Ron Amundson on May 18th, 2006

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the title as an eye catcher. As most seasoned CFI’s will state, they take a dim view of offering flight instruction, until a student has the mental capability to understand the immense responsibility of being a pilot. By the same token, we also like to foster an interest in aviation amongst [...]

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Ron Amundson on April 16th, 2006

Podcasting is a tool a CFI can use to increase instructional efficiency, build business, and potentially provide an additional revenue stream. First a definition. Podcasting , in its simplest terms is prerecorded and subscribable audio programs that can de downloaded from the internet and played on an Ipod, MP3 player, or even on ones pc [...]

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Ron Amundson on April 13th, 2006

Aviation decision making and judgement are tough subjects to teach. There is a disconnect between academic knowledge, monday morning quarterbacking, and decisions made in real time. Scenario based training (FITS) is probably a good compromise, but it still lacks the real time psychological issues that dealing with an inflight problem present.  Thus ASRS reports, and [...]

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Ron Amundson on April 4th, 2006

One of the questions I've been asked over the years is where is the best flight school? And of course, my comeback is the one I'm working for at the time Well, no not really, the real key is defining best from the students standpoint.As a matter of professionalism, I think we owe it to [...]

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Ron Amundson on April 4th, 2006

Back when I lived in IA, I was able to meet breifly with Captain Al Haynes after a speaking engagement. He had recently reached mandatory retirement, and was going full bore on a lecture tour. I still believe he is on the speaking circuit, and hearing him in person is a great experience. I did [...]

Continue reading about United 232 concepts applied to flight instruction part 1

Ron Amundson on April 3rd, 2006

Ok, before I loose half the audience, we in aviation were way ahead of traditional education many years ago, as we fully embraced social constructivism. This was especially interesting, as traditional education had yet to consider social constructivism in a large way until the 90's, choosing instead to focus on behavioral pedagody. Unfortunately, flight instruction [...]

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11% OF A LECTURE is all that first year college students typically capture in their notes, according to research.1 Hmmm, it that us the case for college students, what must it be like for the 50 year old aviation student taking a private pilot ground school. Part of the issue stems from the ability to [...]

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Ron Amundson on March 18th, 2006

Education psychology is in a continual state of flux, and unfortunately, much of it remains in the ivory tower only to be shared amongst a tiny few in the educational community. These leaves the lone CFI to rely on his own personal experinece, and the availability of preplanned curricula. Unfortunately, we often times get left [...]

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Ron Amundson on March 15th, 2006

Virtually every place I have worked for over the years has engaged in team instruction. It could be a formal phase check with a different instructor. If could be a way of keeping the student on track when their primary CFI was out sick, on a charter, or otherwise unavailable. In other cases, it can [...]

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Ron Amundson on March 14th, 2006

If I compare aircraft utilization today, to the early 80′s, it is sad, really sad. I think too many flight schools have their rates cranked way up. They are failing to reach a decent level of aircraft utilization, and in order to remain viable, are passing the fixed costs on to their students with high [...]

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