Stalling Brief and Demonstration
 

Errmmmmm, HELP! A friend of mine has an interview soon at a certain top secret flying training organisation and has to give a stalling ground brief followed by a flying demonstration.

Any of you chaps/ess got some useful bumf (Powerpoint slides etc) or any novel ways of explaining the excersice then please could you PM me (and I'll pass it on to him) ahem.

VMT

MFWF

:ok:

Sorry, I don't have anything useful.

But my own experience of job interviews is that he should do exactly the same as he normally does when he teaches this exercise. Or, if he's recently qualified, he should do exactly what he was taught to do on his FIC. Trying to introduce "bumf" with which he is not familiar is more likely to land him in trouble at an interview than to help him.

FFF
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Quite a smart move, making him give a stalling brief and airborne demonstration.

It will soon indicate whether he's been properly taught and knows what he's doing.

PowerPoint brief? YGBSM!! The whole essence is that the brief should elicit information from the student, not just baffle him/her with gucci graphics.

And as for expecting someone else to assist with his preparation.....

I have all my briefs on Powerpoint - try it and you will find it far better than chalk and talk as long as it is done properly, you can do it in just the same way but without the distraction of having to turn away to write things up. A properly done Powerpoint does not have to have "Gucci graphics" though some of the facilities can help explain things much more clearly than a stuck drawing on a board and surely putting things over clearly to the student is the main aim.
As far as getting someone else to assist with prep., most people are just regurgitating what they were taught on their FI course so they have had the assistance with preparation there.:p

Foxmoth is right - nothing wrong with technology if used properly.

My problem, though, is that MFWF's friend is sure to be used to teaching these exercises in a specific way. What he really doesn't need, in a job interview, is to press a button, expecting the PC to reveal the point he's just been talking about... only to discover that the presentation orders things slightly differently to what he's used to.

Stick with what you know for the interview. If you want to start experimenting with different ways of doing briefs, then do it once you're in a job, where a minor slip-up can be corrected at the time and joked over with the student the following day, and won't cost you a (potential) job.

FFF
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Well if he does that then he does not deserve the job anyway, I got my PP presentations off someone else, but before I actually used them I went through them all and modified them so they fitted my briefs as I wanted to give them. If he gets PP briefs and does not at least run through what is there a few times before interview he deserves to fail.:=

Powerpoint

Simplicity, I say, is evidence of the most advanced form of teaching!

Some of the best briefs I have ever seen have been concise with a minimum of "aids".

I assume your friend is a qualified flight instructor in which case I would expect him to be able to brief stalling with little preparation since this is a basic exercise, although it is understandable that he wishes to be well prepared for a job interview.

Finally, I was once taught that the 5 stages of teaching were:-

1. Preparation
2. Presentation
3. STUDENT PARTICIPATION
4. Recapitulation
5. Post Flight Brief

I would say a whiteboard brief will demonstrate a better understanding of the topic that talking at an already prepared presentation and lead your friend into a better performance - if he really wants the job.

That's how I would see it if I was conducting the interview. Also, I would expect that the whiteboard technique would lend itself to elicting some good points from the student and would also be able to convey his knowledge of the subject when the inevitable tricky question comes up.

I suspect that in this instance, the organisation is looking for teaching skills and not lecturing skills.

Good luck (to yur friend).

PM me your email address and I can email you the full briefing in powerpoint form.

....and when the power goes off? As assuredly it will!

Death by PowerPoint is NOT conducive to student interaction - as all the FIs on here with any worthwhile experience have said.....

I recently had a visit from a young insurance salesman who turned up with one of these PowerPoint devices.

All very slick marketing and a seemingly professional presentation of the plans he was endeavouring to sell. However, when faced with a couple of questions not anticipated and for which his "spiel machine" was not prepared, he rather fell to pieces and had to phone in for assistance.

I didn't buy his product, nor would I have selected him to teach me how to fly. Frankly, I would be inclined to be wary of someone needing the pseudo-sophistication of fancy software to explain things easily depicted on a blackboard. Could be flashy obfuscation designed to conceal a lack of proper understanding of the subject matter?

