First Update – Site Placement

Ryan S -

In the past week I’ve been in further contact with my site placement at Sierra Charlie Aviation. As my research into previous studies and data collection continues, I’ve narrowed down my scope of focus as to what I want out of my site placement. Given access to data from instructors and students’ training, I will talk with instructors about their students, gathering how their students are doing and how they teach their students; I also hope to talk with instructors that do “stage checks” – which are like a test before a student can move on to the next unit.

There exist multiple stage checks for multiple “units” of lessons taught, and although I want to gather data from all of them, there are two that are most important to me: the pre solo stage check and the final stage check. All stage checks consist of a ground test and a flight test, ensuring a students progress is sufficient. The pre solo stage check tests the student pilot if they are sufficient to control the plane using their own judgement, to be aware of their surroundings and potential traffic, and basic navigation through airports and surrounding practice areas. This is a very important step because it transitions the student from training with an instructor to using knowledge taught and flying by themselves without an instructor. Many factors are included into how a student can – or cannot – succeed in this step. Studying this will hopefully be my first step at my site placement as I further my pursuit to improve how student pilots can be taught.

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Comments:

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    camille_bennett
    Hi Ryan, sounds like a great start. What data will you be getting from instructors?
    tanay_n
    Hey Ryan! What specific factors do you anticipate will influence a student’s success in the pre-solo stage check?
    ryan_s
    I actually just started this today! I'll talk more about it in future blog posts, but as of right now the feedback I've gotten regards the training the instructors themselves have experienced and what they've learned.
    ryan_s
    (Oh apparently it doesn't directly respond to comments) Tanay, I anticipate the student's confidence in their answers/flying capability to be the biggest influence. From initial data gathered so far, this lines up. A student's confidence relates to their understanding of their training, and it's my goal to create a form of training that boosts the student's confidence when tested or explaining answers.

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