Newton's laws of motion as applied to me.

General Aviation focused journal, recounting the process of learning to fly and of achieving the private pilots license.

Friday, June 24, 2005

An excellent blog

I spent some time this afternoon read Mark's flying blog, he is way ahead of me in terms of lessons which makes it all the more intresting to read. His excellent blog can be found here: Pilots Licence 101..

One thing it brought home to me, there are alot of very good pens recording their unique but similiar experiences of learning to fly, mainly pens far abler than my own, and I really appreciate the effort they have gone to because it makes me feel very much part of a community.

posted by Chris @ Friday, June 24, 2005  

5 Comments:

  • At Saturday, June 25, 2005 2:54:00 am, Blogger Oshawapilot said…

    Thanks for the plug, and I'm glad to hear that someone is actually enjoying reading my endless babble on my own blog. ;-)

    I will be sure to credit your blog in a future entry as well, as it is also good reading.

    Regarding your last entry, it is always a good idea to vary your planes during your training. I too got into the rut of flying a "favourite" plane during my training at several points. I found it detrimental, as I got too comfortable with the "quirks" of one plane, and then found I had to get used to other planes when my "favourite" wasn't available. I tend to vary my reservations now amongst my schools full fleet of 152's, and it is working better for me IMHO.

    Just my $0.02 worth. :-)

    BTW, you have a new regular subscriber to your blog, namely myself!

    Keep up the great posts.

     

  • At Saturday, June 25, 2005 10:21:00 am, Blogger Chris said…

    Thats a very good point about having a "favorite", I hadn't thought of it like that. Yeah I can see how that could become detrimental so now have changed my mind. :-)

    The flying school has a range of aircraft, some Katanas, C172's, Warrior III's, and Grumman AA5's. I have yet to fly any of the 4 seaters but intend to take a few lessons in them later on to get familiar with their differences. At the moment, having to learn new checklists etc would be a little overwhelming.

    Also thanks for the nice comments. :-)

     

  • At Sunday, June 26, 2005 1:07:00 pm, Blogger Oshawapilot said…

    Hi Chris;

    It's hard to say if they will let you actually vary your aircraft *type* during your training, but going that far may not be a great idea, as then you may spend more of your lessons learning new procedures and such then actually learning your lesson plans.

    Changing aircraft amongst a fleet of the same models is a good idea, but actually changing models would probably be best reserved for when you are completed your training, then a checkout is usually all that is necessary to get endorsed to fly the other planes.

    Myself, I took my initial "introductor" flights in a C172, but have not flown anything except our fleet of 152's since. It's been consistent in the fact that even though there is a fleet of 152's, for all intents and purposes with the exception of a few minor equipment and weight differences, they all fly the same, with the same checklists.

    Yes, I could change my training over to a C172, or the Cherokee if I wanted right now, but I would have to spend a good portion of a dual flight effectively getting checked out on it before I could fly any solo flights in it again after the fact.

    And that all means $$$$'s. :-)

     

  • At Sunday, June 26, 2005 8:18:00 pm, Blogger Chris said…

    Ah yes I didn't make that comment to clear, I was referring to after completing the training on the Katana before trying out the others. :-)

     

  • At Tuesday, July 05, 2005 11:46:00 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Chris,

    Every pilot I speak to tells me to fly one aircraft "type" for your training and then diversify after you get your PPL. Now that I am approaching my flight test I understand the wisdom behind this statement. Familiarity is a key to reducing stress and workload and the more comfortable you are with a particular aircraft type the better your flying.
    For example, I recently had a moment on one solo flight when I did a touch and go and realised I hadn't raised the flaps. I was airborne and the airspeed was struggling to get past 40knots. After logging 50 odd hours in 172s I know that they won't stall in level flight at 40 knots so I didn't panic, lowered the nose to maintain airspeed, gradually raised the flaps and off we went. If that had happened to me just after I went solo I don't know what I would have done, but it probably wouldn't have been the right thing to do and may have ended in tears.

     

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