best flying school to enroll in the philippines

[christiediem]

does that mean...

if i start flying school tomorrow, all i will end up after years of flying will be a FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR? ...

or even getting a FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR JOB is purely out of luck?

[M 0.78]

Safety Pilot Time

Aero Cadet asked:

Safety Pilot Time

Is it loggable and counted as your TOTAL TIME?

Please enlighten.

Thanks.

Answer:

No. It is illegal and you will be falsifying your logbook. The student with whom you fly will also have a falsified logbook.

1.2.1.5 FALSIFICATION, REPRODUCTION, OR ALTERATION OF APPLICATIONS, LICENSES, CERTIFICATES, LOGBOOKS, REPORTS, OR RECORDS
(a) No person may make or cause to be made concerning any license, certificate, rating, qualification, or authorization, application for or duplicate thereof, issued under these regulations:
(1) Any fraudulent or intentionally false statement;
(2) Any fraudulent or intentionally false entry in any logbook, record, or report that these regulations require, or used to show compliance with any requirement of these regulations,
(3) Any reproduction for fraudulent purpose; or any alteration.
(b) Any person who commits any act prohibited under paragraph (a) of this section may have his or her airman license, rating, certificate, qualification, or authorization revoked or suspended.

As for what exactly you may log, take a look at the CAR's IS 2.2.8

[M 0.78]

Violating Regulations Legally

Jetcruiser,

I know of only one provision for legal willful violation of CAR's.

It is known as the emergency authority of the pilot-in-command. In an actual emergency, the pilot-in-command has the authority to disregard regulations as far as necessary in the interest of safety. It is not even necessary to report the violation in writing unless requested by the civil aviation authority.

If your flying school violates the CAR's by sending student pilots up with "safety pilots" in the interest of safety, please explain what the emergency was.

Is the emergency generated in the hangar before the flight, thereby giving the "safety pilot" the authority to fly illegally with a student pilot on a "solo" flight?

[M 0.78]

Selecting a Pilot School

Most pilot schools in the Philippines will help you get your licenses and ratings.

A tiny minority will actually teach you how to fly safely.

Even at the pre-solo stage, the CAR's are quite specific with regard to what you need to know:

IS 2.3.3.1 STUDENT PILOTS - MANEUVERS AND PROCEDURES FOR PRE-SOLO
FLIGHT TRAINING
(a) A student pilot who is receiving training for solo flight shall receive and log flight
training for the following maneuvers and procedures, as applicable for each category
and class rating:
(1) Proper flight preparation procedures, including pre-flight planning and
preparation, power-plant operation and aircraft systems
(2) Taxiing, including run-ups
(3) Take-offs and landings, including normal and crosswind
(4) Straight and level flight and turns in both directions
(5) Climbs and climbing turns
(6) Airport traffic patterns including entry and departure procedures
(7) Collision avoidance, wind-shear avoidance and wake turbulence avoidance
(8) Descents, with and without turns, using high and low drag configurations
(9) Flight at various airspeeds from cruise to slow flight
(10) Stall entries from various flight attitudes and power combinations with recovery
initiated at the first indication of a stall and recovery from a full stall
(11) Emergency procedures and equipment malfunctions
(12) Ground reference maneuvers
(13) Approaches to a landing area with simulated engine malfunctions
(14) Slips to a landing
(15) Go-around

Learning to fly is a building block process. Everything you do is dependent on what you have learned previously. If your fundamentals are flawed and left that way, you will be building your aviation castle on an unstable foundation.

Ask each flying school if you will be allowed to fly solo as required by the CAR's.

2.3.3.2 says, with regard to PPL applicants:

The applicant shall have completed in airplanes not less than 10 hours of solo
flight time under the supervision of an authorized flight instructor, including 5
hours of solo cross-country flight time with at least one cross-country flight totaling not less than 270 km (150 nm) in the course of which full-stop landings at two different aerodromes shall be made.

IS 2.2.8 says:

A student pilot may log as solo flight time only that flight time when the pilot is the sole occupant of the aircraft.

