Re: Damaged the Budget Today

Barry wrote:

> Here are some comments and suggestions (I'm sure others will disagree with
> parts):
>
> The school should use a written syllabus, and you should have a copy.  The
> training should be broken down into phases, typically:
>    1. Basic airplane control
>    2. Basic navigation
>    3. Approaches and holding
>    4. Cross-country flights
> There might occasionally be good reasons to deviate from the syllabus, but in
> general you should be proficient in each phase before moving on to the next.
> Beware of an instructor who has you doing ILS approaches on the 2nd lesson.
> Doing an IFR cross-country early on can be useful to let you see how things
> work, but your role will be more as an observer than as an IFR pilot.
>
> Make sure you have a copy of the Instrument Rating Practical Test Standards
> (available at http://afs600.faa.gov/AFS630.htm).  Refer to it frequently
> during your training, not just at the very end before the checkride.
>
> It's better to do cross-countries with three legs, instead of retracing your
> initial route.  For example, instead of Houston-Memphis-Houston, do
> Houston-Memphis-Little Rock-Houston.
>
> You shouldn't need to do "loads" of short cross-countries.  The syllabus I use
> has four cross-countries, including the "long" 250 nm one, and together they
> take about 10 hours.  If you need a lot more, it's probably because you didn't
> spend enough time on the earlier phases.
>
> Go to a range of airports, both towered and non-towered.
>
> I think that there's little value in long cross-countries - you don't learn
> much droning along at cruise for three hours.  The main value is in the flight
> planning and dealing with different conditions.  If you do decide to do a long
> flight, try to get a day when the weather's not uniform along the route, and
> pick a route with varied geography.  I guess you have to go pretty far from
> Houston (and not towards Memphis) to see some mountains.
>
> Barry

This is excellent. I disagree with one thing though. Instead of looking 
for a day when the weather is non uniform, get the cross country 
requirements done ASAP VMC or IMC. Then when you get your ticket and you 
find any of those challenging IMC days call your instructor and go for 
it. Anything more than 100 nm legs is pretty much useless especially 
since ATC will most likely put you on top. A 25 nm trip into a class 
Bravo is much more entertaining.

John Roncallo