Beyond Flight Training: Adventures and opportunities for the newly certificated pilot

2016.

INTRODUCTION

This book is for young pilots—young in hours of flying experience, if not in age. When a new pilot finishes the course of training leading to the private pilot certificate, he or she often enters a letdown phase, during which it is natural to wonder, What do I do now? No longer carefully shepherded through each hour, the pilot is suddenly left to seek his or her destiny unaided.

This book will attempt to pick up where student training leaves off, taking the new pilot into areas only lightly touched in training—or perhaps omitted altogether. We will explore those first trips, enter unfamiliar airports, negotiate for ATC services and learn more about weather. We’ll talk about each of the flying seasons, from breezy spring to hazy summer, and on into foggy autumn and frigid winter.

Most importantly, we’re going to discuss the pilot’s need for understanding his or her limitations by developing the judgment and careful attitude that will prevent a bad experience from turning into a tragedy. When and how to buy and fly that first airplane will be covered, and we’ll also talk about going on, taking advanced training for skills and licenses to be added to those of the basic private pilot certificate.

Learning to fly should continue throughout a pilot’s career, an unending process more properly termed learning about flying. When a beginning student asks me, How long will it take to learn to fly? I always employ my favorite rejoinder: I don’t know—I’ve never finished.

Each flight is a chance to learn more, and with all the wide and varied experiences available to the modern aviator, there should be no reason to grow stale.

Come explore with us.

LeRoy Cook

Chapter 1

A License to Learn

It’s a good feeling to have the private pilot checkride passed, to have all that dual and solo practice behind you. Now you’re free to go out and just fly when and where you want, and with anybody you can talk into going along. Welcome, new pilot, to the real world of aviation.

Do you know what you’ve just acquired? A license to learn, that’s what. Let’s face it, you aren’t a bit safer or smarter than you were before you passed your checkride, yet previously you couldn’t have taken me for a ride, and now you can. The difference between then and now is that little slip of paper that says Private Pilot on it, soon to be replaced with a permanent plastic card. You’ve been tested and found free of unsafe gaps in skill and knowledge. You’ve got gaps all right; it’s just that the government feels they are inconsequential enough to be filled in while you engage in your own personal flying.

Never, ever, stop learning about flying if you want to be around to give your grandchildren airplane rides and to eventually pass away of natural causes. There is so much to know I rather doubt that anyone can lay claim to all of it, yet you will look back on this moment years from now and truly realize how little you knew when you became a private pilot. You’ve been given all the training the average student can afford; the rest just has to come later.

A new private pilot proudly shows off his temporary certificate and receives congratulations from his flight instructor.

THE FIRST PASSENGERS

You’ve probably got a long list of people you have been promising to take for a ride, so call them up as the opportunity arises and share your joy. But, please, do aviation a favor and pick a good, quiet, still-air hour for their ride if they haven’t been up before. Treat them gently; explain what you’re doing so they won’t jump and clutch when the wings bank and the sound of the engine changes. Keep the turns gentle and the climbs and descents shallow; don’t try to prove your prowess as a fighter pilot.

Some people may seem reluctant to ride with you, a little afraid for their necks, perhaps, because they’re being flown by a newly rated pilot. If they would only read the accident statistics, they would find that you’re a safer bet now than you will be a couple of hundred hours down the road. Right now, you’re still cautious and unsure of yourself. You’ll ask for advice, you’ll use your checklist, you’ll preflight carefully. Sadly, all this tends to change when your logbook reaches the vicinity of the 200-hour mark. With that amount of flying time, you’re no longer a green hand; you’re feeling like an old, experienced pilot. You don’t need those student pilot crutches any more; you figure you’ve been around and seen it all. Most 200-hour pilots make it through this settling period, but some don’t. The accident charts show a similar trend around the magic 1,000-hour mark. This is a lot of flying time, you’ll think, Surely I know it all by now. Take it from me—you don’t. I’m still learning just as much today as when I passed that thousandth hour.

NEVER STOP GETTING BETTER

Now, where you go from here is up to you. You can fly the next 500 hours and gain 500 hours of experience, or you can log 500 hours and get one hour’s experience repeated 500 times. Take your choice: either learn from each hour and get better, or sit there insensitive and regress. Right now, you’re probably thinking, Heck, I’ll bet some of the private pilots I know couldn’t pass that flight test. You’re right—they stopped learning the day they passed their checkride. They have never gone on to master 30-knot winds or high-density traffic; they’re right there where they were as student pilots. Resolve not to let this happen to you.

