When I was an engineer in training at the Douglas Aircraft Plant in Santa Monica,
I learned, much to my surprise, that the senior engineer who was my mentor had been
a flight instructor in WWI.
He trained me in liaison engineering as he had trained pilots in 1916. He used practical
problems and hands-on-expierience with reject parts and assembly situations. His
main tenet of training was to go beyond competence to a level of confidence. He
used to say, "We're not just learning a job, we are teaching confidence. Like pilots
for the Army Air Corps, they have to be good; it's a matter of life or death for
fighter pilots. And it is the same for building airplanes."
Many flight instructions teach to a level of competence to pass the tasks listed
in the Practical Test Standard (PTS). But beyond competence is a condition of relaxed
flying best described as confidence. It's an enjoyable feeling of poise, satisfaction,
and happiness to be in the air. The student is no longer a "whiteknuckled" pilot
trying to meet PTS-tolerances. He or she can do those tasks with two fingers on
the controls and a smile on his or her face. These pilots have confidence they can
handle any situation that arises.
Tom Davis
Knoxville, Tennessee
Flight Training, June 1994
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