Students Progress Reports. Verbosity v Succinctness

[A37575]

Reading the "elements," if that is the correct terminology, covered in Part 61 including such things as the Grading policy when assessing a student, including Reason Codes and Word Pictures for Reason Codes. One of these is Unsatisfactory with its various sub paras of M, K, A, E, C, S, D etc. Under "D" it states "Complete lack of methodology in decision making, likely to cause the aircraft to breach clearance, violate procedures, or place it in danger."

It seems so unnecessarily complicated that you may as well have a tape recorder in the cockpit and record the instructors voice so he will remember what to write into his students hate-sheet (Progress Report)

Contrast that lot with the following comment by one Royal Air Force flying instructor, who wrote:


“When this student starts the engine, he starts a chain of events over which he has no further control.”

[Ex FSO GRIFFO]

Re "When this student starts the engine, he starts a chain of events over which he has no further control.”

LUVVIT!!!

I had a 'Hungarian' student who got 'ground fixation' and would not 'flare' the 172 for landing - he just kept it pointing at the ground......
The best I could do was to grab the fire extinguisher attached to my seat and belt him on his right hand - hard - and when I was able to pull back as he 'let go'...the wheels simply ran along the ground.....

His 'hate sheet' reflected my thoughts of the time.....
"This student is quite mad - today, he tried to kill me".

Brutal but honest.

No cheers then.....

[LeadSled]

Folks,
Or that other perennial:
This student set himself an unacceptably low standard and continually fails to achieve it.
Tootle pip!!

[aroa]

Good'un Leady...
..
sounds like a brief critique of CAsA

This Agency sets an unacceptably low standard for ethics, morality and honesty and continually fails to achieve it.

[LeadSled]

Folks,
Years ago, there was a quite large collection of similar file contribution, attributed to the RAAF, and published in Flight International, maybe they are on the internet somewhere.
Each and every one reminded me of a student at one time or another, from a C grade instructor further up the food chain.
Interestingly, even Darwin and airline selection processes didn't weed them all out.
Tootle pip!!

[Centaurus]

Folks,
Years ago, there was a quite large collection of similar file contribution, attributed to the RAAF, and published in Flight International, maybe they are on the internet somewhere.
Each and every one reminded me of a student at one time or another, from a C grade instructor further up the food chain.

Those of us long in the tooth ex RAAF may remember Flight Lieutenant Val Turner DFC a former RAAF Spitfire pilot who also flew Meteors during the Korean war. He was the flight commander at No 1 Basic Flying Training School at Uranquinty in the mid 1950's when I arrived there straight off the Flying Instructors Course at CFS East Sale.

One of the QFI's with a sense of humour wrote in one student's hate sheet "This student is temperamental and cries like a trumpet player if criticised." Val, as flight commander, scrawled on the hate sheet in red ink "We are not training trumpet players Pilot Officer Mann. Stick to Service writing." That student was Ron Croft who passed the Pilots Course and many years later became an Examiner of Airmen in DCA

I was having real problems with one of my students, a Probationary Naval Airman (PNA). He was a quiet shy fellow with about ten hours on the Winjeel. His circuits were fine but things went wrong when he turned on to final approach where he would keep turning and develop into a spiral dive instead of straightening up on final. We were landing on an all over grass field with landing lanes and his spiral dives would take him across the final approach of other aircraft and cause chaos.

I simply ran out of ideas and asked Val Turner to fly with him. I watched the Winjeel from the safety of the "Pie Cart" (Air Traffic Control vehicle) in the middle of the aerodrome. Three times the Winjeel curved into an ever- steepening spiral left turn instead of straightening out on final. Three times Val Turner was forced to take over. After the last landing, Val stormed over to the Pie Cart and snapped "That man is dangerous. He is scrubbed."

The most memorable line I ever heard was from a former Boeing Company 737 instructor pilot who later joined my airline Air Nauru in 1976. His name was Joe Zizkovsky. Joe trained (brutalised is a better word) the Air Nauru first 737 crews in the simulator in USA. Joe took part in the WW2 Guadalcanal campaign in the Solomon Islands in 1942. He was a burly bloke with mutton chop whiskers and very sarcastic to his students in the 737 simulator.

On one occasion he said to a first officer under training: "Barry - one thing is for sure and that is you will never be killed in a 737 because you are so far behind the aircraft it will have crashed before you catch up with it."

[cLeArIcE]

I never write anything in student records any more. Who knows how it could be used against me by CASA now or in the future.
I Verbally debrief the student in detail. In the progress reports I simply write "to satisfactory standard on the day" (or not to standard).
I also regularly fantasise about a bullet to the head any time someone mentions the MOS. Not sure if that is healthy or not...

[LeadSled]

Clearice,
Personally, given the world we live in, I think that is a smart (and wise) move, both for you and the student.
Tootle pip!!

[CaptainMidnight]

Folks,
Years ago, there was a quite large collection of similar file contribution, attributed to the RAAF

Here you go, this one from someone in Airservices where "officer" had been changed to "controller":

• this officer is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot
• works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap
• only occasionally wets himself under pressure
• this officer should go far – and the sooner the better
• he has the wisdom of youth, and the energy of old age
• sets low personal standards, and then consistently fails to achieve them
• since the last assessment he has reached rock bottom, and has started to dig
• When this officer joined the team he was something of a granny, and since then has aged considerably
• this young officer has delusions of adequacy
• this officer reminds me very much of a gyroscope – always spinning around at a frantic pace, but not really going anywhere
• technically sound but socially impossible
• this officer would be out of their depth in a car park puddle
• has carried out each and every one of their duties to their entire satisfaction
• when they open their mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was there previously
• this officer is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely won’t-be
• his men would follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity

[Alpha Whiskey Bravo]

The aircraft flew well today, little Johnny didn't.
Little Johnny continually fails to keep blue up and green down.
From the moment little Johnny turned on the master switch, he failed to take further part in the lesson.