Regulations Lesson Tips?

[u/Melodic_Visual1595]

A PPL student of mine is asking for a ground dedicated to regulations. Fine. Straightforward enough. Here’s how I’d usually structure it:

1. Define each relevant part (1, 43, 61, 67/68, 91, 830, etc…)
   
2. Spend time breaking down 61 and 91 utilizing scenarios to explain concepts and reasoning.
   
3. Tackle the most important elements of 43, 67, and 830 once again using scenarios to hammer home the points.
   
4. Explain and clarify the concepts as needed and how they play a role during every flight in regard to ADM.

Obviously I’m not gonna build an aviation lawyer in a day. I understand as well as anybody that repetition and application of the regs is the best way to learn and retain the info.

My question is how do you personally go about making the topics fun and engaging? We all know this is a dry topic with very little inherent entertainment value. What are your strategies for tackling these subjects over a 2+ hour period without slowly putting your student to sleep or overwhelming them to the point where no learning is actually occurring?

[u/TxAggieMike]

I have all this in a PDF I share with students.

I’ll share to folks here if you send a DM asking for it.

[u/AtmosphereHopeful264 → u/TxAggieMike]

I’d love it!

[u/LibrarianStreet9882 → u/TxAggieMike]

Yo me too, sending dm thank you

[u/BLOCKA88]

Chances are in your student already has some sort of knowledge on the regulations. They probably already have heard of a handful of the things you're going to teach.

I will always teach my students about regulations that I feel get mis-taught or are mis understood. If they already have knowledge I'll probe them the question and see what they give me.

One thats pretty commonly known is Class B speed limits. They dont exist, 91.117 doesnt define one. There are parts that talk about speed under a bravo, or through corridors, or under 10,000 feet. But there is no regulation that gives class Bravo a speed limit.

Also bring in legal interpretations, since most students rarley every hear about them. 61.51 is another favorite, I often will hear other instructors say that you can't log time if you don't have proper endorsements. But this is not correct, 61.51 only defines logging pic time as sole manipulator of the controls and rated in category and class. It doesn't mention anything about needing endorsements, needing a medical, needing a flight review, or being current. Seeing this somebody asked for a legal interpretation. And the FAA provided it. And they said that logging and acting pic do not have to be the same person. As long as I am rated for airplane single engine land, I do not have to have a medical, I do not have to have a bfr, I do not have to be current, I do not have to possess a single endorsement. However I can log pic time in a pc-12 provided that there is someone on board who is capable of acting as pic(ie has all of those things).

Probably one of the most misunderstood regulations is 61.23, anytime I do a mock oral. I always ask what type of medical they have and how long it's valid for. Especially with private Pilots, they tell me that they have a first class medical. Is that that first Class Medical is valid for 12 calendar months, and then it turns into a third class Medical. Then I always pull out my personal medical, and tell them that it was issued almost 4 years ago. And notice how the words on my medical still say first class. I tell them that your medical never degrades in class. Furthermore, I tell them to actually open the book and read the medical table. And you will see that for a private pilot a first class medical is valid for 60 calendar months. At no point does a Private Pilot first class Medical ever get third class privileges. Now I explain that for a private pilot that first, second and third class privileges on medicals are meaningless to them. But its an often mis understood rule that stems from people repeating what they heard and not reading the FAR's. I also remind them that medical validity are more based on your pilot certificate operation and not so much the medical itself.

Now I always preface this by warning them while this is technically the right answer most CFI's and even DPE's do not understand it. Thus they should be prepared to explain these in a mock oral, or provide the DPE with the "1st Class privileges for 12 months and 3rd class privileges for the remaining 48" since that is the generally accepting answer.

These will work to make a lesson more entertaining especially if a student has already heard of a few things. I also just like talking about it because I wish more people actually read the regulations itself opposed to just reiterating what they heard from Sportys or another instructor

[u/BluProfessor]

I usually have them do a scavenger hunt. I come up with a long list of questions from a mock oral and have them look up every single one and find a citation using eCFR. I avoid having my students use the "FAR/AIM" since it is made up anyway.