How Hard Is It To Fly a [Private] Plane?

[pullin]

Instructor here:

As others have mentioned, controlling and handling the plane is fairly intuitive, and I usually let my first time students make the takeoff (even on their first lesson). One really difficult part of private flying is the decision-making process. Pilots range from the newly-minted Private pilot, to experienced Commercial and Instrument rated folks. Experienced airline pilots have a lot of options and help available, while the private pilot has to make judgement calls on his own, often in new situations. I think this is sometimes the hardest part of flying yourself. Passengers often don’t understand the limitations of the plane, and it’s difficult to say no to them.

If you’ll forgive the amateur photography, here are some examples from a long cross-country flight yesterday (Cessna 182).

Airspace: Note the complex (sorta) airspace restrictions on the right display. Our flight path is the vertical line in the middle, and we’re threading our way between the Restricted and Military operations areas (maroon colored geometric shapes). The blue squares just ahead of us are a Military area that was active (with UAVs). We had to decide whether to climb above it (requires oxygen), go to the right (terrain was high, again required a climb) or go to the left (note the developing weather at the left/top of the diplay).

On another portion of the trip, we encountered a growing and un-forecast cloud layer. Prompting another decision which depends on your experience/ratings. Continue? Will it get thicker, or continue to rise? Can we let down through it at the destination?

Private pilots (meaning non-Commercial) have to face these decisions often, and I think that’s one of the hardest parts of the “sport” (if you will).

If those interested;

In the first case, we donned our oxygen masks and climbed to get above the Military area. As we continued the weather noted on the left top of the display continued to form and deteriorate. We flew thru with no problems, but this organized into a small line of storms a half hour later (gathered from radio transmissions we heard as we flew on).

In the second case, the tops of the cloud layer continued to rise, until we were skipping in and out of the highest tops. It was fun, but could be disorienting to someone encountering it for the first time. I grew weary of the constant in/out and bumpy ride and negotiated a better altitude with ATC.

Sorry for the crappy video, but hopefully it shows a few examples of the stuff encountered by private pilots.

[Bullitt]

@Llama_Llogophile

Taxiing the first time always feels weird because the technique runs counter to a lifetime of driving reflexes.

Any examples of this?

[ElvisL1ves]

The big difference is steering with your feet. It takes a long time not to grab the yoke for anything but setting the control surfaces for the wind conditions. A *long *time.

@Johnny_L.A

When I got my license in the mid-'80s, there were 70 questions. I don’t know how many questions are in the study guide.

All of them. They were all released about 10 years ago as the result of a Freedom of Information Act action. All the questions you’ll see on the test are in the book, and the editors have helpfully picked out the right answers, too. The test can be a mere test of memory if yours is that good.

I have a Sporty’s electronic E6B around here somewhere, which I bought in the '90s. Runs through batteries quickly. Never got the hang of the electronic version. I’ve been thinking of getting out one of the ‘whiz wheels’ (‘one of’, because those things tend to multiply when you aren’t looking) and brush up on calculations.

Get a GPS and you’ll never even have to think of those concepts again.

[Senegoid]

@Llama_Llogophile

Taxiing the first time always feels weird because the technique runs counter to a lifetime of driving reflexes. Sometimes the ground school material gives people trouble if they haven’t had to learn in a classroom / academic setting for a while.

@Bullitt

Any examples of this?

The first time I ever was in a small plane (as a teenager in Civil Air Patrol), the pilot invited me to taxi the plane on the taxiway. I didn’t know about toe brakes, and nobody ever mentioned them to me. So I didn’t know that my toes were on the brakes. So the plane veered wildly all over the taxiway, the pilot yelled at me to get off the brakes, and I didn’t know what he was talking about.

Fast forward about thirty years. I hadn’t flown for years. A friend took me flying because he needed to build up some hours for a job interview. He let me do all the flying, but because I was so out of practice, my impulse was to steer the plane on the ground with the steering wheel. (ETA: Once off the ground, I did much better. The weather was crappy and overcast, though, so we just spent the next five hours doing touch-and-go at the smallish airport, Paso Robles, Ca.))

[Llama_Llogophile]

@Bullitt

Any examples of this?

What Senegoid said. With very few exceptions, most people who have driving experience will grab for the yoke when they get hurried the first few times they taxi a plane. I have students put their hands on their knees to minimize this, but they still do it. It’s normal.

The exceptions are non-drivers and some folks who operate heavy equipment. I had exactly one guy who could taxi perfectly on his first lesson, and he turned out to be a bulldozer driver. He was used to steering with his feet!

[Johnny_L.A]

@ElvisL1ves

All of them. They were all released about 10 years ago as the result of a Freedom of Information Act action. All the questions you’ll see on the test are in the book, and the editors have helpfully picked out the right answers, too. The test can be a mere test of memory if yours is that good.

‘Which months have 28 days?’
‘All of them!’

Yes, I know the study guide has all of the questions and answers. When I took my written back in the '80s, I think there were 700 questions from which the 70 ones on the test could be taken. Are there still 700 questions? Or have they added more as more rules have been enacted?

.

[robert_columbia]

Does having a history of flying casual flight simulators generally help, harm, or have no effect on a person’s ability to later learn to fly for real? E.g. do flight simulators teach a lot of bad habits that have to be unlearned over time, possibly painfully, as opposed to a clueless newb who can just start from the beginning and learn everything right from day one?

E.g. if a kid wants to be a pilot when he grows up, should he spend lots of time on flight simulators assuming that he will pick up a lot of skills that will be helpful later, should he shun them so he doesn’t learn bad habits, or does it pretty much not matter?

[ElvisL1ves]

@robert_columbia

Does having a history of flying casual flight simulators generally help, harm, or have no effect on a person’s ability to later learn to fly for real?

The few stories I’ve read in the aviation magazines about that all suggest that yes, extensive sim time really does help considerably, even if it can’t give the kinesthetic sensory inputs that flying depends so much upon.

Johnny, I don’t think there’s been more than a handful of questions replaced since then. Airspace nomenclature, GPS instead of ADF, that sort of thing. Most of the basics haven’t changed.

[GusNSpot]

How much does that panel cost???

[Johnny_L.A]

@GusNSpot

How much does that panel cost???

I don’t know, but one number I heard somewhere was $100,000. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of what I’ve heard. (I also heard that Garmin 1000s are reserved for manufacturers. Again, I don’t know if that is true.)

But a new Skylane with the glass panel (I don’t think you can get them with 'steam gauges anymore) runs close to half a million dollars, and a Skyhawk will set you back almost $350K.