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25     FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S MANUAL

conscious effort and he is still unable to divert much of his attention from the actual handling of the controls to other things that are necessary, particularly around areas of heavy traffic.  When some outside circumstance does not divert his attention, anything is liable to happen due to his lack of ease, experience, or confidence.  He still feels that should he relax his attention from the airplane, a chain of circumstances may be started which will be beyond his ability to control, and consequently he finds little time to pay attention to orientation or traffic.  His field of visual perception is still extremely limited and is confined mainly to the mechanical aids to judgement of flight attitudes and to his instructor.  He has a very poor conception of his relative altitude or of his position with relation to objects on the ground.  Other aircraft are unnoticed until they are close enough to force themselves into the limited area his vision encompasses, and he has no conception of the speed of his approach to other aircraft or objects.

If at this time, the student is given the additional responsibility of landings and take-offs, the result is a chaotic condition in which confused visual and mental perceptions, unfamiliar attitudes of the ship, and poor judgment of air speed and ground speed are all combined.  Even though he may solo as soon, or even sooner, he is in a dangerous stage and in addition he has acquired no background or foundation on which to build his flying ability.

He has had no time to acquire ease, or any sense of feel, and has mastered very few of the technical details of flying, consequently the odds greatly favor disaster of some sort, ranging from a mishap to a major crash.

If, on the other hand, as soon as the mechanics of the turn are mastered to a fair degree, he is given minor problems requiring their application, such as S turns across a road, eights up and down a road free from any fixed point to be crossed each time, climbs, glides, climbing turns, and gliding turns, he gains further experience and a practical application of his knowledge as he gains it.  Under these circumstances he acquires ease, some sense of feel, and a reasonable degree of proficiency in all of the four fundamentals.  Thus he is able to enlarge his field of visual and mental perceptions.

He should then be directed to fly a rectangular course, making 90° turns at each corner, preferably around a field well away from the regular landing area.  In this he learns to judge the speed of the ship relative to the ground and the effect of wind drift, and where to turn with regard to the effects of each in order to turn around a given point on the ground, while at the same time maintaining his altitude.  All of these simulate the conditions to be met in a trip around the landing area, but the additional maneuvers of taking off and landing are absent.

In the meantime, having been allowed to follow through on the controls during all take-offs, landings, and other maneuvers, he will have noted methods of approach and the manner of handling the various minor problems that have arisen.  He also will have absorbed subconsciously much instruction in take-offs and landings through observation of the instructor's actions and the reactions of the aircraft.  This is due to his increased field of perception, both visual and mental.  He will not only have absorbed more instruction but, in addition,