Flight Students . . . count the training costs carefully!

Clearly, flight training cost is the primary concern of most student pilots, particularly those who are planning to move through all of the ratings necessary to qualify for airline or corporate piloting jobs.  These costs range widely depending upon the training route student pilots follow.

Typical training route options range from hiring an independent CFI at the local aerodrome, to enrolling in an FAA approved Part 141 flight school, to affiliating with a local community college who partners with a Part 141 school, to enrolling in a four-year aviation college that provides both an aviation-related academic degree and all of the requisite pilot ratings. 

Then there is the "academy" model.  Here, students pay a very large, up-front fee of $35,000 or more, train intensively, then come out with their ratings but no academic degree.

Each of these training routes possess advantages and disadvantages.  The greatest difference, however, is likely to be found in the area of total training costs.

What is REALLY required to obtain that airline or corporate piloting job?

If you reduce to total requirements to compete effectively for a pilot slot in the professional world of aviation to their lowest common denominators, there are only three basic requirements that count.  These requirements are:

1. Requisite Pilot Certificates and Ratings:  The rating and certificate requirements are: (1) commercial pilot certificate; (2) instrument/multi-engine ratings.

2. Flight Experience (logged hours):  While varying widely based upon the overall pilot needs of the industry, pilots are being hired into the regionals with as few as 250 hours total time!

3. Formal Education:  Some college education is required.  Minimally, an associate's degree will get you in the door.  A four-year degree is better.  As for the major course of study, it doesn't appear to matter. 

Sure, if two otherwise equally qualified candidates are competing for only one job, some might argue that the person with a degree in aeronautical engineering may be selected over, say, a music major.  But even that's questionable.  In truth, the person who performs better in the employment interview will get the nod.

Back to the training routes . . .

As mentioned above, there are advantages and disadvantages associated with each possible training route.  But if we were to focus EXCLUSIVELY upon costs, some routes are definitely better than others.  As such, prospective flight students should examine each possible route very carefully.

Last year, for example, I recommended a well-known four-year aviation college in New England to one of my young students pursuing an airline career. 

Sifting through the complex economics given to her by the college's admissions and flight departments, she discovered that she was paying $250 per hour for a Cessna 172 (wet) including the instructor!  Worse, on some days when instructors where being called in on "overtime" by the college, she was forced to pay the instructor's overtime rate! 

Sadly, this young lady exhausted over $50,000 in loans before having to drop out at the end of her freshman year with only her private pilot certificate and a few college credits to show for it.

"Caveat Emptor" (Let the buyer beware)!

In aviation, as in most endeavors, you do get pretty much what you pay for.  From a hands-down academic knowledge perspective, it is hard to argue against a four-year degree from a reputable aviation college or university.

On the other hand, you could pursue a couple years of study at a nearby local community college in accounting or whatever, then transfer to a four-year college and complete your degree in any major field you like. 

As you are doing this, obtain your pilot ratings at a local airport with a seasoned flight instructor.  Next, begin working for a year or two as a CFI, then do a stint in the Air National Guard flying C-130s or KC-135s. 

This route could get you into the right seat of a B-737 in a major airline or in a corporate Gulfstream far faster and at much lower cost than the aviation college route.

Remember, professional piloting jobs require just three items:  (1) requisite pilot ratings; (2) logged PIC flight hours; and (3) college training. 

The matter of quality training

To Prime . . . Or Not to Prime??

There are few things more frustrating to a pilot than sitting behind an airplane engine that will not start. 

Assuming there is uncontaminated fuel in the tank and it is reaching the engine, the ignition system is working properly, and there are no faulty mechanical issues, the engine should fire and run smoothly IF the correct combination of fuel and oxygen is reaching the cylinders. 

But what if doesn't?  Do I prime?  How many strokes?  Should I be pumping the accelerator pump?  All good questions . . . . and ones that baffle newbies and experienced pilots alike.

So what do I do?

Ask this question to a dozen experienced pilots and you'll likely receive a dozen different replies.  Some will have us give it precisely three shots of prime before cranking.  Others will have us pump the accelerated pump twice, then get out and perform the walk-around inspection before cranking.  Still others will immediately assume a flooded engine and will have us crank with the throttle full open.

Then we have the local so-called "expert."  He (won't say she, here) will become quite indignant with the pilot having difficulty starting the engine.  He tells the hapless pilot precisely what to do. 

It goes something like this:  "Prime twice, crack the throttle exactly one inch, then advance the throttle slowly.  On the first pop, pull the throttle to full idle, then look north, repeat two Hail Marys, then pull on your right ear and immediately stop cranking."  Works every time, he insists!

Don't you love experts like that?

So what is the correct starting procedure?

Let's go back to Lesson One in the private pilot syllabus where we learned about the Pilots' Operating Handbook (POH).  The POH provides basic guidance on how to start both a cold and a hot engine, and sometimes even a flooded engine.

This use of the "POH Doctrine" reinforces the notion that every make and model engine has unique starting procedures.  In most cases (certainly not all), the folks who wrote the POH generally know what they are talking about [Hint: remember the lean-of-peak debate of a decade ago?]

But it still will not start?

Okay, now it's time for a little introspective thought about chemistry and physics.  Fuel, air, and spark in correct proportions and at precisely the right time is generally all that are required to get the reluctant engine going. 

