Ace These 8 Competencies to be an Exceptional Flight Instructor

What does it REALLY mean to be an amazing instructor? 💡

🔸 It’s not just about flying accurately
🔸 It’s not just about having loads of hours
🔸 And it’s definitely not about status or ego

Unfortunately, many pilots who have been in the industry for a while, can think of at least a few instructors who have impacted their development negatively.

Being an instructor is a huge responsibility that requires commitment and effort 🛠️

You’re not just an instructor: You’re a mentor, a leader, and a role model for the next generation.

So what actually DOES make an exceptional instructor?

We’ve compiled a list of 8 core competencies, based on many different sources, as well as our own independent research and discussions with pilots 🧑🏼‍✈️

So let’s have a chat about what actually makes an instructor exceptional, whether it’s about line trainers, TRI’s, or basic flight instructors ✅

We don’t publish all our Notes from the Cockpit (like this one) publicly, some are shared only by email. Get the next one sent straight to your inbox ⤵️

Subject Matter Expertise

Yea we know, this one’s pretty obvious – but for a good reason!

Knowing your stuff is the foundation of any instructor. Take this away, and everything kind of falls apart, no matter how good you are at the competencies we list below ⬇️

But what does ‘subject matter expertise’ actually mean?

It’s not just being on top of your ATPL theory – game 💡

It means being in touch with recent developments, new teaching techniques, industry trends, and what the regulator’s perspective is on the syllabus you teach, not just your own.

Following Pilots Who Ask Why of course helps with this (follow us using the button in the intro above!) 😁

Either way: you can’t teach anyone the ins and outs of something like altimetry or PBN, without knowing all those exact details yourself.

In order to make something that is complex in nature, simple to understand, you NEED to know it by heart.

The other way around is true as well: if you truly want to test your knowledge, being able to explain it in an accurate but easy form is a great indicator of subject matter expertise!

Flying Skills

As an instructor, capacity is everything! ✅

You need to be able to demonstrate a manoeuvre effortlessly, while doing about 5 other things at the same time that are all focussed on helping the student, not your necessarily your own flying.

Flying takes a backseat here, but without the flying skills it won’t be on the backseat…

On top of this, when you demo a basic autorotation at 80 kts, you better be flying at 80 kts, not 75 or 85. If you want to demo a coordinated turn, it better be coordinated!

Monkey see, monkey do 🙉

Meaning: Screw up the flight exercise demo, and you can’t pick up a student for doing the exact same thing you did (wrong)!

Understand Teaching and Learning

So all of this so far is pretty foundational for an instructor, but there are quite a few traits that need to be built on top of this foundation. One of the most important is understanding how humans learn 💡

Techniques like ‘from known to unknown’, also known as ‘meeting someone where they’re at’ are crucial if you want to go from A to Z in the most efficient way.

You can’t just enter the room and start rambling about what you think the student should know.

There are 4 main student variables if we zoom out:

1️⃣ What DO they understand?
2️⃣ What DON’T they understand yet?
3️⃣ Where are they in their training?
4️⃣ What personal barriers do they face that keeps them from understanding or achieving something?

All of these need to be asked and answered, and be crystal clear for both the student and the instructor. This requires an understanding of what it means to be a good teacher.

Mentorship Qualities

Especially during the basic training phase, but even as a TRI or line training, you’re a mentor to those who aren’t where you are.

To get them there, mentorship is an accelerator. What mentorship qualities are there? Here are the main ones:

Active Listening

Be genuinely interested in what students have to say about what they find difficult or why they don’t understand something.

Approachability

What does being approachable mean? It means being open, easy to approach, and creating a space for students to ask questions without them feeling like they’re a bunch of clowns for asking something 🤡

Emotional Intelligence

Yea, this one again! The amount of pilots who think instructing is all about ‘being a great pilot’ is astonishingly high.

Emotional Intelligence is something pilots don’t tend to have surplus of. That’s a shame, considering it opens so many doors towards being a more efficient and professional pilot.

Emotional Intelligence allows you as an instructor to:

1️⃣ Manage students stress levels
2️⃣ Understand the struggles and barriers of students
3️⃣ Build confidence in students
4️⃣ Resolve conflicts efficiently
5️⃣ Create a positive learning environment
6️⃣ Tailor instruction to the student

Commitment

Actually wanting your students to succeed is a must. Some of you might have met some instructors throughout your careers that don’t really seem to give a crap.

Nothing sucks more life out of someone trying to learn, than an instructor who isn’t committed! ❌

Encouragement / Motivation

Students give up most of their normal lives during basic training. Flight training often means:

💰 No money
⏱️ No time
🎉 No social life
💢 More stress

It’s the perfect recipe for not feeling your best, especially when things don’t click or you’re running into wall.

A little encouragement goes a long way, depending on the student of course.

Honesty and Integrity

But there’s the other side of the coin too: being honest where you need to be.

This is a skill. It’s a delicate balance between throwing someone off a cliff, and pandering to what they want to hear.

Honesty, but in a constructive way!

Adaptability

You could have 10 different students who all have slightly different personalities and struggles during their flight training ✈️

The trick is to find out what makes them tick, what makes them motivated, and what makes them want to land and give up on their careers.

If you know these things to the letter, you will be able to tailor your instructional techniques in such a way that yields the most objective progression.

Effective Communication

At the end of the day, instruction is a form of communication. To simplify the process, we’re looking at:

1️⃣ Finding out what student needs to learn
2️⃣ Showing the student how to do it
3️⃣ Facilitating their progress towards it
4️⃣ Assessing their performance, and then fine tuning it

None of this would be possible without clear and concise communication. From language barriers to body language, it all needs to be tailored to optimise the training process.

Threat and Error Management

Threat and Error Management, or TEM, is a huge part of any pilot training. So not only is it crucial to install this into the brain of cadets, it’s also important to reflect on your own TEM during actual lessons.

What risks are you taking, how do you identify the threats that are present on a day to day basis, and what do you do to trap and neutralise them? 🪤

By executing this problem well yourself, it becomes much easier to have students adopt this way of thinking as well.

Professionalism

Your attitude will rub off on people trying to learn from you. Yes sure, everyone has their own perspective and personality that will shape their progression and behaviour, but your attitude matters.

If you’re on time, dressed well, planned and organised, there’s a higher chance that the people who are trying to learn from you will adopt these traits (monkey see, monkey do again 🐒).

On the other hand, look like a bag of sand, come unprepared, and be late, and there’s a good chance that over time, so will your students.

Reflection and Self Development

And then finally, the thing we all need a bit more of sometimes: the ability to self reflect and develop to a better version of ourselves 🛠️

This is easier said than done, and requires an attitude towards life that revolves around learning and being a student forever.

But hey, this will help you a lot as an instructor. If you consider yourself a student for life, then it becomes much easier to understand the struggles and barriers your own students face 💢

Where can you improve, out of the list we have covered here? What are you good at, but what could be better? If you know your weaknesses, it becomes so much easier to hone your overall skillset.

Conclusion

Being an exceptional flight instructor goes quite bit further than simply having strong flying skills or technical knowledge💡

It requires a balance of expertise, communication, mentorship, and emotional intelligence. The ability to adapt to different students, offer encouragement, and maintain professionalism are just as crucial as teaching manoeuvres.

If you can master these competencies, you’ll not only help shape the success of individual pilots, but also contribute to the safety and future of aviation as a whole!

Have a question or feedback? Ping us a message or leave a comment below! ⬇️