Building Block Lessons

The attitudes and movements lesson is the building block for all our flight training. Take your time with it. There is a tendency to rush on to straight and level flight and beyond. With a new student, there is a lot going on: the pre-flight briefing, the weight and balance and the pre-flight inspection of the aircraft. The start, taxi and runup are all going to go slowly. This does not leave a lot of time for the air part of the lesson. Too much, too quickly will not provide a student the solid base he or she needs to build on – primacy.

I would leave straight and level flight for the next lesson. Straight and level flight is just a wings level cruise attitude – relationship. The use of the mixture and trim can be introduced in this lesson. If all is going well, you can add speed changes in level flight. Anticipation of rudder use and pitch changes is introduced and trimming the aircraft is practiced. Give the students time to practice the speed changes and get used to anticipating the pitch changes and yaw they are going to have to correct when they change the power – exercise.