by Michael Schuster, Chief Instructor, Aviation Solutions
“My students don’t prepare. They show up late.
They expect me to spoon-feed everything to them.
They’re just not professional.”
Having managed over sixty flight instructor refresher courses (FIRCs), I can say with certainty that some version of this has been uttered by attendees on every single one of those courses. Having been around the flight training industry for two decades as a student and instructor, I can also confirm that this feeling is nothing new!
There can be an abundance of causes. But one to focus on is remembering that any group of people, students included, generally conform to their environment. Simply put, humans like to go unnoticed. They like to fit in. Think about if you meet a group at a restaurant, if everyone else is having a beer, do you order one too? When “masking up” was new, did you decide to do so based on how many others you observed doing so? Social psychology professor Catherine Sanderson notes that 25% is a tipping point in behaviour changeFootnote 1, meaning just a few bad habits can be toxic to your training environment.
Ultimately, fitting in, our comfort, and culture are all related. People will conform to the culture around them to fit in and feel comfortable. In other words, the culture of the instructor and school are the number one influence on student professionalism—so let’s look within!
Here are some ideas for flight instructors to set a professional tone and role model to their students:
- Manage your time effectively. Be sure you have prepared for every lesson (flight and ground) that you are going to teach. If you are not prepared, why would the student think it’s necessary to prepare their procedures, read up for the next flight, etc.?
- Respect the student’s time and manage distractions such as cell phones, interruptions to your briefings, etc. If it’s okay for you to be late or interrupted, isn’t it okay for your student to do the same?
- Train the student to become a pilot, not just pass the next flight test. If we focus on “here is how to pass your ride” instead of “these are the skills you need to be effective,” we are teaching students that fully understanding a topic is not important, and that simply being able to execute a manoeuvre in isolation is.
- Share your passion for aviation, precision, skill, knowledge… any trait that you want your student to develop. For example, if you don’t know how to quickly and effectively search something in the CARs, your student won’t take any interest in learning that skill.
- Take responsibility for knowing what to do. For example, don’t put away the Flight Instructor Guide (FIG) after your latest flight test. There is gold in there, such as direction on what steps to take when a student is having a variety of difficulties. If we just expect our supervisors to tell us the answer, how can we expect our students to become independent of us?
- Similarly, be intimately familiar with the flight testing standards and the Pilot Examiner Manual (TP 14277). Specifically, remember that there are five evaluation criteria, not just “aircraft handling.” If you don’t know in detail what the standards are, how can you expect your students to understand what is expected of them?
- Be present for your student’s flight test. Show them you care and are invested by making sure you complete their recommendation paperwork correctly and in advance. Be at the debrief to support your student and show you want to improve as an instructor by taking notes on the examiner’s feedback. This will demonstrate to your students that aviation is a lifelong career of learning and that we support each other while valuing constructive feedback.
- Continually improve yourself. Work towards an airline transport pilot licence (ATPL) even if you don’t plan on using it: it shows you want to learn more and become a better flight instructor. Attend a FIRC to learn about best practices in flight instruction so that you can offer your students more. Really, any opportunity to improve or upgrade a qualification (even free online courses) will benefit you and show your students that pilots are serious about being on top of their game.
Flight school support is another key area. How well the Chief Flight Instructor (CFI) and the Flight Training Unit (FTU) support these goals and activities is absolutely critical. In an AOPA study on student retention, the top two driving factors were instructor professionalism and how well the school supported those flight instructors.
What does that include?
- Providing aircraft for proficiency flying. At a FIRC in 2019, I asked why the Commercial 180 Precision Approach was so poorly flown during flight tests. I was told it may be because it was a new exercise. Unfortunately, this exercise was introduced in 2006, well over a decade prior! But if instructors in 2006 didn’t get a chance to practise and learn themselves, how well could they teach it? Then we go through generations of instructors that are “photocopies of photocopies,” who can’t accomplish the task well.
- Providing ongoing education. Does the FTU send instructors to FIRCs and aviation training conferences such as the World Aviation Training Summit (WATS), or do they bring in experts such as pilot examiners or meteorologists to give advanced classroom-based training to instructors?
- Providing a living wage. When instructors have to hold two jobs to pay the bills, they can’t focus on doing their best.
- Establishing and uniformly enforcing policies. Does the school have a clear cancellation policy? Does it enforce it equally? Or are instructors left to do so on their own with inconsistent results and confused and frustrated students?
- Providing sound operational control systems that contribute to everyone’s health and safety, along with effective instructor supervision and support.
The final thought I will leave you with is a list that I keep posted in my office to drive me to do the best I can every day. Following the challenges and crises of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs, Flight Director Gene Kranz spearheaded development of the Foundations of Mission Operations. I’m sure you can find a way to adapt these core principles into your flight training operation. It would serve as an excellent reminder to all that what we do is difficult and tiring, but doing the job well is absolutely critical to safety and success.
- To instill within ourselves these qualities essential to professional excellence:
- i. Discipline: Being able to follow as well as to lead, knowing that we must master ourselves before we can master our task.
- ii. Competence: There being no substitute for total preparation and complete dedication, for space will not tolerate the careless or indifferent.
- iii. Confidence: Believing in ourselves as well as in others, knowing that we must master fear and hesitation before we can succeed.
- iv. Responsibility: Realizing that it cannot be shifted to others, for it belongs to each of us; we must answer for what we do, or fail to do.
- v. Toughness: Taking a stand when we must; to try again and again, even if it means following a more difficult path.
- vi. Teamwork: Respecting and utilizing the abilities of others, realizing that we work toward a common goal, for success depends upon the efforts of all.
- vii. Vigilance: Always being attentive to the dangers of spaceflight; never accepting success as a substitute for rigour in everything we do.
- To always be aware that suddenly and unexpectedly we may find ourselves in a role where our performance has ultimate consequences.
- To recognize that the greatest error is not to have tried and failed, but that in the trying we do not give it our best effort.
A version of this article originally appeared on Flight Instructor Refresher Course. Mike Schuster is an experienced Class 1 flight instructor who has taught at all levels, from ab initio to airline. He is the chief instructor at Aviation Solutions, which is an authorized Flight Instructor Refresher Course provider for rating renewal.