Author: Mike Naylor

CPL hour building

Posted on November 21, 2020 by - Advanced training, Tips

I’ve written about this before, so take a look at https://aiminghigher.aero/tips/hour-building/

Here are some more thoughts.  I still believe there is little value in just flying your mates and granny around the local training area! Use hour-building to gain experience – go to different places, fly more challenging missions, complete the CPL QXC, do more accurate flying, practice doing performance and weight & balance calculations, professional PLOG keeping and so on. That way, you’ll be better prepared for the more demanding standards of CPL flying.

What do the rules say about hours?

There are minimum requirements to start a CPL course, and different (higher) minimum requirements to apply for a CPL. This means that some hour building could be completed during parallel with the CPL flight training – if you have the time and money.

Total hours PiC hours PiC cross country Night hours Total CPL training Instrument instruction
For entry to a CPL course 150 50 10
To apply for the CPL 200 100 20, incl CPL QXC 5
incl 5 solo t/offs & landings		 25 10
(max. 5 on an approved simulator

 

You also need to complete the CPL (or ATPL) theory course.

The CPL QXC is the same concept as the PPL QXC, but longer: it’s a VFR cross-country flight of at least 540 km (300 NM), with full stop landings at 2 aerodromes different from the aerodrome of departure.

Other things to consider

  • Do your flying from somewhere that can offer advice and inspiration when you need it.
  • Consider a share in a cheap, but reliable aeroplane for hours building, or see if you can negotiate a discount for hour-building on a club aircraft during the week when it’s not used much. Is a share cheaper than hire? – you’ll need to do the maths, and also get some advice of the pro’s and con’s of owning a shared aeroplane.
  • The first priority of hour building is to gain PiC experience. However, the difference between the required total hours and PiC hours means that you could ‘afford’ to get some additional PUT training time, for fun or to build skills useful for later in your training. For example, you might use some flying time to get a tail-wheel rating or get some experience in instrument flying and instrument approaches. The example below shows how it could work.
Total hours PiC hours
PPL training 65 15
Post PPL flying 15 (incl. check outs) 10
Night rating 6 1
Hour building needed 84 74
Expected CPL training 30
Total 200 100
  • Get familiar with more advanced predictive weather tools (Windy, GRAMET and so on) and build up your own preferred set of flight planning app’s. Really understand all the things that SkyDemon can do for you.
  • Start building your knowledge of the ‘rules’. The EASA Easy Access Rules and the UK ANO are not edifying reading, but you should start finding out for yourself what some of the rules say.
  • Attend as many seminars and webinars as you can to expand your knowledge. The CAA, Flyer magazine, GASCo, the RAeS are just some of the organisation that offer these from time to time.
  • If a particular aspect of theory piques your interest, then you could start diving into more detail as preparation for the CPL theory course.

Brexit

We still don’t know what will happen as far as aviation is concerned, though it is extremely likely that the UK will NOT be part of the EASA club and the nature of any future agreements is uncertain. Whilst ICAO convention means that UK PPL’s should be recognized in EASA-land,  we don’t know how / if UK licenses will be recognized by non-UK commercial operators. You will need to decide whether you want a UK CPL or an EASA CPL and that will affect your choice of ATO’s for the training. Hopefully, this regulatory fog will have cleared by the time comes to start your CPL training!

Meanwhile, get out and enjoy some flying!!

Extending the validity of SEP rating during Covid-19 lockdown

Posted on May 5, 2020 by - Uncategorized

For pilots whose SEP ratings expire between March and October during Covid-19 lockdown, the  CAA have come up with a pragmatic way of extending ratings, including the SEP rating and IR(R). ORS4 No. 1385 describes what is required. (It also addresses extension of validity of ground exams, instructor / examiner ratings etc).

In essence,  the rating holder needs to obtain a (remote) briefing from an instructor / examiner. On completing the briefing, the rating page is signed with the new expiry date which is 22 November 2020. The content of the briefing is at the discretion of the instructor but should  cover relevant safety aspects of operating the SEP class of aircraft and manoeuvres typically flown. However, since the instructor and pilot are unlikely to be face-to face, and to avoid entrusting a valuable document to the mail, a Temporary Certificate on form SRG1100F can be issued instead.

Note this is only an extension of the rating, not a 2 year revalidation. In other words, before 22 November 2020, the rating hodler will have to renew or revalidate his/her ratings in the normal manner (e.g. 12 hours flight time, 6 horus PiC- ll in the 12 months up to 22 November) and a 1 hour instructional flight.

If you’d like to extend your rating, please get in touch to set up a Zoom or Skype call. To help prepare, look at key speeds and operating characteristics for your aircraft and answer the little quiz below.

CV-19 quiz

Get up and go!

