Instructional Recalibration Have the Right Tools for the Job!
By Randy Rowles
Training toward your flight instructor (CFI) certificate is often a long and arduous process. It’s countless hours of curriculum development and practice to gain the skill sets to safely and effectively transfer knowledge to a future flock of fledgling aviators. The effort put forth to obtain the coveted CFI certificate is valuable. For many, this is their entry into the ranks of being a helicopter aficionado. But once the CFI is obtained, is retraining for the flight instructor valuable?
For too many, the answer is often “No.” Once the CFI is obtained, very few instructors desire to have their teaching skills evaluated again. Once was enough for them! In many cases, these instructor pilots attend pilot refresher training and negate the instructor perspective. They believe the skill set adjustment from pilot refresher training is adaptable to their flight instructor role. This is a flawed assumption.
Instructional piloting is less about flying and far more about watching, waiting, and reacting to each student’s learning process (i.e. mistakes). Instructional Intervention is key to any and all instructor training, not simply flying the aircraft from the opposite seat. The ability to provide the student a path to learn requires allowing the student to make errors. The depth of error chain development is what the instructor needs to
know how to identify, alongside the timing of the intervention. If the intervention is too early, the student’s ability to learn is potentially compromised. If the intervention is too late – well, now you’re a data point on an accident chart!
A periodic evaluation of your instructional skill sets should be a welcome and sought-after opportunity, not only for those skills you’ve already obtained, but also for new enhanced procedures and maneuvers that improve and expand your instructional toolbox.
The instructional toolbox must be full of various instructional methods that are implemented based upon the student’s learning style and ability. As an example, a 9/16th nut may require different tools based on the situation – a deep socket, open wrench, or extension with a universal joint. All these variations in the toolbox help make the job easier, but you’re still dealing with a 9/16th nut!
Randy Rowles has been an FAA pilot examiner for 20 years for all helicopter certificates and ratings. He holds an FAA Gold Seal Flight Instructor Certificate, NAFI Master Flight Instructor designation, and was the 2013 recipient of the HAI Flight Instructor of the Year Award. Rowles is currently the owner of the Helicopter Institute. He can be reached at
randyrowlesdpe@gmail.com
For the instructor, a diverse and comprehensive instructional toolbox is imperative to providing safe, quality education. It is important to recognize that there is not one “right” way for any maneuver or task to be conducted. The ability to inject varied experiences into the instructional process provides the student with a broader perspective of the subject. Caution should be taken when professing tribal knowledge as fact. It is the instructor’s responsibility to offer references for the material they provide within the learning process, and engage the student’s higher order thinking skills (HOTS) when possible. This aids in the decision- making process – where poor decision-making accounts for many helicopter industry accidents.
Train-the-trainer opportunities help adjust or correct subjects when a lack of recent experience or poor habit formation occur. Gaining insight into your instructional capabilities will not only make you a better instructor; more importantly, it will make you a much safer instructor too!
If you have any comments or questions, please let me know at
randyrowlesdpe@gmail.com
84 May/June 2019
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