Recognize Target Fixation
Go back to when you learned to ride a bike. You see a log on your path and keep looking at it; you will generally hit it. Those of you who drive motorcycles know about pot-holes and other obstacles have the same attraction.
The same thing happens when flying. When I watched my student's head look down to some point on the ground, he dove for it and hit it. Another reason I continually remind a student to look at the horizon is that I can generally attribute my less-than-perfect landings to some distraction on the runway ahead of me and losing focus on the horizon. Typically, using the excuse that I wanted to test out the bungees on the Super Cub landing gear isn't believable.
Students do this a lot on landings; sometimes, they fixate on their aim point. I teach them to look farther down the runway earlier. A ballooned landing often resulted from a last-minute realization of staring at the target and a quick reaction not to impact the ground at a high rate of descent.
I see the same issue when on tow. When the student starts to focus too much on the towplane and forgets about the horizon, their bank angle, nose attitude, etc. They end up way out of position and confused about how they got to such a steep bank angle. I remind them that they are in a separate aircraft, should pay attention to their bank angle and the horizon, and should not stare at the towplane.
When thermalling, target fixation also becomes an issue. I had a student watch over his right shoulder at the glider above and behind us. As he did this, he pushed down with his right foot and back and left with the stick. Thankfully, our lesson before was a spin lesson as we got the 2-33 to fully develop a spin before he looked straight ahead again.
One radio call when I had my Nimbus 3 was, "W5, do you want to use your parachute?" After later talking to him, he said he was watching me as he entered the thermal and just kept watching me as he got closer and closer. He watched my wingtip as he passed by him.
You should glance at traffic but continue to look around for other traffic and also look at where you want to go along in the same thermal track. You mustn't get target fixation on one item and continue to scan.
Banner photo by Sean Franke
Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.
