Five things that any trainer can learn from the best flight instructors

We all remember that ONE teacher or instructor we have had either at school or in training of some sort. That one truly passionate and yet professional person who made us fall in love with a subject or activity that we hated before meeting them. I have heard numerous stories, which always follow the lines of “I really hated math / ballet / fitness, and then we got a new teacher who changed everything…”

Following the last short piece about “what any manager can learn from pilots”, here is one for the professors, teachers, and trainers out there. Being a full time teacher and trainer myself, I find myself often applying those things that I have learned from the best of my flight instructors in my business and negotiation trainings.

Flight instructors are an unusual bunch. Either they are young and motivated, going on towards their airline career, or (and these are much more rare), the “older” bunch who have been instructing flight, rain or sunshine, for decades. The following is about them and inspired by them:

Instructing flight is challenging. You have to teach the student how to fly, navigate, and communicate, all at the same time (but in exactly that order), also dealing with bad weather and young (often overly motivated) students, while never being allowed to forget safety and of course to be a role model. So how do they do it? 

So here are 5 things that I have seen them all do:

1. Don’t skip the preflight briefing, but make it BRIEF and fun:

Great flight instructors get you sitting in the airplane fast, but never forgetting the proper preflight safety checks. They know you want to get in the air, so never waste time on the ground:

People always want to know what the day or session is about. However, they do not want to hear about it for half an hour. Set the expectations and goals in a maximum of three points, because everyone can read the agenda themselves (and agendas will always change in a great training anyway, because we deal with people, not robots). 

Most importantly, though, speak passionately about WIIFT (whats in it for them), and make sure to always underpromise in the beginning of the training, but overdeliver by the end of it. 

Pro Tip: Make the participants laugh as fast as possible in the beginning of a training. A fun welcome game can perfectly achieve this, and everyone os always somewhat stressed in a new setting or group. Remember: Every time people are smiling or even laughing, you have connected them a little bit more.

2. Be a role model and inspire: share personal experiences and a great story every time you have something important to say:

Everyone loves a great story, and everyone remembers great stories, even years later. And all flight instructors have stories about "that one time the engine failed, etc”. 

These stories are the things that connect theory to practice and should be told at the end of every chapter or module of a training, hopefully from personal experience of the teacher (or of other people in similar positions to that of the participants”.

Pro Tip: Give your stories a catchy title that can be easily remembered, like “The Story of Humphrey”. And at the end of the training repeat the main points using the different little stories you used for ending the various chapters. Last thing: If you have pictures/videos/artefacts that add to the story, use them, connecting them to the different senses. 

3. Give confidence, but also know how to challenge, explore the limits:

Some students are faster, some are slower, and everyone can always learn something. Even in the best flight lessons I have had, where everything went perfectly, the instructor first said I did a good job, but then said something like, “now lets try that landing again, but turn one engine off”. In a way, when I thought I was done for the day, there came that one more special challenge. 

Pro Tip: Especially those moments made me and my brain concentrate one last time and try that one special challenge before being done for the day. I call it the “Steve Jobs” effect, because of his famous “One last thing” sentence that he ended every presentation with. 

4. Teach the whole lesson: what to do, how to do it but also why doing so (later):

An airplane is small, and a lesson short. One wants to fly as much as only possibly and not talk (too) much. But afterwards, possibly on a cold glass of beer, I have had the most valuable of lessons. The instructor wrote little notes during flying, and told me to do something or other, promising to explain it later. I call this technique “bookmarking”, since you do not want to waste time at the moment, but would like to explain something at a later time, when not in stress, for wxample because you are now lining up for takeoff for example.

Pro Tip: The “bookmarking” techniques is also a great way to deal with the more demanding participants in training who have (too) many questions. Tell them you have to move on, but you will answer the question later on. Just do not forget to actually do it!

5. Be fun: make learning a great experience even in difficult conditions:

I have had this flight teacher that I have never seen being stressed or loud, ever. No matter how harsh the storm, wind, or rain, he was ALWAYS calm. And the best part: He was even able to make jokes about it, even when we got stuck somewhere overnight, not being to fly back home. Never lose your cool, EVER! And remember the old but so important rule: Hard on the facts, but always soft on the people, leave your emotions at home. A good smile and joke can “break” the most demanding of settings.

Pro Tip: Probably the most important sentence I have ever learned when learning to fly, is FLY THE AIRPLANE FIRST: In the aviation world, this is a common approach to all flying situations, especially emergency conditions. Aviation studies have found that pilots get so focused on solving a problem in an emergency that they sometimes forget to fly the airplane. The same goes for training. Having a hard moment? Participants are demanding? Stop anything else you may try to be achieving, solve that problem, and then go back to where you were you were supposed to be going.

Inspired by and written with the wonderful pilot and PhD Armelle Gaussin