BE AS READY AS YOU CAN BE BEFORE YOUR BIG BREAK INTO THE AIRLINES!
You can do many things in this phase to keep your skills up. Avoid simply putting flight training aside and just waiting for the opportunity. It is important to refresh your flying skills occasionally to avoid your skills from fading and here are some ways to do it:
ARMCHAIR FLYING
Practise your flows, procedures, failure management by simply sitting on the chair in a quiet room and talking out loud the action you would take for each procedure. Cross-check at the end of any errors you made and learn from your mistakes, you can also do it with your friend or even record yourself to look back at how you did and the pace you did it at.
FLIGHT SIMULATOR
An extremely beneficial tool to keep your coordination and muscle memory strong! You can practise anything on it and it will do wonders without you spending a lot of money later on. The benefit of Flight Simulator is that you can easily set yourself up for various scenarios, weather conditions, any time of the day, and airfields. Don’t just randomly fly around but have a plan beforehand on what you wish to make out of that 1 or 2 hours that you wish to spend. Think like an Airline Pilot, prepare beforehand and execute the plan in the air. It will truly be invaluable and keep you connected to the industry.
FLASHCARDS
Use these to write down key information that you may need out of each chapter from your theory books and jot it down on flashcards so you do not have to visit and keep searching the books all the time. Even better is to go through the manual and makeup questions that you find tricky and add them to the flashcards for revision. You can also use this to occasionally test yourself before bedtime to sharpen your knowledge over time and not forget all of the hard work you have put in. Some well-known topics to include in the flashcard can include items such as Fuel policy, Holding speeds and directions, low visibility minimal, regulations, stages of a thunderstorm, V speeds and so much more. It will save you time and the hassle when assessment is closing in and you already have trimmed down your notes when you need it.
OBSERVATION
It does wonder! Whilst you’re waiting for your dream job and happen to hop on a plane anywhere within India or abroad try to recall and observe what’s happening on the ramp. You will learn a lot during the turnaround phase with bags going in, fueling taking place, serving of the airplane, dispatcher going out and in of the cockpit, crew signals being used to communicate, and how the whole team is working together to make your flight happen. It will be you one day, it’s definitely worth taking in as much as you can. During take-off or landing watch the taxiway markings, notice the changes in airplane configuration and if you are that keen read up about the airport you’re flying into, and build a mental model of what would happen and why! It will truly get your mind thinking like a Pilot and will help you immensely as you begin your journey as a Pilot.
INDIAN AVIATOR
Founded in 2021, for pilots by pilots.
Faguni Saxena (DGCA & FAA Commercial Pilot)
Dipeet Mehta (UK, EASA Airline Pilot)
info@indianaviator.in
Please note all information is based on practical experience and procedures with regulations valid at that time. Always check for the most updated information directly with the supplier, regulator, and other means. We hope you enjoy our website!
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