Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

8.2 The Flying Instructor

In order to function as an effective Flying Instructor, one needs more than knowledge of the basic process of teaching a student how to fly. Traits and qualities can be defined that are conducive to achieving the best results from a student. The instructor should be a:

  1. Subject Matter Expert. An instructor should operate the aircraft in a professional manner using the application of correct techniques and have a thorough knowledge of limits, procedures and their own personal limits.
  2. Teacher. As a teacher, the flying instructor will determine the best method of presenting the information to be learnt, adjusting it to suit the ability and temperament of the student.
  3. Psychologist. The instructor should be aware of the student's emotional situation, and vary the presentation of criticism accordingly. He/she must have empathy, and be able to anticipate a student's reactions, therefore preventing situations that reduce the student's ability to learn.
  4. Counsellor. The instructor should be prepared to counsel the student who may be uneasy due to nerves or stress.

Reading the four-trait taxonomy

The four traits are not a ranked list; they describe four registers an effective instructor moves between, often within a single sortie. Each trait corresponds to a different surface of the instructor's job and a different failure mode if absent.

  • The Subject Matter Expert register is the technical floor. The instructor cannot teach what the instructor does not themselves do to standard. "Operate the aircraft in a professional manner" is the everyday demonstration the student watches; "thorough knowledge of limits, procedures and their own personal limits" is the safety floor the instructor enforces. The third element (own personal limits) is the one most often skipped: an instructor who has not honestly mapped their own limits cannot reliably model "I am not going to fly that approach today" for the student. This trait pairs with the preparation discipline immediately below: preparation is what keeps the SME register sharp lesson by lesson.
  • The Teacher register is the pedagogical surface. "Best method of presenting the information" is not a constant; it is selected against the student's ability and temperament. The full toolbox lives in 3.1 Introduction (methods of teaching cognitive skills, voice, the questioning hierarchy, the various ways to put a question, the use of student attention); the 8.4 Fundamentals of Airborne Instruction selects from that toolbox the subset that fits the airborne environment. An instructor who applies only one teaching method (most commonly the demonstrate-and-describe default) will succeed only with the students whose learning style happens to fit it.
  • The Psychologist register is the affective surface. The student's emotional state conditions what the student can absorb: a student who is overloaded, embarrassed, or anxious cannot learn at the rate the syllabus assumes. The instructor's job in this register is to read the state, vary the presentation of criticism accordingly, and pre-empt the situations that drive the state into the unproductive zone. Empathy is the operational tool; anticipation is what turns it into prevention. The line between Psychologist and Counsellor is fine; the Psychologist register prevents the unproductive state from forming, the Counsellor register addresses the unproductive state once it has formed.
  • The Counsellor register is the post-failure surface. When nerves or stress have already taken hold (a botched manoeuvre, a check-ride pressure, a personal issue surfacing in the cockpit), the instructor stops being a teacher and becomes a counsellor: listening, normalising, and rebuilding the conditions under which learning can resume. The full treatment of how a debrief lands a difficult conversation lives in 7.3 General Debrief Techniques; in the airborne phase, the counsellor register surfaces in the brief micro-debriefs the Monitor phase supports and in the decision to abandon a sequence and re-set rather than push through.

8.2.1 Preparation

A good simulator or flight starts with solid instructor preparation. You must know your subject and your student. It is important to be aware of what the student has covered in the syllabus up to this point, and what the training outcomes of the session will be. Standardization is a critical element of the training system and is achieved by all instructors knowing and employing the standardized techniques.

The two preparation imperatives the section names:

  • Know your subject and your student. "Subject" is the airborne lesson content (the manoeuvre, the procedure, the system, the scenario) at the precision level the lesson plan demands. "Student" is the WSK detail (covered in 8.3 The Student): the specific trainee's prior coverage, performance trend, and any flagged areas. The instructor must be able to talk about the student in specific terms before the brief, not in generic terms.
  • Standardisation. The training system is only valid if a sortie flown with Instructor A and a sortie flown with Instructor B converge on the same standard. The mechanism is procedural: every instructor knows the standardised techniques and employs them. The competency-framework expression of this requirement is in A2.5 Unit 4 Conduct Training (the Conduct Training unit) and in the instructor discipline in A4.2.2 Guidance for Instructors. A roster of qualified instructors who deliver inconsistently produces training data that cannot be aggregated; that data is what an operator's EBT programme refines its lesson library against.

The preparation discipline established here is the same discipline 6.3 Preparation applies to the briefing event, extended to the airborne sequence as a whole.

Connections

  • 8.1 Introduction. The aim the four traits operationalise.
  • 8.3 The Student. Supplies the WSK detail that makes the "know your student" half of preparation operational.
  • 3.1 Introduction. The full pedagogical toolbox the Teacher trait selects from.
  • 6.3 Preparation. The same preparation discipline applied to the briefing event.
  • A2.5 Unit 4 Conduct Training. The competency framework that codifies the four traits and the preparation discipline as instructor-examiner performance criteria.
  • A4.2.2 Guidance for Instructors. The course standardisation discipline this section invokes.
  • KSA. The Knowledge-Skills-Attitude target the four traits address across registers.
  • CRM. Implicit in the Teacher and Psychologist registers; the instructor's interpersonal competence is itself an instance of the CRM the lesson is teaching.