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.

So imagine my surprise when after his second solo flight he asked for additional dual instruction. He had scared himself, he said, and was worried he had done something wrong.

When I asked why, he said he had been out in the practice area early in the morning, self-announcing over landmarks as he had been taught. When he didn’t hear anyone else on the frequency, however, he became concerned he wasn’t using the correct one.

• READ MORE: Should I File an Initial Approach Fix?

The second thing that filled him with trepidation was that the aircraft was bouncing around in turbulence more than he was used to. Then, during his attempt to practice a slip, it felt so awkward he wondered if he was doing it wrong.

I assured him that every pilot scares themselves at least once, if not more, in their career—especially at first. These experiences often make us better aviators, especially when you deconstruct the event with an eye toward preventing it from happening again.

We started with the lack of radio contact. A review of the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) Chapter 4, 4.1.11 verified that 122.75—what he had been using—was indeed the air-to-air frequency and what many pilots use to self-announce. 

He had been flying on a Saturday morning before 0800. Maybe he was the first one up? 

What threw him was that the frequency is not printed on the sectional or terminal area chart. He had been looking for it on the chart around the vicinity of the airport.

• READ MORE: Always Look for a Place to Land

Before ADS-B, self-announcing combined with clearing turns was the primary means of achieving situational awareness. Pilots report over landmarks, announcing tail numbers and/or make and color of aircraft, their altitude, and the maneuver they are doing. For example, “Southeast practice area, green and white Cessna 172 over amphitheater, 1,400 S-turns, southeast practice area.”

The turbulence, we surmised, was a combined product of the ground heating up as it was summer, and the fact the aircraft was considerably lighter without the CFI in it, so it was more easily displaced. He had slowed to maneuver speed as a precaution when he hit the bumps— exactly as he had been taught—and suggested perhaps he had overcontrolled the aircraft a bit.

We went over to the foothills where the bumps lurk so he could get more experience as Mother Nature batted us around like we were a cat toy. There was some experimentation with altitudes and a discussion of how to approach a ridgeline—always at a 45-degree angle—and knowing what topography will result in the least bumps. The green fields and water of the Puget Sound resulted in a smoother ride.

I had the learner take us up a couple of thousand feet and talked him through both side slips and forward slips until he felt comfortable. The fact that a slip is essentially cross controlling an aircraft is what made him nervous. He was practicing slips in the clean configuration, as the scenario was that the electrical system had failed. Therefore he had to do a no-flap landing, and he was high on final. 

He noted the placard that reads “Avoid Slips With Flaps Extended.” What followed was a discussion on obeying the placards and understanding why they are placed in an aircraft.

• READ MORE: Make Flight Reviews for CFIs Worthwhile

I advised him that slips do feel awkward at first, especially in a side-by-side airplane with a narrow cockpit. I have a vivid memory practicing them in a Cessna 140 with a broad-shouldered gentleman instructor. He was on the uphill side of the slip and asked me if this bothered me, as  he was pretty much half in my seat on top of me. I replied, “Oh, no, we’re fine,” although I wondered if we were now legally married in certain cultures.

I did caution the learner, however, to warn his passengers before he entered a slip, as it can be a startling and uncomfortable maneuver.

At the end of the flight he had his confidence back. I was there the day he earned his certificate.

It’s not just the fledgling pilots that scare themselves, and it doesn’t even have to be something you did or didn’t do that throws you for a loop. I have written about far too many mishaps to take anything for granted. Every six months or so, I find the most experienced CFI I can and get some dual instruction.

You better believe that learning takes place.

The post Scaring Yourself Into Additional Dual Instruction appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Answer: According to the FAA, “as long as the pilot meets the criteria to fly with BasicMed, they can use it, including on a check ride.”

• READ MORE: How to Find Your Best Ground School Fit

According to FAA Advisory Circular 68-1A, to meet the criteria for use of BasicMed, the pilot needs to hold a current and valid U.S. driver’s license, hold or have held a medical certificate issued by the FAA at any point after July 14, 2006, answer health questions on the Comprehensive Medical Examination Checklist (CMEC), receive a physical examination from any state-licensed physician, and have them  complete the CMEC. Be sure to keep the CMEC.

