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The Joys of Recreational Aviation

Do You...

Look up when you hear a small plane?

Always take a window seat when you fly?

Stop at small airports to watch the planes land and takeoff?

Spend hours flying Microsoft Flight Simulator?

Have friends and relatives you would like to visit more often, but the drive is too far?

Sit on the couch on nice weekend days and wonder if there was something better to do?

If you answered Yes to any of these questions,

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Flying

God does not subtract the time you spend flying from your time on Earth

Of all the recreational things you can do, flying has to be the coolest. The feeling of being able to jump into a plane, takeoff and fly it to somewhere you've never been, or maybe somewhere you've been to by car a hundred times is hard to explain in words. It's something you just have to do.

And it's fairly easy to get started. The first step would be to find a local flight school and schedule an introductory flight. This is a short flight with a flight instructor in the right seat that will talk you through the very basics of flying. Most intro flights cost around $100, so skip Starbucks for a week and do something seriously cool.

The Journey Starts

You've come this far, and that's a small step in your aviation adventure. If you've ever wondered about flying and just put it on the back burner for any number of reasons, this site was set up with you in mind.

FAQs

Can I do this?Absolutely. Learning to fly is similar to learning to drive. Very few of us were born with the ability to drive a car, and most of the skills needed to be learned. However, you probably didn't grow up watching you parents flying a plane, so there's a little more work to do learning how to fly.How much does it cost?Let's get this one out of the way immediately. Flying is an expensive hobby. Flying is something you must really want to do, and you must be willing to spend some of your precious take-home pay on learning and staying proficient.The cost varies from region to region, but in general, earning your Private Pilot Certificate will cost around $10,000.Where can I go as a private pilot?As an FAA certificated private pilot, you can fly single engine planes anywhere in the United States.Private pilots fly under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) which means you must be able to see 3 miles and stay out of the clouds.What kind of planes can I fly?For the most part, you'll be flying small single engine planes with a propeller. Additional training is required to fly planes with more than one engine, but it's usually less than 20 hours of multi-engine instruction.High wing or low wing?Small planes come in 2 basic flavors; high wing (wing on the top) and low wing (wing on the bottom). Most airliners are low wing. Most birds are high wing. You decide. Think about what you want to see when flying. Do you want to see the sky or the ground? If you want to see the ground, fly a high wing plane. The view of the ground is unobstructed by the wing. If you want to see the sky, stand on the ground and look up. It's a lot cheaper.Is it safe?In spite of the media's assertion that small planes are always falling out of the sky, aviation is a regulated, monitored and standardized industry. There are several government agencies that monitor the safety of the equipment and the pilots flying. Most aviation accidents are caused by pilot error, and pilot training is geared towards teaching you how to handle things that may come up. Even if the engine quits (unlikely), a small plane can safely glide to a landing that you will most likely walk away from - if you don't do anything stupid and follow your training. The risks involved in flying a small plane are about the same as riding a motorcycle. What if I'm afraid of heights?Oddly enough, a large percentage of pilots are acrophobic. It turns out that fear of heights is actually fear of falling from a high place. Once you're convinced that you won't be falling out of a plane, the fear subsides and you can enjoy the view. Can I fly for a living?Yes. There are several paths to flying as an airline pilot that all start with learning to fly small planes. As far as flying for a living... well let's just say that the pay for professional pilots isn't what it used to be. Do I need to be good at math?You hopefully learned enough math in middle school for the simple math problems that you'll encounter in aviation. Here's an example. Your plane is flying at 120 miles per hour and your trip is 240 miles long. How long will the trip take? If you plane burns 10 gallons of fuel per hour, how much fuel do you need on board to make this trip?Admittedly, this problem is over-simplified, but you get the idea. We didn't account for extra fuel used for a climb to a reasonable altitude, nor the regulation that says you need to have an extra half hours' fuel for Justin Case.Do I need to buy a plane?You can, but you don't need to. Most flight schools also rent the planes you've trained in. There are many benefits to renting; you pay only for the plane while it's running, gas is included in most rental fees and the owner takes care of the maintenance. There are also benefits to owning an airplane; you know how it's been flown, you don't have to worry about a plane being available when you need it and pride of ownership. As with everything in life, there are tradeoffs. So many that I may need to blog about it. How do I get started?Go to the links page and research the organizations there. Find a local flight school and stop by.

Aviation Truisms

* God does not subtract the time you spend flying from your time on Earth.

* The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

* The 3 most useless things in aviation are the runway behind you, the altitude above you and the fuel left in the truck.

* It is far better to be on the ground wishing you were flying than in the air wishing you were on the ground.

* When something goes wrong, undo the last thing you did.

* Fly the airplane, not the radio.

* A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great landing is when you can use the plane again.

* The word "probably" should be removed from a pilot's vocabulary.

* The propeller is really just a big fan. If you doubt that, just watch the pilot start to sweat when it stops spinning.

