Here’s a thoughtful piece by John Zimmerman (for Sporty’s Pilot Shop online) that has the virtue of giving you a broader picture of the flight training experience.I’ll share the highlights, then urge you to link on over and join the discussion – there are reader comments and you can weigh in yourself.
The article is 7 Things Your Flight Instructor Won’t Tell You. John isn’t out to accuse instructors of duplicity, but rather acknowledge that in order to pass on a wealth of information, things get unintentionally glossed over.
* Students are likely to take more than the minimum of 20 hours (Sport Pilot) or 40 hours (Private Pilot) to get their tickets.
* A Recreational license is still a viable alternative to both...if you can find a school offering the training.
* Don’t show up unprepared for a lesson...CFIs don’t like it and it adds to your training hours.
* You need both pitch and power to control airspeed and altitude. (This is fun, I talk to people all the time who fall on one side or the other of this tireless debate.
* Good crosswind landings use both slip and crab.
* Decision-making is hardest on the ground, i.e. “Should I really fly today?”
* Flying can, and will, change your life in ways you never considered.
It’s a good read, and good comments too from readers.
2 comments:
RP is no alternative, it's the worst of all worlds. You still need the medical and yet you are saddled with a bunch of bizarre limitations such as range.
Totally agree. And I notice AOPA appears to have ENTIRELY stopped its former efforts to push for no-medical RP or Private based on the success of Sport Pilot. It's obvious why - just see how many times the AOPA Medical Services program gets promoted in communications from AOPA these days. It appears that we have a fox guarding the henhouse: the more the FAA messes up the Medical system, the more AOPA profits.
Time for a membership revolt over this issue, I think.
Thomas
Post a Comment