The famous Trevor Booth, when CFI at Interair Aviation back in 1990.... my first CPL lesson..as he walked back to the terminal to be reunited with his Jack Russell and packet of smokes, he looked over his shoulder and said

"That were a load of crap, lass"

That is the only briefing I can recall throughout my entire CPL training. In fact any of my training.

Hi Jan, I see you are from Kiewit.

I used to come a LOT there in my good old Jodel D-120 the OO-FDP and a Minerva 220, the OO-CCB.
Whaw, that was more then 25 years ago, I must be getting old and older.

[[ apologies for local off-topic chat ]]

I must be getting old, too - I cannot remember either registration :( CCB rings a very vague bell, but no more.

Just to get the record straight, though: even if I fly from Kiewit, you really cannot say I am from there. I am from 't Stad, originally, though I happily left many years ago.

[[ /chat ]]

Hmmmm, cute story but I wouldn't call it a good example of effective briefing or debriefing techniques. Not having broken anything means very little. You could have applied incorrect technique or displayed poor airmanship and just gotten away with it. Not saying that was the case of course. But judging safety critical activities only by their outcome is one of the least reliable ways of going about it.

I agree with keeping briefings brief (hence the word) and relevant but just saying don't break anything (for example) is not useful. Nobody goes out with a plan to break anything. Saying don't forget the gear is at least somewhat useful. More useful would have been to ask: How will you make sure to remember the gear? Just an example.

At least have a quick discussion covering potential risks and how to mitigate them. Try to take something away from every training session. A good debrief plays a big part in that and doesn't have to be long at all. A few minutes is all it takes.

During a flapless landing in my single pilot Citation 500 series checkride I was eating up the runway at quite an alarming rate. My check airman casually glanced across and in the calmest of voices said "any time you want to put it down will be just fine for me."

And how did that enhance flight safety? Wouldn't it have been the right thing to do to go around and try again? Maybe more on speed and/or less of a flare the second time around?

I really don't understand what you guys are trying to say with some of those cool stories. They often sound a bit macho to me.

The topic here is "best ever brief/debrief". I have not seen many examples of an effective brief/debrief in this thread.

733 driver, did someone upset you today? FYI, I had just spent a day doing some pretty rigourous refresher training on an amphibian. Believe me, no more needed to be said. It wasn't. The briefing was exactly that. Brief. It focused on the essential difference between the super cub I have spent thirty years flying, and a super cub on amphibious floats. As for the debrief? I suppose I could have treated it as a confessional, except the only thing to admit to was having fun. Which I did.

Hello again. I admit it upsets me a bit to read how an important topic such as effective briefings is being dealt with by the members of the private flying forum on here. As much as I'm glad you had a great day out flying the super cub on floats, I don't think your thread title is fitting the story, and neither are most of the replies by others. Just look at the last two posts here by deefer dog and Nomad2 for example.

Deefer dog says they were "eating up the runway at an alarming rate" yet there was no go around, just a cool remark "in the calmest of voices" to put it down whenever ready. First, this example does not fit the topic "best ever brief and debrief" and second it is actually better suited as an illustration of "how not to do it".

Nomad2's post is even more shocking. He thinks it's appropriate to brief an FO on his first day(!) by saying "standard".....

For anyone who takes an interest in how professionals deal with briefings I suggest these two pages as a starting point:

https://www.aerosociety.com/news/briefing-better/

https://skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/186.pdf

Not all of it is applicable to private flying but the info contained may be more useful than what has been shared so far on this thread. Sorry if it seems like I'm no fun. I can be. Believe me. But flight safety is a topic close to my heart and I haven't seen it addressed appropriately in this thread.

In summary, yes briefings should be brief. But they should also enhance flight safety. They achieve that by being interactive, relevant and identifying threats and how to deal with them.

The only debrief I can remember was from an examiner at the end of the GFT to restore my long lapsed PPL - "At least you're safe", he said, implying that it wasn't the most competent performance he'd ever seen.

Hnrik Doktor
 

My memories of Henrik are similar. Arriving at SB to do my instructors ticket in 1966, he asked to see my log book. 'You have only the 5 hours?. Tomorrow you do Silver height,.and day after tomorrow the distance!. A man of few words indeed.. He was right though, I left SB with a completed Silver and an instructors ticket.

I'm sure I flew with you once.
One of us is mistaken.