#1 CFI Challenge: Determining The”Starting Point!”

Successful aviation education requires balancing three major challenges that are different for every lesson. We fly in a highly distracting environment that changes with the weather and ATC. Variable threats and challenges can cause fear that shuts down learning; what level of challenge is appropriate for your learner today?  Finally, your learner comes to each lesson with a unique level of skill, knowledge, and confidence that depends on their commitment, motivation, and mindset.  To be successful, a CFI must assess and balance these variables to determine an effective starting point for each unique lesson. This decision is the most important factor leading to educational success. And it is seldom what the logbook or syllabus would seem to indicate.

Their Opinion First

Your successful starting point for an effective lesson depends on your learner’s level of preparation, capacity, and confidence on that particular day. Obviously, weather and the planned mission are big factors determining this decision, but so are your learner’s personal levels of retained skill and confidence. This is an opportunity to build honesty and introspection which are the heart of risk management.

Start with your learner’s personal (IMSAFE) assessment and include their educational progress from the homework. What questions do they have? Where was their confusion? Do *they* feel prepared for today’s lesson? This personal honesty and introspection are required tools for every safe pilot and part of the ACS. Your personal assumptions from previous performances are probably inaccurate; listen carefully here to their assessment. Time has passed since the last lesson and every pilot has a varying bandwidth of capability and confidence.

If you are working with a new learner, this initial inquiry needs to be more extensive to prepare and conduct an effective – and safe – lesson. Important pro tip: the right starting point is rarely where the logbook or new client says it is. Be curious (and suspicious) because your safety depends on it. This is also the time to determine the actual legal PIC responsibility and also aircraft airworthiness. Determining your learner’s knowledge and skill is an art. Remember, as DPEs we work with carefully prepared, current pilots. A CFI might be working with a “rusty pilot” who has not flown in 15 years and (potentially) turning them back into a pilot with only an endorsement (bigger, scarier job). Here are some ideas the CFI-PRO™ might use:

Assess and “Calibrate” Every Unique Learner

After IMSAFE, expand your inquiry to include more variables from the P-A-V-E list. Let your learner lead this discussion. How comfortable are they in the aircraft, what scares them during instruction? Are they confident enough today to “extend their envelope?” An effective educator must be curious and compassionate. You cannot obtain this critical information by “talking at them!” You need to ask questions and LISTEN! An honest caring relationship is essential to any learning success. Get to know your learner. These risk assessment areas are part of the ACS too if they are going for a test. A daily discussion is critical to an effective (correlative) understanding of these risk assessment topics.

A good CFI must be (or become) a “people person” This is contrary to the typical pilot “hero personality.” The educator plays the totally different role of a “compassionate coach.”  There is some psychology – and even some “therapy” – required here. You need to ramp up your own personal motivation and curiosity (watch that CFI burn out);”What are your problems so far, what scares you?” Every learner has unique concerns and abilities. If you are going to be effective as an educator, an honest relationship is required. You need to create a safe “learning zone” on the ground and in the air.

Work at Your Learner’s Level (Flexibility!)

On the top of every lesson plan I ever created, I put something the FAA forgot: PREREQUISITES! What is the exact level of your learner on this day? From that warm-up “meet and greet” assessment, you determined your learner’s level. Now it is essential to place them accurately on the “learning ladder” toward your mutual piloting goal. Visualize your favorite hung-over frat student:  no homework, no processing power, who wants to be a pilot to impress his friends. If that is today’s “CFI challenge” we are probably just going to do ground school! If they do not have all the prerequisites to start your planned lesson, you need to be flexible and adapt to the new level. If they are not ready for the lesson it will be either frustrating or confusing (usually both). Step down a few levels and review and go forward from there; every “learning adventure” is different.

As an example: Visualize attempting a lesson on chandelles with a learner who cannot fly a coordinated climbing turn left and right in the pattern. You are obviously wasting time and money. Find the starting point, and build from there; this requires your curiosity and communication and the flexibility to adapt to the unique needs of the learner on this particular day; game on!

Real “Education” Happens on the Ground

Once you have a stable starting point for your unique learner on a particular day, adjust and recalibrate your presentation. It is essential to cover everything extensively for this new lesson before you start the engine(s). Questions are a great way to draw out your learner and assess their level of understanding. A canned lecture (those FOI preplanned lessons) gives you no indication of their capabilities or understanding.

The secret of aviation education is that we really do not teach anything entirely in the air! Once you are in motion, your learner’s mind is occupied with the buzzing environment and aircraft control. Learning happens with both learner preparation (homework) and the pre-brief/debrief. Reflective analysis after every flight builds the pilot’s habit of honest personal assessment and lifetime learning (try it). Next week we will talk about some inflight techniques for effective education aloft. Fly safely out there (and often)