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Organise aviation research

aviation studentsaviation content creatorsoperations officers

Purpose

What this workflow does

Takes a scattered collection of sources, notes and half-formed questions on an aviation topic and produces a structured research map with the open questions made explicit.

Timing

When it is useful

When you are preparing a lesson, a report or a study module and have gathered more material than you can hold in your head at once.

Method

Step by step

  1. 01List every source you have, with its title, type and date.
  2. 02Write your research question in one sentence. If you cannot, that is the first thing to fix.
  3. 03Run the prompt to produce a structure, a gap list and a set of open questions.
  4. 04Fill the gaps from primary sources. The map tells you what is missing; it does not fill it.
  5. 05Re-run the prompt once the gaps are filled, to check the structure still holds.

Copy and use

The prompt

Help me organise research on an aviation topic. You are structuring my material, not supplying facts.

RESEARCH QUESTION:
[YOUR QUESTION IN ONE SENTENCE]

SOURCES I HAVE:
[LIST EACH SOURCE: title, type (regulation / handbook / advisory circular / manual / article), date, and what it covers]

MY NOTES SO FAR:
"""
[PASTE YOUR NOTES]
"""

Produce:
1. A structure for the topic: the sections it naturally divides into, in a sensible order, with the reason for that order.
2. A mapping of each source to the sections it can actually support.
3. Gaps: sections where I have no source, or only a secondary source where a primary one is needed.
4. Open questions my notes raise but do not answer.
5. Conflicts: places where two of my sources appear to disagree, quoting both.
6. A note on which of my sources are primary (regulations, FAA handbooks, advisory circulars, manufacturer documentation) and which are secondary, and where I am currently relying on a secondary source for something that needs a primary one.

Rules:
- Do not add facts from your own knowledge. Work only from what I have given you.
- If a section has no supporting source, say so rather than filling it in.
- Do not resolve conflicts between my sources. Surface them.

Your input

What you must provide

  • Your research question in one sentence.
  • A list of your sources with type and date.
  • Your notes so far, however rough.

Before you rely on it

Verification steps

  • Check that every source it maps to a section genuinely covers that section.
  • Verify the primary and secondary classification yourself. A well-written article is still secondary.
  • Resolve every flagged conflict by returning to the primary sources.
  • Confirm the date of each regulatory source. An outdated primary source is worse than a current secondary one.

Boundaries

Aviation safety limitations

  • The model can only organise what you give it, and cannot tell you that a source is missing entirely.
  • It cannot browse, retrieve documents or confirm that a regulation is current.
  • It may propose a structure that is tidy but does not match how the subject is actually examined or applied.

Verify before use · AI-generated information must always be verified against current regulations, approved manuals, official weather products and company procedures.

Related lesson

Decoding a TAF and applying change groups

Issue times, validity periods, the difference between FM, BECMG, TEMPO and PROB, and which groups may be used to satisfy a regulatory weather requirement.

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