* Fingers for the wingers, toesies for the nosy.

* Every takeoff is optional; every landing is mandatory.

* Don't let the airplane take your body somewhere your head hasn't already been.

* A landing is actually a go-around pleasantly interrupted by the runway.

Links

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)

Learn to fly page has multiple resources for new pilots.

http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/index.html

StudentPilot.com - Forums and blogs helping thousands of student pilots everyday.

http://www.studentpilot.com/interact/forum/content.php

National Association if Flight Instructors (NAFI) - find a flight instructor in your area.

http://www.nafinet.org

Alpha-1 Flight Services

http://www.alpha-1.com

Angel Flight New England

http://www.angelflightne.org/

Patient Airlift Services

http://www.palservices.org/

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Blogs

The Blog Page

Owning vs. Renting03/21/2011It is said that the 2 happiest days in an aircraft owner's life is the day he/she buys a plane and the day it's sold. Owning an airplane is a serious undertaking and should be done after a great deal of consideration. You will need to be committed to the process of purchasing and maintaining a plane, both mentally and financially.Rental Costs The costs of renting an airplane is fairly simple to calculate. Take the number of hours you plan to fly in a year and multiply that by the per hour rental price for the airplane you want to fly. Businesses renting planes price them in 2 ways - wet (fuel and oil are included) and dry (you buy your own fuel). In either case, the per hour cost of the plane includes maintenance and insurance, although the rental organization may require you to buy additional renter's insurance to cover the deductible. This renter's insurance can be obtained from several places at around $100/year. In addition to wet or dry, the method of determining what constitutes an hour of use varies. The plane can be rented by Hobbs time ( a clock that runs when the engine is running ), or tach time ( a clock that counts the number of full-power hours the engine runs ). Because an engine rarely runs full power all the time, tach time runs about 80% of Hobbs time. If airport A rents a plane for $100/hour Hobbs time and airport B rents the same plane for $100/hour tach time, the better deal is at airport B.Aircraft Ownership The first thing to understand about the costs of ownership is that it has nothing to do with the initial purchase price of the plane. It's all about upkeep. There are a great number for small, single engine airplanes that can be bought for $50,000. Now before you say "Geez, my Beemer costs more than that!" you must remember a couple of things. First, the BMW comes with scheduled maintenance included in the price. Second, you'll probably trade in the Beeemer before anything major needs to be done to it. Airplanes require an annual inspection where the plane is basically disassembled, inspected front to back and put back together replacing worn or broken parts with new ones. If cars got the same level of maintenance that a plane did, we'd still be driving a '74 Pinto. Ownership costs can be broken into 2 categories; fixed yearly costs and per hour operating costs. Fixed yearly costs include things such as the annual inspection, additional maintenance items, hanger or tie-down fees, insurance and taxes. Per hour operating costs consists of fuel and oil and other consumables such as oxygen and de-icing fluid. Smart owners also include a per hour contribution to the engine reserve kitty. This fund is a set aside for the eventual engine rebuild or replacement. Most aircraft engines must be rebuilt or replaced every 2000 hours or so, the cost of which can exceed $30,000. The standard practice is to set aside 2 times the per hour cost for fuel and oil. This fund can also be used for maintenance items that pop up between annual inspections and upgrades to equipment. In order to compare apples to apples on the cost or renting vs. owning, we must come up with a total hourly operating costs of our airplane using the yearly fixed cost, the hourly operating costs and the hourly contribution to the engine reserve. To calculate the hourly portion of the yearly fixed cost, total the yearly fixed costs and divide by the number of hours you expect to fly in a year. Be honest with yourself about this number; most pilots fly considerably less that they expected to. Next calculate your per hour costs by multiplying the per gallon price for avgas times the burn rate on your airplane and then throw in the price of a quart of oil every 10 hours. Double that number and add it in as the engine reserve. To get the total hourly operating costs, total the hourly portion of the yearly fixed costs, the per hour costs for expendables and the hourly contribution to the engine reserve. Here's an example of the numbers for a Cessna 172 I partnered in a few years ago (more on partnership in another blog). Avgas was $2.50 per gallon (a.k.a. The Good Old Days), so the hourly operating costs were $20/hour, with an additional $40/hour going into the maintenance kitty.The yearly costs wereHanger - $3000Annual Inspection averaged over 3 years $2000Insurance - $750Taxes - $125 We owned the plane outright, but if you need to borrow money to buy the plane, you'll need to add the payment into the fixed yearly costs. We flew this plane 150 hours per year, making the per hour portion of the fixed costs about $40/hour. Add that to the $60/hour for fuel and engine reserve, the total per hour cost of flying the plane was $100. We could rent the exact same plane at a local flight school for $87 per hour. That extra $13 was justified as the "intangibles"; the convenience of having a plane available when you want to fly, pride of ownership, and knowing how the plane is flown and maintained. Of course, if you fly the plane more often, the per hour portion of the fixed costs drops. Fly that same plane for 200 hours in a year and the total drops to $89 per hour. So there you have the magic number. That number of hours you must fly before which it's financially smarter to rent. For us, it was 200. Another word of caution. When you're renting, a change in your income situation is no big deal. Just don't fly as often. If you own a plane, the fixed costs continue even if you never fly the plane. The only solution is to sell, and if you've lost your job, chances