Postflight debrief

A lot of that learning happens before and during the flight. But once you cut the mixture and the engine sputters to a stop, it’s worth taking some time to reflect and give yourself an opportunity to grow. Once the aircraft is secure, find a quiet place to talk with your CFI—or think through the flight yourself if you’re solo—and debrief the flight.

Postflight debriefs will look different with every certificate you earn, and it may even get tempting to lock up the hangar and hop in your car after you’re finished flying, but the postflight debrief is how you make sure you’re learning something new from every hour at the controls.

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1. Self-debrief

   The first step in every postflight debrief is to evaluate yourself. The core of this self-debrief determines if the flight met the goals set out in your preflight brief. Was that maneuver executed to pilot certification standards or better? Did you navigate the cross-country the way you had planned it? Figuring out how things felt from the pilot’s perspective will not only make for a more insightful conversation with a CFI but also build the tools for solo flights where there’s no one else to verify if your impressions of the flight were correct.

2. The core components

   Three core components should make up every postflight briefing: safety, procedures, and problems.

   Safety: Did anything happen during the flight that compromised or reduced the safety of the flight?

   Procedures: Did you execute all procedures and maneuvers to standards and nail the checklists like a proficient pilot?

   Problems: Did any problems come up that you didn’t know how to solve or answer?

   It’s important to debrief beyond these three core principles, such as checking if your fuel burn or other calculations were accurate, but these main three are a great way to get a postflight briefing started and to find learning opportunities in your flight.

3. Seek continuous improvement

   There will be flights that go how you planned, but don’t let that be an opportunity to skip over the postflight debrief. Debriefing the elements of your flight that went to plan is not only a great safeguard against complacency, but it also gives you a chance to improve in parts of your flying you may have performed hundreds of times before. A pattern flown too wide or drifting ever so slightly off course may not have an outsized impact on your flight, but it’s still worth identifying and trying to improve. Anytime you’re flying with a CFI, they will always have suggestions for you, and it’s important to make sure you’re in the right mindset to accept that feedback and apply it to your next flight. Technical tools for better debriefs include: CloudAhoy, FlySto, FlightAware, FlightRadar24, and action cameras.