Instructional Knowledge and Flight Instruction Techniques
What the domain tests
This domain tests whether you can turn a licensing syllabus into instruction that changes behaviour, not just a flight that fills the logbook. The examiner looks for clear objectives, accurate demonstration, controlled student practice, and evidence-based evaluation. Use the tell–show–do–review cycle: brief the aim and completion standards, demonstrate with commentary, let the student perform with decreasing prompts, then debrief against measurable criteria.
Core instructional rules
- Write each lesson objective as an observable performance: “recognise the stall warning, reduce angle of attack, recover with minimum height loss”, not “understand stalls”.
- Apply primacy and recency: teach the correct technique first and finish with a correct repetition.
- Control workload. Introduce one new variable at a time; keep the aircraft trimmed and the lookout shared.
- Use scenario-based training and threat and error management: ask the student to name the threat, the error, and the countermeasure.
- Debrief with evidence: altitude, heading, airspeed, radio calls, and the student’s own observations.
Worked example
A PPL student is learning the power-off stall. The objective is: at a safe altitude and after HASELL checks, recognise buffet and stall warning, reduce back pressure, prevent wing drop with rudder, add full power, level the wings, and return to cruise without a secondary stall. The instructor first demonstrates with a running commentary, then hands over. The student pulls harder when the nose drops. The instructor freezes the moment and asks: “What is the wing doing?” The student identifies the stall. The correction is to release back pressure first, then power. The lesson is repeated until recovery is smooth without prompting. The debrief compares height loss and heading control with the briefed standard.
Traps
Talking through a demonstration so much that the student cannot watch; correcting after the manoeuvre instead of at the point of error; letting the student practise a wrong habit; and signing a lesson as complete without a measurable standard.