Posted on February 9, 2020 by - Airfields, Chat, Tips

We’ve added some more destinations to our Short Haul page – so as the weather turns more spring-like (and once the gales have subsided) why not venture somewhere new?

We’ll be updating the Medium and Long haul pages over the next couple of weeks.

Listen very carefully: I shall say this only once

Posted on September 16, 2019 by - Chat, Comms - PPL, RT practical - PPL, Tips

I was out on a trip yesterday – beautiful blue skies, little wind, great visibility. It’s the kind of day which gets pilots of all abilities out of their arm-chairs and into the air. The controller on the Farnborough East sector was getting quite terse with pilots whose RT was sub-standard. It matters a lot when the frequency is busy – unanswered or incorrectly answered calls need more repetition, which just clogs up the frequency even more. In the worst case, it can create a safety issue.

Every radio conversation follows the same structure – a short contact call, a main message and a read-back or acknowledgement. And the main message has a consistent format: Who you are, What you’re doing, Where you are, What you want. Or more precisely for those fond of acronyms – CARPACeR: Call sign, Aircraft type, Route, Position, Altitude, Condition (VFR / IFR), Request. 2025 edit –  the CAA now advocate CARPAII: Call sign, Aircraft type, Route, (Departure, Destination), Position, Altitude, Information, Intentions (this is where you’d give significant turning points and request the Service you want)

Some ways to get it right

Know where you are, report where you are. There is a world of difference between being north of Farnborough and west of Farnborough! Sure, ATC may have radar and spot you, but you create doubt in the controller’s mind – do you know where you are, can you be relied on to proceed as instructed?

  • Think before you speak
  • Be accurate with your position
  • But don’t be excessively precise – ’west of…’ or ‘just west of…’ is often sufficient. ‘1.6 miles west of…’ is probably unnecessary.

Always read back a clearance or instruction – ATC need you to read back certain things, to check you have understood.

  • Don’t rely on memory alone; have a pencil ready to write down instructions
  • Develop your own shorthand to do this concisely

Don’t butt in to an ongoing conversation / read-back  

  • Listen out for a few seconds before transmitting
  • If you hear a pilot making a request that needs an answer, or ATC giving an instruction which needs reading back, wait till the exchange has finished

Listen out. I lost count of the number of times I heard G-NW… are you on frequency? G-NW.. radio check etc.

  • Listen out for your call sign
  • Make sure you have the volume loud enough
  • Don’t allow cockpit conversations to interfere with monitoring the RT
  • Advise before leaving the frequency, so the controller knows you have gone

Listen out when receiving a traffic service. Even worse than not listening out, is asking for a Traffic Service and then not listening to traffic advisories. What’s the point?

  • It is a requirement to read-back traffic advice with either ‘Looking for traffic / Traffic not sighted’ or ‘Traffic sighted’
  • Ask yourself whether a Traffic service is really necessary and appropriate for the conditions (visibility, traffic density, pilot work-load)

And other tips to help prepare

  • If not confident, rehearse your calls on the ground, and try to imagine or anticipate the ATC responses – it’s easy to do this in the car on the way to the airfield. We’ve all had to go through the RT learning curve
  • Brush up what kind of information you need to read-back, and when a simple ‘Roger’ or ‘Wilco’ is enough
  • Still not sure? Then get some advice from an instructor, or read some of the materials on this website
  • If flying with another pilot, why not share the work-load – assign one of you to monitor and respond on the radio.

 

Bad habits

Posted on August 27, 2019 by - Chat, Test, Tips

Back in the spring, I was doing Flight Examiner training with our CFI. One of the training exercises is to conduct an LPC (Licence Proficiency Check) on a lapsed pilot returning to flying. You know how some comedians are excellent mimics? Well our CFI can mimic the rusty or inept pilot to a T. She demonstrated more bad habits in 30 mins than I have seen in several years of biannual instruction flights. For example….

  • Poor RT – not using the full call-sign in initial calls, not following the conventional message structure, incorrect expression of numbers etc.
  • Being unaware of listening squawks. Listening squawks are a good way to avoid infringing.
  • Taxi-ing – not holding the controls fully back (which is the technique for most (but not all) aircraft); not performing the taxi checks
  • Take-off – insufficient rudder use, so not remaining centred on the runway during the take-off roll
  • Rudder – insufficient rudder in the climb (which causes a gradual turn and sub-optimal climb rate); Not using a squeeze of rudder in entry to and exit from turns, causing a momentary slip or skid.
  • Landing – landing flat with insufficient pitch up in the flare. This is a very bad habit which one day could lead to a bounce, collapsed nose leg and broken aeroplane.
  • Over-reliance on GPS navaids – poor PLOG and chart preparation and plotting. A great way to get lost when the GPS fails! 
  • Poor height-keeping on cross country flight – getting dangerously close tho the base of CAS  another way to infringe!
  • Getting off-track – and failing to use a recognised (and simple) technique to regain track promptly. Another way of getting lost, or infringing, or worse still at low level, running into an obstacle.
  • Lookout – poor lookout in turns – a well known cause of airproxes.
  • Steep turns – failing to add power to maintain speed and altitude. This could result in a stall / spin.

