Straight-and-Level Flight

The evaluator must select at least one Task from Fundamentals of Flight (FAA-S-ACS-25, Area VIII note). Whichever one you draw, the Skills line reads the same way it does across the whole CFI ACS: "The applicant demonstrates and simultaneously explains how to" establish and maintain straight-and-level flight (AI.VIII.A.S1) and analyze and correct common errors (AI.VIII.A.S2). You are not being graded on whether you can hold altitude — you are being graded on whether you can hold altitude while narrating why, in language a person on lesson two would understand.

Because every other maneuver decomposes into them. The AFH makes the argument explicitly: a takeoff is a ground roll plus a brief straight-and-level segment plus a climb; the arrival is descents, turns, and straight-and-level; final approach is a descent transitioning to straight-and-level while slowing (AFH ch. 3). It then warns that any deficiency in the four fundamentals becomes a barrier to learning the advanced maneuvers — so a student who cannot hold a heading will not be able to learn a chandelle, and diagnosing that is your job.

Flight in which heading and altitude are maintained (AFH ch. 3) — two separate jobs a student will try to do with one input. Straight is a bank problem, solved by looking at the wingtips against the natural horizon; level is a pitch problem, solved by holding a chosen nose reference point fixed against the natural horizon.

The AFH's framing is worth quoting to the student directly: "anytime the wings are banked, the airplane turns." Heading is not a rudder problem.

The wingtips, both level and equally above or below the horizon depending on whether it is a high-wing or low-wing airplane (AFH ch. 3). The beginner error is trying to level the wings by watching the nose — the nose gives a short horizontal reference line, so small deviations go unnoticed. Worse, the AFH warns that a student who develops the habit of dragging one wing low and holding opposite rudder to hold heading "will have difficulty mastering other flight maneuvers." Name it and kill it on lesson two.

They depend on the student's seating position, height, and posture, so they must be set up on the ground first (AFH ch. 3). Seat the student so they can see adequately over the panel and fully depress the rudder pedals without straining or reaching, then set vertical reference lines with the airplane on a marked centerline. Horizontal reference lines are best established in flight, since there is a different one for each pitch attitude — the AFH's examples are slow flight and cruise configurations. A dry-erase marker or removable tape on the windshield or cowling is an accepted teaching aid, needed only for a short period.

Teaching each maneuver using both outside visual references and flight instruments, starting the first time the maneuver is introduced (AIH ch. 9; AFH ch. 3). The split is explicit: about 90 percent of attention outside for attitude control and traffic scanning, no more than about 10 percent inside for a quick check that validates the attitude already set outside.

The instruments confirm performance; the natural horizon sets attitude. Never the other way round.

Say the limit out loud, too: it is not IMC training. The AIH requires you to impress on the learner — and verify they understand — that introducing flight instruments "does not prepare them for operations in marginal weather or instrument meteorological conditions," with VFR-into-IMC among the most common causes of fatalities (AIH ch. 9).

Attitude first, hold it with control pressure, then trim the pressure off (AFH ch. 3). Trim's only job is to null a constant control pressure so the pilot can divert attention to other tasks. The classic fault — common even among experienced pilots — is flying the airplane with the trim: rolling in nose-up trim to make the airplane climb instead of setting the attitude and then relieving the force. Diagnostic line for the student: any force you feel should be the result of a deliberate input you chose to make, not a force the airplane is applying to you.

In an airplane with multiple trim axes the order is rudder, then elevator, then aileron — but if airspeed is varying, continuously re-trimming rudder and aileron only creates workload, and rudder trim at varying airspeeds is impractical in many propeller airplanes because of built-in compensation for left-turning tendencies (AFH ch. 3). Most light trainers give the first-lesson student elevator trim only.

1. "You have the flight controls."
2. "I have the flight controls."
3. "You have the flight controls," plus a visual check that the other person really has them (FAA-S-ACS-25 Appendix; AIH ch. 9; AFH ch. 1).

Brief it preflight, use it on the practical test, and use it every single time in the airplane. Numerous accidents have come from confusion over who was flying, "particularly between learners and flight instructors" (AIH ch. 9).

No. AI.VIII.A.S1 says only "establish and maintain straight-and-level flight" — there is no altitude, heading, or airspeed number attached, unlike Area IX where steep turns carry entry altitude ±100 feet, airspeed ±10 knots, and bank ±5° (AI.IX.A.S5). Do not read that as license to fly sloppily. The realistic reading: your demonstration has to be good enough to be a model a student would imitate, because the AIH warns learners generally imitate the instructor's performance, so the skill must be demonstrated exactly the way the learner is expected to practice it (AIH ch. 9).

