Command-methodological competence of cadets-military pilots as a factor of flight safety

The military professional training of cadets-military pilots in a military aviation university is conditioned by the trends in the development of military education, its prompt response to the personnel needs of the troops. Aviation units need military pilots who are ready to fulfill the official duties of crew commanders, to solve the urgent task of ensuring flight safety. Training of flight personnel for military aviation does not fully take into account the need to form cadets' competencies as an aviation commander and teacher, which will contribute to ensuring flight safety and increasing the combat potential of aviation units and subunits. The article deals with the problem of flight safety as a factor affecting the national security of Russia, paying attention to the causes of accidents and pilot errors. In the course of the study, it was proved that the military-professional activity of cadets-military pilots is the process of solving professional tasks that ensure the combat readiness of aviation units while observing flight safety conditions. Based on the content analysis of the command and methodological professional tasks based on the activity approach, the leading role of the command-methodological activity has been established. The functional approach and the principle of identification made it possible to identify the functions of the leading command-methodological activity (military flight training and educational, organizational and managerial). Arguments are given regarding the development of cadets not only a set of abilities for command-methodological activity, but also professionally important qualities that integrate command-methodological competence. The structure of competence (motivational-value, cognitive, activity components) is determined taking into account the specifics (leading type of activity) and features (a set of command and methodological professional tasks) of military professional activity. The criteria for the formation of the components of the command-methodical competence (professional purposefulness, intellectual potential, professional responsibility) have been identified. The methodological basis of the pedagogical system for the formation of the command-methodical competence of cadets-military pilots was formed by the system-structural, personality-activity, functional, modular, adaptive, technological and competence-based approaches. The results of the experimental work carried out in the branch of Military Educational-Research Centre of Air Force Air Force Academy in Syzran confirmed the dependence of the cadets' readiness for flight safety activities on the formation of command-methodological competence.