Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM The Unteachable Student I have found that, my methods, and I am incompatible with about 5% of my students. This was true when I was teaching school and still holds true for flight instruction. I have advised three students not to continue because of judgment difficulties. The one that continued with another instructor and killed himself flying back from passing his flight-test. It is very difficult for a student with difficulties to separate out the instruction of a new instructor from that of the first instructor. The learning law of primacy rules more than we would believe. Perhaps a different type of aircraft at a different airport along with a different instructor would resolve the problem. No mention of the reading or ground school material was mentioned. Perhaps videos would help. Regardless, I think a clean break from the past would give the student a chance to 'start over'. Were he to be my student I would have him talk into a tape recorder along with me prior to every flight. We would discuss the procedures for a closed traffic pattern exercise. We would verbalize everything he would do and how he would do it. We would walk and talk the flight first by direction and position, then by altitude and changes and finally by what is said on the radio. The same process would carry through in the aircraft, on the ground and in the air. The use of a checklist in every step of the way would be mandatory. The lesson would be listened to by the student after the flight and critical notes taken for discussion with the instructor as to the what and why of problems and successes. Additionally, the student would be told what to prepare for the next lesson. I would make myself available by phone in the evenings, especially the night before a lesson to make sure that the student was prepared. From this beginning, I would adjust the program to fit the needs of the student. The essential is to make each step successful. Nothing breeds success and confidence better than success. Though I was only an incidental part of Lisa's success, she is a shining example of how desire overcomes difficulty. In a subsequent communication I indicated that it was just possible that the student had some unexpressed or shown fears or concerns that were overriding his efforts to learn and remember. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM