Teaching the Captain Mentality

Teaching the Captain Mentality

Many of our aspiring airline pilots and aspiring corporate pilots have transitioned from their universities and standalone flight schools and become flight instructors in order to fulfill the restricted ATP requirement. Not only does this transition provide new students the opportunity to be taught by those who have been there, done that, but it provides a degree of mentoring. But what about mentoring for the flight instructors themselves?

Becoming a great captain isn’t about being the ace of the base. Becoming a great captain is about effective leadership skills in and out of the cockpit. Experience plays a large part. Unfortunately, in the current environment of accelerated pilot hiring, experience is abbreviated. Copilots are spending a limited amount of time observing captains. The mentoring process is minimal. 

Before a well-trained flight instructor enters the airline pilot or corporate pilot pipeline, it’s important to introduce the concept of captain mentality. Through anecdotal experiences and four decades of professional aviation, my speaking presentation introduces aspiring pilots to that mentality.

At the NAFI summit, I’ll provide the audience with a snippet of just how that introduction is made and just how my speaking presentation can help supplement the limited mentorship provided to today’s aspiring airline pilots and corporate pilots.

Presenter