Flight Cadets Get a Standardized Teaching Manual
■ PLA Daily Reporter Liu Baorui, Special Correspondents Wang Wenbo and Huang Yuxuan
A unit of the Air Force Aviation University conducts flight training. Photo by Liu Zeming.
Warplanes arrayed in formation, pointing straight toward the sky.
Not long ago, a unit of the Air Force Aviation University organized a cohort of flight cadets to conduct night-flight training. This was the first time that cohort of cadets—after completing standardized instruction—flew a certain type of combat aircraft toward a target airspace at night.
Over the earphones came the commander's takeoff order. Flight cadet Wang Zixuan pushed the throttle to maximum. As the airspeed indicator needle turned to the prescribed value, he swiftly pulled back on the stick, and the aircraft accelerated into the air with a roar. After completing the designated training content, Wang Zixuan landed the aircraft successfully and achieved outstanding results.
A combat aircraft's takeoff depends on enormous thrust. A cadet's transformation into a qualified combatant who can fly well and fly with precision likewise depends on the support of a teaching and training model.
In recent years, confronting practical problems such as insufficient clarity in instructional objectives, a unit of the Air Force Aviation University has continuously reformed its teaching and training model. It organized a dedicated working group to compile a Standardized Teaching Manual (《标准化教学手册》) on the basis of training syllabi and flight manuals, with the aim of overcoming various shortcomings inherent in the existing teaching model—including unclear standards, unscientific instruction, and insufficient orientation toward combat.
Like a ruler with extremely precise gradations, the Standardized Teaching Manual has given instructors clearer and more accurate teaching objectives. It is understood that since the unit introduced standardized instruction, the qualification rate of flight cadets has risen steadily. Today, let us examine how this unit's standardized instruction is helping "fledgling eagles" accelerate their flight.
Working Together to Forge a Ruler with Precise Gradations
When recalling the experience of exploring a standardized teaching model, flight instructor Wang Boquan of a unit of the Air Force Aviation University still remembers an intense debate he had with his comrades.
Two years ago, flight instructors from that unit and from units responsible for follow-on training, together with flight backbone personnel from frontline units, formed a dedicated working group for reforming the standardized teaching model. They jointly explored reform plans for transitioning from experience-based instruction to standardized instruction.
During the meeting, Wang Boquan used the example of flight cadets' control of the glide slope during aircraft landing to raise the importance of shifting instruction toward standardization. He drew two different arcs on the whiteboard: "Some cadets select a relatively high glide slope and, after entering the runway, land by manipulating the stick; other cadets select a relatively low glide slope and, during the descent, use coordinated throttle and stick-and-rudder inputs to land..."
Long teaching experience had led Wang Boquan to realize that cadets' spatial awareness is still insufficient and their attention distribution is not yet well balanced, requiring them to process a large amount of information during the landing process: "In practice, selecting a lower glide slope can effectively reduce control workload, allowing them to devote more attention to monitoring flight attitude—this better matches the current capability level of flight cadets."
However, some flight instructors held the opposite view. Although selecting a higher glide slope demands more of a pilot's flying skill, they believed it was conducive to rapid improvement in cadets' capability. Others held that both approaches were viable, and that flight instructors could teach entirely according to their own operating habits and level of proficiency.
"Without rules, nothing can be accomplished." Through round after round of intense discussion, everyone gradually clarified the importance of adopting a standardized teaching model for improving overall instructional quality and effectiveness, and continuously worked through questions such as "which instructional content requires unified standards, and in what direction should those standards be set."
After months of concentrated effort, the dedicated working group compiled a Standardized Teaching Manual, establishing unified norms for instructional procedures, mission objectives, assessment content, evaluation criteria, and answers to common instructional problems. One could say that everyone worked together to forge a ruler with precise gradations, providing instructional reference standards that better conform to the laws governing cadets' capability development.
Instructor Chen Jige devoted considerable effort to the standards for instructional language used in the manual. "Previously, everyone had their own way of using certain terms, which often created a gap between 'teaching' and 'learning'—instructors and cadets needed a period of adjustment before they could reach a mutual understanding." To ensure that ideas and thinking could be conveyed clearly and effectively during instruction, Chen Jige—with more than 30 years of flying experience—led several flight instructors in carefully sorting through and standardizing more than a hundred instructional terms and their corresponding actions.
Wang Boquan reflected deeply on this. The first time he led a cadet through training on a certain flight maneuver, he gave the reminder: "Keep the flight path smooth (圆滑)..." To his surprise, the training results were unsatisfactory. Wang Boquan later learned that the cadet had not fully understood the precise meaning of "smooth (圆滑)."
