Good and Bad Habits during Flying Training
 

As an older student in the earlier stages of training towards my CPL I would be interested if some of the more experienced pilots could tell me some good habits to get into with my flying, and also perhaps outline the bad ones that i should avoid.

I am interested to hear anything that will make me an all-round better pilot.

Kind Regards.

PB

Co-ordinated foot work. nothing tops good old fashion stick and rudder skill. :ok:

I'm not experienced at all but do have recently done the PPL>CPL journey, so my addition to the post is to

• Take the leadership in traffic separation, if you hear another aircraft on the CTAF, take the initiative and make contact with them, rather than just monitoring what they're doing, with the hope that you'll eyeball them, or that they'll avoid you. For all you know they're less experienced and they'll happy cruise along without a care about other traffic.
• Work on nailing your radio calls to the AIP standard.
• Log accurate ETE's and revising them enroute, plus groundspeed and fuel/mins remaining.
• Fly as precise as you can.
• Clean your windows.
• Go on a long hourbuilding trip, at least a couple of days. I went away, alone for a week, flew 28 hours and learnt more in that trip than I ever had. It greatly raised what type of weather/conditions I could handle, went into some major airports and controlled airspace, as well as remote Australia and met some great people. Turn off the GPS and remember that "time map ground" does work and there are some simple rules of thumb to calculate everything you need enroute.

Some other posts that helped were
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-a...perienced.html
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-a...-i-learnt.html
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-general-a...r-good-go.html
http://www.pprune.org/d-g-general-av...-visually.html

1) deoderant always....smelling next to someone in a cockpit for a few hours is an all too unpleasant experience. An under shirt always works well.
2) dont take the huge leather suitcase with complete Jepps and 8 pairs of Kim Jong Ill sunglasses with you on the 3 hour Nav in the bush.
3) show respect to everyone (filter out the BS) because you never know what connections people may have
4) Dont crash

Have fun

At this stage? Simply don't let yourself settle for less than perfect standards. Cruising at a constant 30 feet off assigned altitude or climbing 2 knots off speed - should all annoy you!

Look after the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves. :ok:


Have Fun!

To all students out there - stop watching yourself flying!! I don't care that the aircraft shadow always seems to sit perfectly in view outside of the left window - fly the aircraft!

Back to a more normal note, I really only notice this on very young students.

My favourite good habit is properly maintaining altitude, none of this near enough is good enough stuff. Just because CASA says you can descend +-50/100/150ft (depending on level) doesn't mean it's right or accurate.

Trim, trim, trim, trim, trim. If you do it properly throughout all stages of flight, the aircraft will fly itself and you have one less thing to worry about. Very pertinent as you come into land and also during diversions.

If there's a GPS, use it effectively or not at all. Have everything set up on the ground for the leg there and also the return. Don't be surprised if this "fails" early on in the flight though!

Finally, have your radio calls sorted for all airspace. This will make things just a little bit easier when you're under pressure and just like trimming properly it's one less thing to think about.

That was more of a rant than help but hope everything goes well!

Look out! It's still something I have to make a concentrated effort on to do well, possibly because of a poor scan technique. Make an effort to always be searching for aircraft, and to try and find ones who have given a position report in your area. It takes time to learn the art.

There's the story of the WWI ace Eddie Rickenbacker being taken up for his first flight at the front and being asked how many enemy planes he'd spotted, of which he’d seen none. Then being informed there'd be a considerable number and that he had a lot to learn. (which it would seem he did!)

Look first before you do anything.
Try to keep a few steps or more ahead of the aircraft.
Strive to fly within tolerances (Regs, SOPs etc)
Don't to get to fixated on the little things. Think of the bigger picture.
Try to avoid flying through big tall puffy clouds.
Make sure you are carrying sufficient fuel.
Be prepared for something to go wrong.
Communicate effectively.
If in doubt, don't be afraid ask again!

crashing is a bad habit.

You are your own worst critic-if not: you should be! Always strive for accuracy-don't accept 'near enough'. If you are on a long, marginal fuel flight never pass a fuel stop along the way. Keep a close eye on Temp/Dewpoint splits (even if the forecast is benign) especially after 0400! KNOW your aircraft limitations. Always leave the aircraft how you would like to find it! Enjoy the view: this helps your lookout. It is only a dumb question if you DON'T ask it. Remember, you are worth what you think you are. HAVE FUN! :ok:

Agree with Checkboard. A disciplined instrument scan will serve you well, even on a fly-by-wire aircraft following multiple failures (a given during command training). Be disciplined and create the habits now that will serve you well during your career.

The flight starts when you get out of bed, and only ends when the aircraft is tied down and you're having a beer at the pub.