are any potential buyers are either in the same boat or are afraid they will be. Alternatives to Owning There are other ways to own a plane and not incur the total expense of maintaining it.You can partner with one or more pilots which will split the fixed costs N ways.Join a flying club. Some have no initial buy-in, some require you buy an equity share in either the plane or the club. Whichever it is, it won't be a much as buying an entire airplane.Buy into fractional ownership. These organizations offer a percentage use of a number of airplanes for a monthly fee. All maintenance and care is handled by the fractional operator. You just call and let them know when you want a plane and they fuel it up, pull it out of the hanger and you jump in and go. It's similar to a time-share vacation home.Buy a plane and lease it back to a flight school. The school uses your plane for instruction and pays you a portion of what they charge for renting . You're still responsible for maintenance, insurance and fuel, but the plane could be making money. A couple of points about this - insurance is much higher than if you were flying the plane by yourself, maintenance is higher because the wear and tear on a training plane is higher. Also, rental planes require to be inspected every 100 hours of operation. The inspection is similar to an annual inspection, and is usually costs more in parts. Most lease back owners I know are happy if they break even. And you still don't have a plane at your beck and call; you need to rent your own plane. The good news is that you get some of that rental money back at the end of the month. As I said at the beginning, buying and owning an airplane is a serious undertaking. Before you take the plunge, research the prices and talk to owners and mechanics to determine the best plane for your type of flying.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Cross Country Training; Start Paying Attention03/22/2011 Advanced Training After your solo, you enter the advanced phase of pilot training. During this phase, you'll learn techniques for taking off and landing on short runways and runways that aren't paved. You'll also start flying at night and "under the hood", where you put on a view limiting device so you can't see outside, learning to control the plane by reference to the instruments only.Cross Country Flight In advanced training, you learn how to plot courses to other airports and how to take the winds into account so that the plane actually flies the line plotted on the chart. Winds also effect your ground speed, sometimes positively (tailwind), most times negatively (head wind). A change in ground speed effects the time it takes to make a flight and therefore the amount of fuel you'll need on board. In spite of the FAA's recent emphasis on fuel management, running out of fuel is still one of the most common causes of aircraft accidents. Aircraft Performance Cross country training is where you learn how to determine if your airplane can land and more importantly takeoff from an airport you've never been to. You'll study the airport information published by the FAA and the performance specifications for the plane you're flying. You'll also develop the skill of actually finding an airport from altitude. which turns out to be the hardest task. You'll learn how to read an aeronautical chart, what all the symbols mean, and the airspace you'll be flying through or around.Finding Your Way Even though most small airplanes have a GPS, you must learn to find your way using pilotage and ded reckoning. Ded (short for deduced) reckoning is the method of determining your position by knowing where you started and how long you flew at some speed in some direction. Pilotage is the skill of comparing where you actually are to where you're supposed to be on the aeronautical chart. Both skills are required to be mastered, not only to get your pilot's certificate, but important to keep you out of trouble should the GPS decide to call it a day. You'll learn how to use the various radio-based aids to navigation to supplement your determined position. These are radio beacon ground stations that can be tuned into during flight and used to determine your position relative to the station. Some have distance information as well, making it possible to determine where you are on the line of position. All of these skills put together make it possible for pilots to follow the plotted course to their destination while avoiding hazards such as restricted airspace and cumulo-granite.Weather Weather plays an important part in whether you'll be able to make a particular flight. As a visual flight rules (VFR) only pilot, you must maintain the required distance from clouds and flight visibility according to the airspace you're flying in. In most parts of the country not near an airport and more than 1200 feet above the ground, that airspace is class E, and the requirements are 3 miles visibility and 500 feet below, 1000 feet above and 2000 feet horizontally from clouds. Add these clearances the requirement to stay more than 500 feet above the ground, and you see that the minimum weather for VFR flight is 3 miles visibility and a 1000 foot ceiling (ceilings are always measured above ground or AGL). Part of cross country training is learning how to get a weather briefing from Flight Services or several sources on the internet and learning how to interpret the weather briefing to make a go/no-go decision. And because weather forecasting is not an exact science, you'll learn how to get weather updates along the way and develop the skills needed to determine when the flight you just started cannot be safely completed. Weather related accidents are the #1 cause of fatalities in aviation. Do not treat this subject lightly.Train Like You'll Fly There are a few pilots who come down to the airfield on a nice day, pull their baby out the hanger and just fly it around the pattern and put it away, but most people learn to fly because they want to go somewhere. Therefore, unlike pre-solo where you learn the basics of controlling the plane, cross country training is learning how to fly the way you will actually be flying. Whether it's off to visit the in-laws on the holidays or a 1 hour flight to the vacation home instead of a 3 hour drive, you want to use the plane for personal transportation. During cross country training, you learn the skills required to accomplish these missions.Pay Attention The skills you develop in cross country training will serve you well throughout the rest of your aviation life. I recently read an incident report where the pilot declared an emergency because his GPS quit and he was lost without it. This is unacceptable and I'm sure Wiley Post rolled over when that one came out. Learn the skills required to complete the flight with your eyeballs and a finger on the chart. In addition to being immensely satisfying, it gets your eye outside the airplane where they belong. