MentorLIVE is NAFI’s monthly, live-streaming broadcast airing the third Wednesday of every month at 8:00 PM Eastern. These programs feature subject matter experts from many aspects of the flight instruction industry to help CFIs be more successful in their training endeavors. All presentations are WINGS-approved!

Upcoming broadcasts:

December 16th, 2020 at 8:00 PM Eastern: “Leveraging Simulation for Instructor Onboarding and Standardization” presented by Josh Harnagel CFII, MEI, Redbird Flight Simulations VP of Marketing

Flight instructors are the backbone of the aviation industry. While most CFIs are highly trained and competent pilots, many lack a practical understanding of adult educational best practices. The Fundamentals of Instruction is a good starting point, but practical instruction techniques are typically left to the new CFI to discover. Unfortunately, most of the time this learning happens at the customers’ expense and is highly dependent on the disposition of the CFI. When a new CFI provides educational training, it tends to be delivered by the instructor’s employer and is one of the major challenges facing flight training organizations. Instructors that are skilled educators utilizing an organization wide training syllabus deliver better student outcomes which in turn leads to better business outcomes for the organization.

Simulation is a tremendous and underutilized tool to meet this challenge. In this broadcast we’ll cover the basics of instructor onboarding and standardization, how simulation can be leveraged to improve instructional quality at scale, and how small to mid-sized flight schools can deliver best-in-class student outcomes by focusing on equipping their CFIs with the right skills, techniques, and tools.

About the Presenter: Josh Harnagel is a CFI, CFI-I, MEI with 3,000 hours. He currently serves as Vice President, Marketing for Redbird Flight Simulations, an Austin Texas-based flight training technology company. Josh oversees a team responsible for marketing, communications, and product development. A member of the Redbird staff for 10 years, he has held a number of key positions. During that time, he has been an instrumental contributor to Redbird’s explosive growth since its inception.