You told your instructor you would be back every little bit for some refresher training. Did you notice his or her half-smile? They’ve heard every pilot that’s graduated make that statement, and it almost never happens. Please, surprise them by coming back. As you will find out in the coming years, a short biennial flight review does not constitute adequate refresher training. In keeping with your desire to learn all you can, get curious about something once in a while; watch an online video and take an hour of dual to see what it’s all about. Maybe you want to see inside a cloud, for real; get a certified instrument flight instructor (CFI-I) and try it—the right way. Maybe you want to see the world roll around the airplane; if so, take a sample aerobatic lesson. We all need a CFI to ride with us now and then, so find some excuse to make it interesting and you’ll be more likely to do it.

Convinced that you want to get sharp? Good, just keep your eyes and ears open and fly—that’s the way to begin. Now that you’re a real pilot, take a short weekend cross-country trip or two. Just avoid a rigid schedule, so the weather can’t trap you, and have more than one destination in mind, so you can outflank a front. Get out there and see how it really is. If you stay in the local area, hopping friends on a Sunday afternoon, you’ll gradually lose your confidence and desire. Besides, someday you’ll want to see another seacoast or the other side of the mountains, and you need to warm up first by making small trips before tackling a week-long journey.

BATTLING THE BUDGET

Can’t afford it, you say? Surprise: none of us can. Most of us do without something else to support a flying habit—things like lunch, golf, or a new car. If you can’t fly as much as you want to—and who can—at least hang around the airport and keep your antenna up, receiving the vibrations of aeronautical life. It’ll keep you out of the bars, anyway, and that’ll save money for flying later. Read all those flying magazines so you can benefit from the experiences of the other guys and gals; it’ll all be helpful someday.

Thinking about buying an airplane? This is not the time. If you have the money available, somebody may sell you something you don’t really need. You should first rent the various types you’re interested in, if possible, or maybe offer to pay expenses for an extended demonstration. Don’t buy something because it’s pretty, or after only one hop around the patch. Take it out and fly it cross-country for an hour or two; that short jaunt may save you much more than it’ll ever cost you. Go to a trusted fixed-base operator (FBO), CFI, or A&P mechanic and ask what he or she thinks; pay for the opinion if necessary, but don’t buy an airplane in haste.

On the other hand, you might as well give up and buy something that isn’t exactly perfect as soon as you can make up your mind, just so you can maintain proficiency at your convenience. If you can make a good rental deal on a little-used airplane, fine and dandy, but after you are forced to cancel a few trips and drive 200 miles in bright sunshine because the airplane was busy, you’ll probably be an airplane sales prospect.

You might think weather is the great bugaboo of this business, and you’d be right. It turns up in the accident reports all too often, more than any other single factor, and it behooves you to hone and sharpen your weather sense. Whether you’re flying or not, get in the habit of looking up at the sky every day and analyzing what you see there. Know what various types of clouds mean, which way good weather lies, and when a forecast isn’t reliable. You must learn to be your own weather-person; don’t abdicate this responsibility to others.

As time goes on, you will someday be looked upon as an old, knowledgeable pilot. Use the coming years and hours wisely so that this assessment will not be a mistaken one.

Chapter 2

Going Somewhere?

When you suddenly have a trip laid on to a place you’ve never heard of, getting organized to leap off in a hurry takes a bit of doing. Spreading out a chart and searching for an obscure destination leads only to fruitless frustration, and, likely as not, asking other pilots for a clue will provide the standard response, Never heard of it. Fortunately, there are some better ways to plan a flight to an unknown spot, involving diverse but successful methods.

In addition to the ubiquitous sectional chart, supplemental information from the Chart Supplement, AOPA directory (print or digital), and aviation apps are essential for planning a flight.

FLIGHT PLANNING

The term flight planning means looking over the route, laying out a course and checking into fuel requirements and alternate airports. All of these assume that you know where you’re heading. If you don’t, reach for a U.S. road atlas or a GPS app with search capability. No, we’re not going to necessarily use them for aerial navigation, but these tools make it easy to locate an obscure town, so long as you know the state. It beats the heck out of looking over a sectional chart with a magnifying glass, only to find that the place you’ve been hunting was an inch beyond the edge of the chart.

