I kinda suck at landing....

[Colonel]

unfortunately I cannot solo without it.

As a former Radio Telephone examiner, I can tell you that is not true.

You can turn on the radio and listen without a certificate.

You only need the certificate to transmit.

And, it is NOT a CARs violation if you do. TC doesn't care.

Lots of American pilots come to Canada and transmit without one,
and no one cares.

Back to reality ... I am glad that you had the chance to fly with a really
experienced instructor. Not all the time, but sometimes, a really experienced
instructor can help.

Actually, just flying with any different instructor is really good for you.
Students hate flying with different instructors - worse on different types
of airplanes - but that's how you get good.

If you flew with 100 different instructors on 100 different types, you would
be a very knowledgeable pilot, indeed. That's called Test Pilot School.

[John Swallow]

Andrew wrote: "You're probably approaching much too fast. I see this all the time at my current airport - light singles approaching with the nose dug 'way down. No alpha because their speed is much too high."

True, that. Several years ago, had a buddy call and confide that he was having trouble landing a Skymaster. Ex-Sabre pilot, retired Air Canada pilot and had 'rudimentary' check out by the guy he was replacing.

He outlined the speeds he was using and I suggested he knock ten knots off his approach speed and don't cross the button faster than ten knots above the stall. ( I would have suggested lower, but his small plane experience was minimal at that point.

A week or so later, he phoned to say that I as a genius.

Who was I to disabuse him of that thought...

[Liquid_Charlie]

but his small plane experience was minimal at that point.

I was always mystified by this. TC inspectors had the same slant on life. I can remember one telling me I couldn't fly a heavy jet and then jump into a small aircraft. This was their so called "safety" officer. I just looked at him and said I was flying a beaver on some of my days off. -- duh --

I can't understand why it's so difficult, should our "small" aircraft experience fade to nothing over the years, I don't see why unless you were one of those few that went straight from flight school to heavy jets.

I have not flown a J3 since the 60's but I would not hesitate to jump in one and go flying. I might be a little rusty but I could figure it out in short order. This might be because of the way things were when I started flying. You were checked out one time on each type and then you jumped back and forth between types and no such thing of recurrent training. One day you are flying a club and the next a Bch18 or a DC3. PPC's were just starting then. After that a ride every 6 months with TC but not very often there was recurrent training actually done. Simpler times and in a lot of ways far more enjoyable.

Flying with a highly experienced instructor is a rare thing these days. It's nice to see it actually happens and that the experience is appreciated and helpful. Good stuff!!!!

Actually flew both these aircraft - so cool to find pics on the net
SAN looks like Joe flying it in the Back Bay in YK - my house actually overlooked Back Bay and the day he landed there when he first acquired SAN I almost fell off my deck, what a rush



When I flew UUD it was the only fully metallized Nordyne in the world.

[John Swallow]

"...small plane experience was minimal at this point"

In my friend's case, his previous 'small plane' experience had been thirty years previous (Chipmunk) and I thought it extremely proactive of him to reach out to someone for some help. He had not flown for several years since his retirement from Air Canada and his last type had been one of the Airbus monsters.

He was getting it on the ground just fine, but was 'floating' down the runway. (As could be expected, given the approach speeds)

A telecon and an e-mail solve the problem.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having been with TC for six years, I am well aware of some of the 'idiosyncrasies' of various TC inspectors...

In my fifteen years in corporate aviation, I saw a TC inspector once. So, never had one of them comment about the dangers of mixing piston, turbo-prop, jet, and/or rotary wing. Sometimes on the same day...

[Chuck Ellsworth]

I had a job in Windsor Ont. that gave me lots of different types to fly every day.

I started the day flying a Hughes 300 on traffic patrol for a radio station then did a mail run in an Apache then in the afternoon I flew the B18, in between I instructed on the little bug smashers.

Never ever gave it a second thought.

[TwinOtterFan]

but his small plane experience was minimal at that point.