Today, the Standardized Teaching Manual has standardized the instructional language for guiding that flight maneuver: "Maintain consistent propeller RPM, observe flight attitude, and avoid deviating from the flight path." Wang Boquan reflected that the standardized use of instructional language has made cadets' understanding of instructional content clearer and more thorough, greatly improving communication efficiency between instructors and cadets. It has also helped instructors and cadets achieve rapid alignment during cross-instructor teaching, avoiding waste of instructional resources.
Instructor Zhao Guanshan showed the reporter a cadet's grade record in the flight training information management system, which showed that the cadet's scores had previously fluctuated significantly up and down: "Previously, due to differences in flight experience and teaching experience, different instructors focused on different aspects when monitoring the quality of cadets' development, and subjective and impressionistic judgments easily led to evaluations that were insufficiently comprehensive and objective."
Zhao Guanshan told the reporter that the Standardized Teaching Manual has also improved the instructional evaluation system, assigning weighted coefficients to each training subject according to flight maneuver, and adopting a combined approach of instructor evaluation and system evaluation to scientifically assess each cadet, pointing the way for the next steps in both instructors' teaching priorities and cadets' learning priorities. Since standardized instruction was implemented, many cadets' training score curves have changed from a wave line with large fluctuations to a smoothly rising arc.
Dynamic Adjustment and Optimization: Standards Become More Precise
Another flight day.
In the faint light of dawn, flight cadet Tang Xin and his comrades took off one after another in their aircraft. After simulating the completion of a "zoom-climb dive attack (跃升俯冲攻击)" maneuver, he executed a beautiful turn and tilted his head 45 degrees to look back and observe the "enemy's" situation.
Wang Boquan told the reporter that the seemingly ordinary "pilot's 45-degree look-back" maneuver conceals important tactical significance—monitoring the state of the strike against the enemy and making timely responsive actions. However, during earlier flight training, Wang Boquan found that this maneuver had not received adequate attention from cadets; many cadets executed it only mechanically, without being fully prepared to respond promptly to changes in the "enemy's" posture. The reason was that the Standardized Teaching Manual had only standardized the operating procedure for the "pilot's 45-degree look-back" maneuver, without elaborating in detail on its important combat background and tactical significance.
"The Standardized Teaching Manual has a great many detailed provisions, but however many standards there are, they should all point toward combat effectiveness (战斗力)—the one and only fundamental standard. In the teaching process, we must not only let cadets 'know what' (知其然), but also let them 'know why' (知其所以然)." At one teaching reform advancement meeting, the question Wang Boquan raised sparked discussion among those present. Everyone agreed that cultivating and reinforcing cadets' combat thinking was extremely important. To that end, the unit organized relevant training departments to regularly collect firsthand experience from flight instructors in teaching practice, and revised the Standardized Teaching Manual in multiple rounds, further improving and refining instructional content that did not meet combat standards, striving to train cadets to develop strong decision-making capabilities and thinking patterns suited to the battlefield.
The reporter learned that because the primary trainer aircraft is relatively light, in earlier instruction many instructors required cadets to "add throttle and apply left rudder" during takeoff to maintain the primary trainer's balance. But this fixed procedure clearly cannot meet the demands of various aircraft types and flight scenarios.
Opening the latest version of the Standardized Teaching Manual, the reporter found that the requirement for the takeoff maneuver had been standardized to "closely monitor aircraft attitude." Wang Boquan explained: "We have proactively broken free from the shackles of rigid thinking, having cadets closely monitor aircraft attitude and make flight control decisions based on their own flight feel. This is far more effective at developing cadets' thinking and ability to analyze and solve problems than mechanically executing instructions. When transitioning to new aircraft types later on, cadets can also quickly enter a combat rhythm."
Since the standardized teaching reform was implemented, this unit's teaching staff has never stopped exploring how to conduct instruction in close alignment with the combat effectiveness standard.
Previously, some flight instructors had insufficient awareness, causing teaching and training to be insufficiently close to combat. To promote seamless connection between the classroom and the battlefield, in recent years the unit has organized instructors to travel in batches to units for exchange visits, while also actively selecting outstanding combatants to teach at the academy, allowing an ever-growing stream of "fresh water" from frontline units to flow into the teaching staff. Their frontline perspective and combat experience are injecting new substance into standardized instruction.
"In addition to laterally monitoring your own altitude and airspace, you must also longitudinally understand the positions of other comrades—this is crucial for situational awareness (态势感知)..." Walking into a regiment's flight preparation room, the reporter saw instructor Wang Canming patiently explaining flight essentials to cadets.
