Factors in Successful Learning
1. Time of year
Summer flying gives longer days but does not provide the most desirable range of experience. Aircraft are more available in the late fall and winter. Darkness in early morning and early evening is a problem. Learning to fly during the worst weather periods is the best way to maintain your attention to the vagaries that affect flying. Learn in the fall or winter; enjoy in the summer.
2. Schedule
You should not even consider learning to fly unless you can allocate at least two or three flying periods a week. Each period should include travel time and two scheduled flight hours. Actual engine time will be about one hour + 15 minutes. Two hours of study time must be planned for every hour of flying.
3. Finances
Do not begin flying until money is set aside just for flying. The first twenty hours of learning to fly will be the most concentrated cash-outflow you will face unless you buy an airplane.
4. Weight
If our weight requires the use of a C-172 as a trainer the cost per flight hour will be more. The increased cost is somewhat offset by the time saved meeting cross-country requirements and en route time to local airports.
5. Ground School
There is no reason that a person should not be able to self-study ground school with about 3-5 hours of tutoring. I do not charge for such time.
6. Preparation
Don't fly if you are not prepared for a lesson. You will get the most bang for your bucks by being prepared. Even the best instruction cannot fully compensate for lack of preparation.
Directed Study
---The minimum aviation study should be two hours for every hour of flight.
---Even recreational aviation reading will help you in the correct meaning and use of airplane English.
---You will better remember and associate your reading by talking about it with others.
---A twice read book means that you will improve your insight into what you have read.
---The true value of what you have read is displayed in how it changes your behavior.
---Reading on diverse subjects can be a gold mine of ideas applicable to flying and instruction
---Take aviation materials with you that can be accessed in spare moments of waiting.
---Wisely used waiting-time may be your best and most flying learning time.
---Always take some form of flying -study materials with you.
Immersion Program
1. You must be able to give priority to the time and energy required for learning to fly. If you can't or won't establish the priority, don't start. You must keep ahead of the flight program with your reading and preparation. You must not allow money to become a detriment to your commitment. Flying is not cheap and will not become any less expensive as you continue.
2. Your life ambition must be to become an old pilot.
3. Being a pilot is a state of mind; a personality. A pilot's attitude, not just experience makes for excellence. Excellence is a quality standard in flying sought but not often achieved. Desire must be there but unless it is accompanied by application there will be no progress.
4.The good pilot is able resist the temptation to do something unsafe, illegal, or stupid. The temptations will always exist.
5. A good pilot will not fly in aircraft or conditions beyond his capability or certification.
6. A good pilot does not ignore the FARs. The FAA looks to the pilot to answer for any violations. Sometimes a magnifying glass is used.
7. A good pilot is always a student, striving to make every maneuver a bit more precise than the one before.
8. A good pilot knows his equipment, its limitations and how to handle its malfunctions.
9. ATC can determine much about a pilot by how well he utilizes the system and the required communications. Always admit when you have a problem.
10. A requirement of being a pilot is in knowing the FAR rules that apply to your rating, your responsibilities, and the flight involved.
11. An instructor can only show you the way to the required learning. It is your responsibility to know what you need to know and to confirm that you get it. This is the most difficult area of student responsibility. Flying the plane is a relatively minor part of what you need to know.
12. The best time to get involved in an activity is before interest in it peaks.
13. Being a pilot is a state of mind; a personality. A pilot's attitude, makes for excellence. Excellence is a quality standard in flying sought but not often achieved. Desire must be there but unless it is accompanied by application there will be no progress.
Why?
1. Flying will give you enough other concerns. Money should not be one.
2. If you don't keep ahead of the flying lessons in your studying, you will not learn as well, money and time will be wasted. Don't put off lessons unless you are not prepared. Give plenty of notice to the instructor. Your death is always an excuse.
3. You don't want to be dependent upon just one airplane. It is just as well to get some flights in a different type. One instructor is best only if available and always on time. Death is an acceptable 'no-show' excuse.
4. By flying at different times of the day you will find that early morning is best but training winds are best in the afternoon. The late afternoon sun can make navigation more difficult. Dusk to dark transitions are good experience. You should also experience morning aircraft ice, frost, and carburetor ice.
