Training Policy for Flight Instructors
Purpose
To achieve a standard method and approach on training within VATSIM Scandinavia. This policy generally focuses on the responsibilities of the flight instructor but also general guidelines and tips. Moreover, it is important this document is kept alive, continually evaluated and amended as the training situation is in motion.
The core of the Training Department‘s attitude is to provide the organisation with skilled, ready and trained pilots to fly on our network. To deliver this, we need to work efficiently and help each other reach this goal.
Training Progression
Student progression towards pilot ratings in VATSIM Scandinavia is described in the policy for students. All flight instructors are to be fully aware of the steps the student has to undergo to achieve their ratings and do as much as they can to ensure their journey is as smooth as possible.
The flight instructor shall contact the training manager if a student does not show satisfactory progress after three sessions. Given that the flight instructors writes good reports as expected, this can be then used to send a progression warning where the student will be given two sessions to show new progress before the case is escalated.
Responsibilities and Expectations
- Flight instructors refrain from sharing user information or training details with unauthorized individuals, under any circumstances. Violations will be reported to the Data Protection Officer and the board for disciplinary actions and handled according to our Data Protection Policy.
- Flight instructors are prepared to work with different types of individuals and provide the same training quality to everyone.
- Flight instructors are dedicated to teaching and will deliver the training in a professional manner.
- Flight instructors propose at least one date per two-week period to all their students when they can train them. If availability permits, at least one session per week is a recommended average.
- Flight instructors show up prepared for all sessions, with clear goals and objectives for the session to present to the student.
- Flight instructors provide appropriate feedback in a respectful manner and debrief the session in a way that allows the student to reflect upon their own performance and not only direct feedback from the flight instructors.
- Flight instructors stay current with training material.
- Flight instructors shall provide their students with detailed, accurate and correct information with reference to official documents.
- Flight instructors understand that they represent the VATSIM Scandinavia Training Department and present themselves in an appropriate manner whilst connected to the VATSIM Network and its affiliated services (forums, Discord etc.).
Standard process of training
In order to provide high quality and effective training, the training process has been standardised and training should follow these standards in all FIRs of VATSIM Scandinavia. However, these standards should be considered more as guidelines rather than strict rules and FIR specific variations can be approved by the Training Manager, when deemed necessary. Every flight instructors should be familiar with the training process and should consult this document before contacting the training staff with questions regarding the next step in the process.
- Students apply for training via Pilot Training Center (PTC) and the system places the student in the queue. The Training Manager assigns relevant Moodle courses and flight instructors.
- Every flight instructor is responsible for informing the Training Manager when they are able to take on a new student.
- The flight instructors is responsible for filing training reports after every session, according to The Training Report section of this document.
- During the training, the student must comply with the requirements stated in the Student Training Policy. If the student violates the policy, it is the initial flight instructor’s decision whether it may be excused. If any further violations occur, the Training Manager must be consulted before the training is discontinued.
The Training Report
Training Reports are recorded in PTC and must be filed within three days of every session unless the flight instructor and Training Manager have agreed otherwise. Below are tips and guidelines for how the training reports are to be written, the headings correspond to the titles of the lesson.
Well written reports are crucial to be able to escalate lack of progression to training staff, therefore we ask you to use a few minutes to write a report that reflects the feedback. It's not expected to write much, but it should make sense for an external training staff to grasp the difficulties and potential for improvement by solely reading the reports.
Date
The date the session took place.
Hours flown
The hours that the student flew.
Comments on Session
“This happened” (is to be written objectively)
Areas to Improve
What needs to be done to get closer to the curricula? What can the student and flight instructor do? This should reflect what is being said in the descriptive part but also what the plan is for the following session.
Example: The trainee will study the METAR decoding sheets to understand different weather situations at the airport. Flight instructor will give an oral progress check next time.
Remember, we build confidence on what the student is doing correctly and we put that into focus. We should however not put any judgment into the reports. It is important to keep in mind that during the training, we train and during the examination we assess.
Other types of training
In other types of training than standard, such as refresh there's a requirement that the training reports are still written for these kind of sessions. The Training Manager will have the saying on how this types of trainings are defined as completed.
Refresh trainings should be trained up to today's level and expectation of a pilot.