This syllabus is unique in several ways that you should be familiar with as you use the syllabus to acquire an FAA Pilot Certificate. First, it is a syllabus that uses real-world scenarios as the foundation of the training. This syllabus contains all of the elements of an FAA/Industry Training Standards (FITS) accepted training method. Flight maneuvers are still a vital part of flight training and flight maneuvers are a part of this syllabus, but real-world scenarios are used to enhance the pilot’s decision making skills. The syllabus presents situations and circumstances that private pilots face every day as learning experiences and lessons. The primary tenet of FITS training is that you prepare for the real world of private pilot, by acting as a private pilot while in training. Therefore, throughout the syllabus, the pilot in training (PT) will take on different tasks or jobs just as if they were already a private pilot. The second important unique feature of this syllabus, and of FITS training, is that it is all competency based. The times shown in each lesson are target times and should not be considered the minimum or maximum ground/flight time for the lesson. When the pilot in training (PT) meets or exceed the desired outcome of a particular skill area in the syllabus, they move on regardless of how much time it takes to reach that point of mastery. This means that each lesson does not necessarily equal one flight. It may take several flights before the PT masters the elements of the lesson and is ready to move on to the next lesson. Consequently, the amount of total flight hours a PT has when the syllabus is completed may be more or less than the minimum times under current aviation regulations.

The PT, in this syllabus, is the student pilot or pilot applicant seeking the Private Pilot. Thus, the PT will be the pilot learning how to develop and use effective scenario-based learning. The PT will be asked to assume various pilot situations and asked to use and develop aeronautical-decision making skills in the various situations. In other words, the PT will be placed in a scenario, pilot situation, where the PT will be expected to use a problem solving process to solve problem or task presented in the scenario. The following discussion addresses how the CFI could use the decision-making scenario method.

For years, good flight instructors have incorporated some form of scenario-based learning into their flight training. Usually during a flight the CFI would tell the PT that something has occurred, such as deteriorating weather, an aircraft malfunction, or air traffic delay. The PT is to assume that the occurrence is actually real and to act accordingly. The PT might decide to divert to a different airport after the CFI tells them that the weather at their destination is poor. The PT may decide to change from the original plan and flies to a different airport. The difference between that and FITS is that FITS also incorporates the consequences of the failure to arrive at the originally planned airport. If a PT decides to fly to an alternate airport instead of the original destination because the CFI “makes up” a story that the weather is bad, then that alone does not consider the consequences of that decision. What if, rather than a training flight, the flight to the original destination was to deliver a human organ for transplant – the decision to divert to an alternate airport could have the consequence of the patient dying that was awaiting the transplant. If the pilot understood that their decision has actual life or death consequences, then the decision to divert will be more difficult. In the real world, these are the type of decisions a pilot faces everyday – so in this syllabus we train the pilot to be ready to make those decisions. For these reasons, most of the lessons in this syllabus are actual “missions” that carry with them actual reasons for the flight and actual consequences for the decisions the pilot will make. The lessons are not “scripted” to the point that every outcome is known in advance. The PT and flight instructor must be flexible enough to accept this fact. Different PTs will make different decisions, and these different decisions will alter the outcome of each flight.

Using real world scenarios as part of flight training does not in any way diminish the need for pilots to also have good “stick and rudder” skills. Pilots will always need the skills, for instance, to land in a crosswind (although enhanced decision skills will prevent them from attempting a dangerous crosswind landing in the first place!). The lessons in this syllabus therefore are all part “mission” training and part “maneuvers” training on a sliding scale. None of the lessons in this syllabus are 100% mission and none are 100% maneuvers. The amount that any lesson is mission-based or maneuver-based is determined by the completion standards of that lesson.

Again, the PT training will learn how to use student-centered grading through instruction and through participation in a student-centered grading process during the course of this training.

Student-centered grading means that after each flight, the PT and instructor will have a discussion of the items that were encountered on the flight and each will evaluate the items. The PT will judge her/his own performance. The instructor, likewise will judge the PT’s performance and then the PT and instructor will compare evaluations. There will be items that both the PTs and instructor will agree were performed well and other that both agree could use improvement. Inevitably, the PT and instructor’s evaluations will disagree. This will be a great opportunity to discuss alternate methods, solutions and techniques that could have been used by the PT to have produced a more favorable outcome to the lesson. Mission based flight lessons can have multiple outcomes that are “correct.” The PT and instructor will discuss if the outcome of the flight was a safe outcome – which is the primary concern of any flight.

Beyond the basic safety of the flight, the PT and instructor will discuss if the outcome could have been even better – optimized. The instructor will use a “rubric” to grade the lessons based on what is an unacceptable outcome, versus a range of possible acceptable outcomes (see Appendix A for example of a grading rubric).

Each lesson in this syllabus will have the same format. The PT and instructor should read through the format information before the flight and as preparation for the flight. Each lesson will have:

1. Strand and Lesson Number
2. Mission
3. Title and Lesson Time
4. Scenario
5. Scenario Objectives
6. Scenario Completion Standards
7. Learning Objectives/Desire Outcome/Grade Sheet
8. Instructor Information
9. Next lesson preview and assignments

This generic FITS Syllabus has one more unique feature. It can have multiple “learning strands.” For example the strands for Private Pilot are: Pre-solo, Cross-country, and Oral & Evaluation. A PT does not have to complete each lesson in sequence within a strand. The syllabus is designed to be “shuffled” and to allow maximum flexibility to meet training constraints. There are some prerequisite lessons that must follow in a particular order, but most lessons can come in any order within each strand. If an instructor and PT had previously completed lessons 4 and are scheduled for flight lesson 5, but the weather at the destination prevents that lesson, the instructor could switch and conduct lesson 6 through 10 can completed.

Private Pilot Syllabus Strands