Orientation, human behavior, and communication

The candidate can name what a learner is doing when they stop learning, and change their own teaching in response. By the end they will have taught a short block to a Simulated Student showing anxiety, and adapted their delivery to it in real time rather than pushing through it.

This is the first lesson of the program, so it also orients: the candidate leaves knowing the shape of all 42 lessons and what the program will ask of them.

Teaching order. Each element carries its source so the instructor can go to the source rather than trust this summary.

Element 6 is the one that matters most and the one most likely to get rushed. Apathy due to inadequate instruction is on the FAA's own list of learner emotional reactions, which means the handbook is telling a new instructor that a bored student may be their fault. Do not let the candidate skip past that.

Reconciles with the 1.5 ground hours declared above and in program/PROGRAM-STRUCTURE.md.

Instructor brings: FAA-H-8083-9B chapters 2 and 4. FAA-S-ACS-25 open at FI.I.A. The program structure. The recording setup, per element 2.

Candidate brings: their preparation deliverable, below. FAA-H-8083-9B.

Room: Meet running, each participant on their own device with a headset, even though you are in the same room. Demonstrate this on lesson 1 so the habit is set from the start.

1. Orient. Walk the program structure. Be honest that phase 1 is seven ground lessons and that flying starts at lesson 10.
2. Set the recording expectation and answer questions about it now rather than at lesson 4.
3. Teach elements 3 to 8, drawing on the candidate's own experience as a student pilot. They have been the learner in every one of these categories; make them name which.
4. Simulated Student role, element 10. You are a private pilot student roughly 12 hours in, about to fly your first stalls. Play anxiety, specifically: ask the same question twice, ask "what happens if it doesn't recover", and go quiet when the candidate gets technical. Do not announce which reaction you are playing.
5. Stay in role. If you drop out of character to lecture, you have taken the lesson away from the candidate.
6. Critique against standards/CRITIQUE-STANDARD.md. Name the error, its probable cause, and the correction.

1. Arrive with the preparation deliverable written.
2. Name, from their own training, one occasion they hit each of at least three of the learner emotional reactions in element 6.
3. Teach a five to ten minute block introducing power-off stalls to the Simulated Student.
4. Recognize the emotional reaction being played, name it aloud during the debrief, and say what they changed in response.
5. Self-critique first, before the instructor's critique.

Identical wording in the study guide.

1. The candidate teaches a five to ten minute block to the Simulated Student and adapts their delivery within the block when the Simulated Student shows a named emotional reaction, rather than continuing the planned delivery unchanged.
2. The candidate names the emotional reaction that was played, and names one specific thing they did differently because of it.
3. The candidate gives an example from their own flight training of at least three of the five learner emotional reactions in FI.I.A.K2.
4. The candidate states one barrier to communication that occurred in their own teaching block and what would remove it.
5. The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's, naming at least one error, its probable cause, and a correction.

None of these is met by reciting a list. Standard 1 is the one to hold the line on: the observable behavior is a change in delivery, in the moment, in response to a person.

Not applicable. Ground lesson, no aircraft.

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

• FAA-H-8083-9B, Aviation Instructor's Handbook, chapter 2, Human Behavior.
• FAA-H-8083-9B, chapter 4, Effective Communication.
• FAA-S-ACS-25, Area of Operation I, Task A. Read the task itself, not a summary of it.
• program/PROGRAM-STRUCTURE.md, all of it.
• policy/RECORDING-AND-RETENTION.md, all of it.

Deliverable: One page, written, bringing to the lesson: for each of the five learner emotional reactions in FI.I.A.K2, one occasion from your own flight training when you experienced it, and one sentence on what your instructor did or did not do about it. Your own training, not a hypothetical student.

US-3.1 requires at least one worked example drawn from a real private or commercial flight lesson.

Available and used: the 2026-07-29 power-off stalls lesson. The Session Transcript of that lesson opens with Erick saying, verbatim:

So Connor is going to go over power off stalls.

Use it for element 8, basic elements of communication. One sentence establishes the source, the receiver, and the role each person is in for the next hour. Ask the candidate what would have been ambiguous without it, and who else needed to hear it. That lesson also demonstrates why role clarity is not optional: an automated summary of the same recording asserted that Erick was familiarizing Connor with power-off stalls, inverting who was teaching. A listener who missed the opening sentence got the whole lesson backwards. See docs/adr/0001.

Needed and not yet available: a real example for element 6. This lesson should carry a worked example of a real student's emotional reaction in a real lesson, with what the instructor did. It is not in this folder and cannot be invented. Owner: Erick. Specification: one private or commercial lesson, the reaction observed, what the instructor changed, and whether it worked. Until it is supplied, teach element 6 from the candidate's own preparation deliverable, which is real to them, and record this acceptance criterion as open.

None. This lesson teaches no maneuver, so it carries no Clip.

This lesson is complete and deliverable whether or not its Video Slots are filled. It has none.

Grade against the completion standards, not against how well the candidate knows the handbook. The knowledge shows up in the teaching or it does not show up.

What to look for. Whether the delivery actually changed when you played the reaction. Most candidates will report afterwards that they noticed; fewer will have done anything. The recording settles it, which is the first demonstration of why this program records.

Set the tone here. This is the first critique of the program and it establishes what critique means for the next 41 lessons. Use the three-part test out loud, explicitly, so the candidate hears the structure they will be held to and will be expected to use.

Tracker Status after this lesson is set by the instructor, named, and dated. It is not derived from Coverage. See program/COVERAGE-MATRIX.md.

• ✓Traces to at least one story in CFI_User_Stories.md. US-3.1, US-2.1, US-2.3
• ✓Carries the ACS tasks and Part 61 references it satisfies
• ✓Completion standards stated as observable behavior
• ✓Common errors listed, including the memorize-the-list failure mode
• ✓Intervention threshold stated. Not applicable, ground lesson, with the reason given
• ✓Student preparation requirement named, in the student half
• ✓FAA references verified current, 2026-08-13
• ✓Passes the design system check for its output format
• ✓Appears in program/PROGRAM-STRUCTURE.md and program/COVERAGE-MATRIX.md, hours reconciling
• ✓Both halves exist
• ✓Video Slots: none, and the lesson says so
• ✓Vocabulary matches CONTEXT.md
• ✓No em dashes, no reproduced POH performance numbers, no pricing
• Worked example from a real flight lesson for element 6. Open. Owner: Erick. See above