Finally, the pilot needs to take the BasicMed online medical education course. Keep the course completion document issued to you by the provider.

• READ MORE: Can the Owner of a Certified Airplane Do Their Own Maintenance?

The post Is a Medical Certificate Required for a Private Pilot Check Ride? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Often the first question asked is, “How much does it cost to get a private pilot certificate?” The short answer is, “It varies.” 

According to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the price tag for a private pilot certificate can run from $6,000 to $20,000. There are several variables that can impact the cost, the first being geography. If you are in a high-rent part of the world, expect the price of flight training to be higher than that found in a more rural area.

Some of the variables that go into determining the cost are somewhat controllable by the client and instructor—others are not. It’s important to make the distinction.

What the Client Can’t Control

Aircraft Availability

Note the size and diversity of the fleet. Some FBOs and schools use specific aircraft for private pilot training and others, usually with more advanced avionics that are the designated instrument trainers. They may also have complex and high-performance aircraft. Be wary if the school representative tries to put you in one of these more advanced aircraft right off the bat, as that can easily deteriorate into a too-much-airplane, not-enough-pilot situation for the learner. 

The ratio of aircraft in the training fleet to learners/renters is critical. You do not want to be in a situation where there are three airplanes and 40 people vying for them, especially when the school’s policy prioritizes certain learners over others. 

For example, learners that are part of an airline development program or paying with funds from Veterans Affairs may be more frequently scheduled than the learner paying out of pocket. If you are suddenly pulled off the schedule with no notice or explanation—such as an airplane going in for maintenance or someone needing it for a check ride—it’s likely due to this preferential scheduling.

Maintenance

Find out who performs the maintenance for the aircraft. If there is only one part-time mechanic serving a fleet of three or more plus outside aircraft, you might think twice, as this can drag out even routine work and make the aircraft unavailable.

Cost of the Airplane You Will Train In

When flight schools create their marketing materials for training advertising an all-in cost, they may calculate it using the most inexpensive aircraft in their fleet—for example, a Cessna 152, which rents for $145 an hour, as opposed to the Cessna 172, which rents for $163 an hour.

The applicant reading the school website sees they will need at least 40 hours of time in the air to qualify for the certificate. Crunching the numbers, the applicant comes up with $5,800 for aircraft rental alone.

Then the applicant visits the flight school. The staff, taking note of the applicant’s size, suggests they train in the Cessna 172, driving the aircraft cost up to $6,520. You can’t blame some people for thinking they are being upsold. I have witnessed this a few times. Onewalk-in customer accused the school of false advertising, although the small print on the website and paper brochures included a notation that the numbers were based on the smaller airplane. Trying to mollify the would-be customer, the school owner handed the CFI on walk-in duty the keys to both the 172 and the 152, saying “Go see if he fits in the 152.” The CFI could see that the customer, because of his long legs, was not going to fit in the airplane. Not by a long shot—he was over 6-foot tall and (ahem) sturdy. That didn’t stop the customer from trying, however. Despite the CFI’s warnings not to do so, the customer, trying to fit in the cockpit, used his legs to try to push the seat back farther than the metal stops on the seatrails. He pushed so hard it snapped the metal catch on the back of the seat.

Savvy flight schools also advise the learner that the 40-hour figure is the Part 61 minimum time required to qualify for certification and, according to the FAA, the national average is approximately 75 hours. The flight schools that consistently have learners finishing sooner—say at 55 to 60 hours—will be sure to tell you that.

The bottom line is that the more time in the aircraft, the greater the expense. This also happens when you stretch out the lessons, perhaps only flying once a week. It’s not like learning to play a musical instrument where once-a-week lessons are followed by practice at home. Flying less than twice a week means you will spend more time (and money) relearning things rather than absorbing new things. To optimize progress and retention, try to fly at least three times a week.

Weather

The better the weather, the more VFR-flyable days and the faster you can complete your training. If there are certain times of year when VFR flying slows down quite a bit, plan your training around it, if possible. For example, in some parts of the world, winter is a great time to fly because winters, although cold, often feature clear days. In other parts of the world, winter days are known for low visibility because of fog and rain. Summer can also present challenges. In some parts of the world, by noon it can be too hot for the airplanes to get off the ground, so summer flying is limited to early morning and late evening.

