HuggyU2

Question: how do a group of instructors at a flight training facility stay standardized in their approach, so that a student can go to a different instructor and the training stays consistent?

I'm looking for examples of training standards used in Part 61 and Part 141 training programs. It doesn't matter if it is a small or large training company/school. If any of you have examples you could send me, would you drop me a p.m.?

We do things a certain way in the military training squadrons, and that leads to stagnation and "that's the way we've always done it" mentality. I'm willing to bet there are some great ideas out there that I could pick up from many of y'all.

I appreciate any help you can send me.

Cubdriver

A well organized Part 141 school will have an ops manual that tells how things are to be done. The one I worked for had a lengthy, well-written ops manual, giving specifics on how maneuvers are to be done specific to an airplane, including transitory speeds, flap settings, techniques and so forth. They were pretty hard-nails about these things being followed by the staff. The ops manual did not give step-by-step flows necessarily, sometimes it did, but more often it gave the performance specifics that promote uniformity among instructors. For example, it would specify a nose up maximum for incipient stalls, what speed to use/ retract a certain flap setting, and many more things that are not specified in the PTS.

Surprisingly, I also have found that at smaller 61 schools where "anything goes" because of the lack of standardization and no formal ops manual, the instructor staff generally prefers more standardization rather than less. The reason is that weak students will generally move between instructors looking for either a better teacher or extra leniency, and the instructors end up wanting additional standardization in order to keep confusion to a minimum and help spot student problems. If everybody does a steep turn the same way, it makes catching student errors very easy.

However, as an instructor familiar with both systems (61 and 141), I prefer 61 because of the greater latitude for individuality in instruction technique. I have had marginal flight students who could not be reached through prescribed methods or flows who readily broke through learning blocks when an ad lib approached I cooked up on the spot helped them move forward.

I'll try and PM you to get an address where I can send a Part 141 ops manual if you like.