Hi All (and Bob!)
Just wanted to say some words of encouragement to all of you CPL students out there - keep going and good luck! Wishing you all the best in your efforts and good luck with the Cybex exams! I will share any tips I get on trick or faulty questions if there is no one who will kick me for doing so in this forum.
I am doing my CPL syllabus and preparing for the Aerodynamics exam at the moment (it does take motivation and slowly slowly bit by bit). Thanks for all your humour and encouragement in your books and real life Bob, your experience and personality make all the difference and as I read each text I feel like you are my Dad, who is trying to help me out, on what can sometimes be dry, and many times quite interesting subjects, at least in the way they are presented.
My background is I started flying at 18 (now 36) in a C172, and like most students, to be quite frank, ran out of money.
I subsequently focused on business and investing and was better placed to come back into aviation, this time starting in Weight Shift Triking. I enjoyed the Freedom of triking but found often the community did not offer the discipline and development I was after, plus there was also some additional reasons wanting to get my PPL.
So I set out to several local flight schools, sat my BAK and noticed how different each school was and how the bar was raised in different and sometimes the wrong places, and even the ATO testers had differences. It all seemed very discretionary and much of a boys club.
So after studying Bob's materials and flying in a 3 axis ultralight I decided to learn to fly "mechanically and technically" in the US (whilst "politically" in Australia AND the US) studied for my US part 61 PPL, only to discover that this was not acceptable for foreign visa students, so sat the Cessna Academy Part 141 PPL (apparently this is US military standard for pilots with a defined objectives and outcomes) which included some GREAT instrument and night training in modern Aircraft (2005 C172 and 2008 C172 with G1000 and TIS etc), trained by three instructors who all had their own specialties and angles (and who were not totally egocentric like FIGJAM) and checked out at the well known Float Plane Flight school Jack Browns Float Plane school by a guy who ferries Jimmy Buffet around in a private jet, really nice school and people.
I came back and converted my US PPL to an Aussie one, the only real add ons were precautionary searches, and more visual navs, air law (how do you arrest someone CAR309 and put down an animal in the cockpit). Both curriculums had different approaches (no pun intended, but the US curric was more about stick and rudder skills and specific knowledge and and the Aussie one broader more general knowledge, less specific stick and rudder skills and antique aircraft
I must say having done flight training in NSW, QLD, WA and USA (FL) I would have to say that regardless of all of that you are only as good as your last landing, and experience under a variety of conditions is essential. There is no point resting on any laurels or paperwork on the wall or filing cabinet since that could be a fatal slip in aviation ego and standards. Every landing appears to be different, no matter how many i have done they are all a unique combination of weather, physiology and airports.
The number of so called professional pilots I have seen flying RPT aircraft, who are unaware of VFR pilots in circuit, prevailing local winds and conditions validates this further for me (like the qantas jet aircraft I flew in that landed downwind and rolled off the end of a non specified sealed runway...) so we are all going to make mistakes, lets just learn from them and work to minimise them. As they say, you don't know what you don't know, so thanks to Bob and all my flight instructors that take the time to raise the bar in the RIGHT places!!
In all my flying the only things that have got me in to trouble have been weather enroute, and electrical equipment failures on xc trips or lack of experience which I continually built and will always build. I only have about 600 hours all up mixed between Ultralight and GA, but each hour has been in different states, airports, aircraft types and countries which has been a rich learning experience with a number of different instructors having different viewpoints.
I no longer have a religious view of a particular aviation administration, flight school or instructor, rather a formed opinion on the science and mechanics (and enjoyment!) of flying. I enjoy all the multiple inputs and holding multiple and often conflicting ideas in my head.
I have shed any excessive ego I may have had years ago and do not associate with toffee nosed pilots who are more interested in talking about flying than actually doing it, or becoming part of an ineffective non decision making club (although there are a couple of good ones out there) I enjoy Bob's advice since he is basically a big kid at heart and flys for the love of flying, and the love of teaching it.
The only things I am religious on is the aircraft manufacturers checklists and procedures which I now enjoy learning and would suggest that any airline I may be lucky enough to join would want to have a CRM program that was based on Kaizen or based on continual feedback and improvement, and safety.
Best Regards, Safe Flying and Happy Learning
Brook Papworth