If anybody tells you otherwise, tell 'em to blow it out their a** and go look for a better school.

[M 0.78]

Safety Pilots

Jetcruiser,

I just went through the entire current CAR and found only two sections that mentioned safety pilots:

2.3.1.3 AUTHORITY TO ACT AS A FLIGHT CREW MEMBER

Note: During a skill test, the applicant acts as PIC but the safety pilot will intervene in safety situations.

8.8.1.16 SIMULATED INSTRUMENT FLIGHT
(a) No person may operate an aircraft in simulated instrument flight unless
(1) That aircraft has fully functioning dual controls, except:
(i) In the case of airships, or
(ii) In a single engine airplane equipped with a throw-over control wheel in place of fixed,
dual controls of the elevator and ailerons.
(2) The other control seat is occupied by a safety pilot who holds at least a private pilot license
with category and class ratings appropriate to the aircraft being flown, and
(3) The safety pilot has adequate vision forward and to each side of the aircraft, or a
competent observer in the aircraft adequately supplements the vision of the safety pilot.

What version of the CAR's do you have?

[vtango]

Safety pilot

The only time i had a "safety pilot" on board was during the checkride on the light aircraft!
The hooded instrument flights were all logged as DUAL! Naturally as i was receiving instructions for all the flights!
The checkride was logged as PIC U/S.

Its pretty amazing when i see fliers from some schools always arrive at the cross country trips with 2 persons in the aircraft! While talking to them they say each is acting as the safety pilot for the other on different legs of the cross country!

But then they both log the entire flt as SOLO! something seems terribly wrong here. Mind you these were VFR X country flts! OH they have another term for it. they called it "SHARED flights" meaning you share the rental for the aircraft while doubling your solo time! Blatant violation of regulations!

[jetcruiser]

JAA

M.78 we use the same provisions, but defined it more into Airline operations.

And you've proven your knowledge on the AR, esp. with the Emergency Authority, I do apologise. If you happen to use it, remember you still have to report it to the authorities. It is stated here as well.

FAR Part 121 Sec. 121.557 effective as of 02/26/1996 authority

jc

[jetcruiser]

Correction

My attention was called, and I have to correct the confusion. I am only referring to a Rated Flight Instructor everytime I mentioned Safety Pilot. I never mean that any Rated pilot(even if he is a 747 Capt) can fly with a Student Pilot.

For the Wannabees and newbees looking for answers here, I do apologised for not being very clear.

Jc

[M 0.78]

Padded Logbooks

vtango wrote:

"Its pretty amazing when i see fliers from some schools always arrive at the cross country trips with 2 persons in the aircraft! While talking to them they say each is acting as the sfatey pilot for the other on different legs of the cross country!

"But then they both log the entire flt as SOLO! something seems terribly wrong here. Mind you these were VFR X country flts! OH they have another term for it. they called it "SHARED flights" meaning you share the rental for the aircraft while doubling your solo time! Blatant violation regulations!"

In the end it boils down to economics. The students are being ripped off by their schools but the schools find ways to make up for their criminality by allowing students to log time not actually flown and certify it.

One large flying school that used to operate a transport category airplane with about 50 seats used to fill it up with students headed for their island training base. All the students were permitted to log the time in the big turboprop even if they were seated next to the aft lavatory.

All these students end up with padded logbooks. A pilot with a padded logbook is analogous to a con artist with a falsified bank book. If he's a really good faker, he may fool a lot of people for a long time. But it's only a matter of time before the truth reveals itself, often with tragic results.

That large school with the big turboprop has the dubious honor of producing most of the fatal accident pilots in recent Philippine general aviation history. In fact, whenever somebody crashes and dies in a small plane, we all say, "Oh, he must have been an Air Stink product," and most of the time we are correct.

One ex-Air Stink instructor told me he had to bring his own spark plugs and have them installed and removed each flight. He admitted to me that he and his colleagues were fearful for their lives most of the time, knowing AS pilots tended to crash and burn on a fairly regular basis. But they toughed it out until they could get decent jobs.