Preliminaries to Flight
1. Medical/student license
2. Flight Training Handbook
3. Student Pilot Guide 4. San Francisco Sectional
5. San Francisco TCA chart 6. Pilot flight log book
7. Airman's Information Manual (used) 8. Ground study course (tapes or Video)
9. Navigational computer and plotter
11. Flight Instructors Handbook 10. Guide to California Airports
13. 2-3 pens/4x6 cards 12. Cassette tape recorder/90
First Flight Preparations
1. Schedule aircraft/instructor.
2. Aircraft keys.
3. Read Owner's Manual.
4. Wear lightweight shoes.
5. Make a question card.
6. If the instructor is 10 minutes late, call his office.
7. Become familiar with geographic locations around airport.
8. Personal stress, health, food.
9. Before going to the airport eat some ginger candy (Prevents airsickness)
Learning to Fly
There is no single way to get a pilot license. Getting it is faster and cheaper if training is done consistently with the same aircraft and instructor. Of equal importance is that you be exposed to several different procedures but taught only the one that best conforms to safety and the PTS. Find an instructor who teaches because he wants to, not because he has to. A good instructor is a contradiction in that he must be both a critic and a motivator. Correction that points out the causes leading to an error is good. Instruction that anticipates areas of difficulty is best.
Being casual and friendly does not mean being either careless or having lax standards. Permitting a bad habit to develop could be the worst thing that an instructor can do to you. A demonstration that does not teach is useless. The best time to make your mistakes is when with an instructor. Providing, of course, that the instructor uses a mistake as a learning opportunity and a teaching opportunity for the two of you.
What one learns in flying is how fragments of an individual's experience are woven together, either supporting the long term goal and ambition or unconsciously undermining our efforts and needlessly complicating our program. Knowing too much about flying can be just as detrimental to acquiring new skills as can knowing too little.
Changing You
You begin flying with an attitude that may or may not be compatible to the reality required. Attitude is a basic human factor that sets performance, competence, and professionalism. A pilot's mind-set takes many forms and adapts to every specific task and situation. Mind set reveals itself in our willingness and ability to conform to the rules of the FAA, the POH, and physics. Every flight is a challenge to be met by thorough planning and close performance parameters. We are going to change you into a pilot.
A person's psychological makeup has a lot to do with the way he or she learns about and flies an aircraft. Tremendous personality changes take place whenever you acquire competence as a pilot. You will become more talkative, especially about flying. To the extent you exhibit one of the personality types (anti-authority, impulsive, invulnerable, macho, resignation) we will see them appear in different phases of your training. Self-confidence will increase. On the other hand, where confidence is lacking, tension will exist inversely. The student must exercise caution until competence is attained. Anticipation and planning will replace reaction. Both you and your friends will see psychological changes.
To become something new you must learn something new. For many, the personal changes that occur from flying are enough. Each flying hurdle that is overcome shapes the quality of the pilot. Pilots don't give up when the situation becomes uncomfortable. Flying teaches discipline. You will develop and expand personal qualities you never realized were there. You will learn to control yourself, be more assertive, make considered judgments, and replace reaction with anticipation. You will grow 'older' as reaction becomes anticipation.
Wanting to fly is an attitude. Learning to fly right is more than a unique acquisition; it is also an attitude. With the right attitude you will prioritize your time to make learning to fly a lifetime adventure. Any momentary failure will be just a learning experience. Don't allow a focus on detail to obscure the dramatic achievement of becoming a pilot. Don't be complacent with an acquired skill; there is always another way. Understand the rules of physics and the FAA; together they will make flying safe and rewarding. Safety is never an accident, it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wisest choice of many alternatives.
Every nuance of my instruction is designed to chose the safest procedure available. The regulations and aircraft design have safety as a priority. Above that comes personal judgment. As an instructor I try to expose the student to situations where good judgment makes a difference. A student can never learn to use good judgment unless exposed to the situations that require its use. We will fly in marginal conditions, complex airspace, and high winds. The student must learn his limitations.
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