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News & Media Training Tip: You wanted answers

Training Tip: You wanted answers

AOPA Flight Training
VOL 21, ISSUE 10 March 5, 2021
Training Tips
You wanted answers
Sponsored by Aircraft Spruce
You wanted answers
In memory of our friend and colleague Mike Collins, who suggested weekly Training Tips nearly 20 years ago and who drilled down on details that informed many aviation debates until his death on February 25, let us settle a few things, once and for all. Read more >
Article
Saying goodbye: AOPA loses Technical Editor Mike Collins
After two weeks fighting COVID-19 in an intensive care unit on a ventilator, AOPA Technical Editor and Director of Business Operations Mike Collins died on February 25. He was 59. Read more >
Technique
Pilot magazine
Proficiency: Looking for moose
Aerobatics instructor Catherine Cavagnaro reflects on the importance of practicing stalls and turns around a point. Read more >
Flight Training News
You Can Fly
STEM class building STOL Cub
A group of Dallas high school students is learning how to stitch fabric to tubes and wing ribs while building a two-seat American Legend Aircraft Co. Legend Cub. Read more >
Podcast
'Hangar Talk': Musician, pilot, and TV personality Nick Hoffman
Nick Hoffman, a Minnesotan who grew up in and around aviation, explains how he became a Nashville country musician, a pilot, and the host of the adventure TV show Nick's Wild Ride. Listen to the podcast >
Advocacy
FAA urged to release delayed airman certification standards
AOPA and other members of a working group have called on the FAA to resume releasing new volumes of airman certification standards that have been frozen since 2019. Read more >
New Skyhawks augment Epic Flight Academy's training fleet
Three new Cessna 172 Skyhawks with easily recognizable red-painted tails have joined the flight line at Epic Flight Academy in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Students can train in the Garmin G1000 NXi-equipped training aircraft, another Cessna 172 single, two twins, and several flight simulators, the school announced March 1.
Video
Icing encounter
With a brand-new instrument rating in his wallet and family on board his Cessna 172, Heath Wells expected to comfortably complete the flight crossing central Pennsylvania. Watch this AOPA Air Safety Institute Real Pilot Story to find out what weather lesson he learned the hard way.
AOPA Live This Week
Mourning our fallen friend; Envelope expansion; Phenom transition
We remember AOPA Technical Editor and Director of Business Operations Mike Collins, our friend and coworker for decades. Also, a new way to expand your envelope, and stepping into a Phenom. Watch AOPA Live This Week® >
Career News
Article
Self-made motion picture pilot
Fred North flies helicopters for Hollywood movies, expertly executing carefully planned maneuvers with no room for error. He has no fear of losing his job to a drone. Read more >
Advocacy
Working group making progress on DPE system reforms
The working group responsible for proposing ways to modernize the FAA's management of its designated pilot examiner network plans to present its package of recommendations this summer. Read more >
Article
Aviation scholarship opportunities roundup
A northern Virginia flight school awarded three student pilots funds to help them complete their private pilot training, and other aviation scholarship opportunities are available now. Read more >
Aviation job board
Job of the week: Avionics technician, Force Aviation
Force Aviation in Dallas is hiring avionics technicians who will be responsible for inspecting, troubleshooting, servicing, and maintaining electronic systems and components. Read the full description and apply today >
AOPA career opportunities
Join the AOPA team
Ever dream of turning your passion for aviation into a career? AOPA is looking for a digital marketing coordinator and a web app developer. To learn more about these and other AOPA career opportunities, visit AOPA Online >
Training Products and Resources
Sponsored by SiriusXM Aviation
Confronting the weather
Understanding the large-scale forces that create weather makes it easier to come to the right decisions. Learn more in this AOPA Air Safety Institute Safety Spotlight.
Note: Products listed have not been evaluated by Flight Training editors unless otherwise noted. AOPA assumes no responsibility for products or services listed or for claims or actions by manufacturers or vendors.
Member Benefits
Article
Fly more with the March Saving Daylight Challenge
Daylight saving time begins March 14, and pilots can put the extra daylight to good use by flying to more airports and checking in with the AOPA app's Pilot Passport feature. Read more >
Pilot Protection Services
Not-so-acrimonious aviation acronyms
AOPA Pilot Information Center Medical Certification Director Gary Crump anticipates that welcome changes to FAA policy will soon follow recent leadership changes. Read more >
Instrument Tip
IFR Fix
Spatial occasions
It's tempting—and risky—for a current instrument pilot to think of spatial disorientation as something that afflicts only VFR pilots who stumble uninvited into the clouds or other pilots who knowingly push marginal conditions. Read more >
Photo of the Week
Starship tribute
Starship tribute
AOPA Technical Editor and Director of Business Operations Mike Collins documented a Beech Starship for "Celestial Survivors" in the March 2017 AOPA Pilot, Turbine Edition, and it was one of the Western Kentucky University photojournalism major's favorite images. "Photojournalism is all about storytelling, and aviation is full of great stories just waiting to be told," he wrote in the September 2020 issue of AOPA Pilot, a publication he helped craft for nearly three decades. AOPA and the many readers he touched over the years are mourning his loss to COVID-19 on February 25.
Final Exam
Question