Having used the road atlas or app to pin down the fishing spot, relatives’ hometown, or sales prospect’s plant site, note its approximate relationship to a large city (such as 40 miles south of Cincinnati on a major highway) and consult the appropriate sectional chart for the nearest airport. If you don’t have the chart at hand, a diagram in the legend panel of every sectional will tell you which chart covers the approximate area in question.

Choosing a destination airport is difficult with the meager information displayed on the chart, making it wise to consult the Chart Supplement book for such details as runway composition, obstructions, hours of operation, and the like. More data can be found in the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association’s (AOPA) airport directory and on various websites and aviation apps. The AOPA directory includes such choice tidbits as the brand of fuel sold, the operator’s phone number, motel names and numbers, local attractions—all kinds of good stuff. These non-government directories aren’t the official word, but they are extremely helpful. State aviation departments often issue state airport directories, but most are limited and are produced by the tourism division, and they are frequently out of date. Be sure your information is current; don’t be above making a phone call if your airplane is going to require special services or runway dimensions. In the absence of such information, plan to have enough fuel in reserve to divert to an alternate airport.

EYEBALL THE ROUTE

Now, eyeball the route. If the trip is a long one, laying it out on paper can take up the entire living room floor. And, because sectional charts have two sides, it may not be possible to see to all of a north-south route at once. For faster guesstimating, insert a direct-to route into ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot on your iPad or phone and zoom in to see where the line is taking you. Do not, however, rely entirely on software-driven planning. A paper chart is still the best orientation tool, and its battery will never go dead or overheat.

Long trips may be best handled on the VOR airways, where course guidance is preplotted and there’s a guarantee of radio reception. If you want to fly RNAV (area navigation) direct by drawing a pencil line straight across the world, break down an extra-long flight into segments, terminating in pit stops every two or three hours. Solo trips can be stretched out, but don’t abuse a passenger’s endurance with optimistic flight planning.

Flight planning software in your computer simplifies the layout procedure, but review it carefully to make sure it takes you where you want to go. GPS navigators will generate a direct route, but they can lead you into areas you shouldn’t visit. Check the route for hazards on your chart. You might want to avoid busy traffic areas around major hub airports, note military operations areas, and certainly skirt restricted areas. You should also look for sparsely populated regions that have few airports, where you’ll want to alter your route slightly to stay closer to civilization. High terrain also may preclude a direct flight, if it would lead you to your destination only by climbing to oxygen-required altitudes.

Always seek a route with good alternatives in case you don’t find ideal weather on your flight. It’s wise to have two routes in mind, one for good VFR weather and one for marginal-VFR use. If the weather goes sour, you may wish to abandon the VOR airway across trackless wasteland in favor of following a friendly highway or railroad that has towns and airports every few miles. Even IFR pilots should take a minute to consider a low-level alternate route in case it’s necessary to go underneath the weather because of embedded thunderstorms or icing conditions. When flight conditions deteriorate, it’s nice to be able to swing over to the preplanned alternate low-weather route and press on with a line of position under the wings and an alternate airport a few miles away at all times.

The road atlas can be useful as a points-of-interest guide for the route. Part of flying’s charm is the ability to look down on monuments, landmarks, and historical places; many of these are noted in the road atlas, but are not on the chart. You may be on a business trip, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a five-mile detour to see Monticello from the air. Naturally, you’ll stay 2,000 feet above the ground over such places, to avoid bruising the groundlings’ sensibilities.

WRITING IT DOWN

For pity’s sake, write down some of this hard-won information as you dig it out. Your flight log form may consist of nothing more than a yellow legal pad, which is fine if you can make it do what you want, but you should have mileages, heading, and frequencies listed in order of use, with appropriate remarks such as high terrain ahead or watch for Harper’s Ferry to left. Having mileages premeasured helps calculate howgozit estimates in flight, when headwinds cut into fuel supplies or an unexpected tailwind tempts you to skip a stop.

If you’re the type who hates to waste time, even while cruising cross-country, play around with plotting aircraft performance. You can time descents and climbs, calculate TAS, groundspeeds, and ETAs, and log fuel burns from various tanks, all in the interest of learning more about your airplane’s capabilities. Or your tastes may run to meteorology, keeping track of temperature lapse rates and frontal zones encountered, and indulging in pressure-pattern flying for optimum block speeds. Perhaps aerial photography intrigues you. The reason I mention those diversions in a discourse on flight planning is that I invariably forget about the camera or calculator—or even a spare pencil—until I’m airborne, so put them in the flight case now, before the balloon goes up.

