PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - One on One with David Smith from Robinson
Old 6th December 2025 | 18:48
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Robbiee
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Joined: Sep 2018
: CPL
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From: California
For what its worth;

The course takes place over four days. Monday and Tuesday are full days with a break for lunch and a factory tour. Wednesday is a half day with flying in the afternoon, or flying in the morning and class in the afternoon, depending on your flight time. Thursday is about an hour and a half lecture with a test at the end. We're generally going home by 11:30.

My six flights ranged from a 1.0 to a 1.2 depending on with whom I flew. The flight is about 98% practicing the auto glide from 1,500' over the harbor. The quality of the autos depends on with whom you fly. A few guys showed me some cool sideways/slip autos, and a few others only did max glide/minimum rate as the "enhanced autos" part. You won't be doing the initial pickup, takeoff, or taxi and final landing. In fact the only "normal" thing I did was a couple pickups after hover autos. If you're lucky (and not using a customer ship) you can do a touchdown auto when you get back to TOA.

There's donuts in the morning, and sandwiches for lunch.
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