Flight Training Tips & Thoughts
Sharing my learnings and experience gained from teaching and flying general aviation.
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Pilot’s Flight Bag – Getting Started with Your Flight Training
Starting flight training can be daunting with a lot of unknowns. In our Getting Started with Your Flight Training blog post series, we will cover what every student should know before starting their flight training. In this blog post, I am covering various flight bags that I’ve personally used. There are a ton of options…
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Aviation Headset – Getting Started with Your Flight Training
Starting flight training can be daunting with a lot of unknowns. In our Getting Started with Your Flight Training blog post series, we will cover what every student should know before starting their flight training. In this blog post, I am covering various aviation headsets at different price points. The headset is the most important…
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Understanding ADSB – A Low Cost Situational Awareness Tool
Let’s start this blog post by stating the obvious. Every pilot understands that it is their responsibility to see and avoid other aircraft in the air. FAA has released an Advisory Circular (AC 90-48D) on this very topic back in 2016 which is a good read. This blog post will discuss one specific government-provided system,…
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VFR Departure and Arrival Briefings
Flying general aviation airplanes are inherently risky. Most single engine airplanes, especially trainers, do not have any redundancy systems, not to mention there is only one engine propelling us forward. So, it is at most importance that we plan for emergencies ahead of time so that we know what to do, more or less, when…
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ATC Communications Guide for Student Pilots
If you ask me what is the hardest thing to teach a private pilot student, I think I would say, getting them comfortable with talking to air traffic controllers. I think there is a natural fear of not saying the right thing or getting yelled at by ATC. I get it. It can be scary…
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VFR Flight Following Guide
In United States, the airspace is divided between center, terminal area (approach/departure), and tower (class delta airport) controllers. Per regulations, a flight operated under the Visual Flight Rules (VFR) is not required to talk to ATC while within Class E airspace. You must only establish two way radio communication before entering Class D, C, and…
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Passenger Safety Briefings for General Aviation
A common question of all private pilot candidates is, ACS requires me to conduct a safety briefing, how do I do that? There have been many articles written on this subject in the past. In this blog post, we will discuss how to conduct a passenger safety briefing for a simple general aviation aircraft. It…
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How to deal with clouds as a VFR pilot?
A couple of days ago, I was with a private pilot student and we had to deal with low clouds on departure and arrival back to the airport. The experience and seeing the reaction of my student made me think about writing this piece. Let’s talk about getting trapped by clouds, up or down. Throughout…