GETTING ORGANIZED IN A HURRY

You won’t always have the chance to indulge in elaborate flight planning. As a charter pilot, I have often had to make departures within 30 minutes after receiving a phone call, but there is always time for some preplanning. At least take a minute to look up the route, note the distance and headings, and mark it out on a chart, something that’s next to impossible in the confines of the cockpit. If you’re getting off VFR with a possibility of running into IFR weather, find the logical points at which to plug into the ATC system, assuming you’re instrument rated, equipped, and current. You can always jot down times over a specific checkpoint and figure an ETA later, writing on the face of the chart if need be, but do your basic plotting down on terra firma, where five minutes’ work can be time well spent.

Now assemble your flight planning goodies in a ditty bag or whatever, so they can all leave the house with you when you might not have full command of your faculties. You don’t have to tote a 40-pound flight case in this day and age of personal digital devices, but it’s awfully embarrassing to reach for a backup chart and find it was the one that slipped under the table last night.

As a final flight planning tip, take along a RON (remain overnight) kit even on one-day flights. Having the toothbrush along ensures that you’ll probably get home tonight; the first time you forget to carry your kit will be the day the forecasts go sour and you’ll have to stay out with no razor or spare socks. A RON kit is like a good luck charm—as any charter pilot knows.

As the old saw goes, Plan your flight and fly your plan. It’s still good advice to follow.

Chapter 3

Efficient Flying

Would you like to fly more and pay less? No, I’m not advocating a switch to a light sport aircraft or ultralight; I’m talking about getting more efficiency from your regular bird. Most of us have let poor flight planning and sloppy cruise control technique become a habit. With the increased cost of AVGAS, we need to investigate every possible means of trimming our fuel consumption figures. It isn’t necessary to scrutinize the upper-air charts or invest in complex engine analyzers to do this. A few simple steps will stretch your fuel budget to cover 10 to 20 percent more mileage.

FLY MORE AND PAY LESS

Start by renewing your acquaintance with the airplane’s pilot operating handbook. Every airplane/powerplant combination has a most-efficient power setting for each flight condition, and you should no longer be content to use one set of numbers for all situations. Suppose, for instance, you’re just out tooling around the local area with some friends. Why blast about at 75 percent power, with the attendant noise and dollar drain, when you’re really not going anywhere? A 60 percent setting will serve just as well for sightseeing, and in larger airplanes you may want to cut back to 50 percent or so. By doing that, you’ll be saving fuel for the days when you really are in a hurry.

FINDING THE AIRPLANE’S BEST ALTITUDE

A few general facts will become evident after reviewing the cruise charts. First, significant savings will result from using 60 or 65 percent power settings rather than 70 or 75 percent. For example, a Cessna Cardinal RG at 7,500 feet will cruise at 169 miles per hour on 74 percent power, burning 10.6 gallons per hour (gph). Yet, at 60 percent power it will still do 155 mph and use only 8.7 gph. By giving up 14 mph, one saves nearly 2 gph; the miles per gallon went from 15.9 to 17.8.

Second, it pays to fly high. The Cardinal RG gives 149 mph on 60 percent power at 2,500 feet, but 159 mph can be had on the same 60 percent at 10,000 feet. That’s 10 mph extra without any increase in fuel flow.

Now, we all know it isn’t practical to cruise at 10,000 feet on every hop, even if weather conditions would permit it. It takes time and fuel to get up there, so the trade-off must become advantageous before it will pay to go high. The fuel required to take the RG from 5,000 to 10,000 feet amounts to two gallons; therefore, a flight duration of more than two hours would be required to save enough fuel to warrant the extra climb. As a rule of thumb, you can usually afford to climb as high as 5,000 feet above the starting point on trips of 100 miles or more, and as high as 10,000 feet for 200-mile hops.

A turbocharger will allow even higher and more efficient flight if your trips are long enough and you don’t mind wearing an oxygen mask. Climb rates will remain brisk instead of tapering off above 10,000 feet, and fuel flow remains constant while cruising faster in the thin air. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, though, and cost and upkeep of the turbo, as well as its inherent increase in fuel burn, must be weighed against the number of high-altitude trips you will be making.

