that the presentation is accomplished with order and unity. Having a plan prevents the instructor from getting off the track, omitting essential points, and introducing irrelevant material. Students have a right to expect an instructor to give the same attention to teaching that they give to learning. The most certain means of achieving teaching success is to have a carefully thought-out lesson plan. 

## Adapt the Lesson Plan to the Class or Student 

In teaching a ground school period, the instructor may find that the procedures outlined in the lesson plan are not leading to the desired results. In this situation, the instructor should change the approach. There is no certain way of predicting the reactions of different groups of students. An approach that has been successful with one group may not be equally successful with another. 

A lesson plan for an instructional flight period should be appropriate to the background, flight experience, and ability of the particular student. A lesson plan may have to be modified considerably during flight, due to deficiencies in the student’s knowledge or poor mastery of elements essential to the effective completion of the lesson. In some cases, the entire lesson plan may have to be abandoned in favor of review. 

## Revise the Lesson Plan Periodically 

After a lesson plan has been prepared for a training period, a continuous revision may be necessary. This is true for a number of reasons, including availability or non-availability of instructional aids, changes in regulations, new manuals and textbooks, and changes in the state-of-the art among others. 

## Lesson Plan Formats 

The format and style of a lesson plan depends on several factors. Certainly the subject matter has a lot to do with how a lesson is presented and what teaching method is used. Individual lesson plans may be quite simple for one-on-one training, or they may be elaborate and complicated for large, structured classroom lessons. Preferably, each lesson should have somewhat limited objectives that are achievable within a reasonable period of time. This principle should apply to both ground and flight training. As previously noted, aviation training is not simple. 

In spite of need for varied subject coverage, diverse teaching methods, and relatively high level learning objectives, most aviation lesson plans have the common characteristics already discussed. They all should include objectives, content to support the objectives, and completion standards. Various authorities often divide the main headings into several subheadings, and terminology, even for the main headings, varies extensively. For example, completion standards may be called assessment, review and feedback, performance evaluation, or some other related term. 

## Chapter Summary 

It is an unfortunate truth that many commercial balloon pilots are not as qualified and prepared for their instructional responsibility as they should be. All commercial pilots are required to study the necessary principles of instruction in order to pass their knowledge test, and must perform a lesson on a flight maneuver as a part of the practical test. 

A commercial pilot who chooses to instruct needs to hold himself to the same standards as the rest of the aviation community. He should provide compete and thorough flight training, as well as insuring that proper ground training is conducted, so that the prospective pilot is well-grounded in all facets of aviation. To do less minimizes the instructor’s role in the educational process, and perpetuates poor training in the ballooning community. 

The information in this chapter provides a basis for an instructor’s knowledge of the skills and techniques of the instructional process. It is the responsibility of each individual instructor to expand on that knowledge, and provide the best instruction possible. 

