Ways to Prepare for Flight Training
Before you start you journey in the sky there are several steps you can take. These steps will help you along the way to your aviation career. Here is what you can do before you start your training.
1- Being a Passenger on Training Flights
It is better to fly in a training flight in a small aircraft before starting the actual flight training. That way you can see yourself being the student in the aircraft and evaluate yourself for the process. You can ask your future flight school or just a friend in flight training to be their passenger for a few lessons. During the flight you can pay attention on what’s going on and try to understand what is waiting for you in ‘your’ training.
And by watching and listening the student and the instructor you can get familiar with what to do before or after or during the flight. This will help you to get familiar with small aircrafts and the process of learning during the flight. An eye outside of the box can be better to understand the process.
2- Practice with Simulators
Nowadays any computer can run a flight simulator, high or low quality. While developing your hand-eye coordination to be used in flight training you can expand your knowledge range on the aviation and flight mechanics. Even if you don’t have a computer that can run a high-end flight simulator such as Microsoft Flight Simulator or X-Plane you can try a flight simulator app on your mobile device.
By using a flight simulator, you can get yourself familiar with basic aerodynamics and flight principles. That way you won’t feel unfamiliar with the controls and reactions of the aircraft so that you can focus better on learning.
3- Learn to Watch the Weather
Weather is always a factor when flying. A pilot should know, even feel, what the weather will become next. A bad weather can be fatal and even if not, it is not worth taking the risk. As a student pilot knowing about the further weather conditions will be a big plus for your training since it is your duty to know the weather on the planned flight path. Since you will already learn about the atmosphere and weather conditions in your PPL training you will get a head start on any of these weather or meteorology basics.
It is also helpful to watch or listen to simple weather forecasts rather than studying on scientific weather patterns. Knowing the temperature in the next day or if it will rain or not will also help you.
4- Practicing Communication on Radio
Communication is one of the most struggling things during the flight for students. Being unfamiliar with the aviation jargon and excitement coming from the situation may block the ability of speaking fluently or correctly. In order to eliminate this block, you can practice even before starting your training. Listening to live ATC broadcasts, practicing with other pilots or recording your own voice and listening to it can develop greatly your communication skill.
Since the phonetic alphabet is being used in aviation you can also memorize and learn it. When you see an aircraft with the license plate ‘HA-AB1’ you should be ready to read it as ‘HOTEL-ALPHA-APLHA-BRAVO-ONE’. While studying on the phonetic alphabet you should also don’t forget the special number pronunciations like: 5 ‘fife’ or 9 ‘niner’.
5- Set a Goal
For a ship with no destination, winds don’t have any use. Setting a goal for after flight training is one of the best things you can do for yourself. If you don’t have a plan for after finishing your training you may feel the lack of motivation during your training. By setting a goal such as being an airline pilot or aerial firefighting pilot you can keep your motivation high and learn easier.
You should always remember that every pilot was once in the plane where you are right now. Even a pilot flying an Airbus A380 or your future flight instructor started their aviation journey with zero hours and zero experience. Therefore, you don’t have to be frustrated or intimidated if it feels overwhelming at first since you have your own goal and dream.
6- Study Simple Physics of Flight
If you know how an aircraft flies you will fly it better it is not a big surprise. By knowing how the wings create lift force enough to keep the aircraft in the air and knowing what to do in order to keep it that way you can fly more confidently. Simple physics phenomenons keep the aircraft whether it’s a 747 or a C152.
You don’t need to know all the details or the specific physics principles but knowing what is going on around your aircraft’s wings will always be helpful for you. And since you will study deeply in the ground training phase of your PPL training you will get a head start.
7- Network with Pilots
One way of getting familiar with flight training is talking with other pilots. Every pilot was once a student pilot which means you can learn from their experiences. Ask them for suggestions or what you can do to solve a problem about your training. Every pilot was once a student pilot as we said earlier so they have already seen what you are about see or experience.
If you don’t know any other pilots or don’t have any pilots in your family you can always go to a local flight club. The main goal of these clubs is gathering the aviation related people so there is nothing can stop you to hang around in a flight club and talk with pilots and exchange information and experience.
1 Comment
Santa Monica Flyers
Thank you for sharing this informative article about flight instructors. I hope there are flight schools who could read this and be guided.