Getting Your Pilot's License

Getting your pilot's license can seem like a daunting task, especially when you consider how many things you must get done before you can actually fly. However, if you dream of being a pilot, it is well worth the time. Here is a simple walk-through of how to go about getting your pilot's license.

Find a quality flight school. A good idea is to ask some of your pilot friends where they went to flight school. Often times, they will be able to either recommend their own school or lead you to a better school. If you don't have pilot friends, you can easily make some. Pilots are some of the nicest people in the whole, and they look at the aircraft community as a sort of club or family. If you go to a small airport and start asking questions, more than likely you will find some VERY helpful pilots to talk to. And if all else fails, search your local phone book for flight schools.

Investigate the school. Make sure that you don't just jump into a flight school without checking them out. You need to research how long they have been instructing pilots, what kinds of planes they use for training, how old their planes are, and how often they do maintenance checks on their aircraft. A good flight school will check the aircraft more often than every 100 hours, which is required by the flight board. You might also want to choose a flight school that uses Hobbs Meters as their engine hour meters. Engine hour meters are devices that record elapsed time from the starting of the engine to shut off, and they are very important since they will help you record your flight time accurately.

Get through ground school. You will have ground school and flight hours, both of which are very important. Just like Driver's Ed, you will need to learn several things about flying and the aircraft before you ever get behind the stick. And while some flight schools allow you to complete ground school and your flight hours simultaneously, most don't. Ground training includes learning about aerodynamics, airport protocol, dos and don'ts of flying, how to inspect the plane, how to read sectionals (maps, radio frequencies, avionics, etc.), and what flying actually looks like. Most of the up-coming written exam will be based upon ground training.

Pass your physical. Before you will be allowed to fly, even in basic training maneuvers, you will need to pass a physical exam. This exam will cover basic physical health, blood tests for drugs and other anomalies, and the all-important eye exam. Yes, you can have glasses and still fly! But a doctor must decide that your vision will not impair your ability to fly the plane safely.

Get in as many flight hours as possible. Your first several flight hours will be with an instructor and will be very educational. You will learn many lessons including how to take off, how to stall, and how to land. Learning how to stall is very important, as it will teach you how to come out of a stall as well. There are two types of stalling: power on and power off. Power on stalling is a stall during take off and happens when the plane is at full throttle. Power off stalling occurs during a landing sequence and happens when the plane is at a low idle. It is imperative to know how to handle both in case of a malfunction.

During flight hours, you will also learn many maneuvers like ground reference maneuvers. Ground reference maneuvers involve you finding an object and circling it 360 degrees while maintaining starting altitude and equidistance. Flight hours will also be a time to learn how to fly with instruments only, how to fly without instruments, and how to read your navigation panels. After your training is done, you will still need to fly. During this time, you will be left on your own in order to fulfill your required number of solo flight hours.

Take your testing seriously. Once all of your fight hours have been collected in your flight log and your ground training is complete, you will get to start the testing process. Do your best, especially if you want to become a commercial airline pilot. Commercial pilots are not allowed to fail any of the tests, even though policy allows you to retake a test if you fail it.

There will be a written test first, usually done at a facility recommended by your instructor. This test will include all you learned in ground school as well as many things you learned while in the air. If you pass the written test, you will be allowed to take the final test: a flight with a certified examiner.

During this flight, the examiner will ask you questions, especially focusing on anything you missed on your written test. You will be asked to inspect the plane before the flight, take the instructor up, go through any maneuvers asked of you, and land several times. If all goes well, the examiner will then sign off on your flying abilities and you will receive your license!

James Bunter has been a pilot for many years. He has flown multiple aircraft, and has used many different kinds of aviation electronics, including a Garmin Aviation GPS. James knows that a good pilot will keep his plane as up to date as possible, which is why he always goes to TGH for avionics repair and aviation supply. . For more visit http://www.tghaviation.com and http://www.tghaviation.com/Aircraft-Avionics-s/4.htm