I recently led a discussion at West Valley Flying Club on How to Save Money Using a Flight Sim in Private Pilot Training. The presentation video is attached below, along with some excellent flight sim tips for student pilots shared by attendees.
…4 New Flight Sim Tips for Student Pilots and CFIsRead More »
The theory is pretty simple: the FAA only requires 40 hours of flying the airplane, but a typical private pilot in the Bay Area needs ~80 hours. Could we close that gap and save money using a flight sim? At ~$230/hour for a Cessna 172S, wouldn’t it be nice to shave off an extra 40hr * $230/hr = $9,200?1
I initially wrote about simulators in 2024 (How to Leverage a Simulator for Flight Training). The additional years of teaching have further clarified and generalized those ideas. This post provides a framework for students and instructors to reduce flight hours, optimize instructor time, and avoid future costs.
…How to Save Money Using a Flight Sim in Private Pilot TrainingRead More »
Aeronautical decision-making occurs through all stages of flight. This particular situation happened on the initial climb.
While departing from San Carlos Airport (KSQL) in my airplane (N81034) to practice night instrument approaches, CFI Ed1 and I noticed our Vy pitch was 8° instead of the normal 12°.
The plane had not shown any abnormalities in our preflight, run-up, or takeoff checks. And yet, pitch + power ≠ performance.2
Perceiving this issue was the first step in the FAA’s 3P model.
…Aeronautical Decision-Making: A Quick Night Flight With the 3PsRead More »
“Where should I go next?” is the most common question I get after a student passes their checkride.
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For all it’s usefulness, ForeFlight can be painful when filing flight plans. Every few days, it clears our address, certificate number, and other information.
Fortunately, there’s a easy trick to reduce friction on this and many other online forms: keyboard text replacements.
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To help learn ADM and risk assessment, I require solo students to get permission before they fly. (PPR.)
A student recently wanted to fly solo in the traffic pattern with showers in the vicinity (VCSH). The winds were calm and the ceilings were high, but rain is a real concern.
Is it safe to fly as a student solo with rain showers in the vicinity?
…I didn’t have ‘runway excursion’ on my personal bingo card for 2024. Some of the reasons it happened were pretty mechanical, like my student needing more right rudder in landing. Some are more subtle, like complacency and not adjusting to changing circumstances.
What I (and hopefully now others) learned from this experience is how we can unconsciously erode our safety margins.
Wanted: Earlier Go-Arounds, More Go-Arounds
how complacency can erode safety marginsRead More »
There’s significant debate on how much, or even if, a student pilot should use a simulator for flight training.1 They are a fun and inexpensive way to practice, but they can build bad habits.
This post highlights a few private pilot lessons where a flight sim can be beneficial, and a few areas where it can be problematic.2
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My colleague1 Edward Abraham and I departed from California to Minnesota in N81034 to train for our CFI-I ratings.2 We laid out a training program to test our CFI-I syllabus, including a day of practice instrument approaches.
These practice approaches were chosen for challenging variety, interesting destinations, and efficiency when stringing several together.
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The boring way to convert knots to mph is to multiply knots by 1.15.1 But this skips over some awesome unit magic.
Specifically, we can use conversion factors to change between related units. Let’s look again at how to convert knots to mph.
Suppose you’re traveling at 
. Then,
![\[v\ \frac{\cancel{\text{nautical miles}}}{\text{hour}} * \frac{1.15\ \text{miles}}{1\ \cancel{\text{nautical miles}}} = v * 1.15\ \frac{\text{miles}}{\text{hour}}} = v * 1.15\ \text{mph}\]](https://cfijack.com/wp-content/ql-cache/quicklatex.com-afd331b83e3bedfc4189b1e38d1ba1ed_l3.png "Rendered by QuickLaTeX.com")
I did! This is called a conversion factor,2 and is based on the principle that anything multiplied by 1 equals itself. It is an easy way to convert between units, and allows us to solve a variety of aviation problems.
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