Hi all,
I'm currently about two thirds of the way through my CPL, but can offer the following advice for those who are hours building and or just about to start their course.
1. During your hours building take it right back to basics, don't bother with a GPS, because you will need to be confident in your ability to navigate visually to a good standard. If you know where you intend to train, ask them what's their preferred nav technique eg. 1/4, 1/2 3/4 distance marks or 6 minute marks; methods of regaining track, these days standard closing angle seems to be a favourite and use them with a clock, compass and map!
2. Once you get into the swing of practicing visual nav, set yourself smaller targets in order to practice turning point identification using big lead in's to small features, and look for unambiguous features so you can positively identify things.
3. ETA's, practice setting and revising ETA's. There or thereabouts, give or take 5 minutes doesn't cut it at CPL level, I aim for +/- 30 seconds.
4. Stump up the £120 or so every so often (every 25 hours maybe) to install an instructor next to you and go out and practice stalls and unusual attitudes. Don't be afraid to ask them to be critical. Even the basics such as APT and PAT transitioning between climbs, descents and S/L get picked up at CPL level.
5. Do more Nav, but talk to as much controlled airspace as you can. Do some zone crossings and Matz penetrations. I have seen one gent following cheap hours building in the states struggle with R/T because 100 hours later, he'd forgotten how hectic UK R/T can be and how little space we have in our airspace. There's enough to remember/learn without blowing £165 per hour at best on a single or £235+ on the twin if your R/T is letting you down.
6. Download the CPL standards document from the CAA website, take note of the tolerances allowed during the CPL flight test and work towards them on every flight you make.
7. All that study you did for your exams......... re-read the bits that pertain to operating a light single/twin commercially. Met, PofF, Powerplants etc. all contain useful stuff such as icing, mass and balance, performance calculations, weather fronts, decoding TAFF's etc. It's safe to say stuff such as climatology and the systems on a 737 are not applicable now, but there's plenty which is.
8. Get hold of a copy of LASORS (or if you can cope with it download it from the CAA website) as it contains a lot of useful info about licencing as well as gems concerning VFR Nav, operating twins and icing.
9. Make use of the CAA's web site, documents such as the ANO are downloadable. Whilst you may not need to know about the vast majority of it, you will need to know the priviliges of the CPL, VMC criteria and classes of airspace.
10. Captaincy. It's the biggest single difference between PPL and CPL. With a PPL the instructor will usually direct if the weather is suitable or not etc. You will now be expected to take on the role of captain of an aircraft engaged in a commercial flight. That means whilst your instructor has the ultimate go/no go responsibility, you need to be willing to take decisions. I've completed nav's during my training in 40kt winds aloft and where the crosswind on takeoff was just short of our limit. Nothing scary, but there weren't many people airbourne that day.
As many have said, take the captaincy away and all of the manouevers (with the exception of the instrument flying section) are pretty much what you would find in a PPL syllabus.
So there's no rocket science. It's the same old stuff, just the bar's a little higher.
Why do some people take up to 40 hours? I don't know, there can be all sorts of reasons from weather, currency, problems with finance, aircraft tech issues, clashes with instructors..... the list goes on.
What I don't figure though is why someone wouldn't want to use 100 hours of flying time to prepare as much as they can. The CPL is not an attendance only course, it does require effort, but thus far it seems to favour those who put the effort in. I for one wouldn't be worried, but I would treat it with the respect it deserves. After all it's a professional licence.
Finally there are a couple of CPL diaries/blogs out there. If you have the time take a read, at least you'll know what you're letting yourself in for!
Regards,
Obs