Performance and limitations

The candidate teaches a student to work a performance chart and a weight and balance for the airplane in front of them, from that airplane's own approved material, and to know what the answer does not tell them.

This is the lesson where cross-cutting requirement 5 bites hardest. No number from a POH or AFM appears in any North Aero artifact. Everything comes from the book in the airplane.

Element 6 is the teaching point candidates most often miss. A takeoff distance from a chart is a demonstrated figure under ideal conditions. A student who treats it as a promise will one day use all of a short runway and be surprised.

Critique runs inside the final block.

Instructor: the flight manual for the airplane the candidate will instruct in, including its weight and balance data. FAA-H-8083-1B and its October 2025 addendum. FAA-S-ACS-25 at AI.II.F.

Candidate: preparation deliverable, that airplane's flight manual, a calculator.

Taught Ground Lesson: yes Meeting title convention: CFI Ground Lesson - L15 Performance and Limitations - <YYYY-MM-DD> Participants: each on their own device, headset, Workspace account Candidate reads their own Session Transcript before the instructor's review Coverage maps to: AI.II.F Fallback if capture fails: instructor attests from contemporaneous notes; the lesson is not lost and is not re-taught for the sake of a recording

1. Work every computation from the flight manual on the table. Never from a remembered figure, and never from a handout. Model the rule.
2. Give a loading that comes out within limits but close to one, so the candidate has to say what that means rather than reading a pass or fail.
3. Simulated Student role. A student who wants to know whether the number is safe, not whether it is correct. This is the opening for element 6.
4. Assign the computation for element 7 at the start of the lesson.
5. Critique against standards/CRITIQUE-STANDARD.md.

1. Arrive with the deliverable.
2. Teach an assigned computation, working it live from the flight manual.
3. Say what the answer assumes, and what it does not cover.
4. Handle a result that is legal but marginal.
5. Self-critique first.

Identical wording in the study guide.

1. The candidate teaches a performance or weight and balance computation to the Simulated Student, working it live from the airplane's own approved material, for about ten minutes.
2. The candidate reproduces no number from memory and directs the Simulated Student to the source for every figure used.
3. The candidate states the assumptions behind a chart figure, including that it reflects a demonstrated result under specific conditions and technique.
4. The candidate handles a legal but marginal result by saying what they would do, rather than reporting that it is within limits.
5. The candidate names two factors that would make the real result worse than the chart figure.
6. The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's.

Not applicable. Ground lesson.

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

• FAA-S-ACS-25, Area of Operation II, Task F.
• The flight manual for the airplane you will instruct in, the performance and weight and balance sections.
• FAA-H-8083-1B, Weight and Balance Handbook, plus the October 2025 addendum.

Deliverable: Work a full weight and balance and a takeoff distance for a realistic flight in the airplane you will instruct in: two adults, full fuel, a summer afternoon. Bring your working, not just the answer. Cite where each input came from. Then write one sentence on what would make the real takeoff roll longer than your figure.

Needed and not yet available: a real North Aero loading that came out marginal, and what was decided. Owner: Erick. Until supplied, the instructor supplies a marginal loading for element 7 and should reuse the same one across candidates.

None. This lesson teaches no maneuver.

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

Watch standard 2 without mercy. A candidate who quotes a performance figure from memory in this lesson will do it in front of a student, and the number will eventually be from the wrong airplane.

Tracker Status set by the instructor, named, dated.

• ✓Traces to a story. US-4.1, US-4.2
• ✓Carries ACS tasks and Part 61 references
• ✓Completion standards are observable behavior, and the standard is a taught presentation
• ✓Common errors listed
• ✓Intervention threshold: not applicable, ground lesson, reason given
• ✓Student preparation named, in the student half
• ✓FAA references verified current, 2026-08-13
• ✓Passes the design system check
• ✓Appears in the program structure and coverage matrix, 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 anywhere in this lesson, no pricing
• ✓Directs the candidate to the specific airplane's own approved material (US-4.2, requirement 5)
• ✓Carries the Epic 12 capture hooks