As mentioned in my previous post the exercises are planned in a logical order and develop and build on your flying skills as you progress. However don't be surprised to find that you don't do everything in the exact order as shown below.
For instance, I started my Instrument Flying work very early in my training. It was a miserable day with low cloud so the instructor took us above the cloud and I practiced flying by instruments with the white cloud tops below me giving no indication or bearing or height.
Exercise 14 - First Solo
Which consists of:
- 14. First Solo
So you have studied for, and passed, your Air Law exam? Check.
And you have successfully passed your aviation medical? Check.
And your instructor has asked the tower for permission to send a student for their first solo flight? Check.
Then it is time for your first solo! Wow!
You will only be able to do this once your instructor has complete faith in your flying ability. Take it easy, stay calm, and you will find that those hours of circuit bashing come back to you and it all goes together wonderfully.
You even get to put your name in your flight log book as the commander of the aircraft - using 'Self' rather than your own name - don't make the same mistake as many others and put your own name there, unless, of course your surname is Self.
You will also now have taken the first opportunity to building the ten hours of solo flying time needed for your private pilot's licence.
Going solo is a milestone in your journey to becoming a qualified pilot. Although you could be going solo after thirteen hours there is no hard and fast rule. I took twenty hours before going solo but that was due to many other factors and not just ability - some days the weather wouldn't be suitable for circuit bashing so we would take the opportunity to do other activities further down the flight training syllabus.
The important thing is that you solo when you are ready - it is NOT a race or a competition. And enjoy it when it happens - at that point you are a true pilot, you and you alone have taken the controls and flown into the sky and returned to Earth. A fantastic feeling.
Now you have bashed the circuit to pieces, and you can fly solo, it is time to go and spread your wings. Err, no, sorry. You now need to consolidate once more and do hours more of circuit bashing but this time on your own. Perhaps up to four hours of solo flying to really, really get to know how to fly on your own before leaving the nursery of your training airfield and being let loose to fly to where ever takes your fancy - controlled airspace permitting of course.
In reality you will probably spend some flying time doing navigation and other exercises in order to relieve the boredom of continual circuit bashing.
However we shall put down four hours of solo flying in total towards your qualification. By now you will have thirteen hours of dual plus four hours of solo flying. Seventeen hours, so what do you have to do in the remaining twenty-eight hours? You can fly on your own, you are safe and confident, how can you fill the next twenty-eight flying hours before applying for a licence?
Exercise 15 - Advanced Turning
Which consists of:
- 15. Advanced Turning
- 15a. The Steep Level Turn
- 15b. Recovery from Unusual Attitudes
- 15c. The Steep Descending Turn
After the euphoria of going solo it is time to get back to reality, back to the flying exercises. Steep level turns are great fun if you like to look sideways and see the Earth 5000ft below you rather than seeing the horizon.
Oh, and the G-forces too. Pulling 2G for more than a few seconds can be fun but discomforting. It really makes you admire those high performance pilots who pull 5, 6, 7 or more G.
Spiral dives are fun too, especially for speed addicts, watch you don't exceed the aircraft speed limits. Expect to spend an hour on this with your instructor.
Exercise 16 - Navigation at Minimum Level and in Reduced Visibility
Which consists of:
- 16. Navigation at Minimum Level and in Reduced Visibility
Another couple of hours are spent learning to navigate in the air by following natural and man made features and then to fly at minimum height above the ground.
This gives you an appreciation of the speed you are travelling at and teaches you to be very aware of the perception of speed and the difficulty in navigating at low level when roads, rivers and railways go past very quickly.
It is also useful training when you might be running low on fuel, or the weather has closed in and you have to fly low and slow to identify a suitable emergency landing place.
Exercise 17 - Forced Landings
Which consists of:
- 17. Forced Landings
- 17a. The Forced Landing Without Power
- 17b. The Precautionary Search and Landing
- 17c. Ditching in Water
Remember all that slow flying, glide descents and low flying? This where it comes together where you practice your forced landings.
From 3000ft above the ground the instructor cuts the power and it is down to you to bring the aircraft safely to Earth. Go for it! Sometimes you might not have total power failure but the engine might be struggling or the weather closing in - you need to be able to fly slowly to find and review a suitable landing strip.
