8.1 Introduction

The aim of the flying instructor is to change the knowledge, skills and attitude of the student in order to achieve a required standard in a defined timeframe. A student could possibly learn all the required skills through trial and error, with no intervention, but this process would be lengthy (cost money) and would not be without risk. Therefore the role of the flying instructor is to achieve this change in behaviour as safely and efficiently as possible.

#What "as safely and efficiently as possible" means operationally

The airborne instructional framing is deliberately compressed: three sentences that imply the rest of the material. Unpacking the implications:

• "Change in knowledge, skills and attitude" is the KSA formulation: airborne instruction is not isolated to handling. The instructor's target spans cognitive content (procedures, limits, system behaviour), psychomotor execution (handling the controls to a defined standard), and the affective register (judgement, discipline, CRM posture, professional bearing). All three are in scope every flight.
• "To achieve a required standard" binds the instructor to an external reference: the defined standard for the lesson, set in the syllabus and the lesson plan, not the instructor's preferred standard. The five 7.3 General Debrief Techniques (Understand, Be familiar with, Be able to, Know, Be proficient) are the granular target the lesson plan selects from.
• "In a defined timeframe" binds the instructor to the syllabus: the airborne sequence is one slot in a programme that has to deliver the trainee to line-flying standard within a course duration. An instructor who treats every session as open-ended re-teaching breaks the programme.
• "As safely and efficiently as possible" is the rationale for the existence of the role. Trial-and-error learning is possible (humans can teach themselves to fly given enough hours and a survivable aircraft), but slow, expensive, and not without risk. The instructor exists to compress that learning curve while keeping the risk profile inside the approved programme's tolerance.

#Where the airborne sequence sits in the wider training event

The instructional event has three phases: pre-flight brief, the airborne (or simulator) session itself, and the post-flight debrief. 6.1 Introduction specifies the brief; 7.1 Introduction specifies the debrief; airborne instructional technique specifies the conduct used during the session itself. The boundaries are operational, not absolute: the 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model introduced in pre instructional briefing material carries forward into airborne instruction (the R of revision and the E of expectations both reach into the airborne sequence), and the 7.3 General Debrief Techniques in post instructional debrief material are previewed by the in-flight micro-debriefs the Monitor phase of the 8.4 Fundamentals of Airborne Instruction supports.

The What the Student Knows (WSK), What to Teach (WTT), How to Teach it (HTT) triad introduced in 8.3 The Student is the bridge between brief and airborne sequence: the brief and the syllabus establish the WSK; the WTT comes out of the lesson plan; the HTT is what airborne instructional technique is about.

#Connections

• 8.2 The Flying Instructor. Describes the four traits of the effective instructor and the preparation discipline.
• 8.3 The Student. Operationalises What the Student Knows (WSK) as the starting condition for airborne instruction.
• 8.4 Fundamentals of Airborne Instruction. The DDM model that operationalises the "as safely and efficiently as possible" rationale.
• 6.1 Introduction. The brief that precedes the airborne sequence; the WSK established there is consumed by 8.3 The Student.
• 7.1 Introduction. The debrief that follows the airborne sequence; the in-flight Monitor-phase observations feed it.
• 6.6 The A-W-A-R-E Model. The briefing structure whose Revision and Expectations components carry into the airborne sequence.
• KSA. The Knowledge-Skills-Attitude target the opening sentence specifies.