What the Client Can Control

Ground School

While flying is the more fun part for most people, ground school is the backbone of your aviation education. Find one that works with your learning style and schedule and put in the effort to learn the material to the level of application and correlation—not just to pass the knowledge test. You don’t want to be the learner who doesn’t grasp the relationship between angle of attack, airspeed, and stalls and tries to stretch a glide by pulling back on the yoke or stick. If you opt to do an online, self-paced ground school, commit to a specific time for study. For example, set aside a few hours each day. This could be an hour in the evening and 30 minutes during your lunch hour at work. Make notes as you study—if there is something that perplexes you, ask your CFI about it. The good ones will be able to apply a flight lesson to help you grasp the concepts eluding you.

The Right CFI

If you are a driven learner, you should find an equally driven instructor—one with a proven track record for getting the learners through the training in an expedient manner. This is the CFI who uses the airman certification standards from day one, along with a syllabus,  insists on pre- and postflight briefings, and may assign homework. This CFI will keep you apprised of your performance. Remember that despite the CFI’s excellent credentials, if you have a personality or learning style conflict, it is in your best interest to make a change as soon as possible.

Be sure the CFI has time for you in their schedule. It can be discouraging when you feel like you can learn from the CFI you did the intro flight with, but they don’t have room on their schedule. Rather than wait for them to have an opening, ask the FBO to put you on their standby list and ask for a recommendation for another instructor with a similar teaching style.

Club Specials

Some flight schools offer a discount if the learner puts X-number of dollars down and keeps a positive balance. Before you commit you may want to try renting from the FBO for a time, and if it works out and the instructor is a good fit, then join the club. Be sure to find out if there is a refund policy and get it in writing.

Applicant Attitude

You may have wanted to be a pilot since you were a child, but unless you have the time and resources to take lessons, can follow directions, and have the self-discipline to study, certification won’t happen. Learning to fly may be a bit of a culture shock for some, as it is like no other form of education and there are no participation trophies. You either learn the material and the skills or you don’t.

The post What Does It Cost To Earn a Private Pilot Certificate? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Recently, I encountered a private pilot applicant who was angry after failing the oral portion of the check ride. He felt that his instructor did not properly prepare him, and he had no idea how unprepared he was until he found himself across the table from the DPE—who was allegedly getting so frustrated he was raising his voice and interrupting the applicant as he attempted to answer the questions. The applicant was confused, asking if that was how a check ride was supposed to go.

No, no it’s not. DPEs are not supposed to yell at you, slam their hands on the desk, throw things at you, or insult you. The DPE is supposed to listen and evaluate, and they are not allowed to teach—and for some, that can be very, very difficult. 

The Mock Ride

The applicant said he had done two mock check rides with his instructor—but no one else. He noted he might have benefitted from a “mock-ride” with an outside instructor. A mock-ride is always a good idea, and when conducted by an outside instructor can be very useful as the different perspective can pick up on soft spots the CFI may have missed—it’s sort of the aviation version of having someone read an email before you hit send, because it’s often difficult to catch your own typos. 

The idea of the mock-ride is not to duplicate the actual check ride profile, but for the applicant to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they will need to know per the ACS (FAA airman certification standards)—and they must demonstrate this to someone other than the CFI who trained them.

How It Starts

I ask the applicant to provide a copy of their knowledge test results—or at least a list of the codes for the areas where they were found ‘deficient.’ We use the ACS to decipher these subject areas and talk about how they apply to real-world flying. 

The applicants are assigned a cross-country flight and instructed to create a navigation log (navlog). They are required to perform a weight and balance, obtain a weather briefing, and calculate aircraft performance. This is supposed to be completed before they meet with me.

We go through the applicant’s logbook, double-checking their math and having them tab the necessary experience to show the examiner. A few times we’ve caught a deficit, such as the time the private applicant was short three night takeoffs and landings, despite having logged more than 15 hours of night flight.

