On busy days at the airport, I sit at in the maintenance records department gazing at the flight line, watching the hustle and bustle of a growing program. Since I’ve been a student here in Fall 2018, Southern Utah University has acquired 1 new Citabria, 1 more Beechcraft twin engine, 3 new R44 Cadets, 2 RII (Ravens), and 1 more Bell 206…soon to include the Bell 505!! We’ve almost doubled the amount of instructors required to keep up with growing class sizes, and gained several full time AMT’s to our staff. Sure we experience growing pains but what program doesn’t?
In the CFI cert lab (certified flight instructor)mI can’t help but imagine the contributions I’d love to make to the team- contributions that could increase safety and develop aeronautical decision making skills in baby pilots. I’ve been thinking about the most important lessons I’d like to impart on my students one day, and decided that preflight action and maintaining adaptability will be 2 key concepts.
In watching the flight line, I see students utilizing their checklists with little guidance from experienced eyes. How do they know when a part is out of limits? How much lateral play should pitch horns really have? Do they know to check for weep holes in the tail rotors and if a specific color of fluid lightly dripping from the hydraulic fluid weep hole in acceptable? I understand that pilots aren’t mechanics and don’t need to know these in depth questions too much, however, I argue that a good pilot is equipped to learn new details every day that contribute to the safety of flight. I hope to give my students the ability to walk out to an aircraft and take notice of abnormalities before they even embark on a flight. Anything caught on the ground is crucial to potentially saving your life.
I’d like to instill a curiosity within my students to learn from the resources given to them and become comfortable asking if a component is normal or not? My private pilot instructor used to tell me “the aircraft wants to bring you down in one form or another- the question is will you catch it on the ground or in the air?” Ever since then, every pre-flight I end up finding new components to orient myself with and new “parameters” I try to learn. Heck, I’ve even learned to do a “preflight” on my vehicle before driving! **especially when my coworkers attempt to mess with my vehicle to see if I notice 🙂
I hope everyone in their profession realizes that fear of not knowing something should be faced head on with the desire to learn everything about it. Even if it’s beyond your skill level or comprehension, at least you are attempting to become familiar with some aspect/portion of a complicated endeavor which only adds to your skillsets at the end of the day. Check out some of my favorite helicopters, the Bell 407’s for sale! Global Air – Aircraft Sales
AERO~PARKS 