Flight School Preparation

[EYW-MIA]

I was hoping to start a forum where we could get advice from the school houses and CFIs and professional pilots on what we can get and do to prepare for flight school and to do between the flying if you are not a full time student so that we will be successful and have a lot of retraining each flight to make training more effect. Examples, reading the helicopter manuals, your FARs maybe getting the home ground school DVD for study etc.......

 

Thank you all for helping us out and sending us on our way better prepared students....

[SBuzzkill]

Get your nose in the books. Read the manual for your helicopter and learn it inside and out. Read the AIM, make flashcards to read on the pot, give yourself daily goals of what you want to learn. When driving go over emergency procedures and make notional radio calls. Pull out a sectional chart and look for things that you don't recognize and find out what they are. Read about helicopter aerodynamics, flying techniques, weather, etc. Plan a cross country flight then think about what FARs will affect your flight and look them up.

Edited May 31, 2011 by SBuzzkill

[EYW-MIA]

Get your nose in the books. Read the manual for your helicopter and learn it inside and out. Read the AIM, make flashcards to read on the pot, give yourself daily goals of what you want to learn. When driving go over emergency procedures and make notional radio calls. Pull out a sectional chart and look for things that you don't recognize and find out what they are. Read about helicopter aerodynamics, flying techniques, weather, etc. Plan a cross country flight then think about what FARs will affect your flight and look them up.

 

 

Thank you keep them coming!

[ADRidge]

I don't think you'd need to start a whole new forum for that. But heck, I did the same thing before I started flight school. I got in the books, read the rotorcraft flying handbook from cover to cover (it's on the FAA's website in PDF format) and bought a copy of the Jeppessen Private Pilot book.

 

Maybe start hacking away at the private pilot written exam. ASA's test prep software is pretty good, and will explain WHY each answer is what it is. You'll need to be familiar with the writtens anyway, so the sooner you can get comfortable with em, the better.

[rotowash]

Thanks for starting the thread and the responses. I was about to do the same.

[Pohi]

What everybody else said, and maybe while you are on the FAA website, go ahead and check out the practical test standards. Those are your guidelines for the certificate, and the very beginning of the FAR/AIM has a list of things you should read for each certificate level.

 

The more book work you can do before training, the quicker and easier the training will be. You seem to be on the right track.

[gary-mike]

Ask the school you plan to attend if they have a "private pilot" starter kit. I bought mine, it has all the books, plotter, flt computer, and came in a nice flight bag.

 

If you are hurting for money like the majority of the US, most of them can be downloaded for free.(I used my tax return for my kit)

One of them that I found helped make more sense of and apply some of the info was the R-22 POH, I didn't find where I could download that one though.

[Pohi]

Very good point, I believe sportys has something along those lines too.

[Trans Lift]

If anyone wants a digital copy of the rotorcraft flying handbook or the instrument flying handbook, let me know. I can email it/them to you.

[Shaun]

You can also use any notes in tattoo form for the written exams.

 

Start now and don't do any FAR's that might change.

[Aviation Audiobooks]

We just released the Rotorcraft Flying Handbook as an audiobook... Great if you have time during a commute or any other time you can't sit and read the info.

 

www.aviationaudiobooks.com