Four components, and naming them separately is what lets you diagnose a student (AFH ch. 3):

• Pitch control — elevator, about the lateral axis, nose up or down relative to the natural horizon.
• Bank (roll) control — ailerons, about the longitudinal axis, to a desired bank angle.
• Power control — throttle, when the situation requires a specific thrust setting or change.
• Trim control — relieves the control pressures after the desired attitude has been attained.

Yaw control is deliberately not on that list; it is used to cancel yaw-induced effects such as adverse yaw and propeller effects. A student who thinks the rudder is a fifth attitude control will fly flat, skidded turns.

Note also what does not change here: "for all practical purposes, the airplane's airspeed remains constant in straight-and-level flight if the power setting is also constant" (AFH ch. 3). That stability is what makes straight-and-level the platform every later lesson launches from — until a power change, or a flap, gear, or spoiler extension generates a pitching moment.

Because resistance varies with the airflow, not with the pilot's intent. Control surfaces sit where they sit as long as the forces on them are balanced; resistance increases as airspeed increases and decreases as airspeed decreases, and increases as the surface moves away from streamlined (AFH ch. 3). So the same yoke displacement produces a different result at 60 knots than at 110. The AFH's conclusion is the one you teach: "it is not the amount of control surface displacement the pilot needs to consider, but rather the application of flight control pressures that give the desired result."

Which is why the grip is a lesson-one item, not a nicety: hold pitch and roll controls lightly with the fingers, since a closed palm "prevents the development of feel." Feet the same — heels on the floor carrying the weight of the feet, ball of each foot on the pedals, legs relaxed (AFH ch. 3).

Feel is sensed through kinesthesis (sensing movement through the body) and proprioception (unconscious perception of movement and spatial orientation), detected by nerves and the semicircular canals (AFH ch. 3). Teach it by naming specific, checkable cues in flight:

• Rushing air gets louder — airspeed increasing, pitch attitude decreasing. Quieter — pitch up, speed down.
• Engine sound in a fixed-pitch airplane decreases as pitch attitude increases, and increases as pitch decreases.
• Seat pressure — increased G in a bank feels the same as a pull-up from a dive.

The AFH's instructional point: teach the difference between perceiving and reacting to those cues versus merely noticing them. And teach the limit — kinesthetic sense relied on alone, without visual information, leads to disorientation and loss of control.

The demonstration-performance method, applied to flight instruction, breaks into three steps (AIH ch. 9) — and the forgotten one is step 2:

1. Instructor tells, instructor does — planned demonstration with verbal explanation, in the same sequence it was explained. The only step where the student is passive.
2. Student tells, instructor does — the forgotten step. The student plays instructor and talks you through it. This is the whole value of the technique: freed from controlling the airplane, the student organizes the sequence mentally ("perceptions begin to develop into insights"), so you catch the misconception before it is absorbed in flying — cheaper under the law of primacy than unlearning it later.
3. Student tells, student does — the student verbalizes while flying.

The parent method has five named phases, and the count matters on the oral (AIH ch. 5): explanation, demonstration, learner performance, instructor supervision, and evaluation. Learner performance and instructor supervision "occur at the same time," but they are still two named phases — answer five, then explain the overlap.

The explanation phase (on the ground) covers explanations that are clear, pertinent to the lesson objectives, and based on the learners' known experience and knowledge; the precise actions they are to perform; a description of the end result; and an invitation to ask questions before you leave the phase. Safety procedures belong to the demonstration step instead, where you demonstrate the skill exactly as the learner is expected to practice it — and any deviation from your explanation must be acknowledged and explained immediately, or the student learns the deviation. In the learner performance / instructor supervision phases, hand over the controls as soon as possible after the demonstration.

Keep it in the same order every time, and keep the jargon out; the AIH warns against language "unnecessarily complicated" that only impresses (AIH ch. 9). A workable script:

• "Clearing left, clearing right. Nothing above, nothing below."
• "Power is set at cruise. I'm not touching it again."
• "Look at the cowling against the horizon — that gap right there is level flight. Take a picture of it."
• "Now both wingtips — equal distance from the horizon. That's straight."
• "Quick look inside — altimeter steady, heading steady. That was one second. Back outside."
• "I'm holding a light pressure. Watch — trim — and now I'm holding nothing."

Then hand it over with the three-step exchange and let them fly it badly for a while.