As a flight instructor with many years of teaching experience, Wang Canming has served in turn at frontline units, flight academies, and other organizations, accumulating rich experience in combat-realistic training and instruction. Two years ago, he came to this unit as a flight instructor and took the lead in carrying out the regiment's standardized instruction work.
On Wang Canming's office computer, a series of mind maps caught the reporter's attention. "As mission areas, training objectives, and other conditions change, instructional standards should also be continuously refined," Wang Canming said. Focused on combat standards, he leads the teaching team in regularly conducting experience summaries, organizing instructional content that needs timely revision and supplementation into a large number of mind maps. Today, the Standardized Teaching Manual has been updated and iterated to version 3.0, and the mind maps compiled by Wang Canming's teaching team have expanded to more than ten, totaling over 60,000 characters in aggregate, and have become an important reference for further adjustment and optimization of the Standardized Teaching Manual.
Instruction Can Neither Lack Standards Nor Be Governed by Standards Alone
After the Standardized Teaching Manual became available, flight instructor Zhang Quanda found his instructional work more effective and comfortable. However, he gradually discovered that cadets vary in their foundational capabilities: the instructional standards apply to the developmental patterns of the vast majority, but some individuals with weaker learning ability find them "too much to handle," while others who absorb material quickly find them "not enough to satisfy."
The eminent modern educator Tao Xingzhi once said that cultivating and educating people is like growing flowers and trees—one must first understand the characteristics of the flowers and trees, and provide fertilizer, water, and cultivation according to differing circumstances. As standardized instruction developed, everyone came to realize that instruction can neither lack standards nor be governed by standards alone, nor can it apply a "one-size-fits-all (一刀切)" approach.
To improve the quality and effectiveness of instructional training, the reform working group encouraged flight instructors to teach in accordance with individual aptitude (因材施教) on the basis of standardized instruction, achieving mutual growth between teaching and learning through flexible command of instructional methods.
"Cadets differ in talent, temperament, and learning ability, and the traits and problems they exhibit in flight training also vary to a certain degree," Zhang Quanda said. "Some cadets are quick to react in flight operations but have insufficiently strong psychological resilience; some cadets perform outstandingly in theoretical study but are somewhat lacking in actual operations."
Using instructional standards as a foundation, Zhang Quanda organizes training tailored to each cadet's strengths and weaknesses.
Cadet Feng Yichao has a lively personality and is willing to ask questions, but his concentration is insufficient; during flight training, Zhang Quanda deliberately raises his voice at key content to help him form conditioned reflexes for the relevant operations and develop muscle memory. Cadet Fan Junchen is meticulous but lacks confidence, sometimes becoming mired in a single mistake and unable to move on; Zhang Quanda's approach with him is primarily encouragement. Cadet Zhou Peixi has strong comprehension and receptive ability and rarely makes the same mistake twice; Zhang Quanda points out problems concisely during flight guidance and leaves him ample time and space for independent thinking... Over a period of time, the several cadets Zhang Quanda has instructed have shown marked improvement, and the number of sorties required to achieve the training objective for the same subject is noticeably fewer than for cadets from previous cohorts.
Flipping through one cadet's flight training schedule, the reporter noticed that the remarks column for some subjects contained the notation "supplementary sorties"—instructors providing extra practice for individual cadets in certain subjects based on their training situation. After each flight training session, cadets first conduct a self-debrief combining flight parameter data with problems encountered during flight, and instructors then score everyone according to the Standardized Teaching Manual. For cadets who have already surpassed the objective ahead of schedule, the number of sorties for that subject can be appropriately reduced and they can advance early to the next subject's training; for cadets with a somewhat weaker foundation who have not achieved the objective within the designated number of sorties, supplementary sorties are used to close the capability gap.
The unit's leadership introduced that in form, the Standardized Teaching Manual takes the instructor as its starting point, but in essence, helping every cadet find a learning pace and development path suited to themselves is the fundamental purpose of standardized instruction.
Eyewitness Account
United in Heart and Effort, Working Together to Overcome Difficulties
■ Flight Instructor Li Chaojie, a unit of the Air Force Aviation University
As a member of the standardized teaching model reform working group, my comrades and I went through countless passionate clashes and sleepless nights of concentrated effort in order to draft the Standardized Teaching Manual.
Confronting the reality of instructional standards with "no fixed method" and teaching approaches "passed down by word of mouth," we needed to quickly explore a new path for cultivating personnel that is oriented toward and for combat, and that is scientific and efficient.