High horrors! The most prestigious pilot school in the country is now staffed almost exclusively by ex-Air Stink instructors. The quality of their products is pitiful. I asked one grad to describe a stall recovery. She said:

1. Apply just enough back pressure to activate the stall warning.
2. Count to five.
3. Release back pressure.

That's what you get in exchange for your PHP2 million?



As far as I know, the only instructors from that school that have made it into the airlines are those who did not come from Air Stink or similar outfits. Two of the most senior instructors either washed out or backed out of jet training.

[mountaintop2007]

Air Stink - wow

To think they started out as a really good institution....

anyway, i heard CA requires around 25 hours flying before letting a cadet fly solo, and much more before the solo x country (just not sure). is that enough for safe solo?

also any of you gentlemen care to share based on experience which flying base experiences the least disturbance due to weather in the Philippines? heard it's down south. is this true?

[x1alpha66]

it's actually 2.7m now as i saw in the other thread. but with the "traditions of excellence" in place there, maybe it's still one of the better schools regardless of where the instructors came from. although, that could be a big factor too for the present quality.

well, they had better days...

[M 0.78]

There used to be a minimum requirement of 8 hours dual before solo. That requirement was dumped in the last version of AO 60. I don't know if the new CARs have a minimum again.

I know of ex-ultralight pilots who soloed C152s in less than 5 hours. For zero-zero students, the average is still around 12 hours before first solo.

In the old regulations, the student needed at least 3 hours solo in the local area before wandering about by himself.

I once released a very apt student on his first solo cross-country after just one dual cross-country lesson. On the return leg of that lesson, I asked him, "You think you can go back there tomorrow by yourself?"

His answer was an immediate and resounding, "YES!"

If he had hesitated for even a millisecond, I would not have let him go.

So the student pilot flew from Manila to Mamburao and back all by his lonesome self. All the students of the school next door stayed late to watch him come back. Most of them were completing their CPL courses and none of them had ever flown "solo cross-country" without a "safety pilot" nursing them from the right seat. Every one on the ramp that afternoon could see the soloist's smile from 100 meters away as he taxied in.

In the end, letting a student fly by himself is a judgment call for the instructor. So far, every one of my students has come back with the airplane and himself in one piece.

Schools that do not permit real solo cross-countries are not only robbing their students of their money, they're also robbing them of one of the greatest experiences a pilot can ever have.

[M 0.78]

Philippine Flying Weather

Southern Mindanao almost never gets hit by typhoons. That's one of the reasons why the Philippine Air Force once based their trainers at the old Buayan airport in General Santos after Tambler opened.

But even when there are no typhoons around, there is the ITCZ to deal with. That's a band of really crappy weather that oscillates up and down across the archipelago. So no matter where you go, there will always be periods of days or even weeks when VFR flying is iffy at best, even way down south.

[M 0.78]

When Air Stink was getting started back in the early 80s at what was the old Morstar hangar, they had some of the best instructors available. Unfortunately, that's also about the time PAL went on a hiring binge. So it wasn't long before they were all gone.

About 10 years later, I had the opportunity to conduct an evaluation flight for the recently resigned chief instructor of AS. He had quit in disgust when Capt. A tried to make him certify a stack of padded logbooks.

His technical knowledge was 100%. His preflight procedures were 100%. On initial climb out from Runway 13 in a C150, his heading was pegged on 135 degrees and his airspeed was pegged on 80 mph. It was like the instruments had frozen. Unfortunately, there was a really strong breeze blowing straight down 06. Before we crossed the big runway, we were almost over the control tower! Crosswind correction was 0%.

On the way to the practice area, he could maintain heading and altitude within a couple of degrees and 20 feet consistently. But he couldn't recover from a stall or perform any of the advanced maneuvers required during a commercial pilot practical test.

I cut the ride short and told him quite bluntly that he didn't know how to fly. We were friends, after all, and I could afford to be blunt. We flew back to MNL where he made a perfect landing. But he was distraught.

