Training for Confidence
Presented by IFR Flight Training School™
Training for Confidence
by Tom Davis
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
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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