Teaching the aerotow

I'm sorry, but I'm with the others that simply delay
teaching the aerotow until the students have a firm
idea of how to turn the aircraft using co-ordinated
use of the stick and rudder, and know how to judge
that the aircraft is in straight and level flight.
Any early notion that you turn or control the direction
of the aircraft with the use of rudder alone is just
not right and will plant the seeds for the stall/spin
scenario later. Also it is important for the first
6-8 flights that the student not have their hand on
the stick during the takeoff and landing. During the
initial and final phases of flight the aircraft requires
large movements on the controls. A high per centage
of students that are are exposed to these movements
early in their flight training become 'stick mixers'
on aerotow. On the other hand, once you stop introducing
the aerotow too soon (they can follow through on the
controls once you are through lower level turbulence),
you see the 'stick mixing' virtually disappear and
you get better aerotowing skills out of a wider range
of your student populations. Further they don't seem
to take any longer in terms of total flights, to learn
the aertow.

Both the phenomena noted above are good examples that
our students learn both what we intend and what we
don't intend if we are not careful, and how powerful
the law of primacy is. What appears to be easy in
the beginning is not always the right thing to do.

Paul Moggach (4,000 flights in the back seat)
Paul Moggach