Training

You may think that after you get your pilot certificate, you have all the training you will ever need. Unfortunately, that isn't always true. Training to be a private pilot mainly involves learning how to get the airplane in the air, keep it there while you go somewhere, and then get it back on the ground -- all without killing yourself. For the most part, instructors and FAA-certificated flight schools do a good job of teaching you how to fly the aircraft, but little time is left over to teach you when to fly the aircraft. The distinction between knowing how to fly and knowing when to fly is called judgment. Lack of judgment (or aeronautical decision-making as it is sometimes calles) is mentioned as a cause in about 50% of the fatal general aviation accidents.

The training exercises offered here are aimed at helping you improve your aeronautical decision-making. These exercises won't help you make great cross-wind landings, but they may help you recognize when it's time to ask for a different runway or to go to a different airport when the cross-wind is outside your comfort zone. They may also help you recognize when it's time to turn around when the weather starts going bad (by the way, weather is the single largest cause of fatal general aviation accidents).

Risk Management

Believe it or not, flying in general aviation aircraft is a lot riskier than driving your car. This often comes as a surprise to pilots who seem to equate flying their puddle-jumper with crusing in a Boeing 777. In case you haven't noticed, those transport aircraft (which really are a LOT safer than driving your car) have a lot of things going for them in the way of safety -- highly experienced and trained crews (not just one pilot on his/her monthly cross-country), a flight dispatcher backing them up on the ground, state-of-the-art equipment, highly reliable and well-maintained equipment...but you should get the idea by now. This isn't meant to scare you, but to point out that flying is a risky undertaking, so it makes sense to do everything you can to identify, minimize, and manage those risks. Part of that Risk Management involves developing and maintaining proficiency in the physical aspects of flying -- aircraft control, stick-and-rudder, etc. An occasional visit to your flight instructor, coupled with self-study and practice will go a long way toward meeting that goal. The other part is improving your mental skills, so that you can recognize hazards and develop appropriate plans to manage them. That is what we will help you with here.

Before you try one of the training exercises, please create a Call Sign, if you have not already done so. This is optional and just lets us keep track of what kind of pilots use these exercises.

Management Tools

Pre-flight risk management helps you identify problems and develop solutions before you leave the ground. There are two tools to help you do this.

1. Pre-Flight Risk Assessment Checklist -- A quick checklist that lets you assign a score to the risk associated with a particular flight. You can then use that overall risk score to see whether you should consider some alternatives -- like changing your route, taking more fuel, or just waiting for another day.

2. Personal Minimums Checklist -- This program will help you identify the risk factors associated with flights. Understanding what the risks are will allow you to develop specific methods, such as setting personal minimums, that will control those risks. Using this program you can create your own Personal Minimums Checklist.

Surface Operations

The FAA, in cooperation with industry, has developed an extensive program to improve the safety of ground operations -- primarily to avoid runway incursions.

The content of the FAA's CD on that program is available here.