The 14 top links to make you a better pilot

As a pilot there are always sites on the Internet that are very interesting to browse.

These tend to fall into distinct categories

A) Sites related to flying an aircraft or preparing for a flight
B) Sites related to the aircraft itself
C) Other aviation sites

Note: These links are primarily UK based

1) Are you connected to the UK General Aviation Website yet? If not, you should be. It has details of every UK airport, a forum, contact details and - I use this all the time - a flight planning facility which automatically looks up weather and relevant contact details for locations you are flying to, through and from.

2) Need a new chart, headphones, or a GPS? There are lots and lots of aviation suppliers on the web. My personal favourites are Transair and AFE Online

3) The Cessna Aircraft Site For those of us wanting to fly the 150, 172 or even the RG versions!.

4) The Piper Aircraft Site For those of us flying Piper Warriors or Cherokee's etc.

5) The Cirrus Aircraft Site I learned to fly with a guy who had just ordered a brand new Cirrus. Lucky guy....!

6) The Tecnam Aircraft Site you know who you are..

7) The Beech Aircraft Site If you're an MS Flight Simulator fan you'll have flow the Beech Bonanza or the King Air. This is the site

8) Airliners. NETFor loads and loads of pictures of aircraft taken in every conceivable position, location and attitude go to Airliners.Net Check out some of the scary approaches into the old Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong. If video is more your style, check out their sister site

9) Pilot Magazines Web site If you don't subscribe to Pilot Magazine you can still connect to their web site and read some of the articles in there.

10) The Civil Aviation Authority - They who must be obeyed. If you're applying for a license you can check out the waiting times here. If you're looking to buy a plane you can check out the registration details here

11) Irv Lee's Web Page. The layout is a little garish - bordering on ugly, but it has loads and loads of information on it. Irv will give you lots of advice, help you and instruct you - he's also a key Southern England RT License instructor

12) A High Viz Vest with built in plane chock. This is a brilliant idea and I use it all the time. It's a proper High-Viz vest for going airside and a handy chock you can use on your aircraft wheels when you get to your destination

13) The Private Pilot Simplifier - It's the book that has all the answers for you for pilot exams, but it's also incredibly useful when you're in an unfamiliar situation yourself. Get the question, look at the answer and it explains the answer to you as well. Great for those situations when you aren't sure whether your actual altitude increases or decreases with a drop in air pressure (It decreases... "High to low, down you go"))

14) Microsoft's Flight Simulator : I know pilots tend to "pooh pooh" the MS Flight Simulator but I honestly believe that the reason I managed to learn to fly so quickly is because I have many hours of simulator experience. While the feelings etc, aren't as realistic as a proper plane, the mechanics and the focus and attention needed are just as real. Plus you can fly when the real weather is Baaaaad! (See more Sim products in our store)

That's my list. Got any more you would like to add?

Flying tip #1 - Engine Failures

With the recent happenings at Heathrow and the Boeing 777 apparently losing all power on approach resulting in a forced landing short of the runway, I thought it might be useful to cover a quick tip I learned when practicing engine failure's for my PPL

There is nothing more terrifying than losing an engine in a plane - especially if that is the only one you have. Losing an engine close to the ground is especially terrifying (know as a 'fanstop' during practice), as one's instinctive reaction is to lift the nose to keep the plane from plummeting earthwards. This, however, is exactly the wrong thing to do. Lifting the nose will cause the speed to bleed off which, just after a take-off, will more than likely lead to a stall. At that altitude this can be fatal (look what an effective stall at about 40 feet did to that 777 - ripped the wheels off and shredded the engines and most of the left inboard wing)

The key thing is to find your ideal glide speed (usually around 71 knots in a Piper but check your operating handbook for precise figures) then focus on where you're going to land the aircraft.

At higher altitudes, an engine failure can be just as devastating, but you do have more time to concentrate and react. This can mean giving you time to find a better landing spot, attempting engine restarts and calling in a Mayday.

So when attempting engine failure practice from altitude, here is today's Flying Tip "Every 1000 feet or so, open the throttle fully to get fuel flowing through and keep the engine running" the last thing you want is to complete your practise engine failure, get to 500 feet and find you're engine has gummed up, or lack of carb heat has created ice in the intake. You are then in a real engine failure situation and now only 500 feet up.

Very scary!

Virgin Atlantic .. the future is biofuel...?

You may have seen the adverts in the UK for Virgin trains 'Pendolino' train which uses bio fuel and is environmentally efficient.

Well, Richard Branson has started trials on running a 747 on bio fuel according to MSNBC.

