Although it is common for learners to imprint on their instructors, the fact of the matter is that the training connection is a business relationship. There needs to be communication about goals, how to achieve them, progress made, what has been accomplished, and what needs to be done. 

When you are a novice pilot, it can be a challenge to determine if progress is being made. When it becomes clear that it isn’t, it is time to make a change.

Flying Once a Week—Or Less

To make progress you need to fly on a consistent basis. This can be a challenge given limitations on instructor availability, airplane availability, learner availability, or finances.

There is no way anyone can make progress when you fly just once a week or a few times a month. You need a minimum of two lessons per week, three would be better, for learning to take place.

If you don’t have the money or time to fly at least twice a week, now may not be the time to pursue flight training. Save up the money and carve out the time to train. 

Flight Lessons Longer Than Two Hours

Just as flying too little hampers learning, so does flying too much.

Flying is fatiguing both mentally and physically. The cognitive demands, noise, and vibration of the aircraft can wear you out. Learning will not take place if you are tired.

It is not uncommon for pre-solo novice pilots to book five-hour lessons in the aircraft thinking they can knock out huge chunks of training in one lesson. This usually doesn’t work due to the fatigue factor.

You will need to build up endurance in the cockpit just like you do when learning to play a sport. For flights out to the practice area and back, two hours of flight time might be on the ragged edge.

While the FBOs gladly take your money and the CFIs will rack up the hours, you probably won’t get much out of it after about an hour in the air. Flying is too expensive to become self-loading ballast, so consider keeping the pre-solo flights to the practice area and in the pattern no longer than 1.3 hours. When your endurance increases, lengthen the lessons.

Too Early for Ground School?

It is never too early. Most of what you do in the airplane is best taught on the ground in a classroom than practiced in the air. The rules, regulations, and airspace are best taught on the ground as aircraft make terrible classrooms. 

If the CFI doesn’t recommend ground school, insists you self-study, and/or doesn’t make time to review what you have learned, ask why they are reluctant. If you’re not sure about a concept or an aircraft system or how to use a piece of equipment like ForeFlight or the E6-B, and your CFI can’t show you, find someone else to work with.

The CFI Doesn’t Use a Syllabus

A syllabus is the best way to keep a learner on track as it lists the tasks to be performed for certification and the order the tasks are to be learned.

Flight instructors train their clients as they were trained, and sadly many CFIs don’t use a syllabus because the person who trained them didn’t. “No one here uses one,” is a tepid excuse and unprofessional.

Minimal Preflight and Post-Flight Briefings 

“Did you check the weather?” and “See you next week,” are not pre- and post-flight briefings.

The preflight briefing consists of what the planned lesson is, how it will be conducted, and completion standards. The post-flight briefing consists of how you performed on the flight, ways to improve if required, and what will be done on the next flight.

Reluctance to Teach Basic Navigation

If your CFI is all about GPS, and says that no one uses the VORs, magnetic compass, pilotage or ded reckoning anymore, know that this is not accurate.

The basic method of navigation is using outside visual references. You also need to be able to determine time, speed and distance calculations using the E6-B—either analog or electronic—rather than relying on an app to do the work. 

For your check ride, you will need to know how to perform a divert in midair, and it is likely the examiner will disable the electronic devices to test your skills.

Reluctance to Use Paper Charts

While the electronic flight bag is a marvelous tool and reduces cockpit clutter, it can overheat, run out of power, or disappear from your flight bag or airplane.

Learn to use paper as backup. Also, you may find it more expedient to use paper for certain operations, such as looking up an airport tower frequency.

Instead of tapping on multiple tabs, a quick glance at paper gives you the information you seek.

No Introduction to the FAR/AIM

The Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual (FAR/AIM) spells out the knowledge and experience required for every certificate and rating. Your CFI should tell you about this book on day one of your training and demonstrate how to use it. 

The FAR/AIM is a tool to be used to “trust but verify.” There are far too many learners going on flights that are more for the benefit of the CFI building their hours.

How many times have you heard about a low-time, pre-solo private pilot candidate doing an IFR flight or night cross counties at the insistence of their instructor? 

