Instructor lesson plan

[Wacko]

... wondering if anyone could shoot me off a lesson plan they used/are using as instructors. One or two lessons would be great, all would be fantastic... just want to see the general feel of a lesson plan..

TIA

Wacko

[Highflyinpilot]

Trying to get off easy eh

[tired of the ground]

No, trying to save some time.

I know everyone says "you have to build you own so you learn what you are talking about", which is BS. All they are are a reminder of what you have to teach for that lesson. I think the best thing in the world would be if lesson plans were made by the CFI for each school and each instructor got a copy. Sort of like an OPS Manual that keeps everyone marching in the same direction. You could go flying with any instructor or do a ground with any instructor at a school and you'd not notice almost any difference.

The above makes way too much sense and is way to easy, therefore it will never be implemented.

I know people disagree with this so flame away.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I know people disagree with this so flame away.

I'm 100% in agreement with you.

Flight training in Canada is a joke under it's present rules and TC policies, but what do you expect when you see the morons TC has in flight training?

But for ass kissers in the flight instructing business it is utopia.

[Number1]

Have you met any of the people working in flight training in Ottawa? Which of the rules and policies do you find so humorous?.. Let me guess..."No" and "Not really sure". Or do you have anything new and constructive to add? Let me guess....never mind.

[Number1]

Back on topic

.... therefore it will never be implemented.

This is actually probably quite common. I shared my, or the school's lesson plans with any candidate I was training. The idea of the flight training 'ops manual' isn't new either. Some of the schools I worked for over the years used this and I am am sure any school with a decent integrated course would adopt the practice as well.

Not everything is mandated by TC. This prescribed regurgitation of lesson plans is a myth. Any inspector I ever encountered respected my and my candidate's individual lessons, especially when they improved on some of the suggestions in the flight instructor guide.

Wacko, sorry, I lost mine 10 years ago....

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Have you met any of the people working in flight training in Ottawa?

Well Number 1 to answer your question, no I have not actually met any of the Ottawa people in flight training face to face but I did have the misfortune of having to deal with Jim Dow on several occasions and found him to be either abysmally stupid or just another buck passing stonewalling senior manager in TCCA.

How many do you know?, or are you one?

"Not really sure".

One thing I am sure of is I see the product that comes out of the FTU's in Canada and I am not impressed with their quality of training in far to many cases.

Therefore my personal belief is the system is in bad need of restructuring.

[Number1]

"One thing I am sure of is I see the product that comes out of the FTU's in Canada and I am not impressed with their quality of training in far to many cases."

Curious to know where it is you are seeing the 'product'. I can only simply disagree. Canada's instructors can probably match most other nations when it comes to training quality. Your personal view of the flight training group in Ottawa is yours to have. The dealings I have had with a few of them over the years has been nothing less than pleasant. What is precisely your beef?

"How many do you know?, or are you one?"

Funny...No, I'm Number1.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Number1, your view of TCCA's flight training management and mine are Galaxies apart and we obviously are personally Galaxies apart in our opinions regarding flight training in Canada.

I have no problem with that for the simple reason it does not directly affect me anymore as I no longer have nor want any contact in any way with TCCA's flight training system.

So you keep plugging away in your world and occasionally I may take the time to re-train some of the kids who were poorly trained at an FTU.

By the way Number1, I obviously do not know who or what you are but if you are stuck in the ab-initio FTU rut and if you ever feel you might need some advanced aircraft handling recurrent training that is what I do part time ...

[Wacko]

Number 1. Thanks anyway

As a general comment; there is a required 25 hour ground school that you need for instructors? I think that's why FTU's make you do your own lesson plans. Otherwise, what would you possibly fit in 25 hours! You could probably do the whole course 5 or 6 times and still not get the time required.

I think that each school should have lesson plans applicable to their situation. Training should be done just like ground school and PPC's.... I won't hold my breath though!

Merry Holidays y'all!

[jetboy1975]

Your instructor, if he/she is doing their job, should show you proper layout formats and give you ideas. The rest is up to you to find a way that works and flows. I've had several students try to use others' plans or templates but it never works. Just follow the instructor guide outlines to make sure you cover all the content requirements - organize them into main topics or paragraphs - then look to find a pattern to make one flow into the other. Remember to think of the info from a new students perspective.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I've had several students try to use others' plans or templates but it never works.

Why not?

[C-GGGQ]

Number 1. Thanks anyway

As a general comment; there is a required 25 hour ground school that you need for instructors? I think that's why FTU's make you do your own lesson plans. Otherwise, what would you possibly fit in 25 hours! You could probably do the whole course 5 or 6 times and still not get the time required.

I think that each school should have lesson plans applicable to their situation. Training should be done just like ground school and PPC's.... I won't hold my breath though!

If you think you can get through all you need to get ready for the exam 5-6 times in 25 hours you have another thing coming to you. How exactly is the training at your school done if its not like the ground school??

[Wacko]

I bet you one million dollars that I don't need 25 hours of INSTRUCTOR GROUND time to pass ANY transport test.

[jetboy1975]

I've had several students try to use others' plans or templates but it never works.


