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The Instructional Cycle

The instructional cycle is the overall process of transferring the responsibility for a flight from the instructor to the student. The student must learn not only how to control the aircraft but to do the planning and the decision making for the flight. Flight training can be broken down into three general stages. The first or basic stage has the emphasis on controlling and monitoring skills, the nuts and bolts of flying the aircraft. This stage starts with the effects of controls and ends with slow flight and stall exercises and the introduction to the sideslip. This stage consists of six to eight lessons that provides the foundation for performing all flight manoeuvres. Lessons consist of instructor demonstrations and student practise.  At this stage instructors are most heavily taxed in terms of their flying skills, as they should strive to give perfect demonstrations. Many of the tasks during this stage are of the closed nature and it is often well within the average student’s ability to practise them perfectly. Instructors should not place a great deal of emphasis on in-flight decision making and planning, but concentrate on building the students trust and confidence in controlling the aircraft. Decision-making should be related primarily to closed tasks. For example, have we done our pre-flight checks so that it is safe to proceed with the takeoff? Is it safe to initiate a turn (lookout)?

The second or intermediate stage still emphasizes controlling and monitoring the aircraft but also introduces the practice of planning and decision making activities. The control aspects begin with takeoffs and landings, and end with incipient spins and mastery of the aerotow. Planning largely is about the circuit. Decisions centre on the consequences of high-level rope breaks and choosing alternate circuits. Instructors generally perform fewer demonstrations at this stage. The key instructing skillhere is judging how far students should go with their practice. The end of the intermediate stage is often when students are the most discouraged by their progress. Students now not only do all of the flying but are expected to do a lot of the flight planning. As things become more open-ended then coaching skills are most in demand. When introducing open-ended tasks the student should not be asked to perform control activities when time is restricted. As an example, if you want the student to select an alternate runway for the first time, the instructor can take control for a while. The next time this exercise is done, the student can do both the flying and the planning. This approach will often promote better skill development and ease the frustrations of the student at this stage.

Advanced stage instruction is used to confirm and refine controlling and monitoring activities. However the major emphasis is on planning and decision making. Except perhaps for spin training, there are very few demonstrations at this stage, as student pilots usually can be coached through any manoeuvres with only safety control inputs from the instructor. Planning and decision making skills encompass all situations of the flight and the instructor spends most of the time ‘dreaming up’ situations that require use of the complete spectrum of piloting skills. The situations range from circuit problems, to low level rope breaks, alternate runway selection, to equipment malfunction, gliding range problems, unusual weather conditions, traffic considerations, gaggle flying or whatever else arises. Instructors should strive to make these exercises challenges rather than obstacles. The great emphasis on open ended tasks requires lots of coaching and encouragement at the beginning of this stage. At the end, as the student approaches solo, there are usually long periods of silence during the flight and a greater emphasis on post-flight analysis.