Remember this is your training, and it’s supposed to benefit you. If you ever feel like that has not happened, you are well within your rights to make a change.

The post When Flight Training Stalls appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Flying is one of those things that so many people want to try—or have questions about. We answer some of those frequently asked here.

Learning to fly and obtaining a pilot certificate is not like learning to drive a forklift. You can’t do it in an afternoon. It usually takes a few months, with flying lessons two or three times a week.

It will be expensive, around $6,000 to $10,000 for a private certificate. You do not have to pay the money up front. Be wary about putting money on account at a flight school unless it has a refund policy and it is in writing.

Get your medical certificate early. If you are pursuing a certificate to fly an airplane, you will need to have it before you are allowed to solo. If deferred, don’t give up. There may be an opportunity for special issuance, or you may seek a pilot certificate that doesn’t require a medical certificate, like flying gliders.

You will need an aviation headset and pilot logbook. Bring both with you to your flight lessons. You will want to get a gear bag to carry these materials along with a notebook for taking notes and writing down information in the cockpit.

You will learn to read an aviation sectional, which is a map used for navigation. You will learn how to use the pilot’s operating handbook (POH) for your aircraft to determine its performance.

Part 61 vs. Part 141

The difference between training under Part 61 and Part 141 is structure. Part 141 is the more restrictive of the two. Under Part 141, the use of a syllabus is required, lessons are done in a specific order, only certain airports are authorized for flights to and from, there is a training course outline (TCO), and stage checks are required to advance in training.

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The material covered under Part 61 and Part 141 is identical, but some funding sources will require the applicant to be training at an accredited 141 program.

The benefit of Part 141 is that, in theory, the structure allows for the applicant to achieve the required experience in as little as 35 hours to be eligible for the check ride. Under Part 61, the minimum is 40 hours.

For best results, use a syllabus to make sure all the material is covered in a logical order. Your instructor should have a copy that they refer to, and you should have a copy of it as well.

Be advised, the national average for experience for applicants taking private pilot check rides is around the 60-hour mark, no matter which part you train under.

The benefit of Part 61 is that if there is a hiccup with the issuance of your medical certificate that delays your first solo, you won’t have to stop training. You can move ahead to other dual lessons (that means flying with an instructor) in the syllabus until your medical challenges are resolved. Also, you have more flexibility when it comes to airports you are allowed to fly to, therefore your experience will be broader than someone trained under Part 141.

Use the FAA Airman Certification Standards (ACS), which are the minimum “passable” performance for a pilot, from day one. The ACS provides performance metrics, such as holding altitude within 100 feet and heading within 5 degrees. Remember these are the minimum standards, so strive to do better.

Learn to Use a Mechanical E6-B Flight Computer

Don’t let it intimidate you. The instructions for solving time, speed, and distance problems are printed on the face of the instrument. The backside of the instrument is the wind calculation side, and it can be very useful for visualizing wind correct angles.

For the pilots (often lapsed CFIs) who argue that the cockpits of turboprops and jets have flight management systems and backups on backups for navigation that will tell you wind correction angles, ground speed, time en route, etc., please remember it’s going to be a long time before the private pilots who want to be professional pilots get to that level with those resources.

And not everyone wants to be a professional pilot.

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Learning to use the mechanical E6-B before you go to an electronic version or an app is the aviation version of learning how to do basic math before using a calculator. It gives you an extra tool to use in the cockpit should your electronic device run out of juice, get stolen, or do an uncommanded gravity check with pavement that renders it inoperable.

Structure of Lessons

A traditional flight school is not like attending high school. You won’t be in a classroom or airplane all day. Your ground school can be done face to face and will be a few hours a day, or you can do it online. At the completion of the course you will be endorsed to take a knowledge test (commonly known as the written test, although it is all on computer now) administered by an FAA-approved private contractor.

Most flight lessons are at least an hour long for local flights. For cross-country flights that involve going to an airport at least 50 nm away, you will budget more time.

Your first lesson will likely be heading out to the local practice area (your instructor knows where that is) to learn how to do climbs, turns, and descents. Flying in the practice area is like learning to drive a stick shift in an empty parking lot. You want the room to make mistakes.