These are easy habits to get in to and they are things which an instructor will be looking for during a bi-annual instruction flight. But why wait for an instructor? It’s worth doing a little self-assessment and critique now and again (what happened there? why did I do that?), so that these things don’t happen when the safety margins are reduced by high work-load, distraction or poor weather.

The silent killer

Posted on August 14, 2019 by - Aircraft, Human Performance - PPL, News, Tips

The AAIB today published a special bulletin on the tragic crash of the Piper Malibu in which footballer Emiliano Sala and his pilot died. Sala’s toxicology revealed very high (potentially fatal) levels of carboxy-haemoglobin in the blood. The AAIB concluded that the pilot very likely suffered the same and are investigating how the CO (carbon monoxide) could have entered the cabin. The implication is that the loss of control was due to CO incapacitation.

CO is the silent killer – it is colourless and odourless. Low levels of CO cause drowsiness, headache and nausea; higher levels impair concentration and flying ability; very high levels cause unconsciousness, heart attack and death.

A leaking exhaust and/or defective cabin heater shroud round the exhaust can be the cause of CO entering the cockpit.  Our club aircraft all carry a CO detector. The simple spot detectors cost a few ££ and turn black within minutes when CO is present.  They have a limited life-span and their replacement is scheduled in a diary.

More sophisticated detectors, similar to domestic ones, are also available.

The AAIB report is a reminder of the importance of monitoring for carbon monoxide. How do you monitor CO in the cockpit?

Glider pilots

Posted on August 4, 2019 by - Aircraft, Tips

Being a ‘lapsed’ glider pilot, I was asked to talk to a gliding instructor who is thinking of getting a PPL. The good news is, as holder of an EASA glider pilots licence, he gets 10 hours credit on the training. Our conversation got me thinking about the differences which we would need to address.

 

 

 

Some good things about glider pilots:

  • They know how to fly
  • Their look-out is generally better than power pilots. They have a lot of canopy to look through, and when thermalling, they fly in close proximity to other gliders, so really need to be vigilant. These days of course they rely on FLARM, as well.
  • They use the rudder in turns – the long wing-span of gliders means that adverse yaw from the ailerons is significant. Any turn needs to be made with a combination of aileron and rudder. This is something which lazy power pilots tend to forget rather quickly during or after training!
  • Every glider flight potentially ends in a forced landing into a field, so they are generally good at picking fields, assessing the wind and making a safe glide approach into the chosen field.
  • These days we both use GPS to navigate.

Some things where a glider pilot will need to adapt:

  • A glider pilot may feel claustrophobic in the cockpit of a Cessna 152 – peering through letter box sized windows. To manage the blind-spots, power pilots used a structured lookout method before entering a manoeuvre, be that a turn, climb or descent.
  • Glider pilots feel comfortable flying very close to other gliders – this is not something we encourage in power flying!
  • Effects of controls – a glider pilot may be surprised by the effect of power and flaps on pitch attitude.
  • Taxi-ing – this is not something a glider pilot does.
  • If not in lift, a glider is always descending, so glider pilots are not used to flying straight and level and maintaining a constant altitude.
  • Climbing and descending – power pilots have a greater range of options to learn: Vx and Vy climbs, powered and glide descents.
  • Stall recovery – though we demonstrate stall recovery without power, in principle every stall recovery uses power in order to minimise the height loss.
  • Glider pilots regulate their approach to land by varying the air-brake (spoiler) setting. In power flying, we set approach or landing flaps and then leave them alone, and control the approach angle with the throttle. Air-brake and throttle are interchangeable in this respect and also in their direction of use. For example, getting low on approach? Push forward to close the air brakes or apply more power from the throttle.
  • Go-around and touch and go – these are not options available to the glider pilot!
  • PFL’s – with a glide ratio of 9:1 the Cessna 152 has all the gliding attributes of a brick, compared with a training glider (25:1) or a modern competition glider (55:1). Only the Horsa WW2 assault glider (think of Operation Market Garden) at 5: 1 glides worse than a Cessna!
  • Cross country technique – although glider pilots plan a route via way-points, they rarely go in a straight line, as they will deviate to top up altitude in thermals and avoid areas of excessive sink. Power pilots are not supposed to feature -crawl and should plan as close to straight lines as possible. They use simple techniques for regaining track promptly when off track.
  • Controlled airspace – glider pilots tend to avoid it, apart from the odd class D transit. For power pilots, CAS is a fact of life. Careful planning and maintenance of heading, altitude and position are paramount in order to avoid infringing. Transits of class D are often flown and the RT for this needs practice to maximise the chance of getting the clearance needed. .
  • RT – glider pilots will use the radio, but probably not to the extent that a power pilot does on a typical cross country flight – so phraseology and practice will be important.
  • Radio nav aids (VOR, ADF) are not something a glider pilot will use but are part of the flying training syllabus.
  • Take-off and landing performance – gliders launch swiftly from the winch or aerotow and are capable of landing in relatively short fields. For powered aircraft, calculating the required runway length for take-off and landing are important consideration for all flights.
  • Weight and balance calculations for a powered aircraft are more involved than for gliders – there are consideration of fuel, passenger, luggage etc.

