Can an old dog be taught new tricks?

[Eric]

I have a private pilot student who is late 60's or early 70's in age. He has about 8 hours and is having aircraft control issues. We hadn't even tried landings until today, and he became extremely frustrated.

He overcontrols and induces his own turbulence. We were flying the "Top Gun-Cougar approach" with rocking wings on final in smooth air. I tried to get him to relax and see what happened when he applied no control .

Does anyone have experience teaching older students? Is everyone teachable? I felt helpless to encourage or correct this guy.

Struggling in Florida,
Eric

 

[flywithruss]

I didn't have students of this vintage myself when I was instructing, but two good friends did and I filled in for them on a couple of occasions with two older guys ... both about 70 years old. To their credit, they had positive attitudes that helped them out a lot, as do most older students.

These guys did take quite a while to complete their certificates, but both of them did ... with probably 100 hours each. One of the two soloed at about 40 hours.

It just takes a whole lot of time and a whole lot of patience with older guys, but they can get it done. Simply explain to the guy that it'll take time. Then, go to the practice area and take your time working on his controlling the airplane before hitting the traffic pattern. The guy will develop, albeit slowly, if he's got a positive attitude.

Best of luck ...

R

 

[NuGuy]

Hi Eric,

You are wise beyond your hours to seek help. This is one of those tricky situations.

I had a CFI student. He was an older gent, nice, safe pilot to commerical standards. Very pleasant demenor. But as we all know, the CFI is a brutal practical test, and this gent just was not getting anywhere near PTS standards. Like I said, his flying was fine, but teaching and knowledge was weak, and it seemed to be getting weaker the more I worked with him.

I finally postponed all his flight training, and I was working with him 4 hours a day, one on one, intensive ground school. Nothing I did seemed to help. I made him detailed study plans, reviewed previous materials, coached his teaching...all to no avail. I had shot my last arrow, and I was fresh out of ideas.

I went to the Chief CFI, a wonderful man with serious teaching credentials to see what he thought. Turns out the fellow had a subconcious issue with the age difference. With an older instructor (much older at the time), he would relax and do much better.

In any event, I never thought it my place to tell anyone that they would NEVER get their rating. I didn't know everything (far from it, and pretty much still that far), and who am I to say something like that.

However, I did tell a few people that we had a long road in front of us. I laid out precisely what was required, and an honest, objective look at the current situation. A few people realized what was involved and dropped out, others made the commitment to the long road and wound up doing fine and became excellent pilots.

Work with the guy. Take your time. Plan some extra brief-debrief time. Let him know precisely what you are looking for. Be sure to review previous lessons. Use calm tones when he becomes agitated. Seek out some advice from a CFI that's been around the block a time or two more (maybe your Chief). If you are concerned it might be a personality conflict of some sort, have him ride with another CFI.

Hope this helps,
Nu

 

[Cardinal]

Eric, I feel like I've flown with this student you describe. All I can say is be careful. One of the things that my guy did was manifest a lack of consistency. Even after 60 hours, pre solo, being tossed between instructors, ironing out those same "aircraft control issues" there were still times when he'd do something - or not do something - that just made your jaw drop and left you shaking your head. The old "forgot to flare" type stuff, or forgetting basic systems knowledge, applying max power when he meant to select idle, etc. Anyway eventually another instructor soloed him, he flew a few hours and then, yup, "forgot to flare" again, and with no instructor to save him he drove the nosewheel of that poor C150 deep into the cowl, cracked the main gear, cracked the rearwindow, trashed the prop and engine, etc. AS with any student, I suppose, make sure their rock solid before you turn em loose. If you still have doubts they'll probably bite you in the arse.

 

[tinman]

I had a 74 year old student that I just got done with about two months ago. All I can say is, PATIENCE! The first 8-10 hrs. I seriously wanted to jump out of the plane and end it all. After that, we would have a few flights where everything was perfect. Then, exactly as Cardinal was saying, firewalled throttle when we are trying to stop, and things like that. Luckily, he just wanted a recreational license, so we were able to cut out a lot of things. I think it took him about 45 hours or so. Sad thing is, he bought a 152 right before his checkride, passed the ride, and hasn't flown since.