How To Become A Privat Pilot
I am Gilles, 17 years old, and I’m currently doing my private pilot license. Since I was born, I want to become a commercial pilot for an airline
The reason why I choose this job as my dream job, is that a pilot doesn’t always have the same day but there are mostly interesting and exciting situations. You have to be focused all the time!
In September 2018, I started my theory lessons for my PPL (Private Pilot License). The first lesson we had was POF (Principles of Flight). This subject covered nearly everything about aerodynamics of an aircraft. All these lessons didn’t just teach me about how an airplane works, but also let me understand many other things existing in our beautiful world, for example I started to know why pressure decreases when velocity (speed) increases in a tube with a cross-section.
This might sound complicated for some of you, but this isn’t at all.
It can have a maximum score of 100. When it meets the cross-section, the velocity is 80 and the pressure 20 with a total of 100 (80+20=100).
We always had 2 or 3 different subjects for +/- 6 weeks. At the same time, we had Air Law. The clue is in the name, this subject talks about the law of the air. There’s a lot of subject matter in this topic that you really need to know at the end of your lessons. We learned a lot about the different airspaces, obligations when a military jet is in front of us, signs that are shown on the aerodrome, specific squawk (transponder) codes and so on.
Our next 3 subjects were Communication, Aircraft General Knowledge and Performance.
In Communication we had to learn the alphabet of aviation (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, …) and how to communicate with an air traffic controller or a traffic information service.
In Aircraft General Knowledge we covered all about the single piston engine, how an engine works and all the other mechanics an airplane is equipped with. For people who are familiar with the engine of a car it shouldn’t be difficult to understand how an engine of an airplane like the P28A (Piper 28 Alpha) or C172 (Cessna 172) works because it’s quite similar.
In Performance we learned how to use charts for the preflight calculations that have to be done before every flight to check the performance of the airplane. It’s really important to calculate this because otherwise you may encounter risks like that your runway isn’t long enough to take off or to land.
During the next 6 weeks we covered the 2 subjects Meteorology and Operation Procedures.
In Meteorology we learned all about the different clouds, why wind even exists, the different weather charts that should be used to plan your flight, …
Operation Procedures didn’t cover a specific topic but more the general knowledge. An example could be that you learn how to react if the engine is in fire during the engine start procedure. You shouldn’t immediately leave the airplane, but first close the mixture (so the engine doesn’t receive fuel anymore) and open full throttle (power) to open the carburetor and let fresh air in. After you’ve done the procedures mentioned above, you’re allowed to leave the airplane and call the fire brigade.
The last 3 subjects we had were Mass and Balance, Navigation and Human Performance.
In Mass and Balance, we learnt how to calculate the Mass and Balance of an airplane. This is one of the most important preflight calculations that have to be done. This „Mass and Balance” allows the pilot to calculate whether the load factor is too high or not, in other words if the plane can take off and land or not. You have to consider everything your plane has loaded like fuel, weight of all passengers, weight of seats, baggage, …
In Navigation we covered everything about what you need to do a flight from A to B. For a VFR (Visual flight rules, opposite or IFR (Instrument flight rules) used by big airplanes to fly) flight from Luxembourg to Paris, for example, you need do a navigation log. A navigation log contains points which should be your visual reference. This means that this navigation log helps you a lot with your orientation finding out where you currently are.
Human Performance covers everything about the human being what you have to know whilst you’re flying. You learn for example that you shouldn’t drink 8 hours (low quantity of alcohol) before your flight as a pilot. You also learn how you should react when a passenger or the pilot suffers of hyperventilation or hypoxia.
The last theory thing I had to do was the official last exam at the direction of the civil aviation. This test covers all subjects that you’ve done and you get approximately 120 questions in total to answer. For some subjects there are 12 questions but for others there are even 16. 75% in each subject are required to pass the exam.
Starting from the day of your first theory lesson, you can parallelly start doing your practical hours. This means that you can start flying without any pre requiresities! This is so good, because then it takes much less time to get your PPL because you don‘t have to wait until you successfully finished your theory lessons and exam.
The first flight was like… I can‘t really describe it, it was awesome. You are the pilot of an single engine piston, in my case a Piper 28 Alpha. The first practical hour(s) covers how to taxi, how to fuel, how to use a checklist, and you also start to do some airwork like how to make turns, give power, …
Then when you are familiar with the airplane, you start to learn what to do in case of specific emergencies, …
I hope I could tell you a little bit about how to become a privat pilot and maybe you‘re now intersted in becoming a pilot. Maybe we hear eachother on the frequency! ;)
