Definition
A training method that uses realistic, real-world flight situations as the framework for learning, rather than teaching maneuvers and knowledge in isolation. The instructor presents the student with a mission or problem (for example, a cross-country flight with changing weather), and the student must apply knowledge, skills, and judgment to work through it. Decision-making, risk management, and situational awareness are practiced alongside stick-and-rudder skills.
Plain English
Instead of practicing skills one at a time on their own, the student is given a realistic flying situation to handle from start to finish, and learns by working through it.
Context Anchor
Seen in aviation instructor training when discussing how to teach adult learners and how to make flight lessons realistic and useful.
Derivation
From 'scenario,' originally an Italian theatre term for an outline of a play's scenes. In training, it means a structured situation the learner must work through, just like a scene with a setup and an outcome.
Why Pilots Care
It develops practical judgment that transfers directly to safe real-world flying and reduces the gap between classroom knowledge and cockpit performance.
Intuition Check
SBT is not just telling a story during a lesson. It means the training task is built around a realistic situation that requires the learner to make decisions and take appropriate action.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor used scenario based training by sending the student on a simulated cross-country with a deteriorating weather forecast, requiring a divert decision en route.
Example Sentence 2
Through scenario based training the student learned to divert to an alternate airport when weather deteriorated en route.