Sounds like a good idea to me, but I imagine the chances of getting a couple of hundred thousands pounds of biofuel from Virgins' destinations in the US or China might be an interesting logistical challenge.

It's also particularly interesting considering that the general school of thought in the aviation industry is that some airline is going to start to 'unbundle' the cost of fuel from an airline ticket and charge it separately. This does, of course, raise the question of exactly what are we paying for in an airline ticket if not the cost of the fuel. Will this lead to transatlantic tickets being a couple of Pounds Sterling but with a £10 security charge, a £30 admin fee and a £400 fuel surcharge ...?

Keep your eye out on this one.

So you want to become a pilot....?

I can remember when it happened to me.

I had reached the fabled 'Mid-life Crisis' and was fully expecting to get the urge to buy the little German sports car and get the blond bimbo. But - as I already had a little German sports car and blond bimbo's drive me mad - I realised that deep down inside there was an itch waiting to be scratched. Something I had flirted with briefly many, many years ago. Something which would take a large part of my disposable income for the next few years.

I decided to get my PPL.

Luckily I have a local flying school about 5 minutes drive from where I am so I headed down there one August afternoon to do the 'trial flight' thing. That's where I hit the first issue: timing. To cut a long story short for various reasons it took my until late September to get the time, the instructor and the weather together to do the flight.

When I did finally strap into the Diamond next to Steve it was a glorious late summer day with blue sky and some small, light, fluffy clouds dotted around the place. Steve - a Sunday instructor only - has thousands of hours flying under his belt and took me up for that initial flight. I flew the plane most of the time, doing the takeoff, the climb, some simple exercises, some sightseeing and even a landing (assisted, somewhat by Steve).

I was hooked. However there was no way I was going to spend the next couple of years of my life at the whim of the British weather which is why I chose to learn in Orlando (More of that can be found at this post). But basically I learned the following key things about earning a PPL.

• You will need a valid, class 2 medical


• You will need a minimum of 45 hours flying time of which 20 hours must be solo


• You will need a qualifying cross country flight of more than 150 nm including stops at 2 airfields other than your departure point


• You will need to pass the 9 different theoretical multi-choice exams


• You will need to have 2 hours of flying time under the 'foggles' (vision restriction equipment designed to practice instrument flying)


• You will need a separate Radio Telephony Operators license

Just to put this in perspective. I did 42 hours flying plus the 9 theoretical exams plus the qualifying cross country flight AND a class 2 medical in 2 weeks in Florida. However it did take me an additional 5 months to complete the rest once I got back to the UK.

So those are the main requirements. Now let me give you some words of advice about how to do this effectively and quickly

• The weather is the key problem with flying in the UK. If you are working 5 days a week you, basically, have 2 days where you pray the weather is good and where you pray the instructors and planes are available. To minimise time wasted, get an accelerated course in somewhere that has a dedicated instructor for you and has good weather (Australia, Florida, Cyprus etc.) Usually a good exchange rate will negate any additional costs through doing accelerated courses.


• For the exams, get the Private Pilots Simplifier and work through the practice exams until you are comfortable with the questions being asked. At the end of the day there are three possible papers for each exam and the same questions do appear to come up time and time again. Learn these questions (and more importantly learn the answers and the reasons behind the answers) and you will be fine.


• The RT license exam is an oral exam with a radio simulator and a specific route and set of conditions. It is difficult to fail this exam for a number of reasons:- a) It can be taken at the end of the course when you have been using the radio in the prescribed way for over 45 hours of flying b) Mistakes are allowed providing you learn from the mistakes during the exam and don't repeat them. For example if you give a position way point with your altitude and forget to give the altimeter pressure reading the 'controller' will ask you for that reading. Just remember to give the reading the next time you state your altitude or you will be marked down. The exception to the mistake rule is the "Mayday" call which should be word perfect


• Try and learn at an airport which has proper air traffic control. Working at a location with A/G radio or even with a Unicomm frequency is better than nothing but doesn't give you the knowledge or experience of flying from somewhere, such as Shoreham, that has both approach control and airfield control. The discipline is different.

The most important thing to remember is that flying as skill to be mastered. it is not impossible to do, it just takes time and dedication. I mean the list of people who can fly gets longer and longer each day, so it can't be rocket science really, can it? Keep working at it and you'll get there in the end

Learning to fly in the USA

I learned to fly in Orlando.

Now if you read a lot of the forums about this there appear to be differing views on whether this is a good thing or not. Generally, "If you're going to fly in the US it is a good thing. If you're going to fly in the UK it isn't."