Why not?

Because the students don't take the time to study and learn the material they are supposed to be teaching. Because of this they aren't able to come up with ways to teach it in their own words.

[5x5]

Well, I find this very interesting. There are a few outspoken individuals that constantly bemoan the state of today's flight training. They talk of restructuring being necessary while at the same time talk about the "cookie cutter" flight schools and the "puppy mills" that produce substandard results. Supposedly the restructuring would be to avoid the cookie cutter/puppy mill approach. Yet when talking about learning the aspects of flight training and being an instructor, the one thing that requires the individual instructor to employ their individuality and creativity is the one thing they feel should be eliminated - the development of personal exercise notes.

A strong, consistent syllabus that is constantly monitored and improved is vital to good training. This is what a good FTU should provide and the CFI should maintain. The individual presentation of the specific exercise material is where a given instructor's strength is. Don't confuse a syllabus/lesson plans with individual exercise notes. Give me a solid, proven lesson plan and appropriate guidance for progression but don't give me words or a style that is foreign to me. The time and effort that goes into the development of exercise cards along with the thinking through of how each exercise is done is the beginning of truly understanding what is happening in flight. For me to relate this information effectively to a student, I need to have fully internalized it myself. The notes that get put down on paper are simply reminders to a much fuller set of information I have in my head. As reminders, they have to be in my words and recorded in my style to be the most effective.

By getting examples of other people's exercise notes, I won't save time. In fact I'll need more time as I try to figure out what they were thinking when they wrote them or what they meant if the wording isn't clear. It can be valuable as it promotes critical evaluation, but it certainly won't save time.

Am I the best instructor in Canada - of course not. And in truth I'm not trying to be. Am I the best instructor I can be - I'm not there yet but I'm working hard to be. And that is through finding the best way for me to understand and pass along the necessary information to students, not by finding the best way someone else did it.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

O.K. thanks for all the answers about lesson plans and notes, I now sort of understand why they are required.

Correct me if I am wrong here, instructor lesson plans and notes are a requirement because generally speaking the " Students " ( read instructor candidates ) are learning a whole new subject ...learning to fly.....so they can teach others something they have no experience in.

Have I got that right?

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Now I have a question for all you TC approved instructors.

I do not have one single solitary lesson plan nor one single solitary note to read before I teach any flight lesson to my clients...because I never wrote one.

......I do however use the airplane operating manual and the repair manuals for guidance on the airplane being used.

Seeing that I do not own or use lesson plans is my flight instruction sub standard?

And don't bother trying to point out I do not hold a Canadian flight instructors rating so how could I understand the subject of teaching PPL's from scratch, because I had an instructors rating in 1957 and let it lapse in 1965 so I do understand how attitudes and movements are taught.......but quite often fly with people who don't seem to have been properly taught same.

[200hr Wonder]

. that is not a fair question. I mean honestly who gave you your check out? Orville or Wilbur? You have more than likely forgot more about planes than I will ever know. So yes I am sure you could go ahead and teach a PPL with out notes or lesson plans. That being said, it is something I do more or less every day and I still look at notes on occasion so I do not miss something important. Kind of like using a check list.

My question to you is do you have something against lesson plans? I do not teach attitudes and movements everyday and I like to have a check list to make sure that I have mentioned the important parts every time.

Sometimes Cat I think you stir the pot just for the sake of stirring the pot.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

200 hour, I can understand your feelings reading my posts that are critical of flight training in general in Canada and I am not in the least offended that you feel frustrated by the opinions that I express here.

So lets have a look at what you said and see if we can gain something positive out of it.

. that is not a fair question. I mean honestly who gave you your check out? Orville or Wilbur?

Orville and Wilbur were not in the business of teaching pilots how to fly when I started, however you do have a good point by pointing out that I have gained some experience over the years, therefore one would assume that my opinions should have some merit on the subject of flight training.

To put it in its most simple easy to understand wording I personally feel that flight training is the most important job in aviation, therefore it should be the most experienced pilots in aviation who are licensed to be teachers, not the least experienced.

You all should turn your frustrations toward those who control the training industry and forget your frustrations that reading my posts cause you.

I do think that it is the instructor group who are the victims of a flawed system so how can you blame me?

[C-GGGQ]

I think lesson plans are a good thing especially if you are teaching multiple students. I find it makes sure that you are teaching everyone the same things the same way every time. Its for ease of operation. That said I have seen some lesson plans that are 10 pages long for slow flight (the section in the book is only one page for crying out loud). My lesson plans are concise point form notes so that I don't forget specific details. The lesson I know basically its just nice to have something to double check. Most of my lessons i can teach without my book if necessary. I can answer most questions I've been asked without having to look something up, that doesn't mean I don't have that reference material on the desk anyway just in case i get a question from way out in left field. Thats how I look at lesson plans, they don't tell me how to teach the lesson, they are just reference so i don't forget some small but important detail that I might take for granted that the new student doesn't have a clue about. Eventually you no longer need the lesson plans (my class 1 instructor has been teaching so long he doesn't need to) He still goes over his lessons every once in a while to stay sharp but he doesn't teach from them. Hell the few flights i've made with my grandfather for a couple of hours at a time have taught me more than some lessons i recieved and he sure as hell didn't have a lesson plan. I have no doubt that . could teach me in one hour more than i learned in the last 20 of my CPL.

