

Damned Fool

As a result of this episode, Paul lost his privileges until suchtime as he could, under FAR 609, demonstrate to the FAA that hewas competent to exercise the privileges of a Commercial Pilotand Certified Flight Instructor. The damn fool went over to theFSDO (FAA Flight Standards District Office) and argued that he’ddone nothing wrong as an instructor, that the only way for studentsto learn is to send them out so they can experience it all forthemselves. Altogether, it took Paul four tries to regain hisprivileges. However, we didn’t keep his job at our flight schoolfor him!

The faulty judgement of a single individual frequently resultsin total disaster, but when two people demonstrate badjudgement at the same time on the same transaction it is nothingless than a miracle that disaster is averted. In the case, herenot only was Bill lucky to survive, but we were twice fortunateto come out with an undamaged airplane.

Expert Educator-NOT!

Paul to this day steadfastly maintains that the best teachingtechnique is to let the student find out for himself what it’slike in the “real world.” I have attempted, unsuccessfully,to explain that the reason why he’s an instructor is so when astudent comes up with a bad or unsafe idea, he can veto the planand explain why, but this explanation just didn’t seem to registerwith Paul, who fancies himself as an expert educator.

What can be done to insure that this kind of thing never occurs?I confess that I’m at a loss. I just don’t know the answer. Allmanagement, and this includes both industry and the FAA, can dois to closely monitor the activity of those for whom we are responsibleand when we detect signs of poor judgement embark on a programof counseling and more counseling. If it is to do any good, wemust counsel with patience and understanding, explaining carefullyjust what is wrong with the idea or action and just why it isa bad idea or action. The key, of course, is convincing the individualthat what he proposes or does would be better left undone. Thenwe must either draw from him a proposal for an alternative, bettercourse of action, or, failing that, suggest one ourselves. Itseems to me that this is all we can do. If the object of educationis to effect a change in behavior, then we must educate. Afterall, in the final analysis, a desirable change in behavior iswhat we’re looking for.

Often Wrong, But Never in Doubt

Even so, in Paul’s case, as the FAA and I discovered, when his erroneous theory of teaching was explained to him it did no good whatsoever. He didn’t even learn from the experience he had with Kenny’s student, Bill. I guess some people just never learn. They are so convinced of their own rightness that they can’t be taught. These are the ones that will go on continuing to be a hazard to themselves and others as long as they are permitted to remain in positions where they can influence what other people do. It has been said of people like Paul, “They are often wrong, but never in doubt!” Sooner or later, given enough exposure, they are likely to encounter personal disaster, but in Paul’s case the damage to others has already been done.

Thus, I conclude, there are some people who just aren’t amenable to counseling. I recall an incident when I was in IMC on an IFR flight plan with another instrument rated pilot aboard and the approach controller called traffic just off our right, traffic with which the controller wasn’t in contact. On looking out, we observed a Cherokee less than twenty feet off our right wing, and at our altitude. The approach at our destination (just a few miles away) was such that in order to legally execute the approach we had to land downwind. Just as we were flaring for the touchdown, the Cherokee appeared on short final at the other end of the runway! We were committed to land, but the Cherokee went around under the four-hundred-foot ceiling.

Don’t Confuse Me with the Facts

The Cherokee pilot landed into the wind, taxied up to the ramp, and soundly berated us for landing downwind and forcing him to go around. Bear in mind that this guy had been blundering around in the cloud without being rated and without being on a flight plan with a clearance. We attempted to politely counsel him, but all he could do was scream at us for landing downwind. My associate reported him to the FAA (a situation that I had hoped to avoid by counseling him), and we later learned that he had received his private pilot certificate only days prior to our encounter. This occurred several years ago, and I wonder how that pilot is doing today, long after his certificate suspension had ended and his privileges had been restored.

As flight instructors, all we can do is demonstrate sound, safeprocedures and practices. Thus, by providing “leadershipby example,” we can influence our students, or at least mostof them, to follow our example. When decision-making time arrives,hopefully they will make the correct decisions as a result.

In most cases, someone else has already gained the experienceyou need the hard way-keep an eye out!

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