Does a CFII have to provide the three hours of instrument training required for the private pilot certificate? Can I do the training in a simulator?
Answer
FAR 61.109 states in paragraphs (a)(3) and (b)(3) that the training is for "the control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight." It is not the same kind of training an instrument-rating applicant would receive, which is why it is not required to be given by an instrument instructor. Further, the same regulation requires the training to be accomplished in a single- or multiengine airplane, as appropriate. This time cannot be obtained in a simulator. Up to 2.5 hours of simulator time may be credited toward the 40 hours needed for a private pilot certificate, but these three hours must be done in an airplane with a flight instructor. Join the discussion >

This discussion is from our online Pilot Information Center, where you can ask questions, contribute answers, earn badges, and join our growing pilot community online. Did you know that student pilots who join AOPA are three times more likely to complete their flight training? Membership includes unlimited access to aviation information by phone (800-USA-AOPA, weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time) or from AOPA Online. Got a question for our technical services staff? Contact AOPA.
Education & Seminars
AOPA's in-person educational courses and seminars have been canceled or postponed in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Stay sharp with our webinars, podcasts, and videos.
Upcoming AOPA webinars
Mar. 11, 12 p.m. Eastern 'Don't Get Rusty' series: Now we're playing with gas
Mar. 16, 12 p.m. Eastern AOPA Rusty Pilots - Webinar edition
Mar. 18, 6 p.m. Eastern AOPA Rusty Pilots - Webinar edition (Fort Myers, Florida)
Mar. 24, 6 p.m. Eastern AOPA Rusty Pilots - Webinar edition (Cleveland, Ohio)
See the full webinar schedule in our online Pilot Information Center. (Log in to our online Pilot Information Center using your AOPA website username and password to view these events.) View our recently recorded webinars (registration required).
Latest AOPA Pilot Lounge videos
John Mohr, Piaggio Royal Gull
CST Flight Services COVID-19 travel guides
Earthrounder, crash survivor, and public speaker Ryan Campbell
George Antoniadis - PlaneSense
You Can Fly Champions
How a PPS panel attorney protects AOPA members
For a full list of Pilot Lounge videos, see AOPA Online.
AOPA podcasts
'Ask the A&Ps': 'If it moves, squirt it with something'
'Hangar Talk': Musician, pilot, and TV personality Nick Hoffman
'Hangar Talk' Flight Time series: Jamie Patterson-Simes
'Pilot Briefing': Week of Mar. 1, 2021
'There I was...': Kelly Keller
'Never Again': Pop quiz
'Pilot Protection Services Podcast': Predicting the future
To see all AOPA podcasts, visit AOPA Online.
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