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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 2796.PDF
student's memory for longer than a lecture on winter flying in blazing sunshine, deli vered by even the most conscientious instructor. Consider this: how would you advise a non-pilot friend, going for a winter flight when the ground was covered with snow and ice, the cloudbase was indeterminate, and when the pilot had learned to fly in 40 hours crammed into a few summer months, since when he had not been able to afford to fly? I am sure that the authorities are aware of the legal possibilities of this hypothetical circumstance, but I suspect that they rely on the self-regulating properties of the existing system. To hire an aeroplane the would-be pilot usually undergoes logbook examination and a check-flight routine imposed by the hiring flying club or group. But this is not always so. With the growth of the private-flying move ment I can see only more accidents, unless the minimum qualifying time is sufficient to permit safely unsupervised flying subsequent to obtaining the licence. As aerial traffic has increased and modern light aircraft have grown more complex, with extended instrument-flying capability, the CAA has increased the minimum quali fying time of the "approved" PPL course to 35hr, and then to 38hr. Very understandably, this was due to "the number of unauthorised penetrations of the increased regulated airspace caused by faulty visual navigation". In addition (again, I quote), "accidents resulting from loss of control continue to occur when pilots, for reasons which can rarely be established, have entered weather conditions requiring flight by sole reference to instruments" (Supplement to CAP 53, September 1980). These overall increases in training time include a requirement for more cross country flying, and, latterly, four hours of introductory instrument-flying training. To accommodate this, the minimum dual requirement (never a problem) was increased from "adequate flying training (12 hours are normally accepted)" to 20 hours. Finally, a navigation flight test—an excellent idea— was introduced last year. With the require ment to be trained to a syllabus (how else, one asks?), the non-approved course was rendered defunct and the minimum qual ifying time raised to 40hr, just as it was in the beginning; but, further to the original requirements, a mandatory four hours of instrument instruction, a navigational flight test and increased pilot-in-command cross country time have been introduced. In addi tion, the student must cope in very-much- more-crowded airspace, necessitating the use of radio. Many (most?) airfields now have concrete runways, and with increasing numbers of aircraft practising circuits, this inevitably means more "go-arounds", increasing the flying hours before that magic first solo flight. The runway-only aerodrome also
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