Emergency operations and postflight procedures

The candidate teaches emergency operations and postflight procedures from the right seat, and can introduce a simulated emergency to a Student safely: briefed, bounded, and terminated on stated criteria rather than on feel.

This is the last lesson of phase 3 and it is recorded. Its recording is compared against lesson 25, which is why lesson 25 was recorded in the first place.

Emergency operations are the easy half. The candidate has flown simulated engine failures since they were a student.

The content that is new is the instructor's side of it: how to create an emergency for somebody else without creating a real one. That is a skill with rules, the rules are not obvious, and a newly certificated instructor who has not been taught them will invent them badly under time pressure. Every year, somebody bends an airplane demonstrating an emergency that was not one.

North Aero's rules for introducing a simulated emergency

School policy, not regulation (US-3.4). The candidate learns these, teaches to them, and can state all six.

1. Say it is coming, in the preflight brief, and do not say when. A Student who has never been told a simulated emergency will occur is being startled, not taught. Startle is not the lesson.
2. Simulate with the throttle. Nothing that stops the engine for real. No mixture, no fuel selector, no magnetos in flight, at any altitude, for any reason.
3. State the altitude floor before the exercise and terminate there, whether or not the exercise has reached a conclusion. The floor is a number said out loud on the ground.
4. State the configuration limits. Which configurations the exercise may reach, and which it may not.
5. Never introduce one where a real failure would leave no option. If the simulation would become fatal on becoming real, it is the wrong place for it.
6. Terminate on the stated criteria, not on how it feels. Reaching the floor, running out of options, the Student becoming overloaded, traffic, or the engine needing attention. Any one of them ends it.

A candidate who cannot state these six has not met this lesson, regardless of how well the emergency descent was flown.

Element 9 is the one that gets skipped and it is a graded ACS task. AI.XIV.A is a task, the practical test can ask about it, and more importantly the shutdown and securing is where a Student learns whether the airplane matters to their instructor. A candidate who narrates a whole flight and then parks in silence has taught something they did not intend to.

Element 7 is the honest difficulty. A clean engine failure is a simple problem: the engine is gone, the decision is made. A partial power loss is where the accidents actually live, because it requires a decision under ambiguity, and it is much harder to teach because the airplane is still flying and the temptation to press on is real.

US-5.6 requires emergency scenarios in more than one phase, and requires it to be checkable. Here is where they are. The candidate should be able to name most of these from memory by the end of the debrief.

Three phases, ten lessons, and one of them before the candidate ever flies. That is the claim US-5.6 makes, and program/MANEUVER-SET-RECONCILIATION.md checks it rather than repeating it.

The last column matters. program/PROGRAM-STRUCTURE.md names five lessons as carrying a staged emergency scenario: 12, 30, 32, 34, and 35, plus lesson 38 where emergency operations are the subject. This table is a superset of that, and the extra rows are lessons whose emergency content is the subject matter rather than a scenario introduced during the flight. The two documents agree, and the column exists so nobody has to work that out.

Ground 48 minutes, flight 90 minutes. Reconciles with the declared 0.8 ground and 1.5 dual.

The postflight element is taught inside the flight block, on the ground, engine running and then shut down, before the debrief begins. It is not a separate schedule line because it is not a separate activity.

Instructor: FAA-S-ACS-25 at Areas IV, XII, and XIV. FAA-H-8083-3C. The airplane. Cockpit recording equipment, per P7. The lesson 25 recording assessment, for the comparison.

Candidate: headset, the flight manual for the airplane being flown, their written preflight ground lesson, the emergency checklists for that airplane, and their own lesson 25 debrief.

Airplane: normal category, dual controls, with its actual emergency equipment aboard for element

8. Terrain and airspace with real options below, because rule 5 is not satisfiable over a solid forest or a built-up area.

Cockpit recording: required (parameter P7) Recording title convention: CFI Flight Lesson - L38 emergency operations - <YYYY-MM-DD> What is recorded: the flight portion, parts 2 and 3 of the cycle Candidate critiques their own recording before the instructor's review Coverage maps to: AI.IV.A, AI.XII.A, AI.XII.B, AI.XII.C, AI.XII.D, AI.XIV.A Retention: Review Video, 30 day Promotion Window, then deletion (ADR 0002) The written assessment is the record. The footage is not (Decision 37) Fallback if capture fails: instructor attests from contemporaneous notes; the lesson is not lost and is not re-flown for the sake of a recording

This recording is compared against lesson 25's, which is the reason both are on the P7 list. The comparison is a written observation in the candidate's file, made by the instructor, and it is the single most useful piece of feedback in the program: thirteen lessons of change, visible.

