Flying Instructor's Patter Manual

Patter is the term given by flying instructors to the language they use while demonstrating training exercises in the air. It is a very special language as it has to be precisely coordinated with control movements and absolutely lucid. "Patter" is also a picture language because the art of flying is largely about visual cues. The good flying instructor should know these cues and a prime object of this book is to highlight them, not only in the text, but with matching pictures as seen from the cockpit. The Patter book is the first flying manual ever to record verbatim the language of the flying instructor as spoken in the air.

“Patter” is the term given by flying instructors to the language they use while demonstrating training exercises in the air. It is a very special language as it has to be precisely coordinated with control movements and absolutely lucid.

Peter Phillips has been instructing since 1952 on all types of aircraft. After leaving the RAF he instructed with a commercial school, taking students to their commercial licenses on singles and instrument ratings on twins. He was a Panel Examiner for fifteen years and is currently MD of Speedtwin Developments Ltd in the UK.

Robert Cole has been flying since 1955 and instructing since 1965. In 1973 he was posted to 'A' Squadron Boscombe Down and it was here that he was the central figure in the Thames Television Test Pilot shown in 1976. He left the RAF in 1979 to join Pilatus as a test pilot and in 1989 he joined the CAA as the Light Aircraft Test Pilot.