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Studying For the Oral Exam03/21/2011Thoughts on Studying for the Oral A recent thread in a student pilot forum got me to thinking about how people study for the oral part of the practical exam. As the name implies, the practical exam is a test to see if what you know can be applied to the type of flying you'll be doing after you get the ticket. The examiner assumes a certain knowledge level and asks questions to see if all your book learning can come out in the form of a solution to problems faced every day while flying. I've had some pretty interesting orals, but my commercial oral stands out. I answered the very first question incorrectly; "What are you going to do with this commercial ticket" asked my favorite DPE. "Why, I'm going to become a flight instructor" I said proudly. Bad move!!! I got asked every question every applicant had missed on all his checkrides. The oral lasted 4.5 hours. When I did my private, I just couldn't read enough. I read the brown Jepp book cover to cover the night I brought it home. I continued to devour texts; the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, the Airplane Flying Handbook, everything I could find online at the time. I just couldn't get enough. When I started teaching, I found out that I'm just not like the rest of the kids on the block (well, I actually knew that beforehand). I was expected to spoon feed the answers to the questions most likely to be asked on the oral. It was possible, because the flight school used the same examiner and the list of questions was fairly well known. But what if a problem arises during a flight that wasn't one of the DPE's favorite questions? I realized that I would be selling my students short "teaching to the test". I started insisting that my students actually study all the material required to gain the rudimentary knowledge rather than just having answers for all the sample questions in the oral exam guide. Here's the list 1. FAR/AIM 2. Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge 3. Airplane Flying Handbook 4. Airport/Facility Directory 5. Practical Test Standards 6. The legend on a sectional chart 7. The POH/AFM for your airplane for systems, performance and W&B Remember that flying is every bit as mental as physical. The more you know the better your decisions will be in a tight situation. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Solo07/09/2007Want to Solo? Become a Pilot In Command I've often been asked "How will I know when I'll solo". Some students don't like to be surprised, or may want their parents or significant other to be present on the big day. Some say "Just get out of the plane when I'm ready; I don't want to know". I was one of the latter. FAR 61.87 defines what must happen before a student can operate an aircraft solo. Paragraph (b) sets a requirement to take and have reviewed a pre-solo written test which covers the airplane, airspace and rules. When you get this test from your CFI, you should know that solo day is approaching. Paragraph (c) says that you must have received and logged flight training for the maneuvers outlined in paragraph (d), what I call "The 15 Things", and that you have demonstrated that you can safely and proficiently operate an airplane by yourself. The 15 Things are covered in a series of flight lessons where your instructor first demonstrates the maneuver and then walks you through performing the same maneuver. You'll probably cover the same maneuvers several times to make sure the lesson sunk in. This can usually be accomplished in five to ten lessons, so the amount of time you spend working on 61.87(d) is finite. The real variable in getting to the point where you can solo is the "demonstrated satisfactory proficiency and safety" part of 61.87(c). For most students, this means being able to land the airplane without scaring the person in the right seat. However, there's a little more to it than just being able to land a plane without breaking it. I look for a student to become a pilot in command. This means that if a landing looks shaky, the student makes the decision to go around instead of waiting for me to tell them to give it up. Or when someone barges into the pattern in front, the student takes the proper action to solve the problem. If a student is constantly looking at me with a "what do I do now" look on their face, I really can't get out of the plane. Sure, I'll be on the radio with them as they make their 3 circuits of the airport, but I'm not there and someone needs to be able to asses the situation and take appropriate actions. In other words, every airplane needs a pilot in command and until you show that you've become one, you cannot solo. At some point you'll notice that you've been flying the pattern lately and your instructor hasn't been as talkative as usual and is sitting in the right seat with his/her arms folded and looking at the ground a lot. You're almost ready. Start wearing T-shirts that you won't miss. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Flight Training: How Much Does It Really Cost?06/01/2011The first question I get from a new student is usually "How long does this take?" and the second question is "How much does this cost?" The answers to these questions are inter-related. How much it cost depends on how long it takes.The BasicsThe FAA requires certain skills to be taught and mastered to a level specified by their publications called the Practical Test Specs. These publications set down in writing the tasks a pilot needs to complete and the level of performance that indicates success. The FAA also sets a requirement for how many hours it expects this acquisition of skills and knowledge to take. The minimum number of hours for flight training under part 61 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) is 40 hours total, of which 20 hours are instruction. The student is required to complete 10 hours solo time, with 5 of those hours on cross