A camera changes nothing about the intervention threshold below.

1. Get the six rules said out loud, from memory, in the brief. They are the lesson. If they are read off paper, close the paper.
2. Agree the altitude floor and the configuration limits before engine start, as numbers, and write them down.
3. Take the brief as a Student. Ask "what if it happens for real while we're pretending?", which is rule 2 and rule 5 and is a question worth a good answer.
4. Grade the brief before the airplane.
5. In part 2, watch how the candidate introduces the simulation. The throttle, the words, and whether they said what they wanted the Student to do. Most of the assessment is in these ten seconds.
6. In part 3, be a Student who fixates on the field and forgets the airplane. See the script.
7. Terminate at the agreed floor yourself if the candidate does not, out loud, and make it a debrief item rather than a comment in the moment.
8. Watch the shutdown and securing. Element 9. Say nothing about it at the time.
9. In part 4, run the comparison against lesson 25. Have the candidate say what they think has changed before you say what you saw.

Simulated Student script notes

Not in the study guide.

1. Teach the preflight ground lesson on emergency operations, including the six rules from memory.
2. Agree and write down the altitude floor and configuration limits.
3. Demonstrate an emergency descent and a simulated emergency approach and landing from the right seat, narrating throughout.
4. Introduce a simulated emergency to the Simulated Student, correctly briefed and bounded.
5. Teach a systems malfunction and a partial power loss.
6. Teach the emergency equipment actually aboard the airplane.
7. Teach after landing, parking, and securing.
8. Take the airplane at the threshold, out loud, three-way.
9. Critique, self-critique, then listen. Then review the recording against lesson 25's.

Identical wording in the study guide.

1. The candidate delivers the preflight ground lesson on emergency operations, covering all seven items of the brief, and states all six rules for introducing a simulated emergency, from memory.
2. The candidate states the altitude floor and the configuration limits for the exercises as numbers, before engine start.
3. The candidate introduces a simulated emergency to the Simulated Student using the throttle only, having briefed beforehand that one would occur, and states what they want the Student to do.
4. The candidate terminates each simulated emergency at the stated floor, out loud, whether or not the exercise has reached a conclusion.
5. The candidate flies an emergency descent and a simulated emergency approach and landing to the tolerances the current tasks specify, from the right seat, while narrating continuously.
6. The candidate teaches field selection as a repeatable process, and directs the Simulated Student to fly the airplane before choosing the field.
7. The candidate names the fixation when the Simulated Student stops flying the airplane, rather than only correcting the resulting deviation.
8. The candidate teaches a partial power loss as a decision under ambiguity, and can say why it is harder than a complete failure.
9. The candidate teaches the emergency equipment actually aboard the airplane being flown, having located it, rather than a general list.
10. The candidate teaches after landing, parking, and securing, narrating it as instruction rather than completing it in silence.
11. The candidate takes the flight controls using the three-way exchange, out loud, in both directions, including at least once when the airplane was not offered.
12. The candidate delivers a critique naming the error, its probable cause, and the correction for at least two of the errors flown.
13. The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's, and states what they believe has changed since lesson 25 before hearing the instructor's comparison.

Standards 1 through 4 are the lesson. They are the difference between an instructor who can fly an emergency and one who can teach it without eventually causing one.

Falling short does not block phase 4. No proficiency gate (Decision 9). It triggers policy/REMEDIATION-VISIBILITY.md. This is the last lesson before checkride preparation, so a finding here should be worked before lesson 39 rather than carried into the mock flight, and the candidate should be told that plainly.

Verbatim in the study guide.

The instructor takes the airplane when:

• The airplane descends through the agreed floor and the exercise has not been terminated.
• Airspeed reaches 1.1 Vso at any point in a simulated emergency approach without correction applied.
• The nose is raised to stretch a glide. No time allowance, as at lesson 36.
• The airplane is maneuvered below 500 ft AGL other than in the traffic pattern.
• Any control other than the throttle is moved to simulate a failure.
• Bank exceeds 45 degrees below 1,000 ft AGL.
• Either pilot is unclear about who is flying the airplane.

Hard floor: every simulated emergency approach is terminated by 1,000 ft AGL unless it is being flown to a runway in the traffic pattern. North Aero policy, not regulation (US-3.4).

The item about moving a control other than the throttle applies to both pilots. It is on the intervention list rather than in the common errors table because there is no version of it that is a teaching moment.

Positive exchange of controls, both directions, every time.

