Brilliantly written by Steven, on September 28th, 2009
Day 5 (Or, what should have been day 4) – Bernoulli vs. Newton
Climbing – With some straight and level.
[Exercise: 6 – 7]
With the spare time due to the lack of a lesson last time, I was able to watch the fantastic profpilot flight training videos (Unfortunately ‘somebody’ hadn’t finished the new and improved lift video by then). None the less, I knew lift wasn’t achieved by God, or lift pixies. (Even if you do pray your heavy, metallic aircraft gets off the ground before you run out of runway.)
The Pope found this out the hard way.
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Brilliantly written by Steven, on September 28th, 2009
Day 4 – Fire engine required.
Coventry Airport – Closed. Not enough fire support, fire engine broke drown.
Better luck next time.
Somebody call the... er... Fire Brigade?
Brilliantly written by Steven, on September 25th, 2009
Straight and level flight
[Exercise 5 – 6]
So with two flights under my belt and a grand total of 1:50hr on the Cherokee you’d expect that I would be masterful beyond all belief, as apparent in some PPL diaries, alas not here my friends. This week I enter the hanger with my logbook and shiny new checklist (Purchased from the school in ‘Week 2’)
Today the briefing was quite simple for straight and level flight covered the various cruise speeds, reasons for using the different speeds, rpm settings and the dreaded PAT (Power, attitude, trim) again, I shall leave you to gleam these tidbits of knowledge yourself. I will advise you to go out and purchase yourself a notebook before this point, as I was told to do during the briefing, lots of numbers/facts and figures to note down.
Profpilot.co.uk hint: If caught without notebook, use face.
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Brilliantly written by Steven, on September 14th, 2009
Day 2 – Getting to ‘second base’ with the aircraft.
Aircraft Familiarisation, again.
[Exercises 1 – 4, Part II]
Well, after my abysmal entrance into the little Piper Cherokee last time I visited the very wonderful profpilot forum for helpful advice (This is my weekly profpilot shameless attempt at advertising). So, my second lesson began with my logbook and a new shiny checklist clutched in my hands, out standing near the aircraft with the wind blowing one hell of a gale, it wasn’t cloudy, but boy was it windy. Jumping up on the wing trying desperately to not be blown off, and threw myself into the aircraft.
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Brilliantly written by Steven, on September 6th, 2009
When approached by the upper echelons of the Profpilot management team (Sam) to write a diary of my PPL training I thought “How could I say no?” Donning my 4-bar epaulettes, sheep skin lined leather jacket and authority commanding pilot’s moustache I took to my computer to write the first (of hopefully many) PPL diary entries.
Standard profpilot contributor garb.
For those of you who wish to follow along with my oh-so exciting tales, I’m following “Air Pilot’s Manual – Flying Training” which can be purchased from the ProfPilot shop and some other aviation related book stores (But Sam doesn’t get commission from those).
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Brilliantly written by profpilot, on September 3rd, 2009
Short answer: not very. Well if George Bush up there can manage it, it can’t be right? However, as that is not a very good article, I will now expand that answer into this 1400 word illustrated monstrosity. I apologise.
Flying is all about doing lots of little easy things correctly, and in the right order. You could be a master at artistically and dexterously extending the landing gear for example, but that won’t help if you’ve already touched the tarmac.
Gear Down, Please
There are two major groups of skills required when you are training to become a pilot: those that you need to fly in the air well (the fun bit), and those that you need to sit on the ground studying well (the slightly more dull bit) to pass all those wonderful as they are difficult exams.
This article looks at what some of these qualities are, whether you want to fly for fun or if you want to become a paid pilot. It also asks how hard it is to pick up the new skills and knowledge that you need to fly, in a manner least conducive towards crashment.
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Brilliantly written by profpilot, on August 24th, 2009
Read our section on how to become a civil pilot? Got to the part where it starts casually throwing around figures like £40000 for the privilege of throwing yourself on a seething mass of fellow unemployed aviators, and decided that perhaps there is a better career out there for you?
Well, there is another option which provides a soothing balm to both of those rather major issues; become a pilot in the armed forces! The kindly British public will pay for your training, and there is a decent job at the end of it. Sure you might get shot at, but you can’t have your cake and eat it.
This article looks at how to apply to become a pilot in the RAF – although the procedure is similar if you want to join the army or navy as well.
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Brilliantly written by profpilot, on August 10th, 2009
Brilliantly written by profpilot, on August 4th, 2009
Employers only let you take their large metallic airborne vehicles up into the sky if you have something a little bit more than the standard 20 meters swimming certificate you got when you were eight.
God Dammit.
So what do you need, and what are good extras to help you learn to fly, and to improve your (currently steamrollered wafer thin) chances of getting employed at an aerially based organisation? Read on for more details on this truly exciting subject.
This is a general guide for what to do, as whether your ultimate goal is an airline pilot job or crop duster – they all need the same licence in order to get paid for it!
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Brilliantly written by profpilot, on July 23rd, 2009
I’m terribly sorry, but I am away for the week and there will be a distinct lack of any kind of enthrallingly entertaining new profpilot content for the time being. However, you may exact your revenge with the image of me trying desperately to have a fun time on a beach, in Norfolk.
Aforementioned Norfolk Beach
However I have stumbled upon a video on my travels around the internet which you might find handy.
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