I fell in love with aeroplanes and desperately wanted
to become a pilot from age 14, so I got a 'job' helping
out in a flying school, gained my private licence at 17,
commercial licence at 21 and became the UK's youngest
female flying instructor just after my 22nd birthday.
I now have 2,000 hours instructing experience, and live
with my husband Martin and 2-year-old son Thomas in Cheshire,
north west England.
Learning to fly, or adding a new rating to your licence,
involves a great deal of time, money and effort. People
usually do their research when choosing a flying school,
taking the time to pay the school a visit, look around
the aircraft and talk to the instructors, until they find
somewhere they are happy with. Everyone wants to feel
that they are undertaking their training at the best school
with the best instructors, where they will progress at
the best possible rate (in the shortest number of flying
hours) and hence get the best value from their hard-earned
money. It is therefore surprising that despite having
done this research to find their ideal school, so many
people completely disregard the most influential factor
in determining their progress through the training - and
that is, themselves.
Someone could be enrolled at the world's best flying school
with the world's most gifted instructor, but without a
certain amount of basic input from the student, their
progress will only be average. It is true that a good
school - and especially a good instructor - will make
this point very clear right from the start, so people
should be left in no doubt about the level of commitment
required of them. Even when this does happen, however,
students still arrive for their lessons unprepared, and
then wonder why they are not getting very far very fast.
Here then, is a basic guide for student pilots or those
training for additional ratings, who want to 'fly' through
their training, 'soar' through each lesson and make the
absolute most of every (expensive) minute spent in the
air - by making the very best of their (not so expensive)
time on the ground.
1) Find out exactly what your instructor's plan is for
your next lesson.
This should include the actual exercise to be flown, plus
any radio calls or checks that you will be learning or
going through next time. (The weather can always change
instructors' plans, so you could even ask what they might
have in mind as an alternative.)
2) Read up on the lesson. This may seem like a chore
and you may think that you don't have time before your
next lesson takes place - but, YOU DO! It will only take
10 minutes to read the section in the book, call it half
an hour if you want to really digest it and perhaps make
some notes for yourself. Get up half an hour earlier,
go to bed half an hour later, do whatever you need to
do!
3) Look through the checks you will be learning or will
be expected to carry out. Keep your checklist out and
look at it, thinking about doing each check as you read
it. Keep it in the kitchen and look at it when you're
standing waiting for the kettle to boil; keep it at work
and look at it while you are eating your sandwiches. The
more familiar you can be with the checks the more confident
you will be in doing them, and that all puts you in a
good frame of mind for your lesson.
4) Think about the sections of radio calls that you will
be expected to do. In early training you may need to refer
to sheets for guidance, but later on you will just be
able to go through it in your mind. Having a shower or
bath is a good opportunity for this: thinking through
what you need to say, what you are expecting to hear in
return, and the replies you will need to give back to
ATC - if any.
5) Think through the lesson itself. In early exercises
and certain later exercises, you are very much just following
instructions - turn us on to this heading, put us into
a clean stall, track us away from the VOR on this radial,
etc - so apart from reading up on the exercise to be flown
(and the checks and radio calls) there is little else
you can do in preparation. For circuits and navigation,
however, there is a lot you can do to help yourself in
advance.
CIRCUITS -
This is where you are starting to make your own decisions.
Imagine yourself flying the circuit, all the way from
the take-off and climb out right through to the touchdown.
Think about what you should be doing and when, in terms
of power settings, control inputs, checks and radio calls.
If it's all clear in your mind before you fly it will
be so much easier - and rather than having to think so
hard about what you are trying to do all the way round,
you can save up your brain power each time for the tricky
bit at the end.
NAVIGATION -
Preparation for navigation trips is time-consuming, but
there is very little you can do about this, as the work
does need to be done. Much can be achieved ahead of the
day you are due to fly though, so the amount of work left
for the day itself is minimal; far better to do as much
as you can in advance, at a leisurely pace, rather than
leave everything until you arrive at the flying school
before your flight, so that your brain is frazzled before
you even reach the aircraft.
In addition to your basic equipment there are several
items you may need to collect from the flying school to
prepare for your nav trip. When you are there having a
lesson and booking for next time, ask your instructor
what you will need - as you progress through navigation,
this will include items such as a blank pilot's log, copies
of airfield layouts, radio frequencies, weight and balance
sheets and figures, performance graphs, etc.
Ahead of your lesson, ask your instructor for a route
to plan (plus alternate/s) and draw this on your chart.
Look at this route on the chart and think about what you
are expecting to see, particularly any obvious features
to look out for, so that when you get up there it feels
more familiar. Complete as much of the flight plan as
you can (without knowing the wind). Study the airfield
layouts for your home airfield, and any you may be intending
to visit (plus the alternate/s), as navigating around
taxiways can sometimes be as difficult as navigating in
the air! Also think about joining procedures from the
direction you will be approaching. Complete the weight
and balance calculations for the aircraft you are scheduled
to fly - remembering (politely!) to ask your instructor
for their weight, and how much fuel you will be taking
for the flight.
On the day, you can obtain the TAFs and METARs by telephone
or Internet, and think about which runway/s to anticipate
- although of course this can always change. If you have
Internet access, you can study the NOTAMs to see if anything
will affect your route, and obtain the Spot Winds to complete
your Flight Plan
It should be noted that the Spot Winds are issued twice
per day, so if you are not flying until the afternoon
it would be best to wait for the later - and hence more
accurate - forecast. You could also complete your performance
calculations, although again this would be best left until
as near to your departure time as possible to take advantage
of the most accurate temperature and wind information.
Doing these bits and pieces in advance will enable you
to arrive at the flying school with as little to do as
possible, get yourself organized and focus your full attention
on the lesson.
ADVANCED TRAINING -
Starting to learn new flying skills, even though you
already hold a licence, can sometimes feel like starting
all over again. For example, leaving the bright and happy
world of VFR flight and delving into the strange and disorientating
world of IFR training can come as a huge shock to the
system, so again the more advance preparations you can
do, the less of a shock and an easier transition it should
be. Better prepared, less flying hours required, less
money spent!
This list is not exhaustive, and obviously you will not
always have the time to do everything in advance, as much
as you might like to. Any small thing that you can do,
however, is one less thing that you have to do before
your flight, and any amount of time you dedicate to thinking
about your forthcoming lesson will be beneficial, no matter
how short a time it might be.
Instructors are generally short of time, and the more
time they have to spend on the ground, the less time remains
for actually teaching students in the air - and students
certainly don't benefit from lessons being cut short,
because the next student is due to arrive. A good instructor
will want his or her student to understand what is expected
of them before setting off, but with limited time per
slot this can be difficult when students arrive poorly
prepared. Surely it is infinitely better to spend the
limited time before a flight clarifying the facts already
known (and addressing any queries that have arisen), rather
than rushing through a whole lot of 'new' information
which has no time to sink in, then having to fly, not
really knowing what you are trying to achieve anyway.
TO SUM UP -
if you want to learn at the best possible rate, make
the fastest possible progress and spend no more of your
hard-earned cash than you really need to - GET PREPARED!!
