Flight Instruction Beyond the Airman Certification Standards (ACS)
The process of teaching a student to fly is well established, highly structured, and very predictable. Or at least it should be. A good flight school will require its flight instructors to use a syllabus with each student they train. A list of the required elements of knowledge, a series of specific tasks, and an awareness of the thought processes that go along with each component in order to strictly limit known risks in all phases of flight.
A quality flight school will go one step further by surpassing the limits of required instruction pass along necessary instruction as well.
One of the guides a flight student can use with their flight instructor to achieve this level of capability is the Airman Certification Standards. This slender booklet (or PDF download) should be reviewed by every student with the guidance and support of their flight instructor. A student who has an awareness of exactly what is expected of them throughout their training is ahead of the game. They will understand the tolerances of performance they’ll be measured by during the flight testing process. As a result, they are more likely to find the training experience both pleasurable and successful.
At Rexair we make it our practice to go beyond the minimum requirements of the training standards to also include the instruction necessary to graduate confident, competent pilots who are predisposed to perform well in all phases of flight.
Our mandate is to share our insight and experience with each student to help them become safe pilots who can enjoy the freedom of flight with assurance.
As you consider which flight school you should attend and which flight instructor you should train with, be sure to ask how that school and that instructor deal with required instruction vs necessary instruction. Keep in mind that required instruction is designed to meet the FAA’s minimum requirements and go no further. Necessary instruction takes the student beyond that self-imposed limit to a higher, more deeply understood level.
Ironically perhaps, the inclusion of necessary instruction adds very little time or cost to the flight training experience. Rather, the school and instructor who make this commitment to their students simply make it their common practice to employ a well-organized approach to instruction that imparts greater insight to the student as they transition to become the Pilot in Command.
When you call Rexair, or better yet, when you visit us at our flight training facility in Naples, Florida be sure to ask us specifically how we can help you go beyond the FAA’s minimum standards as a pilot, to a higher, safer level of proficiency that will give you a sense of confidence in the air. That enhanced understanding of flight will also tend to make your subsequent flights with friends and family that much safer and more enjoyable.