[Charlie]

Wacko...

Without getting myself stirred up in the "Bureaucracy" side of the topic...

I wouldn't say the need to make your own teaching notes, BS..!

To get your degree or doctorate, you usually need to complete a thesis, and that alone usually involves a good part of the year's worth of research to complete. And your grade would be judge partly based on the quality of your thesis. If you write your thesis the night before it is due, there would be a good chance that you probably wouldn't receive your grade, regardless of how well you do at your final exams..!

That's because some, if not most, actually have the ability to start studying for the exams 2 days before, studying ONLY the materials applicable to the exams, and actually pass the exams WITHOUT knowing much about the complete subject. And worse, not needing to retain the information shortly after.

A final thesis would prove that you have indeed thoroughly gone through researching the subject that you are specialized in, and the thesis would prove how much you really know about it.

So, YES... it is absolutely crucial that new instructors come up with their own notes. Standardization is one thing... that's where the school's training syllabus comes into play. But there are a thousand ways to explain how an aircraft turns, and to show how an aircraft stalls. If it is not your own words, from your own notes, you may NOT get the point across proficiently.

The same goes for the students. It is crucial that they make their own notes in your groundschool classes. Otherwise, why attend your groundschool, when they can just read about it in "From The Ground UP"... and a hundred other books that they can buy about learning to fly! Then anyone can be a flight instructor, as long as they can regurgitate what they read from the books, no need to understand it.

There are excellent pilots that cannot teach very well. There are also excellent instructors that cannot fly very well. Making your own instructional notes is NOT a waste of time. And it is NOT designed to just "keep you busy" during the initial part of your Flight Instructor Course. It is to make sure, you know your stuff about flying in general, and mostly, you know it enough that you can explain them in your own words! THAT is the ONLY way you can prove to them, that you CAN "instruct".

Would you let your son learn how to fly from an instructor that just read from a book, word for word, during groundschool? Would you let your wife learn how to recover from a Stall, from an instructor that just read off the book during pre-flight briefing?

Instructing is not for everyone. You may love it after a few months into doing it, or you may hate it shortly after you began. Like "flying" itself, "instructing" is somewhat a passion also. If you have a passion for it, you would automatically go beyond what's merely necessary for your students to learn. If you DON'T have a passion for it, or hates it... your students are the first ones that can detect it. And trust me, students generally shy away from the "non-passionate" instructors.

Although making the initial notes does take up quite a bit of time, and it's a long process. But that's the core of your talent. THAT is what sets you apart from other instructors. Your notes are your teaching style, and your teaching style is what the students love you for.

Have fun... and good luck with your new endeavour into the training world. (smile) How well the next generation aviators fly, whom will eventually be responsible for transporting hundreds and thousands of lives throughout their career, depend partly on what, and how you put into their head now!

Rgds,
Charlie

[Pugster]

Back when I used to instruct my "lesson plans" consisted of a condensed version of the exercise(s) we would be working on, in Powerpoint format. I had access to a projector but would also just use a laptop or desktop computer if the projector was being used.

I would then print it out and give it to the student to review as necessary. In addition, it gave me the opportunity to include photos, charts (as applicable) and video footage of the exercises that we were doing. It sped up the brief, gave some organization to the whole deal, and let the student walk away from the exercise with something in their hand that they could review at home if they didn't feel like cracking their books. This was all done with the consultation of the local TC flight training guy (who happens to be forward thinking, and one hell of a guy) who gave it the thumbs up.

It worked like a charm, I had lots of good feedback on it, and I recommend doing it highly.

Just a thought.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Charlie, help me out here:

I wrote this:

O.K. thanks for all the answers about lesson plans and notes, I now sort of understand why they are required.

Correct me if I am wrong here, instructor lesson plans and notes are a requirement because generally speaking the " Students " ( read instructor candidates ) are learning a whole new subject ...learning to fly.....so they can teach others something they have no experience in.

Have I got that right?

It seems I just don't understand the subject because it would appear that with the " Right " lesson plan notes you can launch into being a real competent instructor right out of the box, so to speak.

Next time I get in a spam can with a new PPL who controls speed with the brakes and leaves the throttle set at high RPM during the taxi and then launches into the air climbing like a roller coaster because they are air speed needle chasing and then when faced with a X/wind landing haven't a clue how to correct for drift I can assume the instructor forgot his/her notes while training that one?

Then they go on to being commercial twin engine pilots and scream down final approach nailed on the blue line right to the flare and rocket down the runway almost supersonic.....yeh, I guess I just don't get the message that the training industry is just fine.....

However don't be to judgmental about my position ...just remind yourself I am just someone who just didn't make the cut to be a " real " flight instructor.

I must have missed my lesson plans somewhere along the road to here.

[Spokes]

Charlie,

Excellent post. I have never seen a better explanation in this matter. Nicely done.