Recently I've had to study up on the regulations for helping students achieve the sport pilot certificate. Actually, I've never worked at a place with a light sport aircraft before. This week I have started with one new student that wants to get this, and this weekend I will fly for the first time with a woman whose instructor quit this week. It only requires 20 hours verses the 40 for a private pilot certificate. It seems like just a small number. I was just wondering if anyone out there has received their sport pilot near the minimum time required. How was it?
Sport Pilot
To qualify for the Sport pilot certificate, an applicant must:[8]
Be at least 17 years of age
Be able to read, speak, write, and understand English
Log at least 20 hours of flight time of which at least
15 hours must be dual instruction with a qualified flight instructor
2 hours must be cross-country dual instruction
5 hours must be solo flight
Fly one solo cross-country flight over a total distance of 75 or more nautical miles to two different destinations to a full-stop landing. At least one leg of this cross-country must be over a total distance of at least 25 nautical miles (46 km).
Have received 2 hours of dual instruction in the preceding 60 days, in preparation for the Practical Test
Pass a Knowledge (written) test
Pass a Practical (oral and flight) test
Have a valid US State drivers license AND not been rejected for your last Airman Medical Certificate
...or have a current 3rd class or higher Airman Medical Certificate
restrictions
No more than one passenger
Daytime flight only (civil twilight is used to define day/night)
Maximum Takeoff Weight of 1320 lbs,[9] compared to 12,500 lb (5,700 kg) of the Private Pilot Certificate or the Recreational Pilot Certificate.
No flight above 10,000 feet (3,000 m) MSL or 2,000 feet (610 m) AGL, whichever is higher (this automatically excludes flight in Class A airspace)
No flight in any of the airspace classes that require radio communication (B, C, or D) without first obtaining additional instruction and instructor endorsement
The Sport pilot certificate is also ineligible for additional ratings (such as an Instrument rating), although time in light-sport aircraft can be used towards the experience requirement of other ratings on higher certificate types.javascript:void(0)
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Monday, August 29, 2011
Found up
Ever feel like starting up a business? Don't know where to start? This is a good place. If you have an idea, it's a good way to get your name out there. It's in the 'Alpha' Stage right now.
http://foundups.com/57dz1
http://foundups.com/57dz1
Friday, August 26, 2011
Prioritize!
I was awoken rudely today for the second time this week. My friend had a flat tire. This tire had a bubble on it since at least a week ago. I know because she told me so. I always sleep as much as I can before getting up for work, and was about to get up anyway for work. The problem is that after a shower, and morning traffic, there isn't enough time left to change a tire for someone. Luckily a local motorcycle cop helped her change it so i could go on to work. I saw the tire later. It literally exploded. She was lucky.
The first time was on Monday. It was her battery. I didn't have to be at work until noon, and as you know... I love to sleep! And I since I'm not a morning person, I hate to be bothered in the morning! So, I put some clothes on, and went down to her car to jump the battery. As I did this, I gave her a lecture about how I could still be in bed if she had followed my advice and had her battery tested at Autozone- for FREE! I knew it was going out because she asked me to look at her car the week before. Do you see a trend yet? After jumping her car, she had no choice but to drive to work, where it sat all day, only to require another jump for the ride home.
Maintenance just adds up and usually requires action all at once-unless you're keeping up with it. I had just started working at a flight school, when I noticed a crack on the nose cone, near the propeller. I don't know if the other instructors noticed it, and ignored it, or if I was the first to notice it. After I reported it, the owner decided to not order a new one right away, so the mechanic put a screw in it to prevent the cone from peeling away due to centrifugal force. The aircraft was an older model, so there was only one nose cone left at the manufacturer's warehouse. The screw did not hold, and the nosecone peeled away from the hub after only one flight. Unfortunately, the surplus nose cone from the manufacturer was no longer available. A custom built one for a few hundred dollars more was required. The brakes were also shot, requiring new rotors and pads. It was then that I found out that the mechanic told the owner that the rotors were shot only a month before, and they should be changed with the pads, or the pads would not last. He was right. Those pads did not last a month. When you think about it, how much do you use brakes in an aircraft? A one mile taxi to the runway? A one mile taxi to the hanger after landing? When was the last time you changed the pads on your car? 500,000 miles? They are made to last. Waiting on maintenance for 'financial reasons' doesn't make sense. You will pay through costly preventable maintenance, fines, or your life later.
The first time was on Monday. It was her battery. I didn't have to be at work until noon, and as you know... I love to sleep! And I since I'm not a morning person, I hate to be bothered in the morning! So, I put some clothes on, and went down to her car to jump the battery. As I did this, I gave her a lecture about how I could still be in bed if she had followed my advice and had her battery tested at Autozone- for FREE! I knew it was going out because she asked me to look at her car the week before. Do you see a trend yet? After jumping her car, she had no choice but to drive to work, where it sat all day, only to require another jump for the ride home.
Maintenance just adds up and usually requires action all at once-unless you're keeping up with it. I had just started working at a flight school, when I noticed a crack on the nose cone, near the propeller. I don't know if the other instructors noticed it, and ignored it, or if I was the first to notice it. After I reported it, the owner decided to not order a new one right away, so the mechanic put a screw in it to prevent the cone from peeling away due to centrifugal force. The aircraft was an older model, so there was only one nose cone left at the manufacturer's warehouse. The screw did not hold, and the nosecone peeled away from the hub after only one flight. Unfortunately, the surplus nose cone from the manufacturer was no longer available. A custom built one for a few hundred dollars more was required. The brakes were also shot, requiring new rotors and pads. It was then that I found out that the mechanic told the owner that the rotors were shot only a month before, and they should be changed with the pads, or the pads would not last. He was right. Those pads did not last a month. When you think about it, how much do you use brakes in an aircraft? A one mile taxi to the runway? A one mile taxi to the hanger after landing? When was the last time you changed the pads on your car? 500,000 miles? They are made to last. Waiting on maintenance for 'financial reasons' doesn't make sense. You will pay through costly preventable maintenance, fines, or your life later.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Don't become a smoking hole in the ground!
