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Or IR Syndrome in Modern Primary Flight Training

(and how to avoid it)

Or

Why Can't Johnny land?

Introduction:

Let’s explore the age old question; why some pilots can land well consistently and why some can’t. I’ve read a half dozen articles on this topic in the past year, and they all offer excellent advice about configuring early, stabilized approaches, correct trim settings, and other elements that are certainly prerequisites for good landings. But none of these articles adequately address a deeper problem, the mother of all landing problems, and this is that many pilots do not continue to actively fly the airplane all the way to touchdown. Instead, they stop or change their processes close to the ground for reasons that usually date back to the first two or three flight lessons. In other words, they are not using the techniques to perceive, analyze, process, and control the path of the airplane, that were working well prior to the landing attempt. The ensuing difficulties are usually long lived, hence the never ending stream of articles on how to accomplish good landings.  I hope the following perspective will increase awareness of this syndrome and how to avoid it. This article is for the flight instructor but also for the student pilot and certificated pilot, as everyone can benefit from understanding the importance of visual reference flying.

IR stands for Instrument Reference, and the syndrome happens when a student pilot becomes dependent on the flight instruments initially, and thereafter has difficulty letting go of them as the primary reference for aircraft control. This happens at a time when the student should be learning the basic push/pull/twist, pitch and power relationships that are the basis for all fixed wing flight. If the student fails to learn these skills visually in the first ten or so hours of primary flight training, landing troubles are almost definitely in the picture.

We often see this syndrome manifest itself in pre-solo students who tended to fly fine up high, but have big problems with learning to land. The frustrated instructors often say something like, “ I can’t figure it out, he flies great right up until about twenty feet above the runway and then he tries to kill me every time” The terms “high flare”, “over-controlling” , and “loss of directional control” became common complaints.  All these descriptive phrases are code for “not flying the airplane effectively close to the ground” Why this happens is most often directly related to an instrument dependency problem.  Even pilots training to be Flight Instructors show remnants of this malady, and paradoxically, instrument dependence during pre solo flight even becomes a negative factor for these pilots when they move into serious instrument training.

How does it happen? First some history; in days past when student pilots learned to fly in Piper Cubs and other less complex aircraft, there was considerably less to look at on the instrument panel. This encouraged instructors to find things outside the airplane for the student to look at while learning to control the airplane. Eventually aircraft manufacturers started to equip training aircraft with complete gyro instrument panels, and at the same time the “Integrated Method” of flight training appeared in training manuals and FAA publications. The “integrated method” encourages instructors to integrate outside visual references with instrument references from the first lessons. If done with great care, this certainly helps the student to relate instrument indications to what is happening outside the windows of the airplane. Unfortunately, very often the visual part of the “integrated” method is under emphasized which can lead to the instrument dependency that we are discussing here.

Next let’s look at a typical first flight lesson. This is a difficult lesson for instructor and student alike, and more so when originating from a large and busy airport. It is easy and natural for the instructor to direct the student’s attention to the flight instruments many times during the flight.  These first flights are intense learning experiences where the student is often exposed to more stimulus than can be processed fully. When the instructor directs a students attention to the instruments again and again, most students will soon “get the message”, and start controlling the airplane by these references. In many cases this will start instrument dependency and all of its ensuing problems. The student learns what is important to the instructor and tries his or her best to comply. Here is an example of a first flight in a light airplane.

INSTRUCTOR:          Alright Johnny, on your first takeoff, just do as I say, and I’ll guide you through the take off and climb. OK, advance the throttle, now watch the airspeed indicator and when it gets to about 50, pull back on the yoke a little. That’s it, we’re flying, ok now…woops, watch your airspeed that’s a little slow, remember! ……. we said 65 knots for the climb speed, now look at the turn coordinator, right rudder in the climb, remember to step on the ball! Ok now the controller just told us to turn right to a heading of 150 degrees, so turn the yoke a little to the right, that’s it turn it farther…., oops, your bank angle is getting a little steep there, see the attitude indicator is showing 45 degrees of bank, shallow it out a little. OK, fine, here comes one five zero, so roll the airplane wings level. Don’t forget about your rudder, check the ball. …..now let’s complete the after take off checklist………How do you like flying so far?

Think this sounds exaggerated? Perhaps, but most flight instructors will recognize this scenario as one that exists to one degree or other quite often on the first flight lesson. Continuing with the scenario:

INSTRUCTOR:           Johnny that was very good. Now, we are approaching our cruise altitude so look at the altimeter and begin to lower the nose as we approach 3500 ft. That’s good, now, as you know, we are flying visually here....so let’s make sure to look outside the airplane. I want to direct your attention to the wingtips and how they look in relation to the horizon, now look at the nose of the airplane and how it relates to the horizon, this is your sight picture for level flight.

JOHNNY:                 Uh-Huh.

The student has received conflicting information which he must now resolve. During the past ten or fifteen minutes he has heard little from his instructor other than directives to look at the flight instruments as the primary resource with which to control the airplane.  Each time the CFI told Johnny to look at an instrument, Johnny learned that this was the important stuff of flying. Now, after many such commands the instructor tells Johnny to look outside the airplane and check the relationship of the wingtips to the horizon. It is easy to see how the student may unconsciously dismiss this afterthought of wingtip reference flying. After all, in these first ten to fifteen minutes Johnny has basically learned how to control the airplane by looking at the instrument panel! The “suggestion” to augment this learning by looking at something as imprecise as the relationship of the nose to the horizon has little meaning. It is too little and too late as the law of primacy has already been fulfilled.