All this has been another two hours of lessons. Since your solo consolidation was completed you have had another five hours of flying lessons, twenty two in total. You are now almost at the half way mark of your flight training programme.
Exercise 18 - Pilot Navigation
Which consists of:
- 18. Pilot Navigation
You will begin your navigation training almost unawares as you fly around practicing your straight and level skills. Now it gets serious, you have to study hard and learn to read the ground below you and the chart on your lap.
You also need to be able to calculate the various aspects of your route such as headings adjusted for the wind, and timings taking into account any head or tail-wind components. You might be surprised that there is still no GPS satellite navigation during flight training. Here is the surprise - you learn to navigate and fly using dead reckoning and your stopwatch and the compass and nothing more fancy than that.
Your instructor might take you on a couple of one hour sorties, the first one over familiar territory, the other over an area you may not have seen from the air previously. It is then your turn to add another couple of hours of solo flying by repeating these two sorties on your own.
Following this, you may get more ambitious and have longer and longer sorties both with and without your instructor. By now you will be able to calculate all the aspects of your flight plan and fly far and wide from your home airfield. By this stage you will have added another eight hours of flying, four hours dual and four hours solo, bringing the total to thirty.
Take a break from visual navigation and spend three hours with your instructor covering the finer aspects of radio navigation - no this doesn't yet mean GPS and satellite navigation. You will be introduced to the delights of VOR, DME, ADF etc. and more acronyms that you can handle at one time. Don't despair, it all falls into place after a time and you will have no problems. Oh, and did I mention you needed to learn Morse code? Morse Code?!?. In this day and age of GPS and satellite navigation? Yes, I'm afraid so, you need to be able to identify the radio navigation aid that you have tuned into, and they use Morse code to identify themselves.
Don't worry though - it isn't so difficult. You will know what to listed to as the navigation aid identifier is on your chart, and you will have a handy Morse code lookup table in your kneeboard. Simply match the dits and dahs with what you expect to hear from your look up table. Watch up in awe as your instructor identifies the Morse code without even trying!
After three hours of acronyms and Morse code your brain will be fried, but keep your chin up, you now have thirty three flying hours under your belt.
Time to bring everything together again, including your newly acquired navigation skills. It is the qualifying cross country exercise (QXC). You will land away at two different airfields that are new to you. First time around you will do this with your instructor, perhaps two and a half hours of flying. Then, when you are refreshed, and the weather is on your side you will fly the same route on your own.
You will be judged by the air traffic controllers at each land-away airfield. They will rate your airmanship and flying skills when you go to visit them to pay the landing fees and to get the official stamp to prove you have visited the airfield. The dual QXC and solo QXC will take around five hours, bringing the total up to thirty eight flying hours.
Exercise 19 - Instrument Flying
Which consists of:
Attention UK Pilots!
This is the book that you need for this subject:
Radio Navigation and Instrument Flying: v. 5 (Air Pilot's Manual)
This is the book that you need for this subject:
Radio Navigation and Instrument Flying: v. 5 (Air Pilot's Manual)
- 19. Instrument Flying
The exercises are completed with two and a half hours of instrument flying with your instructor. This will prepare you for what may be your next step in your flying career: an Instrument Rating (IR), or perhaps the less demanding Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) rating.
Before you take your skills test you will no doubt want to get some revision in on any part of the exercises listed above. Give yourself another two hours for this to focus on those aspects where you are rusty. Cover those areas that you know will be part of the skills test and that you don't get to cover in every flight: practiced forced landing procedure, steep level turns, slow flying and low flying, precautionary landing procedure, recovery from unusual attitudes etc.
The skills test will last perhaps another two and a half hours, taking you up to the magical forty five hour mark. If you successfully pass the test, which of course you will, then by now you will be ready to apply for your licence.
In reality it is difficult to gain your licence with exactly forty five flying hours under your belt - simply because there will be days when you are training where your flying lesson is longer or shorter than expected, you might have a few minutes here and there in an orbit pattern at a busy airport and in the UK the weather will determine just when and where you will be flying.
By the end of your syllabus expect to find your Trevor Thom Volume 1
as a well worn, well thumbed book. For the duration of your flight training it will be your primary source of reference for all things related to your flying experiences. The other books in the series may be read once or twice to get you through the exams, then dipped into over time to clarify a point. But Volume 1, the blue book, will be your constant companion.
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