country trips. For the purposes of a certificate or rating, cross country trips must be to an airport more than 50 nautical miles from a point of origin. The other 10 hours is made up of either more instruction or more solo time. You must keep in mind that the 40 hours defined by the FAA is a bare minimum; that is, don't even try to take your checkride with less.If you were able to fly 3 or 4 times a week, you would probably be able to complete a private pilot course in the minimum number of hours. The reason for this is mostly retention. The more often you fly, the fresher the material is in your mind. Each lesson starts with a review of what you did on the last lesson. The longer the time since your last lesson, the longer the review. If the review is long, the amount of time to cover new stuff is less.Most people cannot fly that often, either for personal or financial reasons. People with full time jobs can only fly on the weekends and an occasional evening or day off. For this reason, the number of hours of training is necessarily higher. The national average is between 60 and 70 hours. Whatever the total number is, the ratio of half instruction, half solo holds. Therefore, if you take 60 hours to complete a private pilot course, 30 hours will be instruction and 30 will be solo.So, the basic cost is the cost of those hours. There are 2 components; the per hour cost of the plane and the per hour cost of the instructor. Rental prices and instruction rates varying widely across the country, but most fall into the range of $100-200 per hour for the plane and $30-60 per hour for instruction. To calculate the total cost, multiply half the hours by the plane plus instructor and half the hours by plane only. Instructor time is counted on the clock, plane time is counted by the time a plane operates. Example: The plane is $100/hour and instruction is $50/hour. If you take 60 hours to complete the course,30 hours of instruction _ $150/hour = $450030 hours of solo _ $100/hour = $3000Total = $7500The ExtrasThere are some lessons where it's you and the instructor with no plane. These "ground lessons" cover things like airspace and regulations and are better taught in a classroom. There is also some instructor time tacked onto each lesson for the pre- and post-flight debriefing. You can add another $300 of instructor time for these items.You may also get some instruction in a flight simulator or flight training device. The per hour cost of these are usually much less than a plane and can save you money covering the basics of instrument flight and radio navigation.The TestsThere are several tests required during the course. Most of these cost something.Aviation Medical - this is a medical exam administered by a doctor that is also an Aviation Medical Examiner (AME) to ensure you are fit to fly a plane. The original exam is also your student pilot certificate. Pilots must re-take a medical every 6 months to 5 years depending on their age and the class of the medical. Private pilots are required to hold only a third class medical. The cost for this is around $150.Pre-solo written exam - this test is administered by the flight school or flight instructor to test your knowledge of the environment in which you'll be soloing. Its usually free, but there may be a charge for the instructors time.Aeronautical Knowledge Exam - known as "the written", this is an FAA test covering all topics in aviation such as aerodynamics, regulations, airspace, weather, systems and so forth. Administered by an FAA testing center, the cost is around $150.Practical Exam - known as "the checkride", this is the final exam. The practical is actually 2 tests; an oral exam and a flight exam. As the name implies, it tests your ability to put all the knowledge and skills youve acquired to the practical task of flying an airplane. It can be administered by an FAA examiner or by a designated pilot examiner (DPE) working for the FAA. Its free from the FAA, but DPEs usually charge a fee for their time of around $400.The StuffA hobby is no good unless you have to buy stuff. This includes things like books, charts, course plotters, flight computers and maybe a cheap headset. You can go crazy in this department or be smart and see what you'll actually need for the type of piloting youll be doing and buy just the stuff you need. An average of about $200 will get you the basics.Saving MoneyThere are a few things you as a student pilot can do to cut down on the number of hours and the total cost it takes to get a private pilot certificate.Study, study, study. The more you learn on your own, the fewer number of hours you'll be paying a flight instructor to teach you this knowledge.Be prepared for each lesson. Study the material that will be covered on your next lesson. This will make the amount of time the instructor must take to cover the material less and save you money. When you get to cross country flying, have a good flight plan already made out and ready to go. Theres no reason to pay an instructor to walk you through the planning process more than once.Pick the cheapest plane on the line. Flying a brand new glass-cockpit plane might be really cool, but it doesn't necessarily make you a better pilot, nor does it cut down on the number of hours it takes to learn the basics.Buy block time on the plane. Some flight schools extend a discount if you buy a bunch of plane hours at a time.Use simulator time to practice the basics of instrument flying and radio navigation. The added benefit of the simulator is that it can be stopped, the maneuver reviewed, and the flight reset to try again. Also, you dont have to fly the sim an hour to practice finding your way to another airport. Simulator or flight training devices usually cost significantly less than an airplane to rent by the hour.Fly as often as you can. Less time between lessons means less time reviewing the last lesson and more time to cover new stuff.E-bay is your friend. It's an unfortunate fact that a lot of people start to learn to fly, but not all of them finish. Look for a packet of stuff from a student who's recently given up.It's important to budget both time and money to the effort of obtaining a pilot certificate. Don't start training in the summer if you know that you'll be deployed to Iraq or going off to college in the fall. Although there is no calendar time limit to getting a pilot certificate, the more time off, the longer it will take. In aviation, time is truly money.