Flying with a highly experienced instructor is a rare thing these days. It's nice to see it actually happens and that the experience is appreciated and helpful. Good stuff!!!!

Very much appreciated indeed, as I said previously my instructor is very good he definitely knows his stuff, probably has around a thousand hours and he pushes me daily, but the main difference I noticed was sometimes when I have a question about something we are doing my instructor can only really answer with cause that's the procedure. But the 20,000 hour instructor was able to tell me exactly why I should do something that way. I have always hated doing something because that is what the last guy did, it was a giant problem in the military, people having no clue why they were doing something, only that someone else did it that way last time.

I definitely appreciated his time and made sure to thank him for it and his input as well. He is only a part time instructor but I will definitely call on him if I hit a snag in the future.

[Colonel]

Some vocations, you can't learn everything in a year.

After ten years as a flight instructor - with an ATP and a class one -
I was just starting to be learn the ropes. Had already been a CFI at
more than one school by that point. Not everyone is a natural instructor,
I sure as fuck wasn't. After 20 years of instructing, I think I struggled
to achieve "average". I always got along better with machines than people.


On the subject of flying different types ... in the old days, more pilots did
it, but it wasn't well-understood. Some pilots did it effortlessly, others
did not, and we didn't discuss it much.

These days, pilots typically fly very few types and are not very good at
adapting quickly to different flight control responses, different inertia,
different spool-up, different sight pictures.

They certainly don't learn about different systems very easily - they need
a week or two of ground school training to fly a different type, and you
will die if you don't learn the critical systems. No one mentioned that much
in the old days.

Reminds me of my first takeoff in a Piaggio Royal Gull, which was out
of C of G with full tanks and a pilot. Geared pusher twin flying boat
taildragger. As reliable as you would expect any antique Italian vehicle
to be. Felt like a Seabee on the ground.



I loved it! Oddly the flight instructors at the local FTU declined to check
me out in it. At the time, I believe four in the world were still flying.

It's not unsafe to jump from one type to another. There is a place you
can learn to do this. It's called Test Pilot School, and will cost you several
million dollars and a year of your life, which doesn't seem unreasonable.
Hell, I wasted six months of my life, importing two L39's!

[TwinOtterFan]

It has been touched on a couple times today just how good of a resource this forum can be. It's kinda funny because I've been meaning to go on this old thread of mine and show some appreciation.

A few days ago on my way back from the PA I landed flat and hard, nothing broken but it was a junk landing, it happened the next day again. I was already feeling like shit about the previous day so this didn't help things.

I went home pretty devastated (I'm very hard on myself), anyway I remembered this post, went back, read it a couple times and yesterday went for some circuits to sort myself out.

Well, thanks to Chuck, The Colenol and LC, I greased 11kts Xwind landings all morning and It was awesome. So thanks gents, much appreciated.

[Liquid_Charlie]

It's a shame to see the crap on AVCAN and people just chipping and crapping on each other. The atmosphere here is much more conducive to promote pilot skills and aircraft questions. I would have thought that more like you 2otter would come and participate like yourself, it's a mystery.

It always feels good to have helped someone, so keep the questions coming. There is a lot of "old school" here and while time marches on and philosophies change the basics never do, even though there seems to be attempts to do so.

I'm sure you have passed this site address on to fellow students, it's too bad they don't choose to be active.

Hey scud many be another category here would be an introduction area so possibly we could help the lurkers to come out of the shadows.

[TwinOtterFan]

I have mentioned the site before yes, I honestly don't talk to many other students. Although there really isn't even the opportunity anymore. Ground school is virtual, and your not even allowed to hang out in the terminal of the FTU, I have barely even met another student in months.

Also I think I'm an oddball when it comes to life and aviation, I think Bush flying and cargo flights up north are awesome. Fixing a plane in the woods actually sounds kinda fun to me. When I go camping I don't always bring a tent because I like to build shelter sometimes.

The point is, I find I don't fit in at all at flight school, but I do here.