nich-av
6th Nov 2008, 02:25
I have come across something particular over the past weeks and especially today at our pilot training facility.
With almost 200 hours on the flight log, a private license obtained through a Belgian FTO that I will not name and a ATPL theory course followed at the same school, this prospective professional pilot would tell me about his alternator failing and the battery running out when reaching downwind of the pattern, the fact that his engine could have quit and that he could have died...
When told about it, he would not accept the fact that a piston aircraft's engine, unlike cars, would run even with a failed alternator as aircraft engines purge their sparks from the magneto's and not from the alternator.
Moreover he would not accept the fact that the dual magneto's main purpose is not that of increasing performance but redundancy.
I also found out that the checklist provided by his FTO does not include the very obvious "ammeter check" (that should indicate a charge after start-up) after the "oil pressure check" and that the student had no clue as to why he would need to do that.
Moreover, he and his friend would have no clues about basic ATC phraseology and would not be able to repeat a 4 digit squawk code without missing a number. I have heard them pronounce 34 and write down 44. Y would be read "India" as opposed to "yankee". "West" would be pronounced "Wist" by them and would be very confusing to ATC and other aircraft in or joining the pattern who would perceive it as "East". It wouldn't surprise me to find posters hanging on walls of ATC facilities in our area with pictures of them pasted below the huge letters "WANTED" .
They can not tell which is the primary radar, which is the secondary radar (after the ATPL theory course!!) and would forget to switch the altimeter to mode C before departure.
Full flap approaches at 70kts on a Cessna 150 are the best they can do and we don't want to talk about keeping the runway heading after departure or approaching the runway from straight ahead or even kicking out the crab and putting any aileron into the wind, when flaring in X-winds. Let's not even get into keeping the ball centered or not "driving" the airplane with the stick when taxiing on the ground in no wind.
His inaccurate navigation would pin-point us 30nm North of our actual position, so obviously identifiable by so obvious ground features.
Flight preparation is an extra-terrestrial culture, at best we would know the initial heading after departure and the frequency of the first facility to contact.
Writing down wind information given by a flight briefer feels like trying to stand in the eye of a tornado.
VORs radials are, according to them, aligned with True North and taking an endless downwind before taking a 10nm final on an uncontrolled field justifying it to "preceding traffic", which by the way happened to be a Cessna 172, makes even the most patient airport managers run for the unicom radio and scream : "Cessna NXXX, you quit doing those B-52 patterns!!" while other pilots in the pattern amusingly call "Cessna NXXX, preceding Boeing 172 Heavy is on half mile final, caution wake turbulence"...
After contacting the approach and being assigned a specific squawk right away as opposed to after stating their request, they would come out with their pre-memorised request sentence: "NXXX, type C150, 10 miles South of X airport, flying to Y airport, at 3500 feet, squawking VFR (1200), request flight following".
Holy Mary, he already assigned him a squawk, why would he say that he is squawking VFR??
I have to admit that I am having alot of fun seeing these Charlie Chaplins of the skies flying from day to day, but at the same time this is a true concern to me. These pilots have not been trained to any standards and need full retraining from scratch, part of which I have already given for the sake of their safety.
These are prospective professional pilots!!
There definitely is a huge problem!!!
With almost 200 hours on the flight log, a private license obtained through a Belgian FTO that I will not name and a ATPL theory course followed at the same school, this prospective professional pilot would tell me about his alternator failing and the battery running out when reaching downwind of the pattern, the fact that his engine could have quit and that he could have died...
When told about it, he would not accept the fact that a piston aircraft's engine, unlike cars, would run even with a failed alternator as aircraft engines purge their sparks from the magneto's and not from the alternator.
Moreover he would not accept the fact that the dual magneto's main purpose is not that of increasing performance but redundancy.
I also found out that the checklist provided by his FTO does not include the very obvious "ammeter check" (that should indicate a charge after start-up) after the "oil pressure check" and that the student had no clue as to why he would need to do that.
Moreover, he and his friend would have no clues about basic ATC phraseology and would not be able to repeat a 4 digit squawk code without missing a number. I have heard them pronounce 34 and write down 44. Y would be read "India" as opposed to "yankee". "West" would be pronounced "Wist" by them and would be very confusing to ATC and other aircraft in or joining the pattern who would perceive it as "East". It wouldn't surprise me to find posters hanging on walls of ATC facilities in our area with pictures of them pasted below the huge letters "WANTED" .
They can not tell which is the primary radar, which is the secondary radar (after the ATPL theory course!!) and would forget to switch the altimeter to mode C before departure.
Full flap approaches at 70kts on a Cessna 150 are the best they can do and we don't want to talk about keeping the runway heading after departure or approaching the runway from straight ahead or even kicking out the crab and putting any aileron into the wind, when flaring in X-winds. Let's not even get into keeping the ball centered or not "driving" the airplane with the stick when taxiing on the ground in no wind.
His inaccurate navigation would pin-point us 30nm North of our actual position, so obviously identifiable by so obvious ground features.
Flight preparation is an extra-terrestrial culture, at best we would know the initial heading after departure and the frequency of the first facility to contact.
Writing down wind information given by a flight briefer feels like trying to stand in the eye of a tornado.
VORs radials are, according to them, aligned with True North and taking an endless downwind before taking a 10nm final on an uncontrolled field justifying it to "preceding traffic", which by the way happened to be a Cessna 172, makes even the most patient airport managers run for the unicom radio and scream : "Cessna NXXX, you quit doing those B-52 patterns!!" while other pilots in the pattern amusingly call "Cessna NXXX, preceding Boeing 172 Heavy is on half mile final, caution wake turbulence"...
After contacting the approach and being assigned a specific squawk right away as opposed to after stating their request, they would come out with their pre-memorised request sentence: "NXXX, type C150, 10 miles South of X airport, flying to Y airport, at 3500 feet, squawking VFR (1200), request flight following".
Holy Mary, he already assigned him a squawk, why would he say that he is squawking VFR??
I have to admit that I am having alot of fun seeing these Charlie Chaplins of the skies flying from day to day, but at the same time this is a true concern to me. These pilots have not been trained to any standards and need full retraining from scratch, part of which I have already given for the sake of their safety.
These are prospective professional pilots!!
There definitely is a huge problem!!!