Hopefully, every aviation educator has had a student who excelled, passionately taking every lesson further, expanding every thought or skill to a level of excellence. These learners seem like genetic anomalies, where we plant the seeds and experience an almost magical transformation. Other learners need to be dragged along, and never seem to fully flourish. They seem perfectly happy with mediocre performance and never become passionate lifetime learners. What is the “secret sauce” that creates excellence?
Inspiring expertise in piloting requires so many diverse skills and aptitudes it almost defies explanation. In aviation, we point to experts like Sully or Al Haynes (pick your favorite) to model expertise, but we are often frustrated trying to recreate these remarkable attributes in our students. Dr. Gary Kline, an amazing learning psychologist, has patiently deconstructed expert performance with “Cognitive Task Analysis.” Unfortunately, even having a “box of necessary parts” only gives us hints and does not tell you how to reliably recreate pilot mastery and expertise.
The core responsibility for educators is not creating an expert end product as much as providing the pathway and inspiration to create a “lifetime learner.”How do we embed an urge for excellence into every pilot during training?” Viewed negatively, how do we prevent the “happy D- student” that eventually also becomes a pilot for life and infects our aviation system (perhaps flying a personal jet over your house as you read this?) This endless enigma is the primary source of frustration for educators and safety researchers. This often leads to disillusionment and burn-out as history repeats itself. There is however, a very clear solution to this problem and a toolkit for creating pilot success and mastery.
As I have written before
, the FAA standards never describe (or require) “mastery” or “expertise.” They only tell us when “mediocre” becomes “unacceptable” and more training is required (to achieve the minimum piloting level). The FAA only draws the line between “pass and fail.” Unless there is an internal “urge for excellence” within every pilot, there is no passion, motivation and upward skill trajectory after a “pathetic certification.” Nothing prevents “the happy D-” or inspires improvement for this sad performer in our current aviation system. I know many good pilots who are surprised (and frustrated) to discover the same low-performers they met during initial flight school are eventually sitting next to them when they finally get into jets; the “happy D-” never improves.
The real secret to inspiring excellence in pilots starts by creating a “self-aware learner” beginning with the very first flight lessons. Until and unless a person is aware of what they do NOT know, there is no pathway or motivation for improvement and a personal pursuit of excellence. It is incumbent upon every educator to share the bigger picture regularly and create this pathway toward success. Critical habits like self-questioning and self-efficacy build the “urge for excellence” that always strives for better and builds a margin of skill and safety. A desire for mastery also creates personal responsibility for being better (no more excuses) and ultimately leads to “command authority” (a rare attribute in our modern culture).
CFI, Teach Incremental Mastery
The specifictoolkit to an “expert pilot,” with pilot in command authority, starts with the incremental mastery method of instruction. This technique requires recognizing (and celebrating) every small learning achievement immediately; “you got that, you did a great job, and now you are in charge of that!” The instructor hands over of complete responsibility to the student a step at a time, creating a sense of mastery from day one. This sustains student motivation and builds that essential urge for excellence. (Cross your arms and tape your mouth shut).
As CFIs we are all guilty of “helping too much.” We all know a good CFI should mostly be asking questions, not answering them. The CFI that takes total control from the right seat quickly spoils any sense of student accomplishment and mastery. And this rigid learning environment also prevents any student errors and self-correction (both critical to learning and self-mastery). Ultimately, too much control by a CFI ruins self-motivation and learning on the part of the student. A micro-managed student could easily become part of the 80% drop-out rate in aviation – for good reason. It’s critical to remember the ultimate CFI goal is to safely get out of the aircraft (become superfluous)! By contrast, every student who sees the bigger picture and feels empowered is on the road to becoming a responsible PIC and an inspired lifetime learner. This all starts on “day one” and requires great skill and great patience on the part of the CFI.
Some students are obviously quicker to embrace personal responsibility than others. Transferring PIC authority can take more time for some; so it helps to be patient and keep the learning fun. Eventually, every successful pilot must achieve “self-efficacy” and “command authority,” or they will never be a successful PIC. This essential core skill (at every pilot level) also involves the metacognitive skill of knowing personal limitations and accepting the need to continually improve. Expert pilots have a core of humility and a burning inner need to learn more and improve. The problem with the “happy D-” pilots is the mistaken illusion they are “good to go.” They are writing checks on an empty bank account. This ignorance coupled with larger ego and narcissistic tendencies is the cause of the well-known Dunning-Kreuger Effect.
Lifetime learning in aviation is a continuum of acquiring, building, and refining the necessary mental library of experience and procedural skills. This process leads first to competence, then mastery and finally expertise. Once you have achieved a level of expertise, there is an additional empyrean 5th level of “reflective competence” or “artful flying” where the total function is fluid and almost magical. I highly recommend the book Artful Flying by Cpt. Michael Maya Charles. Unfortunately, an alternate path is also possible at the the higher levels of experience. This is the “know it all” characterized by complacency and an ironic diminishing of skills with more hours (the “been there, done that” EZ-PZ attitude). Very dangerous; let’s not go there! Keep it fun and artful. Fly safe out there and have fun.
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