During that period, in order to determine what capabilities cadets should develop and what standards they should reach at each instructional phase, mission cycle, and flight sortie, everyone deliberated over the plan point by point, often working deep into the night.
After the standardized teaching model was introduced, instructors took the Standardized Teaching Manual and studied and reflected on it as they went. Some instructors treated the manual as a "treasured guide" to carry with them at all times, taking it out to read and memorize whenever they could. Other instructors, in the course of teaching practice, continuously summarized lessons learned and drove the manual's improvement and updating in close alignment with actual mission requirements.
This makes me feel that the development and progress of education requires every instructor to be united in heart and effort, working together to overcome difficulties. Running the relay race one baton at a time, working generation after generation, we will certainly achieve real results and real accomplishments.
Transforming Concepts, Continuously Improving
■ Flight Instructor Hou Xiaojiang, a unit of the Air Force Aviation University
In recent years, the difficulty of our unit's training tasks has increased, placing higher demands on instructional quality and effectiveness, and driving us to transform our concepts and continuously improve.
From something as small as the operation of a single switch to something as large as the conduct of an entire subject, our teaching methods have continuously upgraded and our instructional concepts have continuously renewed. Since the Standardized Teaching Manual was introduced, exchange and mutual learning among instructors has increased; it is common to see senior instructors consulting younger instructors about the execution of a maneuver or procedure—and some of those younger instructors are even former cadets whom the senior instructors once taught.
Sometimes, walking past the study room after a meal, one can see many instructors bent over the Standardized Teaching Manual in concentrated study. The multicolored annotations and markings in everyone's manuals have grown ever more numerous, the page corners have gradually curled, and instructional results have followed—cadets' performance in subject assessments has become increasingly impressive.
The road of instructional reform has no end. "What kind of flight cadets to cultivate" and "how to cultivate flight cadets" are mission questions that perpetually occupy the minds of every flight instructor. We will quicken our pace of advancement, helping more and more "fledgling eagles" fill out their wings and successfully obtain their "blue-sky clearance."
(Compiled from interviews by PLA Daily Special Correspondent Wang Wenbo)
Sharp Perspective
Be a Runner on the Road of Reform
■ Yu Xiang
The predecessor of the Air Force Aviation University was the Northeast Democratic Allied Army Aviation School—the old Northeast Aviation School. In 1946, the old aviation school rose from the ground through enormous hardship. Writer Guo Xiaoye noted in a book that the old aviation school was established on the ruins of war, and that instruction was like breaking new ground on uncultivated soil.
At that time, the standard instructional sequence for flight training worldwide was to first study theory and then gradually move to practical operations. The then-commandant Chang Qiankun wrote formulas on a rough blackboard, but the pairs of young eyes below the lectern were filled with bewilderment. Although they aspired to fly, the cadets—with their weak knowledge foundations—could not understand the abstruse theory.
Confronting this situation, the instructors of the old aviation school broke with convention and boldly innovated, pioneering an object-based teaching method (实物教学法) that brought flight instruments, components, and other equipment into the classroom, disassembling them while teaching. The "fog" in the cadets' minds quickly cleared, and instructional effectiveness increased greatly.
In the new era and on the new journey, we face new tasks and new challenges. As heirs of the old Northeast Aviation School, the faculty and students of the Air Force Aviation University bear the mission of history, carry forward the spirit of their predecessors, and always act as runners on the road of reform.
One could say that the process of change and innovation is arduous. It is like night flight: limited visibility conditions and fewer reference points place high demands on pilots' technique and psychology. Reform is the same—there are no ready-made reference points, and the outcome cannot be foreseen; the many challenges test everyone's confidence and resolve.
In practice, the more experienced and longer-tenured a flight instructor, the harder it is to change teaching concepts and habits formed over many years. Having gone through the arduous process of sweeping away entrenched ways of thinking (思维沉疴), a Standardized Teaching Manual embodying collective wisdom and painstaking effort was finally born. Everyone worked hard to complete the breakthrough from zero to one, achieving a reshaping of instructional concepts.
In a recent follow-up survey on the quality of personnel cultivation, the unit received a succession of feedback from frontline units—flight cadets' capacity for initiative and innovation is continuously growing, and their capabilities and qualities are increasingly suited to battlefield needs. This has also made everyone more firmly committed to the current educational principles and cultivation direction.
An educator once said: "If we teach today's students with yesterday's thinking, we are robbing them of their future." Reform, too, is a journey of constant renewal with no endpoint. Looking toward the future, instructors must always maintain the awareness to think about and plan for war (思战谋战) and to proactively seek change, so that more cadets can leave brilliant flight paths across the sky.