If you've ever thought about getting your pilots license, you've wondered how difficult it could be. Sometimes things are only as difficult as you make them. Focusing on the small things, or fixating on seemingly important matters can seem like a good idea. After all, every major project that we complete is made of many small parts. We're all guilty of trying to be perfectionists from time to time. Wouldn't it be a shame to fail at our life's biggest project due to the weakest link being just one small detail? Unfortunately, the weakest link is more often than not, you!
I have had the pleasure of working with many types of students, ranging from age 13-76, and many nationalities as well. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, but it's impossible to learn how to fly without looking out the windshield. I'll use a recent student as an example. We'll call him Jim. Jim was about to enter his senior year of high school, and was spending his summer vacation taking lessons. Now, Jim was very bright, and studied everything that I told him to on his own. He picked up radio communications very quickly. He followed procedure, used the checklist, and remembered almost everything that I told him. Why then, could I not get him to fly a circle around a water tower without losing 400 feet?
Several years ago, I had a run in with a captain (George) at a corporation I was working at. It was the longest day that I spent at work with over 9 hours flying through the snow and ice. He was very meticulous, and could fly an ILS very well, without any significant deviation. He took time to plan every detail, and was very 'good' at pre-flighting the whole aircraft. On one trip when he was still a co-pilot, at 27,000 feet a warning light came on in the cockpit. It was for the baggage door in the nose of the aircraft. The captain at the time asked him where his keys were. George stuck his hand in his pocket, but his keys weren't there. After they had landed, George ran up front to get his keys, unfortunately, they are somewhere in Nebraska. His captain saw that there was a new dent on the engine cowling. One inch higher, and Georges keys would have taken the engine out. There is a reason that the last line in the pre-flight checklist says to do a final walk around. Sometimes it's difficult to see things that are wrong until we step back. But in his defense, he the gauge he was checking in the baggage compartment was in the green. :)
Sometimes it's better to step back, and view something as a whole, and let the chips fall were they may. Allot of the little things will take care of themselves. It is so much easier to tweak a few little things at the end of a project, than to micromanage every little thing that comes up. But then again, who am I to criticize all those micro managers out there?
So, what did I do for Jim, and how is Jim's flying now? Well, i covered all his gauges with a notebook so that only I could see his gauges for a whole flight. He deviated no more than 200 feet and less than 10 off of heading for the entire flight. Not bad for having no precision instruments to go by. It's a little ironic though. If he goes on to work on his instrument rating, he won't be allowed to see out of the window at all.
Don't become a smoking hole in the ground! Life has windows! Look outside.
I have had the pleasure of working with many types of students, ranging from age 13-76, and many nationalities as well. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, but it's impossible to learn how to fly without looking out the windshield. I'll use a recent student as an example. We'll call him Jim. Jim was about to enter his senior year of high school, and was spending his summer vacation taking lessons. Now, Jim was very bright, and studied everything that I told him to on his own. He picked up radio communications very quickly. He followed procedure, used the checklist, and remembered almost everything that I told him. Why then, could I not get him to fly a circle around a water tower without losing 400 feet?
Several years ago, I had a run in with a captain (George) at a corporation I was working at. It was the longest day that I spent at work with over 9 hours flying through the snow and ice. He was very meticulous, and could fly an ILS very well, without any significant deviation. He took time to plan every detail, and was very 'good' at pre-flighting the whole aircraft. On one trip when he was still a co-pilot, at 27,000 feet a warning light came on in the cockpit. It was for the baggage door in the nose of the aircraft. The captain at the time asked him where his keys were. George stuck his hand in his pocket, but his keys weren't there. After they had landed, George ran up front to get his keys, unfortunately, they are somewhere in Nebraska. His captain saw that there was a new dent on the engine cowling. One inch higher, and Georges keys would have taken the engine out. There is a reason that the last line in the pre-flight checklist says to do a final walk around. Sometimes it's difficult to see things that are wrong until we step back. But in his defense, he the gauge he was checking in the baggage compartment was in the green. :)
Sometimes it's better to step back, and view something as a whole, and let the chips fall were they may. Allot of the little things will take care of themselves. It is so much easier to tweak a few little things at the end of a project, than to micromanage every little thing that comes up. But then again, who am I to criticize all those micro managers out there?
So, what did I do for Jim, and how is Jim's flying now? Well, i covered all his gauges with a notebook so that only I could see his gauges for a whole flight. He deviated no more than 200 feet and less than 10 off of heading for the entire flight. Not bad for having no precision instruments to go by. It's a little ironic though. If he goes on to work on his instrument rating, he won't be allowed to see out of the window at all.
Don't become a smoking hole in the ground! Life has windows! Look outside.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Air Force One
I thought that I would share this video of a government plane passing through Austin Texas for some maintenance and testing. There were not any government officials on board. If the president was on board, this plane would be Air force one. Vice president would be air force two. The helicopter that you see landing on the white house lawn is marine one,marine two.... I won't say more than that for security reasons, and if the president was actually on it,I would probably wait a week or two before posting to YouTube. Can't be to careful.
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