Ask a Flight Instructor

Posts Tagged ‘Private’

This has been a pretty busy week for me as I am currently in Wilmington, DE at my yearly recurrent training event at Flight Safety.  My recurrent training is something I definitely look forward to each year.  It is a wonderful opportunity to not only re-learn the things I have forgotten since last year but also a chance to sharpen my procedures and flying skills within the safety confines of a flight simulator.  A little plug here…Flight Safety Int’l is a top-notch organization and over the years, I have had nothing but the best experiences with the instructors, administration and staff.  They are absolute pros at professional flight training.  It is no wonder, they are the leaders in their industry.

Unfortunately, because of my training and my flight schedule, I’ve fallen a little bit behind with some flight training questions here but I just received a question from Andrew that I’d like to answer.  Andrew asks:

I have a rotorcraft private and i would like to get my Single engine private. How many hours do i need in single engine to get my rating?

Hi Andrew,

You want to look at 14 CFR 61.109 – Aeronautical experience private pilot.

As a rotorcraft private pilot I’m guessing you already meet the 40 hour requirements, so now all you have to do is

Flight Training

meet the specific time requirements for airplane single engine.  These requirements are:

• 3 hours of cross-country flight training in a single-engine airplane;

• 3 hours of night flight training in a single-engine airplane that includes 1) One cross-country flight of over 100 nautical miles total distance; and 2)10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport.

• 3 hours of flight training in a single-engine airplane on the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments

• 3 hours of flight training in preparation for the practical test in a single-engine airplane, which must have been performed within 60 days preceding the date of the test

• 10 hours of solo flight time in a single-engine airplane, consisting of at least 5 hours of solo cross-country time; One solo cross-country flight of at least 150 nautical miles total distance

So it kinds of depends on how you divide up the lessons with your flight instructor, but you know that you’ll need at least 10 hours of solo and probably another 20-25 hours of dual given from an instructor.  You’ll use this time with the instructor to prepare you for your solo, cross country training and then of course the checkride test preparation.  I’d budget at least 35 hours of flight training for your private pilot single-engine add-on.

Again, reference 61.109 for more information and here is the link to that CFR:

http://tinyurl.com/rb2b5k

You also might want to reference the private pilot PTS:

http://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/airmen/test_standards/pilot/media/FAA-S-8081-14A.pdf

Look on page 26 of this pdf.  On that page, you’ll see an “Additional Rating Task Table.”  That task table is useful for knowing what specific tasks you’ll have to complete on your checkride given your current ratings and certificates.

Thanks for stopping by the site and let me know I can be of any further help.
Fly Safe.

Here’s a question from Brandon, who’s working on cross country planning:

When you track a VOR and log the VOR heading, what do I log that as? I know you put it under Course (Route), but what is that called, Magnetic Course? If so, how do I get from Magnetic Course to Magnetic Heading, or are they the same thing?

There are a lot of different terms that we use when we plan flights: course & heading; magnetic course (MC); magnetic heading (MH); true course (TC); wind correction angle (WCA); the list goes on… but which goes where? The key is to remember the difference between plotting a course and flying a heading. In a no-wind situation, heading and course match. With wind, you still want to track the same course over the ground, and to do that you’ll need to crab your heading into the wind.

Getting back to the basics of your question, though, is what to call a VOR course. Whether you refer to it as your magnetic course, your outbound radial, or an OBS setting, it’s the same number. Charted airways are always depicted in terms of magnetic north. As shown above, your MC or OBS setting (red) differs, often significantly, from your TC (blue).

The second part of your question – how to get from MC to MH – is a little more complicated. Chances are, when navigating with a VOR or on an airway, you’ll be starting with a magnetic course. In the example above, we’d be flying from Paine Field to Port Townsend on the 270° radial, which gives us an MC of 270. Variation at the PAE VOR, set when it was constructed (thanks, Sarah, for reminding me of this!), is 20°E, which we add to get a TC of 290 – notice how much larger the blue angle is than the red one. Now you can go back and use your E6B to find your wind correction angle and true heading – but don’t forget, you now need to subtract variation to get what you need in the cockpit: magnetic heading.

Confused yet? It’s confusing stuff, and best explained one-on-one by your instructor with a series of examples. If you’re looking for additional study materials, it’s worth pulling out the manual for your E6B flight computer or checking out Gleim’s article on an alternate method for doing the math.

Received a question this morning from Jim:

When flying a piston single (e.g. C172), I’m trained to do a run-up before every leg of every trip. I can understand the value of a runup before the first leg of the trip — you want to be sure the engine is running fine. I’m less clear about why we do a run-up after landing after a pee break on a long cross-country flight. What exactly is the run-up testing for? What problems in a second or subsequent leg of a day’s flying is it intended to catch?

You have asked a great question Dave that I am sure a lot of pilots have wondered at one point or another.  Isn’t just one engine run up per day or per trip enough?  Why do I have to do it every single leg?

For those who may be just getting into aviation let me quickly explain a engine run-up.  A engine run-up is referring to a series of checks a pilot does before takeoff.  On a single engine piston aircraft (like a Cessna 172) a engine run-up consists of usually of checking the aircraft’s carburetor heat and a quick check of the airplane’s magnetos as well as the basic engine instruments such as oil pressure, oil temperature and cylinder head temperature.

Why these checks are necesary:

Carburetor Heat: Carburetor heat is necessary when operating at lower power settings where you might experience carburetor icing.  Applying carburetor heat is usually as easy as pulling a single knob control in the cockpit.  When you pull that knob you redirect hot air taken from a shroud around the exhaust system into a duct and directly into the air induction system which would melt any carb ice which might have built up.  The less dense air entering the engine causes it too lose approx. 75 -100 RPM which is what you should see on the engine RPM gauge during the check.

