Aviation lifestyle blog. Airlines. Training. Travel.
From Kobe Japan, Jun, a graduate student of Environmental Engineering, recently received his English certificate and has set off on an adventure in Vero Beach Florida. He will be attending Flight Safety International for the next 15 months to earn his private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine and instructors ratings. His goal—to become an airline pilot. At [...]
Kellie is learning to fly at Bankstown based Red Baron Flight Training. Len Costa and I had a chat with Kellie regarding her initial research into her flying training and her limited experience thus far. At the time of recording Kellie has accrued 7 hours of basic flight training. Formerly known as Sydney Aerobatic School, [...]
Kellie is learning to fly in Sydney, Australia. She has taken the non-traditional approach by learning to fly with a school that integrates aerobatics into flying lessons from the first lesson. The plane: I am learning in an Alpha A160 which is a lovely little thing to throw around in the skies – and she [...]
One of the challenges you’ll be presented with in your early flight training endeavours is the selection of an appropriate aircraft. Apart from the countless other crucial decisions you’ll have to make such as timing, courses, instructor or flying school – all of which we’ll talk about at some point – there will come a [...]
This week I had lunch with a frustrated private pilot, who is trying to earn her instrument ticket. She had a difficult last flight, and frustration and doubt were apparent. Our conversation went something like this… Karlene: “What happened on your last flight?” Student: “I missed a couple things on my checklist, I’m having a [...]
If you want to apply for the British Airways Future Pilot Program (FPP), you’ll have to be quick. Applications close tomorrow. British Airways plans on recruiting at least 800 new pilots by 2016 via three methods: The cadet program, the Future Pilot Program. Recruitment of qualified pilots from other airlines. A joint initiative with the [...]
Managing a departure with a performance limited takeoff weight can be one of the more challenging tasks that face an Airline Captain today. It all sounds simple enough in theory. Based on the Airport/Runway, Ambient Weather Conditions and Aircraft, a computer will spit out – down to the kilogram – how much weight you’re allowed [...]
As Boeing’s first Fly-By-Wire aircraft (although not necessarily fly-by-wire by the Airbus definition) the 777 introduced a flight control augmentation system that the first fly by wire Airbus aircraft did not – Thrust Assymetry Compensation, or TAC. The basic problem is clear. During an engine failure on a twin wing-mounted engine aircraft there is an [...]
When I arrived at V Australia in 2008 I discovered that what was missing was the institutional knowledge that an established airline develops over time, but never writes down … so I did. Eventually it became the SOP Guide : Practices & Techniques document. This blog series documents the continual growth of this training resource. [...]
One of my first tasks when I arrived at V Australia in early June 2008 was to watch simulator transition training being conducted at our new simulator in Silverwater, Sydney. The students were straight off the street pilots who had come from regional airlines – in most cases it was their first jet, their first [...]
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority released a Crew Resource Management training package mid-2010 designed to provide training material to general aviation and Low Capacity RPT (LCRPT) operators. Titled “Safety Behaviours: Human Factors for Pilots”, the toolkit includes a DVD and a number of work booklets that can be used to supplement existing classroom-based group [...]
Recently I was asked to write an article for an internal company training newsletter about flying slow. Having finished it I thought I’d replicate it here for others. Note the following article is aimed specifically at the Boeing 777 series aircraft, although the concept is common across all transport category jet aircraft flying slow at [...]
In episode 5 of Flight Podcast we talk with John King of King Schools. Kings Schools has a hand in training over 50% of the pilot population in the United States at some point in their career via a library of over 90 courses that can be completed using interactive DVD’s or online via their [...]
Recently, after commenting on the latest of Qantas’ engine troubles, I was asked to talk about what was an “interesting” in-flight moment for me. Despite this being one of the most common questions, I realised that I’ve never blogged about “interesting” flight moments – which of course immediately motivated me to do so. Funnily enough, [...]
