Up close and personal

They can also be the traits that the student picks up with the thought that is the way an instructor or commercial pilot should be like.

The aircraft cockpit is an amazing place. Typically small and cramped it must be the world’s worst classroom. There is engine noise as well as a constant stream of distractions such as the radio, then there are controls to be operated correctly, gauges to check, and the need to continuously scan externally and internally. And you must not forget to take notice of the instructor who is rubbing elbows with you as he or she tries to turn mush into an aviator’s brain.

For the instructor to best come across as the right person to deliver the message on how to fly, he or she must receive a certain level of respect from the student. That respect could come from several aspects.

The first is how the instructor delivers his lesson plans onthe ground and in the air. The second is the way the instructor is seen by the student. This is perhaps the most important.

Does he look like a worthwhile person to instruct? Polished shoes with shirt and trousers pressed, a neat haircut and clean-shaven? Is he like the figures in the flying school brochure that tell the students how they too can soon be prefer the blue slacks and white collared shirt and epaulettes look. The main thing is that an instructor should look presentable and professional. Clothes do not have to look like they just came off the rack at David Jones, but clean, neat and tidy should be the order of the day.

After all, for the dollars that the student will spend per hour he or she is going to expectflying a kero burner with a regional or major airline? Or does he look like a slob and maybe that indicates his flying is the same? There are exceptions and no two flight schools will have the same dress codes. Indeed, jeans and a polo shirt could well be the normal dress code for some flight schools while others value for money, both in the air and on the ground, and a presentable instructor can be an indication of that value for money.

The other area of note for instructors is being up close and personal in the cockpit.

This is the place where an instructor who needs a shower and touch of underarm deo-dorant, who has bad breath and does not know what Gillette makes, can lose a student even if a good teacher.

Just think. How would you like to be in very close proximity to someone for perhaps hours at a time if they were on the nose? A note of caution.

Guys, go easy on the aftershave, and girls, the perfume. And personal habits go two ways.

One female instructor recounts how she would tell some students to use some underarm she had placed in the gents before she would fly with them! For the instructor who wants to go on to fly with a regional or major airline or be a corporate pilot, the lessons of dress and personal habits are something that should be learnt at an early stage. The expression ‘look the part, act the part, be the part’ is so applicable to a pilot wanting to move forward and upwards, a touch of personal discipline that is carried over to the operation side. It is not possible to change overnight from a long haired homeboy in torn jeans to being a neat professional looking airline pilot with a quiet confident air of efficiency about him. It all takes time and practice.

Flight school operators and airline owners have one thing in common and that is they are basically conservative people.

They want to do business with conservative people, people who know how to dress and smell correctly, people who have money to spend on flying.

To be part of that scene means that an instructor or commercial pilot should be presentable to the clients at all times and indeed, if at all possible, be just a touch better. n Contact Dave by email at: flyer02@optusnet. com. au

One female instructor recounts how she would tell some students to use some underarm she had placed in the gents before she would fly with them!