Articles

Going Places

The $100 Hamburger

The name of this aviation activity was obviously invented in the days of $2.00/gallon AvGas, but in spite of the cost of renting a plane, one of the best ways to build some time and get out of your own back yard is to fly somewhere for lunch. Here are a few suggestions in the northeastern US. E-mail some of your favorites and I'll add them in.MassChatham (CQX) - call for hours, winter is hit and miss.Marthas Vineyard (MVY) - full service breakfast and lunch.Nantucket (ACK) - used to be the famous Hutch's but under new management. Crystal Bernard does not really work there.New Bedford (EWB) - excellent food but pricey and busy on weekends.Plymouth (PYM) - closes at 3pm on weekends - very popular on nice days.Norwood (OWD) - haven't been for a while, but it was good Greek affair.Beverly (BVY) - breakfastStow/Minuteman (6B6) - without a doubt the best airport restaurant in the NE.Westfield/Barnes (BAF) - new restaurant with great food and cheap gas.Southbridge (3B0) - fish fry on Fridays.NHKeene (KEEN) - Indian at the terminal building and a breakfast/lunch place off airport on the north side of the field.MaineSanford (SFM) - the famous lobster omelet. Closes at noon on Sundays.Lewiston/Auburn (LEW) - call ahead (Tri-Cities FBO will know). This one is open then closed so often it's hard to say if they're there.ShoppingHyannis MA (HYA) - if you park at the north ramp (Griffin) you can walk to the Cape Cod Mall and a Mickey D's through the hole in the fence.Windham CT (IJD) - retro diner and a mall on route 6 within walking distance. Mall has a Ruby Tuesdays.The BeachKatama MA (1B2) - land on 21 and taxi to "Beach Parking". Walk across the road and you're on one of the nicest beaches in the northeast.Montauk NY (MTP) - they give you a ride to the beach at the approach end of 24. Arrivals fly right over the beach. Raise the flag and they come get you. You can even take a shower before you head home. Walk to Rick's Crabby Cowboy Cafe for great seafood.Block Island RI (BID) - restaurant on field, but I thought it was pretty bad. Latest report is that they've re-done the restaurant and it's much better. Take a taxi into town and hit a beach restaurant.