A bit of preflight calculation can be well worth the time, using the information gleaned from the winds aloft forecasts. In general, the winds aloft turn more westerly and increase in strength as altitude increases, making it natural to fly eastbound legs high and westbound trips low. But there are a lot of tricks up Mother Nature’s sleeve, and you will find days when normal rules don’t apply. Few trips are exactly upwind or downwind, so it’s important to do some calculations to see how much effect you’re going to get at various altitudes. Learn to choose the flight level that helps most or hinders least.

LEARNING TO LEAN

Oddly enough, there are still pilots flying who use the mixture control only for killing the engine after parking. Perhaps if it were colored money-green and had a dollar sign painted on it they’d take more notice. We all know the primary reason for having a mixture control in airplanes is to provide the best fuel/air ratio at higher altitudes. Yet, it’s a plain fact that fuel runs through the pipes slower as the knob is pulled further out, and because gas costs money, you can save as long as you lean without damaging the engine. The surest way to lean the mixture is by investing a few dollars in an exhaust gas temperature gauge. In less than a year the device will pay for itself, and maintenance is usually limited to occasional replacement of the probe in the exhaust stack.

Leaning with the EGT gives a reference point, or peak temperature, of the exhaust, so you know when you’re getting too lean for the engine’s health. While some engines may be run at the peak EGT at low cruise, even leaning to 100 degrees on the rich side of peak still saves plenty. Without an EGT, you can only lean cautiously until engine roughness first appears, then enrich the mixture until the engine runs smoothly again. Most likely, you’ll then shove the mixture forward another quarter inch or so to keep the valves cool and vow once again to buy an EGT so you’ll know what you’re doing.

Even the efficiency of the Cessna 150 can be improved upon with attention paid to the information in the POH and the mixture control.

A DIRECT ROUTE

Seeking out the airplane’s best miles-per-gallon setting, choosing a favorable cruise altitude, and learning to lean are just starters. There are many other money-saving measures available to the cross-country pilot. When possible, fly a direct route with no doglegs. A simple GPS receiver can help generate a direct path to your destination. The poor-man’s RNAV is still a pencil line drawn with a yardstick, and it works just fine. A 10-mile savings here and there adds up to a free trip every so often, so make an effort to straighten out your cross-countries. If you stick to that straight line, you’ll be dollars ahead. Just be sure to avoid no-fly zones like Temporary Flight Restrictions and Restricted Areas.

CLIMB, CRUISE, AND LETDOWN

An efficient departure requires that you become established in an on-course climb as soon as possible. Request the preferred direction from the control tower as you report ready for takeoff, not after liftoff. At non-controlled airports you should conform to the normal flow of traffic, but you can save time by making your departure from a tight traffic pattern, rather than a leisurely meander around a five-mile circle. If you’re departing in a direction opposite to that of takeoff, make the turn back to the downwind leg as if you were remaining in the pattern, staying within a mile or so of the field. Then simply exit the pattern by climbing out the top and make any changes in heading after safely clearing the local traffic.

Because your best efficiency lies at high altitudes, it would pay to climb as rapidly as possible to the cruising level. Unfortunately, best rate-of-climb speeds tend to produce nose-high pitch attitudes that are uncomfortable for the passengers and block forward visibility. It’s wiser to seek a deck angle that lets you keep the horizon in view, even if it takes an extra minute or two to reach cruising altitude.

Airplanes with fixed-pitch propellers may suffer very little by climbing at an airspeed greater than VY, because the increased rpm generated by a higher airspeed produces more horsepower, which translates into more climb rate. Full throttle is commonly used during climb in these aircraft, because the propeller pitch chosen by the manufacturer is usually best suited to cruise rather than climb, which limits the rpm available at low speeds. Airplanes with constant-speed props are more often than not climbed at a slightly lower power setting, to reduce the noise and wear of full-power operation. Some leaning may also be permitted in a reduced-power climb. However, climb power should be as high as practical for the most efficient climb to altitude; a minimum of 75 percent power would be recommended. Remember to advance the throttle to maintain desired manifold pressure as altitude increases until reaching the limit of throttle travel—usually about 5,000 feet at climb power settings.

Unfortunately, ideal cruising altitudes are not always available because of weather or the limitations imposed by air traffic control if flying IFR. Any ice accumulated by climbing into a cold cloud deck can nullify the gain in efficiency—another reason to stay VFR. On the other hand, smooth air can provide five