Flight Training: PPL paperwork
Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:11 pm
Your flight school will insist on possessing and filling in your PTR.
That's ok, but you're fucked if they make a mistake, close their doors,
or fuck you over for $$$, or you stop training.
Free advice: get one of those little logbooks, and make an entry in it
every time you fly. Each entry should contain these basics:
a/c reg (FABC)
duration (1.0)
name of PIC (instructor or you)
where (CABC)
what (slow flight, stalls)
Nothing fancy. Get your instructor to sign off each page as it gets filled. He
will have no problem with doing that.
Keep the logbook in your posession with your headset, so you have your
own certified copy of your flight training hours, modulo the last unfilled page
when sh1t goes nuclear.
This can save you tremendous headache, down the road. You have no
idea, how important documentation is, in aviation. Buy an airplane sometime
and see for yourself. Or, file the paperwork for your ATPL. Fun times.
Meta-lesson #1: keep your own records of events. Take cellphone photos,
record conversations, email yourself notes. The sleazier the people you are
dealing with, the more important this is. Documentation is golden as soon as
the lawyers get involved.
Meta-lesson #2: things can fuck up. Plan for it.
PS At the end of every year, put a Z in your logbook, finish the page off, and
total your numbers, for the medical exam if nothing else.
That's ok, but you're fucked if they make a mistake, close their doors,
or fuck you over for $$$, or you stop training.
Free advice: get one of those little logbooks, and make an entry in it
every time you fly. Each entry should contain these basics:
a/c reg (FABC)
duration (1.0)
name of PIC (instructor or you)
where (CABC)
what (slow flight, stalls)
Nothing fancy. Get your instructor to sign off each page as it gets filled. He
will have no problem with doing that.
Keep the logbook in your posession with your headset, so you have your
own certified copy of your flight training hours, modulo the last unfilled page
when sh1t goes nuclear.
This can save you tremendous headache, down the road. You have no
idea, how important documentation is, in aviation. Buy an airplane sometime
and see for yourself. Or, file the paperwork for your ATPL. Fun times.
Meta-lesson #1: keep your own records of events. Take cellphone photos,
record conversations, email yourself notes. The sleazier the people you are
dealing with, the more important this is. Documentation is golden as soon as
the lawyers get involved.
Meta-lesson #2: things can fuck up. Plan for it.
PS At the end of every year, put a Z in your logbook, finish the page off, and
total your numbers, for the medical exam if nothing else.