Anyone can learn to fly...all you have to be is over 17, well clever and male. You may have heard that flying a plane is like driving a car, well it is apart from the flying bit and the controls are differant. Many students on first getting into a small training aircraft and having a quick go on the controls in the air, often comment on how realistic it is and its just like flying a actual microsoft flight simulator. Flight training at our flight training school is split into two sections. Section one is learning to fly and Section two is the test. We recommend doing these two sections in that order.
Learning to fly isn't expensive when compared to things like drugs or high class call girls. Many often on learning to fly, turn their hobby into a career and pay for their flying training with drug trafficking flying small packages from Holland. There are other jobs in aviation such as an EasyJet pilot. Although most EasyJet pilots pretend to be glider pilots, just to impress people.
In aviation like any area, there is a new set of things to learn and odd words which mean nothing to outsiders. Before learning to fly, you must know the following off by heart.
'FREDA'
FREDA is the name given to enroute flight checks F= Fuel check, R= Radio & navigation check, E= Engine check and carb heat, D= Direction and Compass check and A= Altitude
'BUFEH'
BUFH is the name given to Landing checks B= Brakes - check not locked, U= Undercarriage down and locked, F= Flaps set, E=Engine check and carb heat set and H= Harnesses and hatches are secured
'VEAFF'
VEAFF is the name given to over water checks such as crossing channel enroute to France and are done just before starting the sector over water V= VOR (VHF Omani Range - used for navigation), E= Engine check, A= Altitude check, F= fuel check and second F= Ferries (which is what in truth you basically follow as they head towards Calais or Ostend if pick wrong ferry)
'WLERFBPOCIHFMMBCBITAMRTQFPTFFCF'
WLERFBPOCIHFMMBCBITAMRTQFPTFFCF is the name given pre-flight and start up checks W= walkround, L= lights and beacon working, E= Elavators check connections, R= Rudder check, F= Flap connections check, B=Brake and tyre check, P= Propeller check, O= oil check and engine check, C= Cowling secure, I= Internal checks, H= Harnesses and hatches secure, F= Full and free Yoke control, M= Master switch on, M= mixture fully rich, B=becon on, C=Clear prop (warning to others via a voice warning, B= Brakes on, I=Ignition, T= tempeture and pressure check, A= Altanator warning light out, M= Magneto check, R=Radio and navigation on, taxi lights on, Q=QFE or QNH set on altimeter, F= flaps extended check, P= Power checks and Magneto drop check, T= Trim set for take off, F=Fuel selected, F= Flying controls second check, C= Compass check, F=Fuel pump on
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Do not worry if you cannot remember these as a few minutes will be spent going over them at the start of the first lesson.
LESSON 1 - STRAIGHT & LEVEL
The idea of this lessson is to be able to fly the aircraft in a straight and level attitude. During this exercise we often have to cover other lessons such as turning and up and down by default.
LESSON 2 - STALLING
Modern aircraft are designed to be safe and near on impossible to stall, so this lesson, we concerntrate on showing you how to by pass all the built in safety features and how once learnt to fly, be able to scare all your mates as you spin all over the sky in a downward spiral.
Often you could be flying along on a bright sunny day and suddenly you hear this load high pitch warning noise at a very load stereo volume in your ear. At the same time, the yoke/stick shakes violently and lights start to flash all over the instrument panel. These loud sounds, flashing lights and yoke shake last for only about 30 seconds before the plane stalls so often can be missed by the pilot. Also the slight pitch change in the aircraft to now near vertical which means the pilot is now facing towards space may be taken as a slight bit of turbulance. So with this in mind, all pilots have to learn how to deal with a stall if any of these warning signs are missed.
Often you could be flying along on a bright sunny day and suddenly you hear this load high pitch warning noise at a very load stereo volume in your ear. At the same time, the yoke/stick shakes violently and lights start to flash all over the instrument panel. These loud sounds, flashing lights and yoke shake last for only about 30 seconds before the plane stalls so often can be missed by the pilot. Also the slight pitch change in the aircraft to now near vertical which means the pilot is now facing towards space may be taken as a slight bit of turbulance. So with this in mind, all pilots have to learn how to deal with a stall if any of these warning signs are missed.
LESSON 3 - LANDING
We teach the RAF method which means that on landing we get our students to come in very low. This seems to work.