But what happens if you don’t see a RPM drop?  I could mean a few things.

1) It could mean a broken cable between that knob and the valve in the airbox

2) It could be a stuck valve in the airbox. Maybe it is already open (which is why you didn’t see a drop) or it could be closed, just not moving.

3) Or it could be something else.

Maybe one of those things (like the broken cable) happened to occur on the last leg.   It might have been loose during your trip and finally disconnected itself during your landing (I’ve had landings hard enough that I wondered if the wheels were still attached).  Wouldn’t you want to find out exactly what was wrong before the next flight?   Do you also know that running with partial carburetor heat can be worse than none at all? (under certain atmospheric conditions).

Magnetos: Magnetos are mounted (usually) on the back portion of a piston engine.  This is where the electrical charge (for lack of better word) for our ignition system and spark plugs originate.   A magneto is a rotating magnet (duh) and as the magnet turns it excite a fixed coil of wires that send out current to the correct spark plug at the correct time.  The current is just great enough that it causes the electrons to “jump” across the gap in the spark plug which creates the spark that ignites the air / fuel mixture in the cylinder, producing power that turns the prop. Most airplanes are equipped with two magnetos.  Each magneto fires the “upper” side of the spark plugs on one side of cylinders and the “lower” side of spark plugs on the other side of cylinders.  That way if you lose one magneto you would still have ignition on all cylinders.

Why a magneto check is important before EVERY flight

Most general aviation airplanes can and do start on a single magneto.  When you place the switch in the start position you are only opening the ground for one magneto, not both.  During your engine run-up you are checking to make sure that yes, both magnetos are really working and falling within required tolerances.  Maybe you accidentally taxied out with the magneto switch in L side only.  You wouldn’t want to takeoff like that right?

P-lead – The P-lead is a way to ground the magneto (turn it off).  If for some reason the P-lead would break during a flight  the magneto…well, it could never be turned off.  That means your prop is always “live”.  Even turning the prop by hand on the ground could technically start your engine and seriously hurt or kill someone.  We also check for this after the flight by turning to magneto / start switch to off momentarily to make sure we can ground the magneto and kill the engine.  I have had this break on me before.

Carbon Deposits – When you cycle a magneto off during the check you are anticipating a certain RPM drop associated with running the cylinder on half ignition.  If you notice a significantly higher drop in RPM it could be a sign you are experiencing some form of carbon (unburnt fuel) deposit in that spark plug gap that we referred to earlier.  To correct this we would want to lean out the mixture and increase power to try and “burn off” that excess carbon.  You want to make sure that before flight you have each and every cylinder firing and producing peak power.

I hope I’ve help to explan the importance of the system checks and why we want to do these checks before each and every flight.

And thinking like a professional pilot for a second here, you also have to remember an important aviation rule, CYA.  If for some reason you didn’t do the required checks as specified by your POH or AFM it could open yourself for litigation and investigation if something would happen during the flight that resulted in injury to someone or something because you failed to do an adequate before takeoff checklist as prescribed by the aircraft manufacturer.  This shouldn’t be your motivation for doing the engine run-up but we live in the age of litigation so you always have to be careful and thourough.

Good luck out there and remember to do your engine run-up before each leg and always…

Fly Safe.

AOPA recently released a video that contains the audio and video showing the radar on March 21 when on March 21, 2008 a F16 pilot apparently tried to successfully scare the absolute living daylights out of two general aviation pilots flying a Pilatus PC-12 and a Beechcraft Premier. Both aircraft were equipped with a TCAS II system which alerts the pilots and if necessary, provides the pilots with TAs (Traffic Advisories) and if necessary, RAs, or Resolution Advisories. If you have never had the privilege of hearing these sounds, I have provided a sample of what a TA and RA sounds like:

Traffic Advisory

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Resolution Advisory

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

So the question is, which one takes precedence? A Resolution advisory or an ATC clearance?

According to FAR 91.123:

When an ATC clearance has been obtained, no pilot in command may deviate from that clearance unless an amended clearance is obtained, an emergency exists, or the deviation is in response to a traffic alert and collision avoidance system resolution advisory.

Another question? Is it ok to fly through a MOA? Let’s take a look at our AIM 3-4-5. It says:

Pilots operating under VFR should exercise extreme caution while flying within a MOA when military activity is being conducted.

Another interesting point about this chapter in the AIM concerning MOAs. Did you know that the military aircraft operating in a MOA can be exempt from at least two rules 1) Aerobatic Flight and 2) Speed *they can operate above 250 knots below 10,000 feet* So, although it might be LEGAL to operate in a MOA, doesn’t sound like a real bright idea.

I uploaded the video to my youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/askacfi) but you can’t watch it here too. (thanks to AOPA for the video)

Fly Safe (especially in a MOA)

This question comes from John:

My 17 year old son, who last summer was working on his glider license, is now thinking about his private pilot airplane certificate. He didn’t get his glider certificate yet because he hasn’t taken the written knowledge test. Should he take the written for the glider first, or should he get his private pilot airplane and then get a glider add on?

Thanks John for your question.

My recommendation would be to go ahead have your son get his private pilot single engine AIRPLANE first before the glider. The reason? If you have a private pilot airplane certificate you DO NOT need to take the a written knowledge test for the glider add-on. However, if you have a private pilot glider certificate you will have to take an additional knowledge test for the private pilot single engine airplane. So if you get the airplane certificate first you will only need your son to study for one test, not two.

Hopefully this helps and tell your son to…

Fly Safe!