A New Paradigm for Flight Training

A Case for Splitting Part 61 and 141 Flight InstructionThere's been much talk recently about the state of the flight training industry, safety, student completions and the problems surrounding those issues. Several solutions have been offered up as a result of various industry groups forming talking committees. In almost every report of findings, the issue of instructor turnover comes up.TurnoverInstructor turnover is a fact of life in the flight training industry because hours of dual given count as hours flown when it comes to building the number of hours required for advanced certificates and to land a job in the right seat of an airliner. Time builders consider that being paid anything to log hours in the right seat is better than spending $100-$400 per hour renting an airplane to build the hours needed. This results in lower overall pay for flight instructors and prevents professional educators from considering flight instruction as a career choice. This in turn lowers the overall quality of instruction and the quality of the pilots the industry produces. This problem will only get worse if and when the FAA implements the 1500 hour rule requiring captains and first officers in any airliner to have an ATP certificate to fly passengers.The Skill Sets DifferWhen you look at the type of training required for recreational vs. airliner flying, its clear that there is a difference in the skills that are required once you get past the basic stick-and rudder skills of piloting an airplane. Professional pilots rarely, if ever, fly alone. They have dispatchers and weather people to provide up to date information and these resources are available in flight. There are rigid company procedures to follow and the equipment is maintained to a high standard. They are constantly in contact with air traffic control on set routes and each flight ends with some sort of instrument approach procedure with vertical guidance to a long runway, most of which the autopilot flies. The skill set for professional pilots mostly focuses on decision-making and cockpit resource management. Semi-annual, not biennial, recurrent training is used to keep their skills sharp and use of simulators for training is the rule rather than the exception.Recreational pilots usually fly alone or with non-pilot passengers. They self-brief the weather and flight conditions and have no limits with respect to weather as to when they can or cant depart or shoot an approach. Most fly 40-year-old airplanes that are inspected annually or every 100 hours, and the lucky pilots get to use an autopilot and in-cockpit weather resources. The skill set focuses on single pilot decision-making and stick-and-rudder skills.There's Already a SplitSince the skill set required by both groups differ, doesnt it make sense to tailor the training to each set? This has already been done to a certain extent by parts 61 and 141 of the FARs. Professional pilot schools focus on providing the training required to become a professional pilot and part 61 schools tend to get the student who just wants to fly recreationally. However, there is no regulatory requirement for this. Recreational pilots can attend an aviation university and professional pilots can make their way through the certificates part 61. I propose that this should change.Why Do Brand New Pilots Teach?Its hard to come up with another skill or industry where the least experienced members start out by teaching the trade. Would anyone hire a golf or tennis pro that hasnt already made a name for themselves in the sport? Do engineering students go immediately into the classroom as a professor? Dont you need a few thousand hours on the road in an 18 wheeler before you can even think of starting a driving school?However, this is exactly how things are done in aviation. A new commercial pilot with as little as 150 hours can start teaching by passing a couple of tests and riding with an examiner. The real world experience is built by watching other people make mistakes and correcting them.Brand new pilots teach because they can count the hours.A New ParadigmWhat if part 61 instructors were not allowed to count their hours of dual given as total hours flown? This sounds like a drastic step, and the no more regulations types will balk at it, but think about it for a minute before summarily dismissing the idea.Those prospective airline pilots needing the hours will naturally gravitate toward the part 141 aviation universities and pilot schools where they will learn exactly what they need to know to pursue their chosen career path. In addition, they will build time toward whatever requirement is in place for the certificates they will need to fly for the airlines. The experience they will pass on will be exactly what the other airline-bound students need - CRM, operational requirements and decision-making skills in a multi-pilot aircraft. They really wouldnt even need to solo. Why solo a student if he or she will never fly alone?These schools will most likely get some sort of waiver on the 1500 hour rule by allowing classroom time to count towards an ATP certificate, and why not? In this learning environment, classroom and simulator time is just as valuable as flight time.The instructors who dont really care about hours and just want to teach will be drawn to the part 61 schools where they will pass on their experience to other recreational pilots. This will draw the more experienced pilots into the ranks of part 61 instructors and the initial shortage of qualified instructors will raise salaries to the point where professional educators can actually make a living providing flight instruction.This scheme would increase the cost of obtaining a pilot certificate for the recreational pilot and may initially depress the industry. However, the cost of becoming a pilot is currently being held artificially low to cater to the cash poor kids headed for the airlines. If those students went away, the part 61 schools could concentrate on providing high quality flight training to those that can actually afford it and in reality, that demographic demands a higher quality than the industry is currently providing. One needs only to look at Cirrus training program as an example of how this would work.Crossing OverFor those recreational pilots that decide that flying for a living would be great, transition programs could be set up by the part 141 schools. For those graduating from an aviation university wishing to occasionally rent a plane at the local flight school and fly recreationally, only the solo requirements for part 61 would be needed.ConclusionWhile we all agree that something must be done, theres little agreement on what those actions should be. Safety statistics are generally worse in general aviation than in the airlines, and some would believe that providing airline-type training to recreational pilots is the solution. I believe that increasing the overall quality of training for recreational pilots is a better solution. This can be done by bringing professional educators who have no other motivation other than a desire to teach into the part 61 world.