Learning to fly in the airport traffic pattern is like learning to drive a stick shift in stop-and-go traffic. It is considerably more stressful and can be counterproductive. Learn basic control before the stakes are higher.

Solo Flight

Your first solo is the halfway point of your private pilot training. There are 15 experience requirements listed in the Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual (FAR/AIM) rule book under Part 61.87 that are required to be covered before you can be soloed.

Keep in mind that performing the task once doesn’t mean you have learned it or can perform it well, so you will have to practice it a few times before the solo endorsement is given. There also will be an airport-specific knowledge test administered by your instructor before a solo endorsement is given.

Before you launch on your solo cross-country flights, a flight instructor must review your flight plan and provide you with an endorsement, stating they have reviewed your flight plan and you are prepared to make the flight. This endorsement will go into your logbook.

About Your CFI

Your CFI should want to talk before and after each lesson. This is known as the pre-brief (what we are going to do and how we are going to do it) and the post-brief (this is how you did, and what we will do next). This is considered part of your training. Don’t skimp on this.

Understand that most CFIs do the job to build their experience for other jobs, like the airlines. Some of them may be more interested in building their own hours than teaching you to fly, or their teaching style or availability might not work for you. If any of these issues crop up, it’s OK to seek a change of instructor. Conversely, if it’s not working from the CFI’s perspective as they cannot meet your needs, they may suggest a change of instructor.

We can’t control the weather. There may be days the CFI suggests a ground lesson, a lesson in the school flight training device (commonly known as a simulator), or canceling the lesson due to weather that is below VFR weather minimums or beyond your capabilities at the time. This is about you flying, not your CFI showing you what they can do. If you are on your second lesson and the crosswind component or gust factor are beyond the demonstrated component of the aircraft you are flying, it’s likely a better day to stay on the ground.

The post What to Expect When Learning to Fly appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

I was perplexed, as the DA never climbed above 1,600 feet that week, a value easily handled by the school’s fleet of Cessna 172s on the 3,600-foot runway at the airport with the field elevation of 534 feet msl. I asked the learner about it. He replied that he had been calling the airport’s automated weather a few hours before his flight. When he heard the words “density altitude,” he hung up, thinking it was a no-go day. He based this on a video clip he’d seen online that showed a very long takeoff roll of a Stinson 108 in Idaho, followed by a labored takeoff, followed by a stall and impact. His CFI sent him the clip as an illustration of density altitude. The learner took that to mean DA made airplanes go down. Therefore, when it was reported, it was a no-go situation.

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Not necessarily. Although density altitude does reduce performance of an aircraft, it doesn’t automatically keep you on the ground. But knowing how to determine DA and its effect on the aircraft is part of risk management.

Density Altitude 101

Density altitude is pressure altitude corrected for non-standard temperature and humidity. If it is warmer than standard temperature (15 degrees Celsius or 59 degrees Fahrenheit), an elevated DA is possible.

The warmer the air is, the less dense the air is. When you heat air, it expands, and if there is high humidity, there are more water molecules between the air molecules, and we experience less performance from the aircraft. If the aircraft is operating from a high-elevation field, for example, taking off from an airport in the mountains where there is reduced air pressure, we have the trifecta of density altitude: high field elevation, hot temp, and high humidity.

Student pilots learn the phrase “high, hot, humid” to recall density altitude. You only need one of these factors to create a high DA, which can take some pilots by surprise, as they think all three need to be present, so they are unprepared by the aircraft’s poor performance. You often hear them recount their experience with the phrase: “I didn’t think it would be that bad,” which means they didn’t attempt to calculate density altitude before they flew.

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The FAA has given us all sorts of tools to use to calculate density altitude as part of our preflight planning. With this information, we can then determine the aircraft performance.

Calculating DA begins by determining pressure altitude. At the airport, pressure altitude is easy to get: It is the attitude displayed on the altimeter when the Kollsman window is set to 29.92 inches of mercury, or 1013.4 millibars, so head out to the airplane and use the altimeter to get the information.

