Flight Instructor · Phase 2 · Lesson 19

Navigation systems and radar services

AI.II.HGround 0.75 hr · Dual 0 hr

FAA references verified 2026-08-13 · v1.0, 2026-08-13

CFI Candidate

Date

Supervising Instructor

Aircraft N41459 Warrior Ground only Flight time Ground time

Objective

The candidate teaches the navigation equipment in the airplane they will instruct in, and teaches a student to use ATC radar services rather than to avoid them.

Ground: 0.75 hr | Dual: 0 hr

Lesson steps: the elements, in teaching order

Check each element as it is taught. Leave anything not done blank. Sign and date once at the bottom.

1. The navigation equipment actually installed in the training aircraft AI.II.Hthe airplane's approved material 2. GPS and satellite navigation, including its failure modes and RAIM style integrity concepts AI.II.H 3. VOR: how it works, how it is checked, and its limitations AI.II.H91.171 where IFR 4. Electronic flight bags: usefulness, and the failure the student must plan for AI.II.HACS Appendix 3 5. Radar services: flight following, traffic advisories, and what ATC is and is not doing for you AI.II.HAIM 6. Transponder operation and codes 91.215 7. Teaching a student to ask for services, which most are reluctant to do 8. Candidate teaches an assigned element to the Simulated Student US-4.1

Element 7 is the practical one. Most primary students will not call for flight following because they are nervous on the radio. An instructor who never makes them do it produces a pilot who never does it.

Element 5 carries a safety point worth stating explicitly. Flight following is not separation for VFR traffic, and a student who believes it is will stop looking outside.

Schedule

Block	Minutes
The equipment in the actual aircraft, element 1	7
GPS and its failure modes, element 2	7
VOR and its limitations, element 3	6
Electronic flight bags and their failure, element 4	5
Radar services and what they do not do, element 5	7
Transponder, element 6	2
Teaching a student to ask, element 7	3
Candidate teaches, element 8	8
Total	45 minutes, 0.75 hours

Critique runs inside the final block.

Equipment

Instructor: the avionics documentation for the actual training aircraft. Current AIM. Live eCFR for 91.215. FAA-S-ACS-25 at AI.II.H.

Candidate: preparation deliverable.

Capture

Taught Ground Lesson: yes Meeting title convention: CFI Ground Lesson - L19 Navigation Systems and Radar Services - <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.H 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

Instructor actions

Teach from the equipment in the actual airplane, not from a generic avionics chapter.
On element 5, ask what ATC is responsible for regarding VFR traffic. Most candidates over-credit it.
Simulated Student role. A student who does not want to call for flight following, and has a plausible reason.
Assign the element for element 8 at the start of the lesson.
Critique against standards/CRITIQUE-STANDARD.md.

Student actions

Arrive with the deliverable.
Teach an assigned element for about eight minutes.
Get the reluctant Simulated Student to agree to make the call, without ordering them to.
Self-critique first.

Completion standards

Identical wording in the study guide.

The candidate teaches an assigned element for about eight minutes, referring to the equipment actually installed in the training aircraft.
The candidate states what flight following does and does not provide, correctly, including that it does not relieve the pilot of seeing and avoiding.
The candidate names one GPS failure mode and what the student would do about it.
The candidate gets the reluctant student to make the radio call, by addressing the reluctance rather than by instructing them to.
The candidate states what a student does when the electronic flight bag fails, in terms of what they must have aboard.
The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's.

Common errors

Error	Instructor response
Teaching a generic GPS rather than the one in the panel	Standard 1
Over-crediting flight following as traffic separation	Standard 2. It is the safety point of the lesson
Ordering the reluctant student to make the call	Standard 4. That produces compliance, not a habit
Treating an electronic flight bag as infallible	Standard 5. Batteries and tablets get hot and quit
Teaching VOR as obsolete and skipping it	It is on the ACS and it is a useful backup
Not knowing transponder code basics cold	Element 6

Intervention threshold

Not applicable. Ground lesson.

Student preparation

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

FAA-S-ACS-25, Area of Operation II, Task H.
The avionics documentation for the airplane you will instruct in.
The AIM sections on radar services and transponder operation.
From live eCFR: 91.215.

Deliverable: Write out, word for word, the radio call you would teach a student to make when requesting flight following. Then write what you would say to a student who does not want to make it.

Worked example

Needed and not yet available: a real North Aero recording of a student's first flight following request. Owner: Erick. Until supplied, have the candidate make the call out loud in the lesson.

Video Slots

None. This lesson teaches no maneuver.

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

Assessment notes

Standard 4 is the teaching skill here. Standard 2 is the safety one.

Tracker Status set by the instructor, named, dated.

Definition of done

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 POH performance numbers, no pricing
Points at live publications and the actual aircraft's equipment (US-4.2)
Carries the Epic 12 capture hooks

Debrief and sign-off

Sign once for the whole lesson. Elements left unchecked above were not taught this session.

Supervising Instructor signature / initials

Date

All CFI lessons