You’d think it would be obvious, so you shouldn’t have to tell a student pilot. That was a theme at a recent discussion of flight instructors. Of course everything is obvious in hindsight.
This week's Aviation News Talk podcast lists over 20 tips picked up from this discussion. All of these stories are about things student and private pilots did because their flight instructor didn't tell them not to. And while many of them may be obvious to Private pilots, even an experienced pilots may pick up a tip or two from this week's episode. Here's one example.
Ground tells an aircraft in the runup area that their baggage door is open. Of course this happens all the time, especially on 172RGs; I'm not sure why those baggage doors latch so poorly. So the student puts on the hand brake and gets out out of the plane to close the door. It’s so obvious, but do you tell every student, don’t ever get out of the plane with the engine running? Obviously the pilot needs to get out and close the baggage door. But you’d think it would be obvious you need to first shut off the engine! Planes don't have a Park position like the gear shift of a car, and they can easily roll forward, even with the brake on. And on some planes pulling the hand brake is not enough; you'll also have to push down on the brakes before or after you apply the hand brake.
Here's another one that happened to a high time flight instructor friend of mine.
The CFI took friends flying on a San Francisco Bay tour, and by the time they returned to the Reid-Hillview Airport, it was dark. Of course the passenger brought a camera to take pictures of the beautiful scenery. And while on downwind to land, the passenger said "Smile." Of course you'd think it would be obvious that you shouldn't take a flash picture of the pilot just before he's about to land at night.
You can find and download this and all of my podcast episodes on Apple iTunes, or listen to it at Aviationnewstalk.com, where you'll also find links in the right column for Android phones and other podcast players.
In this episode, we also talk about diabetes, and whether a pilot can fly with it. The answer, like many things, is it depends. Here's a helpful link on the subject.
And we answer listeners questions about whether people should stick to one type of aircraft when training for the Private certificate. And a listener asks if it's more economical to train in a Cessna 172 versus a Cirrus SR20. At the club where I teach in Palo Alto, CA there's about a $10/hour difference between the two, and I teach the Private to lots of people in a Cirrus.
Plus, we cover lots of General Aviation news in this episode, including a new aftermarket exhaust system that could substantially reduce noise complaints for Cessna 150, 152 and 172 aircraft. And we give a run down on more new aircraft introduced at the Paris Air Show.
And if you didn't listen to last week's episode on the proposed privatization of ATC in the U.S., check it out on Apple iTunes, or listen to it at Aviationnewstalk.com
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