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

• FAA-S-ACS-25, tasks AI.XII.A through AI.XII.D and AI.XIV.A, in full. Note that postflight is a task in its own right.
• FAA-H-8083-3C, the emergency procedures chapter.
• The emergency checklists for the airplane you will fly, from that airplane's own approved material, and find where the emergency equipment is stowed in the actual airplane.
• Your own lesson 25 debrief.

Deliverable: Three things. First, write the preflight ground lesson you will teach on emergency operations. This is one of your seventeen P3 plans, covering an emergency operation. Second, memorize the six rules for introducing a simulated emergency. You will state them without reading. Third, write down what you think has changed in your instruction since lesson 25, before you rewatch anything. You will compare it against the recording afterward.

VS-38-1

Type: Exemplar | ACS task: AI.XII.B | Status: empty What it should show: a simulated emergency approach introduced correctly, with the airplane flown first, the field chosen by process, and the exercise terminated at the stated floor Reference Critique: not applicable for an Exemplar

VS-38-2

Type: Error | ACS task: AI.XII.B | Status: empty What it should show: a pilot fixating on the chosen field, airspeed decaying, the airplane no longer being flown Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of the flight the Clip is taken from

VS-38-3

Type: Error | ACS task: AI.XII.C | Status: empty What it should show: a partial power loss with the decision deferred, the airplane pressing on toward a distant airport Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of the flight the Clip is taken from

VS-38-4

Type: Exemplar | ACS task: AI.XIV.A | Status: empty What it should show: after landing, parking, and securing taught aloud, as instruction rather than as a silent routine Reference Critique: not applicable for an Exemplar

Note: VS-38-4 is a second Exemplar in this lesson, which the convention does not usually permit. It is here because AI.XIV.A is a separate ACS task with no other lesson claiming it, and a task with no Exemplar is worse than a lesson with two. Recorded as a deliberate exception rather than a drift.

Tagged by ACS task. These serve every lesson touching AI.XII.B, AI.XII.C, and AI.XIV.A.

This lesson is complete and deliverable whether or not its Video Slots are filled.

Assess the ten seconds in which the simulation is introduced, specifically. Throttle, words, and a stated expectation. It is a small, learnable, high-consequence piece of technique and most candidates do it vaguely the first time.

Write the lesson 25 comparison down. Not as a sentiment. Name two things that are demonstrably different and one that is not, in the same language the lesson 25 assessment used. It goes in the candidate's file, it is the strongest single input to the lesson 40 mock oral preparation, and it is the payoff for having recorded lesson 25 thirteen lessons ago.

Ask them, at the debrief, where the emergency thread appeared across the program. They should get most of the ten. A candidate who can only name lesson 38 has been taught emergencies as a topic rather than as a habit, which is exactly what US-5.6 exists to prevent, and it is worth twenty minutes to fix on the spot.

This is the end of phase 3. Say so, say what phase 4 is, and confirm two checkride-gating items on this day. Both are easy to discover too late and they fail in opposite directions.

1. The candidate's 61.183(i) spin endorsement is captured, or a firm date exists before the phase 3 to 4 boundary. This is the lesson 38 checkpoint in policy/EXTERNAL-SPIN-MODULE.md. Obtaining it is the candidate's responsibility, not North Aero's, so what is being checked is whether they have acted. If it is captured, verify it against the checklist and record the verification with your name and the date.
2. The second instructor for lessons 40 and 41 is being arranged. This one is North Aero's, it is booked at the phase 3 to 4 boundary at least two weeks before lesson 40, and the Delivery Pool currently holds one person, which is objective O2 and risk R1.

Tracker Status set by the instructor, named, dated. Coverage proposed from the recording, confirmed by the instructor under US-12.5.

• ✓Traces to a story. US-5.2, US-5.4, US-5.6, US-12.2
• ✓Carries ACS tasks and Part 61 references
• ✓Completion standards are observable behavior, naming flying tolerance and teaching quality
• ✓Common errors listed, each with the instructor's response
• ✓Intervention threshold stated explicitly, with a hard floor
• ✓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 named and ACS-tagged, and the lesson states it is deliverable with them empty
• ✓Vocabulary matches CONTEXT.md
• ✓No em dashes, no POH performance numbers, no pricing
• ✓Falling short does not block progression (Decision 9)
• ✓Runs the four-part cycle from standards/MANEUVER-LESSON-SHAPE.md
• ✓Covers how to introduce a simulated emergency safely, with altitude and configuration limits and stated termination criteria
• ✓The emergency thread across the program is located and recorded, not asserted (US-5.6)
• ✓Recorded, per P7, and compared against lesson 25
• ✓School policy distinguished from regulation (US-3.4) on the six rules and the floor