AN EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF A GROUND PILOT TRAINER IN GENERAL AVIATION.

Abstract : An experiment was conducted to assess the teaching effectiveness of a government furnished ground pilot trainer utilized in instruction designed to develop primary and instrument flight proficiencies. The design of the private pilot study required the selection of three groups of candidates, differential employment of the ground trainer with each of these three groups, and comparison of the measures of training progress and attained proficiency versus a comparison group of pilot candidates taught by the usual methods, i.e. without use of a ground trainer. The instrument rating experiment required the selection of ten pilots, all with minimum IFR experience, to be trained to flight performance required for instrument rating, utilizing the ground trainer combined with flight instruction. Ground trainer instructional hours and aircraft instructional hours required to develop proficiency in primary flight ability and instrument rating ability are reported. An analysis of the data revealed that the ground trainer does not reduce the total number of instructional hours necessary to achieve flight proficiencies but the trainer does reduce the number of aircraft instructional hours ordinarily required in the acquisition of such proficiency. The ground trainer was found to be of most value in developing navigational competence and command ability. (Author)