But it still doesn't want to start?  I asked Mike Busch of The Savvy Aviator to help us out here.  Here is what he had to say:

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Winds Awareness

Wind, like oxygen to living creatures, is the elixir of flight.  Whether around the wings of an airplane or over the rotors of a helicopter, wind is what keeps us aloft.

Wind is also a very dangerous force that can render an aircraft temporarily uncontrollable!

Job #1 for pilots is to ALWAYS be aware of what the wind around us is doing.  This is particularly important when operating either close to the ground or when flying over, around, or through mountainous areas.

What is a mountain?

Mountains come in dozens of different varieties ranging from raged peaks along the Continental Divide to the rolling tops of the Shenandoahs.  

Wind currents flowing over mountain ranges and peaks take strange twists and turns, often building in velocity as they careen along their way. 

Invisible rotor currents on the downwind side of mountain ridges have the potential of upsetting even transport-size aircraft.

Flatlands pilots operating for the first time through these mountainous areas would be well-advised to investigate the principles of mountain flying.  Lessons learned could save a life! 

Wind awareness also applies to the flatlands as well.  Every takeoff and landing is influenced to some degree by winds.  Not knowing where winds are coming from is like tip-toeing across a fast moving creek without knowing where the slippery rocks are!  One wrong step and you could get wet (or worse)!

Understanding the MSA Circle on the Instrument Approach Plate

It appears as a little circle on every instrument approach plate, but what does it mean?

Very simply, the MSA circle is intended to provide emergency altitude information to the instrument pilot. 

In other words, when all else fails, flying no lower than the MSA altitude printed in the box inside the circle provides a minimum of 1,000' clearance above all obstructions within the mileage range shown on the outside of the circle, e.g., 25nm from the Teterboro VOR.

Instrument pilots should include the MSA circle information in their approach plate briefing before commencing any instrument approach.

More on Autopilot Dependence . . . A potentially fatal crutch!

Those magical glass instrument panels are helping to breathe new life into our GA aircraft manufacturing industry. 

And why not? Cross-country navigation has been reduced to a couple of button pushes.  Electronic checklists scroll before us like the credits following a Hollywood motion picture. 

There are even colorful reminders to check things like density altitude before rolling to the active runway!

Personal Checks:  

Aggravated Stall vs. Spin Recovery Training

How, you ask?

Answer:  Practice aggravated stalls!

An aggravated stall is one that occurs while the airplane is in a yaw.  The procedure goes something like this.  Retard the power to idle.  Pitch the airplane up into a full stall break.  At the break, apply left or right rudder.

The airplane will quickly yaw in the direction of the applied rudder.  As it does so, apply immediate corrective control inputs:

P - Power: idle;

A - Ailerons: neutral;

R - Rudder: Opposite the direction of turn; and

E- Elevator: push through neutral.

The key, of course, is to complete this recovery technique BEFORE the airplane completes the first full turn.  Keep in mind that most aircraft certificated in the normal category must be capable of spin recovery within the first turn of a spin.

Practicing or teaching aggravated stalls with an experienced CFI onboard is an excellent way to develop awareness of imminent spins.  With this awareness, inadvertent spins, whether up high or in the traffic pattern, can be quickly prevented.

New York City Class B Tours:  An IFR Skill Sharpening Experience!

My weekly flights into the New York City Class B airports have been one of the most "eye-opening" advanced flight training exercises of my career!  This big league environment reveals the best and worst of every pilot.

For example, most reasonably proficient instrument pilots can knit their way down the localizer/glideslope when traveling at a leisurely airspeed.  Try it sometime at 75 percent power!

Okay, why race down the final approach course?  In most places, the controller doesn't ask for our best forward airspeed on the approach. 

When going into a busy Class B airport, going slow means we'll likely be turned off the approach long before reaching the final approach fix, sometimes twice, or even three times.  How do you spell "low fuel advisory?"

Putting a fresh edge on your instrument skills

NYC's Class B airspace is arguably the most intense learning environment any pilot could hope to experience.  With five of the world's busiest airports located within 14 miles of each other, it is a major challenge simply getting into or out of this bee-hive of aerial activity.  The real challenge, however, occurs when hop-scotching between each of these airports!

It is no over-statement to suggest that lightening reflexes come in handy when a harried NY approach controller fires off a series of mind-bending vectors to sequence you between "heavy" jet traffic."  How do you spell "wake turbulence?"

Is this training a GA abuse of the sacred world of airliner operations?

The question of conducting flight training in the busiest airspace in the world has come up . . . more than once.   It's a good question.

Ask a NYC TRACON controller if he or she would rather work with a poorly trained GA pilot messing up his sequencing plans . . . or a pilot w/CFI responding quickly and properly with each of his requests. 

You know the answer without asking.

Any flight training when properly conducted should be transparent to the real-world operations going around you.  The end-result is a better trained pilot operating in the system.

If you repeat an old saw often enough, it eventually becomes truth.  Such can certainly be said about those who claim that stall/spin events in the traffic pattern as being unrecoverable.  In truth, when performed properly, spin recovery can be completed in as little as 600 feet.

So says Joe Shelton, writing in the October, 2007 issue of IFR Magazine following his upset recovery training at Sean Tucker's Tutima Academy of Aviation Safety.  Better than that, Shelton writes that, "Incipient-spin recovery started upon the first wing drop can take as little as 100 feet."

One fatal stall/spin accident a week!

One might reasonably assume that if we continue to experience one fatal stall/spin accident a week, the matter of spin training should remain a front page concern.  Regrettably, it isn't.