Dear Rod:
On a recent flight with a pre-solo student, we were practicing landings when the student strayed off the runway centerline during the landing flare. I told her to turn back to the centerline and she did. We ended up crosswise on the runway and nearly groundlooped as I tried to correct our ground track. What do you think might have gone wrong?
—Kelly
Greetings Kelly:
Unfortunately, modern airplanes have yet to be equipped with runway centerline widening devices (we should be so lucky, eh?). So the best way to return to that tiny white strip of runway centerline during the roundout (flare) is to slip to the strip. Sideslips are not only used to correct for wind drift in a crosswind, but also to achieve a small degree of lateral movement without having to change the direction in which the airplane’s nose points.
Attempting to turn when only a few feet from the ground is often a turn for the worse. Have your student hold the nose straight with the runway centerline by using the rudder and drift in the desired direction by using aileron.
Then again, if your student has drifted too far to the side of the runway, a go-around is often a better and safer response to the problem. Teach both..
Dear Rod:
I’m 22 years old and currently enrolled in college. Last year I started flight training but had to quit after only a few hours when my parents decided they could no longer afford my lessons. I can’t afford to fly on my own. There doesn’t seem to be anyone willing to lend me the money for flight training. What about getting a scholarship of some kind? What should I do, given that I have the ambition and desire to fly but don’t have the money?
Thank you in advance,
—Chris
Greetings Chris:
Here’s the fundamental flaw in your thinking. As you see it, your path to a pilot certificate is based on getting others to pay for it or getting others to give you their money with your promise to pay it (and mountains of interest) back later. For a young person, neither of these are practical ways to pursue your flying ambitions.
First, the number of people looking for the few aviation scholarships that actually exist is just a bit larger than the number of costumes in Lady Gaga’s wardrobe. I think you’re better off buying a lottery ticket than waiting to pad your flight training account by winning a flying scholarship. And even if you did manage to win one, it might only be in the amount of $500 to $1,000. How many lessons do you think you can get for that? Clearly you’d need several scholarships. And the idea of a young person going into debt to pay for flight training is bad economics. I’m pretty sure that if you asked mom and dad, or the Federal Reserve, they’d tell you the same thing.
Start by thinking about how you can earn the money to take flying lessons. This immediately puts you in control of your own destiny. Be creative. Sell midnight snacks in the dorm, wash airplanes, buy and sell textbooks. And save money by dropping those $3 coffees, and seeing movies online instead of at the theater. The solution is in your head.
Think about it this way. If your life depended on being able to save $8,000 in one year (a reasonable amount needed to earn a private pilot certificate), do you think you could do it? I’m pretty sure you could, even as an active college student. By changing the way you’re thinking, you could—if you so desired—soon be earning money flying a pipeline patrol instead of dabbling in pipe dreams of loans and scholarships.
Dear Rod:
What is the best frequency for taking private pilot lessons to achieve the most progress? I have a lot of spare time to fly but I don’t want to overdo it.
Thank you,
—Wayne
Greetings Wayne:
As a general rule, a minimum of three lessons a week typically produces the best flight training results. Now, three lessons can often involve a total of four hours of flying along with an equal amount of time spent at ground instruction. If you can keep that up, you’ll progress quickly.
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