Course content level

I’m a new CI. I also happen to be a civilian flying instructor. Tonight for the first time I got to watch an instructor cadet deliver the First Class Principles of Flight lesson and the content (not the instructing) seems to be at way too high a level given the age and educational level of the cadets. To introduce the equation for lift to young people at this stage seems to me to be asking too much.
In discussing wing design, the concepts of chord, equidistant, co-incident and alpha are just lost on them, and thus they quickly get bored
A basic text book for PPL students is more instructive (and entertaining) than this further attempt at death by PowerPoint!
The entire exercise seems to be constructed around “note this down, you’ll need it” (for the exam) but there is very little genuine understanding of the subjects, because the level of information is too technical!
Whatever happened to all the practical demonstrations we used to do in school; blowing over a piece of paper, holding the back of a spoon in a stream of running water. Chucking a paper dart around the room.
That is what will promote an understanding of how airspeed, wing area affect lift.
So my question is, is anyone actually interested in doing it properly? Do RAFAC HQ and/or the cadets want to learn about how aircraft fly, or will I be wasting my time giving extra input to help them understand it? Is the game simply one of ticking boxes to achieve a badge?
Is it just my squadron? Do you run your courses differently?
All I know is that anyone seriously suggesting teaching a 13 or 14 year old that CL = 1/2 rho V^2 S needs to have another think.
I mean, the PowerPoint displays the classic graph of CL v alpha but with absolutely no explanation for instructor or students! No wonder they switch off!
How do you run your courses? Write your own? Delivered by staff or by instructor cadets? Delivered in one session on one day or spread over a few weeks?
I’d love to know because I’m thinking I’m wasting my time now. As someone said to me in a reply on another thread, there doesn’t seem to be much Air in the Air Cadets any more.

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Did the cadet instructing actually understand what they were saying or were they just regurgitating what they had been told and learnt?

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You’re right. Much of the First Class material is too advanced and covers material that should be in much later stages of training.

We work through the First Class training booklet and usually only deliver the required elements, not the Merit or Distinction parts, as these often go way beyond what’s reasonable at that level.

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Is what @ToppledGyro is talking about First Class material? Principles of Flight is a Leading cadet topic is it not? I think the First Class syllabus, which is now Air Operations (I think?) doesn’t go into too much detail, and is a good introduction.

From memory of the Leading Principles of Flight material, it only briefly mentions the formula, and there’s no requirement to be able to properly use it. It’s just to show what all the different variables mean, and how they can be used!

Agree with all the above. We only teach to the mandatory (red) parts of the first class booklet. Are you using the new online type course or the very old PowerPoints? Former is much better than the latter. Leading level unfortunately doesn’t have an online Principles of Flight course so we just teach to the level required in the leading notebook.
Now there is no BTEC there is not much point going into that much detail so early on

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My region did a train the trainer on Principles of Flight during lock down. We were told to skip the equation as it has no meaning for most cadets at this stage and it’s just thrown in there not explained.

I find that use of carefully selected videos, models and whatever practicals we can dream up (paper darts included) help.

Part of the challenge is adjusting material to suit a group, not least because we on not see the cadets 2x week and maybe only 1x week for formal lessons.

I think your input would be very welcome, if you came to my Sqn to teach it I’d supply tea and biscuits!

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Just had a look. Blowing though two bits of paper is actually in the ‘official’ power point :slight_smile:

I found the same when teaching leading and senior cadets. It sounds harsh, but I think most cadets have very little understanding for their classification level. Too many badges and not enough time spent properly studying a subject.

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I would say his instructional technique was good but no, he only knew what he had learned by going through the same experience himself. The problem here (IMHO) is open book exams! they are told to write down ‘important points’. So something like this “Oranges are Orange, lemons are Yellow, Kiwi fruit are brown: be sure to make a note that kiwi fruit are brown” All cadets write in their books that kiwi fruit are brown. As them half an hour later what colour lemons are and they havent a clue!

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Yes I think you may be correct: my error but the same thing applies really.

I have no doubt that given time, and taking it slowly, I could teach cadets of this age and educational level to understand the points properly. Nobody wants them to be aircraft designers, but I do not think the course as it stands really teaches them much and I dont think it captivates them for that reason, being too advanced

I wonder whether we have cadet instructors in his subject because we have previously lacked CIs able to deliver it. Obviously to change or tailor a lesson you must know your subject! The cadet instructor is effectively confined in following the official powerpoint presentation willy nilly.

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interesting - where do i find this ‘official powerpoint’? It would be interesting to compare with what i watched yesterday

Access to all training material is via the Training Hub on SharePoint. This is accessed with your personal Bader email address (Joe.Bloggs100@rafac.mod.gov.uk)

To get to the Principles of Flight power points for example, go to Cadet Training → Classification Training → Leading Cadet → Principles of Flight.

Thank you: Would you believe that I have been asking how to find this for some months within my squadron to no avail! That presentation is very different to what i saw last night; some of the slides are the same but what i saw was evidently a cut down version. Like anything that get’s edited, its not uncommon for the baby to get thrown out with the bathwater. I can see this is going to lead to a difficult chat!

Happy to have pointed you in the right direction! There’s a lot of good stuff on there. Yet people always seemed surprised to find it so easily accessible. You’re not the first person to say what you’ve said after I’ve shown them the Training Hub!

In fairness, all our modules should be accessible enough for an interested MOI-qual’d cadet to teach.

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hmmm - i think the issue here is compounded by the age (and thus general educational level) of the cadets including the instructors. I’ve joined post the lockdown hiatus but I gather this has disrupted the demographic so w have a lot of new young cadets and some senior ones but not many in the middle - the ones who never returned after the break.

As a consequence the course vocabulary (even before you bring in the aviation specific jargon) can be over-sophisticated for the age range we are dealing with - instructors included.

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From my experience, post covid lots of squadrons have rushed cadets through promotions, leading to the current senior cadets not having as much experience as they would have done before and still have alot of development to go through before they reach that point. Obviously their development will come, but in the meantime there will be more pressure on us as staff who will have to take up some roles the senior cadets are still developing into

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