forma classroom ground school

Jeanie

Jeanie

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Dec 15, 2008
Messages
2,239
Location
Alpine, TX
Display Name
Display name:
Jeanie
In your opinion is formal ground school beneficial to you as a CFI and to your students? How many weeks and what frequency has been the best rate ?

If you've taken a formal ground school as a student what did you like? What did you want improved?

I have 6 new PP students in Ft Stockton and I'm trying to decide whether to offer formal ground school for them as a pod of pilots or to just do it individually.
 
Last edited:
I loved being in a class with a bunch of folks at the same level as me so I could hear their questions, bounce my questions and concerns off them. Probably could save you a bunch of time too instead of doing 6 individual 'classes'.
 
A formal ground school is, for some trainees, necessary to accomplish their goals. For others, it's mostly a waste of time. It's all a matter of the individual's best learning style along with their availability and desired rate of accomplishment. For most flight schools, the trainees are working folks taking months to complete the training; for them, 2-3 hours a night, one or two nights a week, for 2-3 months is the most convenient method, but the exact numbers you want to select should depend on your students' needs, not your instructor's. For our college students, the university schedule demanded that we work with them 50 minutes at a time, three times a week, during the school day for 15 weeks -- we didn't have a choice in the matter.

As for things that make the process more effective, my experience as both a teacher and a student in such courses is that it's the fundamentals of classroom instructing -- organization, effective training aids, quality teaching, classroom interaction (i.e., student involvement during the class), instructor availability outside classroom hours for questions, appropriate classroom environment/facility, etc.

As for your six students, probably the best thing to do is to talk with them and see what works for them.
 
I took formal ground school at Wings of Carolina. Total 14 meetings 7 to 10 PM once a week with a focus on the flying, passing FAA written exam wasn't primary objective. That helped me a lot. Ground school covered everything starting from aerodynamics to regulations. My CFI wasn't much of the talker so ground school filled the gap between practice and theory.
Before taking written exam I spend couple hours with a book and scored 93.
 
Leslie and I took a formal class at the 2-year college where I work. It was taught by contract instructors from a local flight school. I found it helpful having other students to bring up questions and talk things out with. We met weekly for about 3 hours for 10 weeks or so.

In fact, I'm considering seeing if they'll let me teach the course, and am looking around to find a good syllabus and training materials. First one I looked at was Rod Machado's, but I know some people find humor in the text off-putting.
 
A lot of times a ground school would be good for a student, but it's hard to herd them all into one room at the same time... and keep them there consistently.

Ryan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top