Co Pilots course

[ukhomerj]

I am trying to get my current missus interested in flying with me, and I have heard there is a Co Pilots course, where they can learn radio, how to handle the aircraf should the pilot become incapacitated etc.

Anyone got any idea how or where I can get more information please.

Cheers

[Man-on-the-fence]

AOPA do a flying companions course details here . I would be interested in peoples views on this.

Probably cant afford a PPL yet, is this a worthwhile course for someone who would like to be knowledgable baggage?

[Monocock]

I think it's a fantastic idea. Might even get 'er indoors to consider it. Mind you, she might start picking holes in my flying once she's done it.....

[ukhomerj]

There is method behind this obvious madness.

She cant complain if we BOTh fly, and of course, she has to pay her own half.

WIN WIN.

[yakker]

Northants School of Flying do just the course you are looking for
www.nsof.co.uk

[IO540]

Am I right in that since there is no recognised "co-pilot" rating here in the UK, none of it can be logged, so anybody can teach it en-route, and an instructor may be needed only for takeoffs and landings?

I was offered these courses in the past (for a girlfriend) and there was enough in it to fly en-route (towards a point on the horizon) and then land.

[charlie-india-mike]

I too have convinced Mrs C-I-M that she should do just that. She has agreed and there is a club at Cranfield who will do a structured course of 10 hrs for her. Nav , gen handeling , landing and some RT and of course PFL's

C-I-M

[BEagle]

IO540, 'instruction' should only ever be given by those qualified to do so. Which it is for the AOPA Flying Companion's Course. See M-o-t-F's link.

[QNH 1013]

Mrs QNH 1013 did this AOPA course at the end of 2002 and wrote it up in this forum. Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough to put a link in to her thread.
The course was excellent, and the final assessment had her being vectored by D&D (all pre-arranged) back to Coventry, where she was guided back to the circuit by Coventry Radar, followed by a landing.
As I understand it the time can be logged towards a PPL if necessary because it was all done under the same conditions (licenced airfields etc) as a PPL. The only difference was that she was flying from the right seat.
Oddly enough, I was looking through her notebook yesterday and looked at the notes she made for EX 4-10 and was impressed at how thorough they were.
Well worth doing, but like any other training, get a thorough instructor.

[BRL]

Here we go sir..... LINK
How much flying has Sally done since?

[QNH 1013]

Thanks BRL.
Sally seems to enjoy trips much more now, and I think she is going to do some more training this year. However, she has just told me in no uncertain terms that she is only prepared to do circuits in a tricycle-gear aircraft. Not sure why; I thought she was very good with the taildragger. Ah, she's just poked me and said "they are a lot harder"

[Fly Stimulator]

ukhomerj,

If you happen to be in the deep south east, there's a Safety Pilot's Course available at Lydd too.

[IO540]

Beagle,

I hear what you say about the point of view that only qualified instructors should give instruction. But let me explain what I am getting at.

What exactly is the USE of a copilot course?

Just like being a virgin or not, there is no "half PPL". So one either spends the full 6k-8k, logs the lot, and gets a PPL which needs the 12hrs/2yrs logging, etc etc. Or one spends 1k-2k on a copilot course with an instructor, logs the lot (which for nearly all such people will be wasted since they will never do the full PPL) and they have a dozen entries in a nice proper logbook which is completely useless since they still cannot legally land the plane. They can fly it en-route, but anybody can do that (let's not start another thread on that one ).

Reading the Lydd link, the things there are the things which any proficient PPL with a few hundred hours on type can show someone how to do and do so (in the case of e.g. a spouse or a friend) for free. Apart from takeoff/ landing which as I say is probably illegal to let someone do (and would be unwise anyway).

Another scenario: let's say you are the owner of a decent plane. I know full well how hard it is to find an instructor who knows what half the bits in it do. I had enough trouble getting my type conversion. Never heard so much b*ll regarding autopilot function and engine management for example. So what does one do then? In the end the only decent "instructor" was a CofA tester with 3k hours on the type. Instructors tend to know C150 C152 PA28s.

The real point is that while anybody can fly a plane en-route (and it is real easy to teach most people how to do that - I've done it enough times; even basic control in IMC is easy enough for some after say 10 mins of practice, with a 2nd horizon/2nd altimeter), a landing is something which the "copilot" would need to do ONLY ONCE, that is if the real pilot dropped dead. So it doesn't have to be perfect. If the plane stays in one piece, that's good enough. One could well argue that the "copilot" should, declaring an emergency obviously, simply go for the nearest ILS and fly it with the autopilot and close the throttle upon contact.

That's the whole point of a copilot course: to land the plane if the pilot is incapacitated. You can't teach someone to land a plane in various different conditions in 10 hours, and they can't do it legally anyway...