Do not present all eleven. Brief two or three, then diagnose live. The AFH list for straight-and-level (AFH ch. 3), condensed to what you will actually see:

• Improper or forgotten reference points from one flight to the next.
• Establishing or correcting attitude using the flight instruments instead of the natural horizon, and "chasing" the instruments.
• Mechanically pushing or pulling rather than exerting smooth, accurate pressure; overcontrolling.
• Tight palm grip, desensitizing the hand.
• Not scanning outside for traffic, weather, and terrain.
• Habitually flying one wing low or holding heading with rudder alone.
• Failure to make timely, measured inputs after a deviation.
• Inadequate attention to sensory inputs while developing feel.

Your ACS obligation is AI.VIII.A.S2 — analyze and correct. Naming the error is half; giving the specific corrective action is the other half.

They are flying one wing low and compensating with opposite rudder — a cross-controlled cruise. It works, which is exactly why it is dangerous: the student gets the right answer with the wrong technique, so nothing corrects it except you.

Analyze: they are referencing the nose for bank, so the shallow bank is invisible to them. The same eye-movement fix answers the AFH's single most common integrated-instruction error — making pitch or bank corrections while still looking inside, or fixating on instruments outright. For the first several hours you may simply cover the flight instruments to force outside references or to break a formed habit (AFH ch. 3). The reason is scale: a pitch change worth several inches against the natural horizon is a nearly invisible sliver on the attitude indicator.

Correct: move their eyes. "Look at the left wingtip. Now the right. Tell me which one is higher." Then have them level the wings with coordinated aileron and rudder and watch the heading drift — which proves banked wings turn the airplane. The AFH flags this specific habit as one that blocks mastery of later maneuvers (AFH ch. 3).

Distraction is both a hazard and a training tool, and you have to teach the student to divide attention rather than shed the airplane. The AIH's sanctioned distractions:

• Drop a pencil and ask them to pick it up.
• Ask for a heading to an airport off the chart.
• Reset the clock.
• Retrieve something from the back seat.
• Read the OAT.
• Identify a field suitable for a forced landing.
• Climb 200 feet, hold it, descend 200 feet, hold it (AIH ch. 9).

Two guardrails. NTSB data shows most stall/spin accidents happened when attention was diverted from flying — the intentional practice of stalls seldom caused accidents; inadvertent stalls induced by distraction did. And model the sterile flight deck yourself. Quote the definition accurately, because it is broader than most applicants say: critical phases of flight are all ground operations involving taxi, takeoff, and landing, and all other flight operations below 10,000 feet except cruise flight — no eating, reading, or nonessential chatter in any of it (14 CFR 121.542 as the source concept; AIH ch. 9). The rule grew out of airline accidents but "holds true for the entire aviation community," and the AIH is explicit that the instructor must not only teach the concept but model it.

Make the student own the scan, not you. The AIH is blunt: if learners believe the instructor is handling all scanning, they never develop the habit — and any tendency to enter a maneuver without checking for traffic "needs to be corrected immediately" (AIH ch. 9). The midair-collision data to have ready:

• Flight instructors were onboard in 37 percent of the accidents studied.
• Most occur in VMC, daylight, weekend hours, visibility greater than 3 miles.
• The vast majority at or near nontowered airports and below 1,000 feet AGL.

Teach the constant-relative-bearing rule — no apparent lateral or vertical motion but growing in size means collision course, take immediate evasive action — and teach 14 CFR 91.113 right-of-way early. Reference AC 90-48 and AIM (AFH ch. 1; AIH ch. 9).

Then pick a clearing procedure and insist on it. Some programs mandate two 90° turns in opposite directions before any training maneuver; others let the instructor develop one. The AFH does not mandate a pattern — it requires that you teach an effective procedure and require its use before all turns and before any training maneuver, which combined with proper visual scanning is the most effective collision-avoidance strategy available (AFH ch. 1).

Take them and calmly announce "I have the flight controls" (AIH ch. 9). The AIH's reasoning is the part to have memorized for the oral:

• Always guard the controls and be prepared to take them.
• Do not leave the student on the controls during a recovery — "anxious learners can be incredibly strong and usually exhibit reactions inappropriate to the situation," and there is nothing to gain by fighting for the airplane.
• Learners should never be allowed to exceed the flight instructor's limits.
• And you should not exceed your own ability to perceive the problem, decide, and physically react.

The judgment call scales with the maneuver: be alert and ready to take control on any potentially hazardous maneuver and especially on a first attempt, but if the student is progressing normally, avoid unnecessary interruptions or too much assistance.

Close the lesson with collaborative assessment — the student's self-assessment first, then yours, then a discussion comparing the two, supported by written notes taken during the flight (AIH ch. 9). If a task needs reteaching: demonstrate again, let them practice under direction, then evaluate by observing.