Who’s got the best chart?

Posted on July 31, 2019 by - Navigation - PPL, Tips

Having been flying around Western Europe recently, I’d like to share some observations about different presentations of the ‘standard’ ICAO chart.

Some obvious differences:

  • Controlled airspace is depicted in different colours in different countries
  • French and German airspace is much simpler than UK airspace – none of those complicated slivers of airspace which we have in the UK, with poor altitude notation which just beg to be infringed.
  • German charts fold out east-west in panels about A5 size. So if you are travelling north – south, you need lots of charts
  • French charts are bigger and generally on flimsy (but easily folded) paper.
  • Our laminated UK charts are huge and require pre-folding before getting in the cockpit!

Personally, I find the French and German charts much easier to read than our UK charts.

Some less obvious differences:

  • French charts do not show VRP’s around airfields – you need to look at the airfield plates in the AIP for these – or use SkyDemon
  • French and German charts show the frequency to use for a Flight Information Service (our UK charts do not), and the sector boundaries for the frequency. And that frequency is typically also the one to use for a class D clearance, so the RT can be seamless. The font and lines are green in France and blue in Germany, and depicted on the chart itself.
  • The Dutch chart shows FIS sector boundaries on a little inset map.
  • On the back of the German chart is a handy diagram showing how the air-space structure works .
  • French and German charts do not have RPS (Regional Pressure Setting) regions.
  • On French charts, magnetic variation is shown on a little schematic map – you won’t find the isogons on the chart itself. In the UK and Germany, the lines are on the main chart.
  • In France and Italy, the charts show obligatory VFR routes (some require radio, others not) – in France these are typically out to the islands including the Channel Islands.

As with all things in flying, a little study beforehand is always worthwhile!

 

More SkyDemon tips

Posted on July 26, 2019 by - Navigation - PPL, Planning tools, Tips

We’re just back  from a fly-out to Brittany. It didn’t go according to plan due to incoming bad weather. So we were improvising our routes. This led me to jot down some tips for using SkyDemon away from home.

Before you go….

  • Invest in a ‘chunky battery’ – a 20,000mAh pack costs around £25, and guarantees power all day, probably several days, on the greediest smartphone
  • Find a way of securing your SD device in the cockpit, out of direct sun – with this week’s temperatures most devices will overheat and shutdown
  • Make sure all routes and relevant aircraft profiles are saved to Cloud, so they are accessible on your mobile device
  • Print airfield plates from original source before leaving. Generally the AIP plate contain more info than SD plates. Alternatively save airfield plates from SD to your device as PDF’s
  • For planned routes, pre-print PLOGs with no wind, GS, heading, time

And while away…

  • Fill out the pre-printed PLOG with the heading, GS and time for the day’s conditions
  • Don’t rely solely on SD just on your mobile device – it could fail, overheat etc
  • While flying, put the mobile device in flight safe mode – the GPS still works and it saves power.
  • For new routes, copy the SD PLOG onto a standard blank PLOG – Pooley’s or whatever brand you prefer
  • On a group fly-out, appoint one person to prepare new routes , and share them by email, WhatsApp etc

 

IMC rating on EASA licences – extended

Posted on May 21, 2019 by - Advanced training, IMC rating, Regulation

Second Update

The EU has now implemented the Commission Implementing Regulation (amendment) 2019/430 revising Article 4(8) to the EASA Aircrew Regulations, which was referred to by me a couple of months ago. This measn that the CAA will continue to endorse the Instrument Rating (Restricted) (IR(R)) rating on UK CAA issued EASA PPL(A), CPL(A), MPL(A) and ATPL(A) licences until 8 April 2021. The IR(R) may not be endorsed on Part-FCL licences issued by other EASA Member States.

Details of the Flight Test for the rating is included in Standards Document 25.

Those who want to read the revised Aircrew regualtion (not many, I suspect) can see the update here and the consolidated regulation here.