Scenarios for Student Pilots

[KDewald]

Hey everyone!

I am a new flight instructor, and have three students who are about half way through their PPLs.

I have been trying to think of scenarios/questions to ask them to assess their judgment and fill empty time as we fly to the practice area. Do you have any scenarios or questions that you make sure to ask your students? Here are some of the ones I have so far...

-"You are in the practice area and your engine starts running rough..."
-"During your flight, you notice the over-voltage light come on..."
-"In your run-up during your mag drop the left mag drops 300..."
-"While practicing slow flight in the practice area you notice the cloud starting to get lower..."
-"You are practicing takeoffs and landings when you notice a few small clouds 600' below you..."
-"Before your flight, you notice some fog in the distance as forecast, however; it looks fine at the airport..."
-"Visibility suddenly begins to drop while you are in the practice area and you are no longer sure how to return to the airport..."
-"On crosswind your engine suddenly fails..."
-"In your takeoff roll your objective performance criteria is not met..."
-"On your cross-country the headwind is significantly stronger than expected..."
-"You return to the airport and the crosswind has greatly increased..."
-"The radio seems quiet...you haven't heard anyone talk in 20 minutes on 26.7..."
-"There is another aircraft in the practice area who you think will be a conflict..."
-"Someone else is in the circuit but you cannot understand their radio calls..."
-"You arrive at your destination airport and see a large X on the runway..."
-"During the turbulence picks up to the point where it is moderate or even strong..."
-"As you are nearing your destination airport you see a thunderstorm right along your path..."
-"It has been raining your whole flight and the weather is getting worse. You notice there is ice accumulating on the struts..."
-"You are distracted because your Uncle Bob is airsick in the back of the plane. As you turn your attention outside again you see you've flown into a cloud..."

[Cat Driver]

Flying to the practice area is not empty time.

It is flying time for the student and they need to concentrate on what they are doing which is flying the airplane.

In my opinion giving them make believe scenarios takes their mind off what they are doing.

On the ground is where you can ask them questions.

[Cat Driver]

Deleted.

[Bede]

I have to disagree with Cat. Students need to be able to fly and deal with emergencies at the same time. Flying to the practise area and doing nothing is a waste if time.

[Cat Driver]

I have to disagree with Cat.

Fair comment as we all have different ideas on training.

Students need to be able to fly and deal with emergencies at the same time.

Is asking questions about many different scenarios teaching them how to deal with emergencies?

Flying to the practise area and doing nothing is a waste if time.

I also do not believe believe you should just sit there and do nothing, I believe you should be critiquing their flying and practising some of the situations listed by the O.P.

[BTD]

I notice most of your scenarios are emergency based. While it is good to review those, as cat mentioned, use the opportunity to practice some flying skills.

Perhaps, rolling the nose around a point to work on rudder coordination. Or practicing attitudes with the instruments covered etc.

[Cat Driver]

as cat mentioned, use the opportunity to practice some flying skills.

Thank you, that is exactly what I was suggesting.

[youhavecontrol]

There's nothing wrong with filling in empty time with questions during flight. In fact, at my school we try and ask one emergency based question or practice an emergency scenario every flight. And, depending on where the flight school is located, there can definitely be empty time to fill between the airport and the training area. You can only practice 'rolling around a point' for so long, and not every student needs stick and rudder practice. Some students have better 'hands and feet' than situational judgement.

Student's doing good keeping level? Checks completed? Radio calls made? Why not throw a random scenario at them?

Here's some more scenarios, some based on real experience that I use to teach my students. Some of these are better-suited as groundwork questions - ask at your discretion:

-You hear a loud pop sound and realize your elevator cable has broken. How can you still control the aircraft pitch?
-you encounter an engine failure in a remote area... your only option is either the trees or a lake... where should you go, how would you set-up for landing?
-It's a dark, moonless night over a featureless area, and you encounter an engine failure. Obviously, you're gonna have a bad time, but how do you set the aircraft up for the least possible damage?
-you have a total electrical failure VFR and your only available airport with services is Towered. What can you do? (hint... we have a lot of technology in our pockets)
-someone calls on your frequency that they are encountering a problem... what do you do?
-someone tells you that you're transmitting "2 out of 5" Explain the trouble shooting process.
-on take-off, as you enter ground-effect, you see a bear running across the runway about 1000' in front of you. (this happened to me, the student didn't notice, which still amazes me)
-You've just departed and climbed through 200' and your engine suddenly starts running very rough. (lost the R mag... this actually happened to me)
-You're just about to make a call on your radio and notice that it shuts-off and restarts as soon as you hit the transmit button. Com 2 still works for a few more minutes, but then it also starts shutting-down when you try and transmit. (Trouble shooting scenario: Alternator Failure/Almost no battery left. Regrettably this happened to me, but I did not notice the gradual signs, working heavily with a student who struggled with gliding to a point on the Forced Approach, our eyes were outside a lot. I was able to recycle the alternator and get everything running again, but was also preparing to fly back to the airport with a total electrical failure)

[KDewald]

as cat mentioned, use the opportunity to practice some flying skills.

Thank you, that is exactly what I was suggesting.

Could you provide some more suggestions then?

A lot of those examples I give I ask in pre-flight briefings for their solo flights. I guess I was just saying practice area as an example.

[BTD]

Depending on how far along they are and how far your practice area is, you could have them plan a diversion once they are out of the control zone or MF.

I am a big proponent of covering up the instruments and doing attitudes and movements. You could have them climb at best rate and then transition to best angle using only the outside picture. Once they are established look at the airspeed and see how close they are and adjust as needed.

[trey kule]

If your students are half way through, start using the transition time to plan a x country. Hold heading, altitude, fix position on map. Calculate groundspeed and course correction. A diversion as someone else mentioned. Flying is not all about emergencies
. The roll around the nose or similar.
Dont be afraid to just give the student time to fly.
The "scenarios have their place in training. Far more so in advanced training, as they tend to steer towards testing skills, not learning them.

My two cents, which I guess rounded off is zero.