Perhaps once in a career, there is an occasion when one has to follow the advice, "forget the book, fly the aircraft". Where's yer PowerPoint then?

GQ.

Who has the power, the point?
 

While Powerpoint is a fantastic presentation tool, it is hardly truly interactive. Using it as an easy option avoiding personal limitions of presentation is usually very transparent to the observer. What Powerpoint does not do is allow you, the instructor, to illicit, spontaneously the knowledge of the student and then ad hoc take them at their pace to where they should be. As an instructor/teacher that is what you must be able to do! That is interact with your student and not simply lecture them until they fall asleep.
Now, an interactive white board such as used in primary schools these days could be a winner.

Now, an interactive white board such as used in primary schools these days could be a winner.

homeguard,

You're absolutely right. The first one of these I saw was about 10 years ago at my daughter's Infants' school - all paid for by the Parents' Association, not the local Council!

We had one which I used extensively at my previous employer, but most flying schools simply couldn't afford the cost. Also, in my experience, if you have multiple users then the thing gets seriously screwed up in short order.

Where I'm presently working, we have a projector and a pull-down screen and it's easy to show the basics on the screen, then quickly roll up the screen and mute the projector and get down to business on the whiteboard behind - best of both worlds if you can't afford the interactive version.

However, we also have some small briefing 'cells' with just enough room for a table and 2 chairs and a small whiteboard. Personally I prefer this more intimate setting for 1-2-1 work; it is closer to the aircraft environment.

Mind you, if you've got to give a briefing to a load of folk on a selection board, it's a quite different scenario from briefing a student.

Cheers,
TheOddOne

PowerPoint is OK for presentations....

But a pre-flight briefing is NOT a presentation.

Whiteboard and 4 sticky pens - far the better way. And you absolutely must elicit student participation and knowledge.

When I did my RAF QFI training, the PC scribbly-wench giving the 'How to Teach' stuff told us we weren't allowed to say 'blackboard' as it had racial overtones....:rolleyes:

But this was Scampton, we were aircrew (largely non-volunteer) and some of us knew of a certain dog's grave not very far from the CFS groundschool. So, guess what the 'black' board became known as.....:E

Our Kenyan AF mate thought it was rather amusing!

Thanks
 

Dear All,

Very interesting replies. Thanks. My dear friend has now landed said job and is very happy indeed!

Wrt Powerpoint. I agree that it is a good presentation tool and less useful for teaching and instruction. Student participation is essential to ensure that they have both listened and understood. It is possible however to utilise powerpoint and the whiteboard for instruction as long as student participation is encapsulated.

As for the last post by dear old BEagle, he wouldn't last 2 minutes where I work!! I got a severe bolloc*ing for calling a civvy a strawberry mivvie last week.:ugh:

Thanks all, especially those who came up with the "goods".

MFWF

Fortunately I wouldn't ever want to work at such a humourless, banter-intolerant place, thanks mate.

Well the latest brief I used on PP was teaching formation, to put this on a White or Black board as effectively I would have needed to draw in the aircraft, rub it out and redraw it half a dozen times, all this drawing time spent facing the board not the Student, using the PP I had a much more professional looking presentation that flowed better because I was facing the student 99% of the time and took less time giving more time for student participation and Q&As.:p

Sadly, Beags, times they are a changin'.

Even CFS(Tutor) Sqn are now converting over to a Powerpoint-based briefing system, written so as to still extol the virtues of good instruction (Pose-Pause-Ridicule, et al). Although, it was hastened to make use of the influx of IT into the setup.

My view - good instruction is just that, no matter what the medium, and so long as whatever VAs you have available are used to their optimum (note, NOT maximum!) then the stude should feel that he/she knows what's going on.

I agree with the whiteboard + pens - the more you write it out, the more you learn what you are saying!

As for the brief? I woulda summed it up:

Pull back too hard, get too slow - plane drops out of sky. Very quickly.

Ya think I woulda got the job?! :E

Can anyone mail me this powerpoint as I also have to do this