The “secret sauce” of effective education is caring, compassion, and empathy on the part of the CFI. This builds the trust of your learner and creates a safe “learning zone” for optimal education. This safe learning zone is free of fear, judgment, and criticism and is where optimal learning can occur. Our educational challenge in aviation is greater since we operate in a potentially frightening environment. Every new maneuver has the potential to terrify an uninitiated student pilot and ruin any chance of meaningful education. Fear shuts down the higher-order brain processes, and poisons useful learning. Every successful CFI (and learner) must understand – and manage – the destructive power of fear.
When we suddenly find ourselves drowning in a flood of noradrenaline, it can be shocking how little brainpower we have at our disposal. Extreme Fear
A certain amount of stimulation improves human performance, elevating the senses and increasing our performance. Past this optimal performance peak, our ability to perceive, process, and perform deteriorates as the “fight or flight response” takes over. The activation of our sympathetic nervous system triages cognitive capacity to activate our “fight or flight mode.” In this state, the body progressively shuts down systems to optimize survival. This transformation is largely powered by the release of adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream. These hormones persist well past the 
point of initial stimulation and our ability to function at a higher cognitive level is essentially blacked out. The military studies these reactions carefully to optimize soldiers’ performance in combat and rates human reactions with a color code. Code yellow is “vigilant” and equates with “optimal performance.” We should seek to stay in this zone for safe flight. Past Code Red, sensory and cognitive performance are rapidly decreasing.
Once you terrify a learner, you lose their trust as they become a helpless “dog watching TV” – they see your lips moving but there is no real comprehension. This “fear reaction” can also result in a dangerous situation known as “learner lock-up.” This “muscular freeze” is seen in most frightened animals and can result in a dangerous struggle for control in flight. Successful flight training requires a progressive transition from “fear” to “safe and comfortable.” This process requires “normalizing” in the good sense. This is why the Arctic is “normal” to an Eskimo or the triple canopy jungle “normal” to an indigenous dweller; as humans we adapt and accommodate new experiences. And a fear of falling is one of the most deeply embedded human terrors. Overcoming fear incrementally is the biggest hurdle to successful aviation education.
People in the grip of true terror can feel utterly hijacked. Soldiers throw down their guns and run away. Pilots lose control and crash their planes. In such cases the grip of fear feels like possession by some implacable alien force. Extreme Fear
This progressive expansion of the comfortable learning zone is tested with each more challenging maneuver the CFI introduces. Ask someone how much they remember about their bungee jump or tandem skydive: nada! If there were not a picture or video as proof, it may not have happened at all. Early aviation learning requires “normalizing” every new challenging experience; overcoming fear and substituting meaningful understanding.
A full preflight explanation and reflective debrief are essential to add meaning and context to assist in this acclimation process. Reflective analysis allows your learners to process what they saw and felt during a flight lesson creating meaningful memories and insights – this is learning. Adult learners cleverly mask their fear with various ego defenses. A trusted learning environment and honest feedback make these experiences useful and help move beyond fear. Ego defenses and excuses are a huge impediment to learning. The “learning zone” requires honest self-assessment and does not tolerate excuses. It is OK to know nothing initially, that is the essence of learning something new.
Slow flight and stalls are introduced way too early in primary flight training programs. To prevent the fear that diminishes learning, substitute ground reference maneuvers and “patterns at altitude” (stabilizing pitch and power configurations) before stalls to allow more practice in the normal flight envelope. This creates a safer “learning zone” and gradually acclimates learners to flight. Save the more challenging experiences for when your learner has acclimated to the flight environment. Every hour spent terrified in a plane is wasted time/money for your learner and a disincentive to continuing with their training (why do 80% of new trainees never finish?)
Although “challenge and adventure” are the primary motivators for learning to fly, too much of either quickly becomes poisonous to learning and motivation. It is, unfortunately, not uncommon for emotionally tone-deaf CFIs to charge through a rote syllabus and terrify their learners with extreme challenges before they get fully comfortable with flight. I have heard CFIs say “You are going to hate this, but it’s in the syllabus and you need to know it!” This is “too much, too soon” and a toxic approach to learning! Fly safely out there (and often)!
Visit SAFE in the Bravo hangar #83/4 at Sun N’ Fun (April 9-14) and join our spring raffle for a Lightspeed Delta Zulu and other great prizes in our spring raffle! We are holding a “CFI-Roundup” on Saturday at 16:00 in the Prop 75 building (right by the exhibit hangars) and ice cream is offered to incentivize participation.
Our SAFE CFI-PRO™ webinar series continues with the presentation of “Incremental Mastery” on April 7th at 8pm EDT. Register here!
SAFE CFI-PRO™ provides “Missing Manual” of master CFI techniques (what the FAA did not teach you) for flight instructors to accelerate teaching performance from “good to great.” FAA Master WINGS credit is available for participation and the two YouTubes from previous webinars are available on the SAFE YouTube channel.
A vital recognition in our students and ourselves. Have you ever had a student put you in a situation which shuts down your ability to learn how they’re doing or perform in a way to benefit them?
I want to touch on the ‘bell curve of emotion’ founded as the Yerkes-Dodson Law of 1908;
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Yerkes/Law/
Similar to Einstein’s theory of relativity, it was the first of its kind and the more researchers tried to disprove it or repeat it, the more valid and versatile it became. Commonly used within mental health conversations, we see the performance level of response turn into suffering at an undefiled, but gradual point. This is the most important part! A bell curve by definition, continuous probability, provides guidance meaning a course will slowly change direction, but not suddenly. The earlier you can recognize the descent, the easier it is to correct. You can see this in many situations. With mental health, we know depression didn’t start yesterday. It was progressing in a direction which needed set changes to slowly reverse course.
Applying this to a student whose overall excitement is through the roof doesn’t mean it’s time to teach them an aerobatic air show routine. This bell curve would see both ends quickly due to a severe change agent. We want to keep that upward movement and see the stress of learning aviation is peaking performance of both learning and skill. Not all students have the same rise to peak and the flatter the curve the safer situation you have when stress impairs learning. Like the air show student, excitement turned into dizziness and puke quickly where a longer break in flying may be required rather than an overloaded solo prep with appropriate learning curve may need a day or two to rest and return better than they were prior.
Pay attention to the excitement and the strain. It’s going to help you, the instructor, keep progress at your students peak or at least always near the area!! Great article!