Pilot Math for Students

Intro

“Why the **** am I in this class?”

This is a common grumble students have about learning math. In my experience, that is due to three major failures:

1. Textbooks that emphasize boring, repetitive, rote operations that lack any context.
2. Scenario problems that are so patently absurd, that every student rolls their eyes when they see them.
3. Few real-world applications where students get to think through something first, then grab tools from their mathematical toolbox to figure out an answer.

These issues lead to disengagement. As a society, our efforts at teaching numeracy get a big, fat F. We can, and should, do better.

Quadratic scaling occurs commonly in lift and related functions

Trigonometry: when to flare is something we can figure out tangentially

How can we fix this?

As individual pilots we may not be able to make a big difference in the politics of education policy, but we can make two contributions relatively easily:

1. Share real-world math scenario problems that we need to solve in order to do our jobs.
2. Mentor students and walk them through the application of mathematical concepts in flying jobs to help show how these skills are actually applicable in the real world.

The best math problems I ever got in school were phrased as questions:

• “How do you figure out the speed of light in the lab?”
• “Given this data set of car sales, how should we construct a pricing model?”

Solving these set me up to be a better analyst and product manager:

• “Given these data about where our customers are happy and unhappy, where should we invest to get them to come back more often?”
• “What capabilities should our new offering have in this new market?”

As a flight instructor and airline pilot, there are further good questions:

• “When should I turn in from an arc”
• “When should we slow down in Denver”

These were way easier to set up conceptually and solve with my prior experience.

I’ve started turning several of the real-world pilot math questions from this site into student-centric scenarios with the goal of making math more enjoyable, relatable, and accessible to students. This list will expand as I add more:

• When to turn to join a course
  

Where do we go from here?

Here’s what I want you all to do:

Educators: please take a look, provide feedback on the format and usefulness, and try them out in a class.
Fellow pilots: please get in touch with other good scenarios that I can link or cite.

We may not be able to solve all of the issues facing the education system. Making a small dent through better engagement will help motivate youngsters to pay a bit more attention and potentially even pursue careers in aerospace. “I’m in this ****ing class because airplanes are cool and I want to be an engineer/dispatcher/route planner. Maybe not a pilot, those kids are B students who stare out the window too much.”