A New Paradigm for Airspace

Airspace in the US is currently defined using the 40 year old technology of victor airways following prescribed radials off a network of VOR (Very high frequency Omni-bearing Range) transmitters. This airspace system is a bit more technologically advanced than the older four course range, but still requires that the route be defined by fixed points on the ground. The advent and wide usage of GPS (Global Positioning System) and the high degree of accuracy of this system negates the use of fixed ground stations for aerial navigation, but the FAA has been slow to adopt the use of GPS for enroute navigation. There are a few GPS only routes being defined, but the real advantage of GPS is the ability to navigate to any point on the earth completely independent of ground based transmitters and ground based air traffic control sectors.Any pilot who has tried to file and fly a route that is GPS direct to a destination has been frustrated by the assigned route, seemingly taking the long way via established victor airways. The underlying reason for this is not terrain or radar coverage, but the requirements of an antiquated air traffic control system that has you flying over fixed points on the ground so you can be handed off to another air traffic control sector. Filing a modified GPS flight plan that will have a waypoint in each sector would work, if only you knew the secret points on the ground that ATC is using that day.A Better WayTechnological advances in navigation, terrain and collision avoidance and satellite based position reporting (ADS-B) has made it possible to revamp the airspace to allow self-separation of aircraft. By equipping an aircraft with GPS, terrain avoidance (already an option in most GPS units), on-board weather, traffic reporting and an ADS-B in and out transceiver, it is possible for the pilot of such an aircraft to have the same picture in the cockpit that ATC gets on their radar screens. Traffic avoidance equipment issues traffic alerts, terrain avoidance keeps you away from cumulo-granite and the ADS-B reporting via satellite make your position available to all other aircraft equipped with ADS-B and allows you to see the position of those aircraft. By designing an airspace system for this technology, direct flights to anywhere could be achieved with a minimum of ATC involvement.The Direct CorridorI propose a corridor of airspace that is 10 miles wide and 15,000 feet deep that spans a large section of the US airspace and is reserved for aircraft equipped with GPS, ADS-B in/out, TCAS and TAWS. This airspace would start at some major terminal area and terminate at another major terminal area with entry and exit points along the way. For example, there could be an east coast direct corridor that starts in Bangor ME and extends to Miami FL. This airspace would start at 10,000 feet and extend up to FL250. To prevent extended over-water segments, there would be a dogleg at Philadelphia PA. There would be entry and exit points in the area of major ATC sectors such as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Norfolk/Richmond, Charlotte NC, Charleston SC, Atlanta, GA, Orlando FL and Miami FL. Aircraft would be sent to these entry points by the controllers in the current enroute system and exit into the current enroute system. While in the direct corridor, they would communicate with each other (such as in the Hudson River Corridor) and with a single air traffic control facility that has responsibility over the entire corridor through remote communications outlets along the corridor.To enter this corridor your plane would need to be equipped with the above mentioned avionics and the pilot would have to be trained in the procedures of flying the corridor. Pilots flying in the corridor would be responsible for their own separation from other aircraft in the corridor and for severe weather and terrain avoidance. Altitude within this corridor would be entirely up to the pilots discretion and lateral separation would be provided by staying to the right of the centerline of the corridor at all times. How Would This Work?You would file a flight plan that gets you from your airport of departure to the nearest direct corridor entry point, the name of the corridor, the exit point from the corridor and the destination airport. A flight from Portland to Atlanta would look something like this;PWM, SOMEENTRY, EAST COAST DIRECT CORRIDOR, SOMEEXIT, ATLIn the current enroute system, you would be directed to the corridor entry and climb to the entry altitude of 10,000 feet MSL. Once in the corridor, you would tune your radio to the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) for that particular corridor, announce your position, enroute altitude and destination. The destination while in the corridor is the exit point specified on your flight plan. The GPS database would have the waypoints for the entire corridor and by entering the corridor in the flight plan, the autopilot would have all the necessary navigation information to fly the route within. A two mile separation zone down the middle of the corridor airspace would separate opposite direction traffic. This makes the width of the corridor the same as the 4 mile width of the current victor airways. Entry and exit points are situated in this 2 mile zone.The ATC facility controlling the corridor would have the necessary ADS-B equipment to positively identify your airplane and all other aircraft flying the sector as well as a Nexrad weather feed. ATCs only responsibility would be to alert aircraft of possible conflicts that are not being resolved by the pilots themselves. There would be no frequency changing, minimum vectoring altitudes or radar coverage required. This would make it feasible to have a single controller for the entire airspace, greatly reducing the cost of providing air traffic services.Pilots could take any action required to avoid other aircraft in the corridor, including altering course, changing altitude or adjusting airspeed. When approaching the specified exit point, the pilot would announce a descent to 10,000 and enter the enroute system at that altitude at the exit point. The corridor controller would provide the proper sector frequency and handle the handoff. It would make sense for participating aircraft to fly using pressure altitudes, and therefore the local altimeter setting would also be provided on the handoff.BenefitsThe obvious benefit of the corridor airspace system is the ability to fly directly to a point close to a destination without needing to follow victor airways. This will save time (and therefore fuel and money) on every flight where the corridor is used.Side benefits include a cost reduction for air traffic control services. With the entire corridor being monitored by a single ATC facility, the number of air traffic controllers needed for the airspace is greatly reduced as compared to a flight between the same points in the current enroute system.The corridor system requires no ground-based navigation or radar facilities, which can further reduce the cost of maintaining such facilities.With the relatively narrow width of the corridor, non-participating aircraft climbing to and descending from higher flight levels can easily avoid the corridor completely.ConclusionMost general aviation single and twin engine piston and turbo-prop aircraft can easily operate within this proposed corridor system. The corridor will naturally stratify based on the capabilities of the users; that is, naturally aspirated singles and twins would occupy the lower portion of the corridor, turbo-charged singles and twins the middle layer and pressurized turbo-prop singles and twins the upper layers. The new generation of light jets can also operate efficiently at the upper limit of the corridor, especially considering the time savings of a more direct routing than is possible in the enroute system.

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Jerry Plante - CFII, MEIYou probably wonder "who is this guy?" or "what do these letters CFII mean?"I have been flying for 11 years and teaching flying for 6 years. I have over 2000 hours total flight time and over 1000 of instruction given. I hold a commercial pilot certificate with instrument privileges for both single engine and multi-eninge airplanes, and a flight instructor certificate for single and multi-engine airplanes and instrument instructor. I teach part time at Alpha-1 Flight Services in Plymouth Mass.I am a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight New England and Patient Airlift Services. These organizations provide free flights to people needing transportation to medical facilities to and from airports not serviced by an airline and don't have the financial means to afford airline fares.I am a FAASTeam representative in the Boston Flight Standards District Office (FSDO).Most importantly, I love to fly!Contact - jplante4_comcast.net

"Captain Jerry" - yeah, I sail too.

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