Teaching private pilot ground school.

RalphInCA

RalphInCA

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RalphInCA
I recently got my advanced ground school instructor certificate, and I am going to begin teaching private pilot ground school at my flying club.

Any suggestions, helpful hints, as I put together my training materials?

I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I do not have to.
 
RalphInCA said:
I recently got my advanced ground school instructor certificate, and I am going to begin teaching private pilot ground school at my flying club.

Any suggestions, helpful hints, as I put together my training materials?

I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I do not have to.
Click to expand...

Personally I'm a fan of new students only learning the bare minimum up to solo, then hit them over the head with the hammer.

That's counter productive for most ground school first type environments, sorry not much help here...
 
Rehearse so that your delivery is smooth, and dumb down the material as much as you can.
 
And ask them questions. Some are hesitant to ask in class. If one doesn't get it, there's more. Other than being prepared, should be fun.
 
Practice teaching on a non pilot. If they are able to understand, you're in good shape. When I was studying for my CFI, I did ground lessons on my mom who has no aviation background. If I could get her to understand my lesson, I knew I did something right. Also be prepared to not know some of your student's questions. Always tell them you'll find the reference and get back to them.
 
In my opinion if you know the material and follow a basic syllabus the class will take care of itself. If they don’t get it they will ask. I have found encouraging questions works better than a monolog.

You will know more when you find you pass and dropout rate compared to your predecessor.

I find value in seeing how others (King, Sporty’s Gleim etc.) do it. It is not very expensive and most will give a discount to a certificated instructor.

Good luck on your new aviation adventure.
 
Don't ramble on too much on one subject, they will get bored. Find the middle ground that the material isn't too boring for advanced learners and not too advanced for slower learners. And read your students. See how they are reacting. There expression will tell you everything.
 
I took a ground school while doing my private and I took it again a few years later for a refresher. The person that handled most of the topics was a fantastic instructor and delivered the material in a timely fashion and knew the topics fully. The other instructor was my CFI, but he was also a mechanic, so he handled most of that with the same experience. I say really know your stuff and have an effective delivery.
 
Good advice so far. A few more ideas:

Realize that different students learn differently - be ready to modify your delivery as needed.

Some instructors get too enthusiastic to help their students to learn everything the instructors know about flying. If you're presenting to a bunch of PPL students, you can use a test prep to help you figure out how much time to devote to different subjects, and which subjects can be covered lightly or skipped. The FAA creates more test questions in the subjects that they consider to be more important. But remember, too, that some subjects are simply more difficult than others. Ask lots of questions as you cover the material.

Most students underestimate the amount of studying necessary to master the material. Encourage them to work problems at home, and provide them a schedule so the can read up on the material before class.

Some of the subjects students get most challenged by: altimetry, weight and balance, take off and landing distance graphs, pressure altitude conversion, regulations, VOR Nav, E6B calculations, segmented circle/traffic pattern orientation. There have to be others...

Try to start each class with a quick review of some of previous class, to tie it all together.

Keep it light, and fun.
 
This is great to see. Ground schools are a great way to help pilots meet each other and develop relationships that can help them achieve their goals.

Is your ground school intended to get them to pass the written or to prep them for lessons at the club? You can customize it for both purposes, but most are focused on getting students to pass the written. However if you have really motivated students it may be worthwhile to do some "practical application" type ground lessons as well. For example, you could use a real airplane for a "lab" on airplane systems.

If you intend to do some lesson prep-type lessons, consider adding NTSB reports as case studies to introduce your lessons. I'm not saying you should scare them half to death, but providing a real example is better than saying "Accidents have happened because...[state general reason]."
 
I'm not sure of your certificates, flying background, and so fourth.

That said, although I'm well aware of a PP being able to teach ground school, I'm not a fan. (I have no clue if that includes you or not.)
There will surely be questions asked that only an experienced guy can answer, or at least experience will help from a practical standpoint.

If I were paying for ground school class, you can bet I would want a CFI or preferably better.
 
In the original post Ralph said that he recently got his advanced ground school instructor certificate.
I feel that a lot of active pilots would find benefit from a well presented ground school.
For those that are just starting on their aviation adventure I feel basic aerodynamics and introduction to the FARs would have value.
If he was near SMX I would attend.
I find the more I learn the more I find I have to learn.
When I give flight reviews I find that much of what was learned to pass the knowledge test has been forgotten by some pilots.
 
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