Next, we go through the aircraft logbooks and tab the required inspections. This creates an excellent opportunity to discuss FAR 91.205 and the related systems, and then roll into the other pertinent FARs.

The cross-country flight planning portion is often a soft spot—sometimes the applicants haven’t completed it before they get to me because they don’t remember how to. Because the mock-ride is essentially the Queen Mother of ground instruction, we go over the process.

The applicant is asked “why did you choose that route?”

“Because my instructor told me to” is NOT an acceptable answer, but if it is given, we explore why that route might be a good choice—check the terrain, refueling opportunities, etc. 

The sectional is reviewed in detail. There is a lot of information there and it’s easy to get mixed up—this part of the mock-ride is a lot about where to look things up rather than guess.

More FARs and human factors are dropped in here—often using scenarios drawn from NTSB reports or local incidents. We wrap up with weather, because all too often weather is a factor in accidents. 

What Was That?

Sometimes, it’s obvious that something got lost in translation during training. One applicant said he didn’t have to know about VORs, pilotage, or dead reckoning because his CFI told him “everyone uses GPS now.”

Another insisted that when there is an uncommanded loss of engine power, the correct procedure is to push the nose down to get to the ground as quickly as possible. 

When there are misconceptions like this, the airman certification standards (ACS), appropriate checklists, aircraft POH, and other FAA-approved materials are deployed and learning takes place. It’s important to have these sources as references so the applicant knows the information is not just a difference of opinion over what their instructor “told them.”

We talk about decision making, using “what if?” questions. We discuss emergency procedures.

Using the applicant’s navlog, we do a table-top exercise where they are told to divert to another airport. I time them during this, explaining they will be doing this in the aircraft during the flight portion.

If they are challenged, learning can take place.

At the conclusion of the oral portion of the mock-ride, we do a weather check, then head out to the airplane. I let them know it is OK if they want to split the mock-ride into two parts to ward off fatigue, because if they are tired, they are not going to perform well. If the weather looks marginal or pushes up against their personal minimums, that’s another reason to discontinue—it’s all about decision making at this point.

I take lots of notes—it is an occupational hazard for a journalist—during the mock-rides. They are extremely valuable when it comes time to provide the CFI with a quality debriefing. It’s important in these to identify the things the applicant is strong in as well as the areas—if any—that need improvement.

The mock-ride is logged as ground instruction and the flight portion as dual instruction. The topics discussed and maneuvers flown are listed. A blanket “checkride prep” is a disservice to both the applicant and to the instructor who trained the applicant.

Even if the applicant does not perform well in the mock-ride—or as well as they would like to, they often feel a sense of relief after the mock-ride as they now have an idea of what they need to work on, and with the help of their CFI, they can get it done.

The post The Mock Check Ride: Find Your Weak Spots appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

A:  If your offspring has an interest in aviation, you may be wondering, “What is the ideal age to learn to fly?” The answer is, it depends on their maturity level.

Flying is great fun, but it is also a great responsibility. Certificate age requirements notwithstanding, if they’re capable of following directions, scheduling lessons, taking constructive criticism, and they have the discipline to study, they are ready to take instruction. 

If they cannot do these things, perhaps they are not ready. That doesn’t mean they won’t be a pilot, they just need a little time to grow into themselves.

Sometimes it is a good idea to delay flight training until the minimum age requirements as set forth by the FAA have been met or are close to being met. If the learner wants to fly gliders or free balloons, certification can be achieved at the age of 14. If they wish to fly airplanes, 16 is the minimum age to solo, and they must be 17 to qualify for a private pilot certificate. 

There is no rule that says that someone can’t start lessons when they are underage—once the hours are recorded in their logbook they are there to stay—but as flying is a very perishable skill, there is a good chance they will have to relearn things before they are eligible to take a checkride. That can be both frustrating and expensive, and for this reason, many wannabe airline pilots wait to start their training until they are close to 16, then after solo, they build their experience in the aircraft while waiting for the birthdays to catch up.

Do you have a question about aviation that’s been bugging you? Ask us anything you’ve ever wanted to know about aviation. Our experts in general aviation, training, aircraft, avionics, and more may attempt to answer your question in a future article.

The post How Young is Too Young to Start Flying Lessons? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.