The law of primacy rules; the student has learned to look at the airspeed indicator to fly an airspeed, the inclinometer (the ball) to judge rudder input, the directional gyro to roll out from a turn on a specific heading, and the attitude indicator for bank angle. Without even considering the problem consciously the student becomes dependent on the flight instruments. He has learned that if you get to slow it can be dangerous, that to be on the wrong heading or altitude will get you in trouble with ATC, and that the only way to figure out how much rudder to use is to observe the ball in the inclinometer.  So what, you may ask? After all, these are legitimate instrument references that are commonly used to fly airplanes. After all, they put these instruments there for a reason, right?

Let’s explore some reasons why the above scenario can have negative repercussions. When a student learns to fly the airplane with the flight instruments as outlined above, he or she often becomes semi-competent at this skill during the first lesson. On subsequent lessons when the instructor tells the student to look outside the airplane, for instance in the traffic pattern, the student may seem to comply but actually continues to control the airplane by instrument references. The proof of this usually comes during several different phases of flight but most notably during stall practice and landings. These students typically fly the airplane fairly well until it is time to get the airplane on the runway, and then things progress poorly. The reason this happens is that the first time the student has truly attempted to control the airplane solely by outside visual references, is during the level-off and transition to the landing pitch attitude.  This should be the final step of a visual processing exercise that started during the turn from base to final. The student, however, has been honing his ability to fly precise altitudes, airspeeds, and pitch attitudes by looking two feet in front of his face at the instrument panel. All of a sudden he looks outside the airplane while 20 feet above the landing threshold and valiantly attempts to process a dynamic picture that should have been sequentially processed for at least two minutes or so while on final. The confused instructor has trouble understanding why the student is making such large or inappropriate control inputs.

Another good example of this behavior is during a power on stall. The student is controlling the airplane by instrument references, understanding full well that inadequate rudder input will result in an incipient spin. As he pitches up into the stall entry, the student is increasingly focused on the turn coordinator and airspeed indicator. The instructor meanwhile is noticing an excessively high pitch attitude and wonders, “why is this guy pitching so high?” It is scary to watch. Why isn’t the student scared? He’s not watching the same thing the instructor is seeing.  Understanding this perceptual split between instructor and student is the key to overcoming this problem.  As pilots, we are visual processing machines. We analyze visual data that is always moving; we analyze and act on changes within a changing picture. One snapshot of this visual data stream does not provide the brain with enough information to choose the control inputs that allow the airplane to land smoothly. Thus, this poor student has little hope of solo until he or she has moved beyond this syndrome of instrument dependency. Even then landings may be inconsistent as the student unconsciously moves back and forth between the two techniques.

This unfortunate student is in for a frustrating time learning to land the airplane, and may take years to finally learn the skill that he should have learned on the first flight of his aviation career. That is to push and pull and twist the yoke, and to push the rudders, in order to precisely point the airplane in the right direction based on the ever changing picture that is coming through the windscreen. One might argue that even though this is an annoying situation for all concerned, it is always remedied prior to the issuance of a private pilot certificate, unfortunately this not the case. You may be able to verify this for yourself as you think of certificated pilots that you know who have problems performing consistently smooth landings, or who have significant directional control problems during crosswind landings. So, how do we avoid this difficult problem? We certainly cannot go back to teaching all primary flight training in a J3 Cub.

THE SOLUTION:

To effectively avoid this instrument dependency, the instructor must learn techniques to teach every primary maneuver either solely by outside visual references or with minimal use of the flight instruments. If pre-solo maneuvers are taught in this manner, the student will quickly master the basics of pitch and power, and will gain the hand-eye coordination, and the processing ability needed to fly the airplane precisely and smoothly. The student will be able to do this both at altitude while practicing stalls, at 1000ft AGL while practicing ground reference maneuvers, and six inches above the runway with a ten knot crosswind.  We all know pilots who seem to always perform near perfect landings. Some of these pilots have lots of flight experience, but you can probably think of some very low time pilots you know who land consistently well, and some relatively high time pilots who don’t. Why does this happen? It is only when the pilot learns to process the outside visual picture reliably, that he or she can develop the skill to land smoothly with consistency.

A note to Flight Instructors:

These ideas have been the fundamentals of flight training for a long time. Most experienced CFI’s have techniques that to some degree avoid all the above maladies.  Results improve even more when the instructor has a cohesive set of techniques that constantly push the students focus outside the airplane, even as he is taught to take “snapshots” of the various flight instruments as necessary to maintain flight within a safe envelope. Next we will explore some of these techniques that enable the instructor to teach predominantly by directing the students attention outside the airplane. Also we will discuss other benefits of these techniques that range from increased comfort (read, less airsickness and anxiety) to better instrument skills. Yes, that’s right. Teaching students how to fly by outside visual references eventually has the effect of producing better instrument pilots!

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Last modified: 12/17/08