![Learning to capture sight picture is an important element for student pilots. [Credit: Meg Godlewski]](https://www.flyingmag.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/04/Sight-Pic-1-Large.jpeg)
To the student pilots out there: Show of hands—how many of you reading this wish you had a dollar for every time your CFI told you to look outside the cockpit? I’m willing to bet the flight instructors who read this are wishing they got a buck as well.
One of the first challenges a student pilot faces is getting your eyes outside the aircraft.
There’s so much going on in the cockpit, who can blame them for getting distracted? All those dials and gauges and pointers and tapes and numbers and colors…it’s easy to get overwhelmed, especially when you’re not really sure what the instrument is telling you.
Eyes Outside
Flying (puts on CFI cap) is the queen mother of learning how to divide your attention and achieving situational awareness. You do this by keeping your eyes moving, spending 90 percent of your time looking outside, systematically scanning the sky in 10-degree increments looking for traffic or landmarks on the ground and the big kahuna—the sight picture.
What does the view outside the cockpit tell you? Are you climbing or descending? Stop staring at the altimeter! You don’t need the instruments to tell if you are in a climb. In VFR conditions the houses, trees, and everything else on the ground will get smaller as you climb, and you’ll see more sky above the horizon.
- READ MORE: Check the Airplane Logbooks, Save the Flight
- READ MORE: Building Blocks of Proper Pilot Training Can’t Be Skipped
The remaining 10 percent of your time is spent inside the cockpit, looking at the airspeed, magnetic compass, (now) the altimeter, airspeed, and turn coordinator and inclinometer. Specifically the ball in the turn coordinator or the slip/skid indicator will tell you if you’re flying coordinated. Your instructor will also tell you—we get paid to do that. Expect it to take a few lessons for you to understand what straight and level looks like and how to achieve it.
Teachable moment: Straight and level will look different in different models of aircraft. The first time you fly a new-to-you aircraft, remind yourself of this. It’s a bit like driving a car you’ve never driven before as there will be different blind spots and sight picture. One of the skills you’ll develop is how to quickly assess it and apply it during flight.
It Begins With Maneuvers
When you’re learning a maneuver, it usually begins with the CFI demonstrating the first clearing turn, telling the learner where to be looking and what to be looking for, then they turn the controls over to the learner to do the next clearing turn. During the turns the CFI should point out the relationship between the horizon and cowling, noting how the nose of the airplane slides over the horizon.
As part of the lesson the instructor will call your attention to sight picture and the aircraft attitude during climbs, turns, and descents.
Takeoffs
Sight picture is critical during takeoffs and landings. Unfortunately that’s when the aircraft is close to the ground and often at low airspeed, so if something goes wrong, the pilot doesn’t have a lot of time or altitude to correct. Therefore, it can be a challenge to learn.
For the learner struggling with this, a good technique is for the CFI to perform the takeoff while the learner looks out the windscreen, focusing on the sight picture. The CFI calls the airspeed, right rudder application and pitch-up angle, noting the outside references and, if an attitude indicator is installed, the position of the stylized airplane in relation to the horizon.
Another technique has the CFI talking the learner through the takeoff, while guarding the controls to avoid over rotating on climbout, and calling their attention to where to put the nose of the aircraft. To the CFIs, if you have a good vocabulary and the learner listens, learning will take place.
Learners, your CFI may call your attention to something outside the cockpit to put the nose of the aircraft on, like a mountain peak, a tower in the distance, etc. If you don’t see it or aren’t sure you’re looking at the correct thing, please tell them so.
Landings
One of the common problems fledgling pilots face is coming in too fast and trying to arrest the descent by pulling back on the yoke, which leads to a bounce and (cringes) sometimes a porpoise. Unless you’re on fire, don’t try to salvage this situation—go around.
If your CFI tells you to add power and go around, do it—don’t argue. Every instructor has had “Captain Macho” in the cockpit who claims they can salvage the landing. Please don’t be this pilot.
A less common error by the learner in a tricycle-gear aircraft is touching down on the main wheels then pushing the nose down. You don’t need to do this. The nosewheel will come down on its own because the law of gravity is strictly enforced. Just as we’ve never had an airplane stay stuck up there, we’ve never had a nosewheel stay off the pavement during a landing.
It will take a few flights, but you will eventually develop sight picture.
If you decide to pursue your instructor rating, you’ll get to do it all over again from the right seat. Don’t worry. By then you’ll have so much pilot experience that the transition will happen quickly.
