martes, 26 de marzo de 2013

What To Expect When You Learn To Fly


Pre-solo

During this initial phase of your flight training, your goal is to develop the skills needed to inspect the aircraft before each flight (preflight the aircraft), taxi to the runway, take off, fly around the airport traffic pattern, and land your aircraft all alone, without your instructor's help. In other words, to solo! To do that, you'll need to understand many new concepts while learning some key terms from aviation's vocabulary. But most important, you'll need to learn how to fly the airplane under favourable weather conditions at your local airport, including when and how to communicate over the radio.

Flying Solo

Learning doesn't stop after you solo. In fact, once you've flown by yourself, there's much more for you to learn as you prepare for the next milestone in your training. In most cases, after your first solo, you'll have a couple of supervised solos — you'll fly part of a session with your instructor and the rest alone, much like your first solo. Then your instructor will allow you to practice by yourself at your home airport, perhaps specifying certain weather conditions or areas in which you're allowed to fly. You'll need to master operations in the airport traffic pattern, understand winds, and learn to recognize when conditions are beyond your capabilities. It's also time to learn more about leaning the engine's fuel/air mixture and other finer points of aircraft operation. A thorough understanding of your aircraft's systems and operations will serve you well as you progress in your training.

Manoeuvres

During this stage of your flight training, you may feel like all you're doing is practicing manoeuvres — over, and over, and over. Why now? Well, you do have to master these skills before you take your check ride, but you'll want to have them under your belt before you begin your cross-country flights (which will be coming up soon). It's also time to think about taking the written tests which vary in format from country to country.

Cross Country

For most student pilots, the cross-country phase of training brings a new rush of excitement. All the elements of your training come together as you expand your aeronautical horizons, first with your flight instructor and, then, by yourself as you close in on the solo cross-country experience requirement of the pilot certificate that you're pursuing. Part of the excitement, no doubt, comes from the realization that you're nearing your objective. There can be apprehension, too, and perhaps even a fear of getting lost — but your knowledge of the established and proven procedures for just that contingency should help to alleviate any concerns.

Flight Tests

You're nearly finished training for your pilot certificate. The next training objective is the flight test, which will vary from country to country in its requirements. Upon passing this milestone, you will have qualified as a private pilot!