Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

6.2 Briefing Aids

A picture is always worth a thousand words, and thus the effective use of training aids will greatly improve the student's ability to grasp the concept that you are trying to explain. Ensure that you have appropriate training aids set up prior to commencing the brief, and ensure you rehearse how and when you are going to use each of these aids. Use of the white board, aircraft models, and cockpit photos, in addition to any prescribed aids such as PowerPoint, is encouraged.

The aids are not decoration. They serve the same purpose the briefing itself serves: getting the how of the upcoming session into the trainee's working model before the session opens. A spoken briefing reaches the trainee through one channel; a briefing supported by a whiteboard sketch of the approach profile, a model that orients the cockpit relationship, or a photograph of the panel layout, reaches the trainee through two or three channels and is correspondingly more durable. The depth treatment of training aids and the techniques for using each one lives in 4.1 Introduction; this section addresses how the aids are used specifically in the brief.

6.2.1 Style, Tone and Level

It is important to be professional and motivated. This will influence the student, and highlight that the instructor is personally interested in their progress.

The three-word framing (Style, Tone, Level) compresses a longer point. Style is the manner of delivery (formal versus conversational, distant versus engaged); Tone is the affect carried in voice and body language (interested, supportive, brisk, dismissive); Level is the calibration to audience (a brief pitched at a 30,000-hour captain reads as patronising; the same brief pitched at a new joiner reads as clear). Professional and motivated is the floor for all three; the calibration is the instructor's continuing judgment based on the trainee in front of them.

6.2.2 Sequence of Pre Flight Brief

The four-step sequence is the operational template for the brief itself. It is the order the brief runs in, regardless of training event, and the structure on which the 6.5 Introduction (General Information) and the 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model hang their content.

1. Relax the student

Talk for a moment about matters not necessarily associated with the flight or simulator. For example: How was your weekend? Where do you live?

The opening is short and deliberate. A trainee arriving at a brief is often carrying a non-trivial level of apprehension (the upcoming session matters; the instructor is unfamiliar; the trainee may have come straight from a duty period). A two-minute conversation about ordinary matters lowers the apprehension to a level where the trainee can take in the brief that follows. Skipping this step does not produce a more efficient brief; it produces a brief delivered to a trainee who is still reorienting from the corridor to the briefing room.

2. Introduction

Use the aim to fully introduce the sequence. Spend time ensuring the student understands the purpose of the session and what skills are expected of him or her by the end of the flight. The aim should reflect the training outcomes of the sortie.

The Introduction step is the first place the lesson plan's aim is read into the brief. The aim is a single statement that culminates the lesson elements or objectives; it is what the trainee is being trained toward. The detailed treatment of the aim and how it is condensed from multiple objectives lives in 6.5 Introduction (General Information); the Introduction step here is where it is delivered.

3. Session Profile

The procedures, rules, and considerations applicable to the exercise should be explained, focusing on the how, rather than solely what is to be done. Where possible, visual cues, timings, anticipations, and control techniques should be explained as much as possible prior to the actual sequence. When deciding whether to brief a specific point, the instructor should consider if it needs to be done on the ground (e.g. details such as pointing out the location of instruments, or how to move switches/buttons/controls). Also, discuss the following sub-elements:

a. Know to the Unknown

Use WSK (Whole, Subject, Key; established during the revision part of the 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model) and always try to take the student from a known skill set and extrapolate to the new required skill set. This will provide the student with the confidence that this new task is just an extension of something that they have already experienced or can already do.

b. Establish Keywords

The brain uses a lot of capacity to process speech, so when time is critical (in dynamic flight manoeuvres such as landing), verbal conversation can overload available brain capacity. Therefore establishing and using keywords allows meaning and context to be associated with a word.

The keyword discipline is what makes high-workload phases of flight executable as a crew. A standard call ("V1", "rotate", "stable") carries a precise mutually-understood meaning; an extemporaneous sentence ("looks like we're at the right speed for that thing now") does not, and it costs working-memory cycles to compose and decode. The brief is where the keywords for the upcoming session are pre-loaded so the crew is not inventing language under load.

c. Common Student Errors

Discuss mistakes that students commonly make during that particular sequence, in order that your student is prepared to avoid them (that is one less thing you have to fix later).

The pre-emptive treatment is operationally cheaper than the corrective treatment: the trainee who has been told the common error is more likely to recognise it as it begins and avoid completing it, and the instructor avoids spending debrief time on an error the briefing could have prevented.

d. Teach How

The how step is the load-bearing step of the Session Profile, and the load-bearing step of the brief overall. The manuals are the source of truth for what should happen; the instructor is the source of truth for how it lands in this trainee's hands at this point in their training. The instructor who cedes the how to the manual ("read the FCOM section on this manoeuvre") is not briefing.

4. Summary / Airex

Explain the sequence of events that will take place in the simulator/aircraft and how the session will run. Summarise who will be doing what, and when, so the student knows what is expected of him or her. Finally, re-emphasise the aim of the exercise.

The Summary closes the brief by walking the trainee through the run-of-show: who flies which sector, who operates which controls, where the freezes (if any) occur, and where the session-defining decision points are. The re-emphasis of the aim returns the trainee to the why of the session before they walk to the simulator: the brief opened with the aim and closes with the aim, which is the structure that holds the in-between content together.

How the four steps map onto A-W-A-R-E

The four-step Sequence of Pre Flight Brief and the 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model cover the same brief from two complementary angles. The four-step sequence is the flow of the brief (what happens first, second, third, last); the A-W-A-R-E Model is the content scaffold (the five categories of content the brief covers, in any order the flow demands). They map approximately as follows: the Relax and Introduction steps deliver the Aim and the Why; the Session Profile delivers the Administration, the Revision, and the Elements; the Summary returns to the Aim. An instructor uses both: the four-step sequence to know what to do next in the room; the A-W-A-R-E Model to know whether the brief covers the required content categories.

Cross-references

  • 6.1 Introduction. The briefing's purpose, the standing rules, the briefing guidelines, the formal-briefing minimum content, the safety briefing.
  • 6.3 Preparation. The preparation that precedes the brief (location, environmental safety, equipment, training aids, scene-setting).
  • 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model. The content scaffold the four-step sequence delivers against.
  • 4.1 Introduction. The depth treatment of how each individual aid is used; the briefing context is the application addressed in this section.
  • 3.4 Voice. Pairs with the Style / Tone / Level discipline; voice is the dominant carrier of tone in a brief.
  • Facilitation. The instructional technique the teach how step operates within: surface the technique in a way the trainee can engage with, rather than dictating it.