If you don’t have an altimeter, use math to determine pressure altitude:

Take standard pressure of 29.92 and subtract the current pressure setting. Take the result and multiply it by 1,000, then add field elevation. This results in pressure altitude.

For example: Let’s say the current altimeter setting is 29.45 and the field elevation is 500 feet. Plugging these numbers into the pressure altitude formula, you get: (29.92 – 29.45 = .47) (0.47 x 1,000 = 470) (470 + 500 = 970), so the pressure altitude is 970 feet.

Now determine the outside air temperature. You can check the outside air temperature gauge or obtain the information from the automated weather at the airport or an aviation weather briefing.

Using the Flight Computer

Density altitude can be determined using a mechanical E6-B. For this exercise we will say the temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit. You must first convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. (There is a conversion scale printed on the manual E6-B to find 90 degrees F = 32 degrees C). Next, find the line that has the values for air temperature in the box labeled air temperature. Locate the box labeled pressure altitude. Put the air temp over the pressure altitude.

Look at the box labeled Density Altitude—there is your answer. So if the pressure altitude is 1,000 feet and the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius, the pointer in the density altitude box is pointing to the two-tick mark, which means the DA is approximately 2,000 feet.

If you are using an electronic E6-B, follow the formula printed on the instrument, press a few buttons, and get the numbers. If using an app, drop in the numbers and see the result.

Using a Density Altitude Chart in the POH

If you don’t have an app or E6-B, the POH provides a density altitude chart, where you can find the ambient DA by adjusting for field elevation using the numbers on the right side of the chart. Either add or subtract as necessary.

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Use the table to adjust for the difference between standard pressure and the altimeter setting at the airport.

Now we move to the left side of the graph and locate the adjusted field elevation, followed by finding the temperature on the bottom of the graph. The point where these values intersect is the density altitude.

Web-based Apps

There are also a number of apps and websites you can use. My favorite website to show to learners was created by Richard Shelquist, a pilot from Colorado. Pilots in the Centennial State learn about density altitude from day one.

“Since I had previously spent hundreds of hours flying my super decathlon in the Colorado mountains, the topics of air density and density altitude were near and dear to my heart,” Shelquist told FLYING, “and I felt there was a need for convenient, easy-to-use, freely available (online) calculators to help pilots easily check, or verify, the density altitude at their location. Hence, the calculators were born.”

Go to the page and fill in the numbers in the correct boxes, and you can determine the density altitude at your airport with a few keystrokes.

Determining Aircraft Performance

Density altitude is often referred to as where the aircraft “feels like” it is performing at. DA degrades aircraft performance, and sometimes this comes as a surprise to the pilot. It seems like every airport has a story about a pilot who almost ran out of runway when they had to abort a takeoff on a high density altitude day.

The FAA provides great information on the effects of density altitude. Check out FAA–P–8740–2 • AFS–8 (2008) HQ-08561 and the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge.

These publications warn the pilot to expect an increased takeoff distance, reduced rate of climb, and an increased true airspeed on approach and landing, although the indicated airspeed will remain the same. This can lead to floating and running out of runway options at the same time, as you will also experience a longer landing roll.

Protect yourself by checking the performance charts carefully, noting the weight of the aircraft, fine print, such as “lean mixture above 3,000 feet for maximum rpm,” as well as notes on increasing or decreasing the takeoff roll or landing roll depending on wind and runway surface.

Note the values given for ground roll and total to clear the 50-foot obstacle at the end of the runway. The landing chart should also be reviewed, especially the notes on aircraft configuration, the effect of headwinds versus a tailwind on approach, and the increase in ground roll based on the runway surface. Dry grass, for example, increases the ground roll of a Cessna 172 by 45 percent.

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Be conservative. If the total distance required for takeoff is 2,790 feet, think about rounding up to 3,000 feet, and you may even want another 500 feet depending on what is on the approach and departure ends of the runway. Remember the POH numbers were calculated with a new airplane. Chances are good the airplane you are flying has a few years on it. Don’t expect POH-level performance as such.

The post Density Altitude: Know Your Enemy appeared first on FLYING Magazine.