Next step “Look at that!” ‘That’ was a Diamond DA-40 making a sharpish climbing turn about 50 metres in front of our windshield. It’s as close as I want to be to an oncoming aircraft in mid-air. I know the local Diamond fleet has TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) installed and we had our transponder on, so I imagine one future ATPL just got an … Continue reading Back in the saddle
Flying in focus Right from childhood spelling lists and maths tables, we learn by rote that learning by rote is education’s equivalent to doing time. So there can’t be many interests or art forms where learning by rote is actually a source of real satisfaction and pleasure – to the point where you’d spend good money to indulge in more of it. And yet, last … Continue reading Concentrated learning
Lessons learned This was going to be the post about how I’d finished sandblasting my rusty pilot’s licence, completed my RA-Aus (Recreational Aviation Australia) endorsement checkride, and been cleared to fly solo pretty much whenever I wanted. (Which is pretty much all the time.) As it happens, that’s not quite how things turned out. Go? No go. Flight training has a frustrating capacity to teach … Continue reading Out and back
3, 2, 1, Breathe How long can you hold your breath? For 30 seconds…? A minute…? Actually, it’s longer than you think. For me, it was a little over 12 years. To be precise, it’s been 13 years since I flew anything with a throttle, and about 11-½ years since I flew a glider. After a while, the numbers don’t matter. Twelve years seems about … Continue reading Tell the sky to rejoice
‘Smart flight training’ doesn’t just mean glass cockpits and electric airplanes. With ‘Skynotes’, career educator and CFI Amy Labus-Olson is re-casting instruction as an up-to-date education service. From the ground up There’s an old saw that says you’re not ready to fly until the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the aircraft. Okay, so the rise of digital devices has made that problem … Continue reading Smarter Learning
How to make the most of flight training A few weeks back (okay, several weeks now) I received the best kind of email – a query about flight schools from a reader contemplating starting in for her pilot’s licence. I love the idea of people wanting to become pilots. The magic, the self-discipline, the sensation and the satisfaction are all hard to beat. It’s no … Continue reading Spread your wings
More than half of the RFC pilots killed during World War One died in training, not combat. So although Canadian Billy Bishop would claim 72 victories, he had to face the most dangerous part of war flying first… I tried very hard On November 1st, 1916, I was sent to a school for elementary training in the air. This consisted, first of all, in going up … Continue reading Billy Bishop VC
In the earliest days of airscape, I published an article called (Why) Learn To Fly, setting out the arguments for pursuing the dream of flight. It’s proved a perennial favourite. So, whether you need to convince yourself or someone else, here’s a PDF copy of the complete piece that you’re welcome to download and use pretty much as you wish. Click this text link (not the image): Why Learn … Continue reading (Why) Learn To Fly
airscape Magazine 