Flight Training - April 2013 - 39

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10

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4

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7
8

LET IT GO
LEFT TO RIGHT: 1. Martha King 2. John King 3. Amelia Earhart 4.Louis Blériot 5. Howard Hughes
6. Burt Rutan 7. Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger 8. Otto Lilienthal 9. Orville Wright
10.Rod Machado 11. Wilbur Wright 12. Bill Kershner 13. Wolfgang Langewiesche 14. Daniel Bernoulli
15. Charles Lindbergh 16. Leonardo da Vinci

Sometimes the argument just doesn’t matter.
Here are our top four not worth a debate.
Pattern entry. There are those who say
you must enter the pattern on a 45-degree
angle to the downwind because that’s what

4.
ACCELERATED
TRAINING
VERSUS
STANDARD
Many flight students are accustomed to
the routine of scheduling flight lessons
while keeping fingers crossed that the
weather, the aircraft, and even their personal lives cooperate. But there is another
way: accelerated training. It’s more
commonly used to knock out advanced
certificates and ratings, but can work for
the sport and private certificates as well.
The principle goes like this: Arrive with
a knowledge test and some ground study
under your belt; a week, or 10 days, or two
weeks later you leave with your new certificate. You’ll fly many hours per day and
absorb knowledge in a fashion that most
refer to as “drinking from a fire hose.”
Accelerated training can save you
thousands in training dollars—provided
you are able to retain what you learned.
And that is a big disclaimer. It can be a
good solution for someone who’s been
kept from the finish line by schedules,
weather, or airplanes out of service. On
the other hand, training at your home
airport means you’ll work with a flight
instructor whom you’ll come to know
and trust; you’ll fly airplanes that you’ll
continue to rent after the checkride; and
everything—well, almost everything—is
done on your schedule

5.
SCENARIOBASED
TRAINING OR
TRADITIONAL
METHODS

You may not have heard about this, but the
FAA is undergoing a fundamental shift in
the way it recommends pilots be trained.
Instead of a standard building-block
approach that takes a bunch of seemingly
unconnected tasks (to the student, at least)
that bind together towards the end, the
FAA now recommends a training curriculum at least partially based on scenarios.
It’s called FITS, or FAA-Industry Training Standard, and the reason you may not
have heard of it is because many instructors don’t buy in to the philosophy. The
program is a way for the FAA to accept
a training curriculum that focuses on
scenario-based learning, and risk management. Some instructors love the focus
of a more practical and direct training
program, while those not in favor of FITS
lament the loss of stick-and-rudder skills.
It’s too early to know which side is correct. The implications to this argument
are big. If the FITS crowd is correct, pilots
will become safer because they know their
airplanes, themselves, and the environment in a way that allows them to reduce
risk. But if they’re wrong, as the anti-FITS
crowd contends, safety will go down as we
experience more accidents related to poor
flying skills.

is recommended in the Aeronautical Information Manual. Then there are those who
enter any number of ways, from crosswind
to straight-in. Pilots will never stop using
all different kinds of entries—nor will air
traffic controllers at towered airports.
We might as well keep our eyes peeled for
aircraft in all directions and remember that
local customs usually overcome compulsions to follow the AIM.
Low wing versus high wing. This is quite
possibly the most useless question that
comes up during flight training. It simply
doesn’t matter. Every airplane has different
flying characteristics, regardless of wing
placement. Just find one you fancy and get
on with it.
Crab or slip. Maintaining the runway’s
extended centerline on final approach during a crosswind can be done with either a
sideslip, meaning the nose points forward,
or a crab, meaning the airplane maintains
coordinated flight and points into the wind.
The crab crowd says passengers prefer
their method. The slip crowd says their
method gives you more time to establish
the landing control position. Both are
equally valid. Pick one and learn it well.
Best training course. This is one of the
most common questions among new
students. It makes sense—they want the
best ground-school course for their money.
But all the major players make wonderful courses. Consider the delivery format,
price, and style that suit you, and buy
your selection. You won’t be disappointed,
whether it comes from ASA, Gleim, King
Schools, Sporty’s, our own Rod Machado,
or others.

APRIL 2013 FLIGHT TRAINING

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Flight Training - April 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - April 2013