“Fifty…forty…thirty…twenty…ten…FLARE.” The instructor pilot’s hand, previously just shadowing controls, now pulls back on the yoke, flaring the aircraft at the final moment and bringing it to a safe landing. This is colloquially called “The Hand of God,” and the student pilot usually doesn’t know it happened.
I sat in a “multi-element” formation brief, a student pilot briefed the formation. I was in a different aircraft than the briefer, myself just a co-pilot. The briefer reviewed a planned formation “rejoin” that was not only poorly briefed, but I felt certain was doomed to failure even if briefed well.
“This concludes my briefing. Are there any questions?”
I looked at my own aircraft commander, thinking he would ask for clarification. But nobody asked. A room full of instructor pilots, and no one said a thing. Maybe the briefed plan wasn’t so bad?
The briefing separated into “single-ship” briefs. I had to ask my commander.
“Do you understand the rejoin? I don’t think it’s going to work at all.”
My aircraft commander, not only an instructor pilot, but also a weapons officer responded, “I know it’s not going to work, but it isn’t dangerous. He’ll learn the lesson better when he tries and fails.”
The best instructor pilots know exactly how far to let a student go. What lessons need to be corrected in the classroom? What lessons on the ground? What lessons must be learned by letting the student do exactly what they want and watching the plan blow up in their face? The best instructors know.
If those who are wicked know how to teach their students, how much more does our Father in heaven know how to teach His children? How much more does He know how to humble us by our own failure? How much more does He know how to “flare” the aircraft of our life and save us from disaster? And so often…we don ’t even know His hands are on the controls.