Plan.

Lookout before doing anything.

Never assume.

Never rush.

Keep your aeroplane clean - Interior, windows, exterior (wings and underneath fuselage in particular).

Fly accurately and in balance.

Challenge yourself but don't be afraid to turn back or go-around.

Verbalise everything.

Your instructor will tell you this but it is very important. Before you do anything, like turning, changing the throttle, pitch, mixture, anything at all, say what you are doing and why you are doing it.

It is a good habit to get into because the flight examiner is going to want to hear it.

Here are a couple of examples:

1) In my type, after takeoff we climb at 80 knots to say 500ft then enter a cruise climb at 90 knots. The reason we do this is that 80 knots is the best rate of climb and gets us to a safe altitude as quickly as possible. We then lower the nose and continue the climb at 90 knots because with a lower nose attitude, we have better forward visibility and the increased speed means better engine cooling.

Before lowering the nose, I was taught to say 'I am now going to lower the nose to climb at 90 knots which gives us better forward visibility and increased engine cooling'.

Then you lower the nose.

2) Forced landing without power.

If you are on the downwind leg of the forced landing without power but you're too close to the field, you will want to turn away from the field slightly to improve the spacing. Tell the instructor or examiner that is what you are doing. "I am turning away from the field to achieve correct spacing."

You'd think it would be pretty obvious why you are doing these things like increased spacing or lowering the nose but you want them to know that you know what you are doing.


Verbalise ALL lookouts "clear left, clear ahead, clear right".

Coming into land: "I am a little bit high so what I am going to do is [bla bla bla]" and then do it.

Basically the key is to talk talk talk. As you said, your next hurdle is the CPL and the examiner wants to hear you rationalise every single thing you do.

Learn the flight manual for the type you will likely sit the test in. Know it back-to-front. Your flying school will likely have a copy you can study.

Learn the rules and regulations; they will ask some pretty obscure things in the test.

Learn the climate for your area. The examiner might ask you about what the effects of certain things like cold fronts have on the area and how the terrain has an impact on it.

Good habit: always have at least two options. The one you plan on doing and the second in case your first plan goes tits up. Bad habits tend to get in the way of recognising when to resort to the second plan.

Yep!

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that ever needs to be done in or around an aircraft in a hurry.

When conducting Nav training, whether it be PPL, CPL, CIR, Charter, Airwork, day or night if you find yourself with nothing to do, chances are there is something you should be doing. :ok:

Log complete, fuel calcs and tank selections, GS checks, Radios (upcoming freq etc), Approach review (if Instrument rated) if coming up to an AD with established approaches, even if you may not have to do one, get into the habit. Obviously most of this should be included in TopD and TopC checks, so make sure they are done properly.

This will help immensely in keeping you ahead of your aircraft. :ok:

Don't show off, avoid the temptation to say "watch this" a little humble conservatism will keep you alive.

Never rush, anything that happens airborne will give you time to think it out.

First and foremost, enjoy. It can be hard work at times but it should at the end be what you want to do.

A bit more specific.
Nail down the fundamentals. There's a standard format for position/departure/arrival etc radio calls. Get them in your head now so that when other things demand your attention, it's one little thing that's easy.
Don't get carried away by the flash looking equipment in todays trainers. Future airline pilots don't need to learn on glass cockpit Cessnas with integrated avionics etc. Pilots need to learn how to fly. I've had many occourences in Boeing and airbus where the technology is tits up and attitude flying is the order of the day. same as i did on light singles. attitude and power is all you need. the other stuff is just window dressing.
Ask questions. Nobody has ever died of embarresment. If there's something you're not sure of, ask.
Make sound descisions. Not necessarily perfect ones but base your descisions on good info and good practice.
Have fun
DT

excellent advice tmpffisch and as was said above. Don't be afraid to use the radio! If you are unsure of their position/misheard their call and believe their track may conflict with yours ask them to clarify their track/height/quadrant/ETA etc.

One more thing, when inbound to a CTAF and you hear traffic call inbound at TOPD say around 50nm and you have the same/close ETA tell us then. You don't have to wait to you are 10nm. Tell us early so we can organise seperation or slow to facilitate circuit joining. Nothing more annoying than 3 aircraft inbound who have spoken to each other early, organised seperation and then one surprise aircraft calls 4 minutes out with an ETA smack bang in the middle of all the arrivals! Throws an unnecessary spanner in the works. Pilot to Pilot communication is not the devil.

Nav.

Definitely do this, while you are a student. Once you become part of a multi pilot crew your other half doesn't really care to hear everything you are about to do just before you do it. So yes, good advice for a student, but know when to stop.

My bit of advice, always have a plan B and use it before it's too late.