Many may find that an initial solo flight is daunting and even scary. The idea of being up in the air and entirely alone is a scary thought, but a solo pilot rarely is alone. The use of radios instantaneously puts a vast amount of resources in range of the pilot's thumb.
ATC can be one of the most useful and life saving resources available to a pilot. They know where you are, where you were, and where you are going. They can provide a great deal of life saving information, including bearings, weather, traffic, and potential emergency landing sites. If a pilot is lost, ATC can readily give a bearing to the nearest anything, whether it be a lake or a VOR. A prime example is progressive taxi; ground control will lead you step by step on the airfield. FSS is another incredible resource. FSS exists entirely to aid pilots. They can handle anything from a standard weather briefing to ordering a pizza and having it waiting for the pilot and his passengers (or so I've been told). Even other aircraft can help out a pilot. They can provide a weather and traffic check for uncontrolled airports, or fly slightly lower and confirm gear down. By radioing ahead you can find out how busy an uncontrolled field is, or if anyone is there at all. Other aircraft can be a huge help, not just to aircraft but also to ATC. I've been requested by my home tower to listen on 121.5 during a busy period so they could direct aircraft while I handled checking for an ELT (no worries, there wasn't one). If you don't know the frequencies for any of these services they can be found here under the 'comms' tab.
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Failures will come. It does not matter how practiced and skilled a pilot is, they can and will make a mistake. My training was based on Murphy's law: If it can go wrong, it will. Making a mistake is natural and common. However, it is unacceptable to just give up the instant things go wrong. You must correct your mistake and learn from it. The brainbook I mentioned in a previous post is an excellent example of this. The owner makes a note of points that can be improved and consciously makes an effort to do better.
Quiting is never an option. There is no shoulder that the airplane can pulled onto and parked, there is no calling 911 while in the air. You need to work to make the aircraft perform even if it or you have failed. Mistakes will be made in training. You are learning, its natural to make mistakes. Don't be discouraged. Make the mistake, learn from it, let others learn from it, and move ahead in your training. The inspiration for this particular post is the week of midterms which many students across the country are just finishing up. It is also the reason for my delay in posting.
A pilot's career does not truly contain any sort of break or vacation. It is a life of constant study. An easy example is the private pilot biannual flight review. Even after finishing it, the next awaits you. One of the most astonishing examples is the landing of flight 1549. In his self titled book, Sully, captain Sullenberger describes how he would study numerous crash investigations, including ones which attempted water landings. He lived a lifestyle of constant study. This allowed him to understand to technique to do a safe water landing. Now, the biannual is not the only situation which you should be studying for. An issue can arise in the aircraft at any time, and as my first flight instructor told me, 'you can't pull over at 3000 feet.' There is no stopping to solve an issue while flying, issues must be solved while still maintaining a flight attitude. Constant study and understanding of procedures and the limitations of your aircraft will give you the ability to do that. Although the title says fuel, we won't be discussing AVGAS today. That is aircraft fuel; pilot fuel is most commonly called sleep.
A pilot thrives on sleep. A well rested pilot is capable, better focused, and more able to have good decision making. (S)he is more than capable of maintaining a safe flight attitude, maneuvering and navigating. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a sleepless pilot brings numerous dangers upon themselves and anyone else on board. A tired pilot more readily misses items during preflight, or skips the preflight entirely. They would fudge the checklist, have a sloppy startup and take off, and maybe start turning to the wrong heading. Just like how they say "get plenty of sleep before the exam" the same is true for flying. A lack of sleep causes performance to take a nose dive, and you become more of a risk than numerous factors. It has been said that one sleepless night is the equivalent of one drink. If you don't believe me, take a pilot knowledge test online. Then skip sleep on a Friday night, and try to do it again, and see how your score compares. Nine times out if ten, the score will drop. Sleep is vital to the performance of the pilot. It doesn't matter how experienced you are; Don't fly tired. Most people when asked would tell you that the first phase of flight is take-off. Some may tell you that its the taxiing portion. However very few non-pilots know that the first phase of a flight can be miles from the cockpit and days before the flight.
The planning phase is the first and most important part of the flight. First and foremost it determines whether the aircraft can even takeoff from your departure, or land at your destination. It determines if the aircraft can handle the weight, or if will need to stop somewhere for fuel. Second, it allows the pilot to be able to accurately and reliably navigate to the destination. You don't start driving without first knowing where you are going, and the same ought to be true with flying. A navigational plan allows you to track your progress, maintain good communications with ATC, and be more prepared if something were to go wrong. Inadvertent IMC is a common killer of VFR pilots, however a navigational plan would allow a pilot to survive this, and if they are rated, switch to an IFR flight plan. Don't be mistaken, good preflight planning is no substitute for a competent and practiced pilot. However a good flight plan allows a good pilot to be more accurate, efficient, and safer for themselves and others. One of the most vital pieces of equipment, beyond the basic flight planning equipment is a thing called a brain-book. This book is the second most important book in my flight bag, second only to my logbook.
What is a brain-book? It is simply a journal, used explicitly for flight. At the debrief for every flight, this is used to write down lessons learned, and areas of improvement, or even notes for the next flight. It should be written with enough detail that you can remember each noted situation clearly, and know how it happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Why is it so valuable? It (should) contain every piece of flight knowledge you have ever learned while flying. By the end of your career, the goal should be for someone to able to have basic control of an airplane and manage the flight by reading and referencing to the brain-book. Is it a special book? Only if you make it special. There is no FAA administered brain-book; the FAA doesn't even mention it in any documents. This is something that should be initiated by the pilot, with the purpose of learning from it, and having something to study off of. Make it a book that will be memorable though, for example mine is bright yellow and says 'wake up and be awesome' on the cover. No one is going to force you to start a brain-book, and rarely will anyone even ask to see it. But for that day when you are an instructor, and you need to reference a situation, the brain-book is an amazing tool for that. Or when it comes time for the biannual flight review, the brain-book has tracked every weak point all through your flight career. The brain-book is by far my best piece of extra gear. l highly recommend picking up a small journal and starting a brain book BEFORE you start to fly. As a first post, I will simply explain the working order of this blog. While many blogs may be based around general life experiences, this blog will be focused on experiences based in aviation. As I go through my training, I will be posting regularly about the lessons I learn along the way. The main purpose of all of this is that you all can learn, without having to make the same mistakes I do. If you have requests as to concepts that you would like me to explain, please leave a comment, or go to the contact me page, I will do my best to get those answered as quickly as possible. Also, this blog is just starting out, so any support is deeply appreciated.
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Photo used under Creative Commons from C. P. Ewing