He said, "I spent PHP350,000 for my training at AS. They told me I was good and now you tell me I don't know how to fly! What am I supposed to do now?"

I offered my time in exchange for coffee and donuts if he would rent a trainer and take a few lessons. We flew together for several days. We stalled, spiraled, chandelled, lazy 8ed, etc. He could perform every maneuver quite decently after just one demonstration. At the end of the last lesson, I told him to practice solo and come back to me when he thought he was ready for another evaluation.

He passed his second check flight with ease. There was nothing really wrong with him. He just hadn't been taught by his instructors. He eventually bought the trainer we had used and went on to start his own school. He has been flying jetliners as captain for quite a few years now.

There's a nasty little law of learning called "The Law of Primacy."

It says that what we learn first, we remember best. This can be good or bad. If we are taught the wrong things or not enough things then told we are doing well by our instructors, we tend to take their word for it. Over time, we become resistant to anything new that contradicts what we already know. We tend to put our instructors on pedestals and anyone who says they were wrong is full of doo-doo.

It's a deadly trap. But it's not impossible to escape. You just need to open your mind and get some proper instruction.

[jester_icarus]

Student Pilots - PPL

No more guessing on the requirements.

New regs at CAAP. AO 61 or 91 are not here anymore. Instead its Part 1 thru 14... Its modeled after FAA requirements or close to it.

PPL Applicants:
2.3.3.2 PRIVATE PILOT LICENSE - AIRPLANE
(b) Experience
(1) The applicant for a PPL(A) shall have completed not less than 40 hours of flight
time as pilot of airplanes, a total of 5 hours may have been completed in a flight
simulator or flight procedures trainer.
(2) The applicant shall have completed in airplanes not less than 10 hours of solo
flight time under the supervision of an authorized flight instructor, including 5
hours of solo cross-country flight time with at least one cross-country flight totaling
not less than 270 km (150 nm) in the course of which full-stop landings at two
difference aerodromes shall be made.
(3) The holder of pilot licenses in other categories may be credited with 10 hours of
the total flight time as pilot-in-command towards a PPL(A).
(c) Flight Instruction.
(1) The applicant for a PPL(A) shall receive and log not less than 20 hours of dual
instruction from an authorized instructor on the subjects listed in IS 2.3.3.2
Appendix B. These 20 hours may include 5 hours completed in a flight simulator
or flight procedures trainer. The 20 hours of dual instruction shall include at least 5
hours of solo cross-country flight time with at least one cross-country flight totaling
not less than 270 km (150 NM) in the course of which full-stop landings at two
different aerodromes shall be made.

[Fish & Chips]

Omni Instructors

Omni Aviation's instructors were all recently checked and standardized by a total stranger with a US-FAA ATPL/CFII. The program covered everything from pre-solo maneuvers to spins.

I think two guys didn't do so well and flaked off. One of them is now teaching in Malaysia. Only heaven knows where the other one went.

Uh-oh.

Omni recently acquired a Cessna A152 Aerobat for spin and unusual attitude training. Most pilots have unusual attitudes to begin with but they also need to be able to get their airplanes out of unusual attitudes when they start to misbehave.

[Fish & Chips]

Air Stink

M 0.78

That large school with the big turboprop has the dubious honor of producing most of the fatal accident pilots in recent Philippine general aviation history. In fact, whenever somebody crashes and dies in a small plane, we all say, "Oh, he must have been an Air Stink product," and most of the time we are correct.
--------------------------

Hah! Now everytime there is a transport category accident, we all wonder where the pilots got their basic training. AS is usually the first suspect but there are now more than 60 flying schools all over the country. As they say, it all comes out in the wash.

[Fish & Chips]

Solo Cross-Country

Does anybody know of a school not based at Omni that allows student pilots to fly solo cross-country without a safety pilot?

[tian yu]

Re: Solo Cross Country

Aviation Training One International

[Harutamagan]

G.E.

M.78 nasa middle east pa ba old man mo?