I totally disagree (but with reservations)

Let me tell you some of the good things I learned from learning to fly in the US

1) Air Traffic Control : I flew from Kissimmee Airport in Orlando. It is underneath the main Orlando International approach paths and it is a controlled airfield. There are two guys in the tower at all times - one looking after the planes in the air and the other looking after the planes on the ground. Before you could move you needed permission from them, before you could cross a runway you needed permission from them, before you could take off you needed permission from them. Kissimmee airport is a busy place. At one point I was in a holding pattern about 3 miles east of the main runway waiting for a stream of Gulfstream and Cessna Citation jets to land. This a student pilot with about 12 hours on type at that point! I've also done circuit work where I was asked to extend upwind or downwind or turn at the towers discretion, make abnormal circuits to avoid traffic and - as already mention - sit in a holding pattern for 15 minutes at busy times. How many UK trained private pilots can say that?
2) ATIS: Kissimmee also has an automated weather recording that needed to be listened to prior to requesting taxi permission. It's amazing how that focuses the mind when starting up the engine knowing that before you make any calls to anyone on the radio you need to take your time to listen and make notes. It is calming and focusing at the same time
3) Weather: Of the whole time I was there I missed 3 hours of flying through 'bad' weather. These three hours were 3 single hour delays at 7am due to mist needing to be burnt off before VFR flight was possible
4) No landing fees: I flew from Kissimmee to 5 other airports during my training, including two fields which were uncontrolled, for almost 75 landings in total. My accumulated costs for landing at these airports: $0. That's right, the USA does not charge you for landing. On top of that one of the flights was into Melbourne International Airport where my instructor and I decided to make a quick touch and go - without PPR - and followed a 737 on approach. We just radioed the tower from about 8 miles out, asked for a touch and go and they said 'Yes'
5) Time: How long was I in the US to do my PPL course? 3 months? 6 months? 6 weeks? Nope. None of the above. I left Orlando airport 14 days after I arrived with a grand total of 42 hours flying time and ALL my exams completed. Had the 3 weather delays I mentioned earlier not happened I could have completed the skills test prior to leaving and come back with all that was needed.
6) The cost : Price to hire a PA28 at my local airfield here in the UK - approx £2 per minute (wet). Price to hire a PA28 in the US - approx $2 per minute (wet). That's a huge difference and accounts for one of the reasons lots of people follow the route I took and learn in the US. Total cost for the two weeks course (including tuition, ground school, dedicated insructor, US medical, student visa processing, examination fees, accomodation & hire car) for 42 hours flying - $9500.

What didn't I like about flying in the US

1) Instructor availability : Luckily I had a dedicated instructor for my tuition. Aaron and I flew three times a day every day and he was great. But that's because I paid a little extra to get that assurance. The last thing I wanted to do was to take time off from work, fly to the US, spend a good amount of cash to learn to fly and come away with only a few hours flying time because the instructors weren't available. I met several people, though, who were there for their 3rd week of tuition and had amassed a grand total of 13 hours flying time. Considering they were spending all day every day at the flying school that wasn't good.
2) Curriculum: One of the areas I missed out on with my instruction was flying under the hood. (using vision restrictors in VFR to simulate IFR conditions). Aaron and I went through the steps of tracking a VOR and following the needle, talked about reverse sensing etc., until I was comfortable with the process, but I never actually spent any time flying simulated IFR. This is a condition of passing a UK based skills test but not a US based one.
3) FAA vs JAA My course was a JAA course taken under FAA conditions. This was fine for a lot of the time, but did cause problems under certain conditions. For example learning to stall. Under JAR standards the stall must fully develop prior to recovery. Under FAA examination standards it just has to go to the stall wanring before you can recover. Being in an environment where the instructors has both standards to learn it was easy to get confused or miss things.
4) Good weather : I know it sounds funny, but because the weather in Florida was basically superb for the whole time I was there I never got into the situation where I had to make decisions due to prevailing bad weather. All my weather related flying has occured since I arrived back in the UK (It's fun trying to fly a skills test in the UK with a decending 1500 foot ceiling over ground where the minimum safe altitude is 1000 feet!)

Overall I think I received excellent flight training in the US. It took my 2 weeks to do 42 hours and pass all the exams and it took my almost 6 months in the UK to get the remaining hours and the skills test, so I shudder to think how long it would have taken if I had done it all in the UK!

Were there things I would have learned in the UK that I didn't learn in the US? Of course. My UK instructors have already taught me lots of things we didn't cover in Florida. But Aaron in the US did also teach me short field take-off and landings which are not part of the JAR curriculum

I'll cover the Orlando flying school experience in more detail in a later post.