CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 8 Issue 1 - 9

THE FEEDBACK FROM CLIENTS SAYS THIS REVIEW IS IMMENSELY HELPFUL BECAUSE THEY GET TO REVIEW
IT ON THEIR OWN TIME AND WITH SOME DISTANCE FROM THE FLIGHT.

Finally, that evening, I review my notes and
create the debrief email. This lets me prioritize
what feedback would be most useful long-term.
It also lets me ﬁnd any book or online references
that might help, and allows me to organize my
cryptic, scrawled notes.

THREE COMMENT CATEGORIES
I group comments into three categories for
the email.
General points reﬂect things that came up
repeatedly during the ﬂight, or are systemic. For
example, "You did an excellent job dividing your
attention between cockpit tasks and watching
outside the aircraft. It was particularly evident
during the simulated diversion. Keep that
up." Another might be, "As I mentioned while
we were putting away the airplane, try and
incorporate a ﬂow check every time you change
phase of ﬂight: from climb to cruise, from cruise
to descent, on the downwind, and so on."

Speciﬁc points have to do with a particular
event. "On the last ILS approach to Sanford,
you wove back and forth through the localizer,
with near full-scale deﬂection at DA. Two
factors contributed to this. One, you never set
your heading bug for the inbound course, so you
didn't have the visual reminder to limit your
correction to ﬁve-degree increments; and two,
the GPS wasn't showing your ground track so
you lacked feedback on how the changing winds
were impacting your wind correction angle."
The third category is "For next time." This
could be a technique to work on the next lesson.
For example, "Be sure to include setting the
heading bug with the 'twist' part of the '5Ts'
when crossing the ﬁnal approach ﬁx." Or it could
be a task for the next lesson, "Next time we'll
start at least one LPV approach with gear and
ﬂaps up while at cruise speed, and we'll practice
decelerating while on glidepath." If there is no
further instructional ﬂight planned, such as

after a successful ﬂight review, this section lists
facets the client could incorporate into his or her
ongoing ﬂying.
That's it. I'm sure one could take it further
and include screens from CloudAhoy or other
debrief tools, but I haven't yet.
The feedback from clients says this review is
immensely helpful because they get to review it
on their own time and with some distance from
the ﬂight. It makes it clear what's expected next
time. Trends emerge naturally. They can see
improvement just by looking back at emails, and
when they read the same suggestion three times,
somehow that has more impact than just hearing
it three times. It's more undeniable when it
appears in writing.
I've also heard from several clients that it feels
more professional because I took the time to
write this up. To that point, expect to spend

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 8 Issue 1