Starting PPL This Spring & Own Plane - Advice Needed

Sinistar

Sinistar

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Brad
Hi Everyone,

We purchased a C182 this summer. The rest of this year was getting the 1st annual behind us, setting things up the way we like, getting to know the plane and just flying as a family! My wife has been a pilot for many years, before we met. I am ready to learn! She is not a instructor nor does she want to become an instructor. On top of it being really cold here, we have some heavy work and travel this winter so I can't really start/dedicate to flight lessons until spring. I will be getting my medical soon and will do ground school this winter.

So my question is: With access to a plane, is there any flight-specific experience I should be focusing on before I start lessons? Perhaps there is something that will make it easier for me or the instructor or both.

If it helps any, several areas already make me nervous, pretty much in order: landing, landing in crosswinds, the rudder during takeoff, flying w/left hand vs right, night landing (base and final), meteorology, carb heat especially on the 182, cold wx plane operations and not getting totally incredibly lost w/o GPS :)
 
Your wife scaring you already? She might not really wanna share ya know. ;)
 
Rudder during takeoff is nothing, it's just how you steer the plane in the ground. Then when you takeoff, keep steering with the rudder.

When you make long drives, do you ever hold the wheel with your left hand? That's what flying is like. Besides, you do many more things with your right hand--tune the radio, hold the chart, make notes, set power, trim, etc.

Landing, day / night / crosswind, is something that your instructor will teach you. It does require instruction and practice, but you'll get the hang of it and then wonder what was difficult or frightening about it.

Cold weather operations are also something you will cover if you live where it gets cold. I trained through the winter for my PPL and again for Instruments, while living along the Ohio River, so I learned about it from direct experience.

Good luck with your training. Your wife can help with questions and advice, and so can your many friends here.
 
This may sound contrary to what you want to hear, but I would probably avoid trying to learn too much about the flying part on your own or by taking "lessons" from your wife. You may pick up some bad habits that your instructor will later have to break.

But, that said, you have a good asset that you can use as you go through your self study ground course. Things such as airspace, weather, and cross country flight planning can sometimes take a while to understand and if you have someone who already understands (or should understand) the areas you have questions about you'll be much farther ahead than those of us were that had to figure it out on our own.
 
I'd spend time reading the POH and learning about the systems in general.
 
Sinistar said:
Hi Everyone,

We purchased a C182 this summer. The rest of this year was getting the 1st annual behind us, setting things up the way we like, getting to know the plane and just flying as a family! My wife has been a pilot for many years, before we met. I am ready to learn! She is not a instructor nor does she want to become an instructor. On top of it being really cold here, we have some heavy work and travel this winter so I can't really start/dedicate to flight lessons until spring. I will be getting my medical soon and will do ground school this winter.

So my question is: With access to a plane, is there any flight-specific experience I should be focusing on before I start lessons? Perhaps there is something that will make it easier for me or the instructor or both.

If it helps any, several areas already make me nervous, pretty much in order: landing, landing in crosswinds, the rudder during takeoff, flying w/left hand vs right, night landing (base and final), meteorology, carb heat especially on the 182, cold wx plane operations and not getting totally incredibly lost w/o GPS :)
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I think it would be beneficial to 'chair fly' in the actual plane. You could go through the various POH checklist items and just get the muscle memory going. But you'll have plenty of that live when you're training, still I would have liked to have had that option. Figuring out where to find the various instruments, knobs, and switches should make it easier when you get busy flying.
 
Chair flying is great and even better with a sim! I did a lot of that for my PPL and now for IFR training. Saves time and money. You can buy a joystick or rudder/yoke set and Microsoft FSX for cheap.
 
mondtster said:
This may sound contrary to what you want to hear, but I would probably avoid trying to learn too much about the flying part on your own or by taking "lessons" from your wife. You may pick up some bad habits that your instructor will later have to break.
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This is really on my mind. And I think my wife is thinking the same thing too. I definitely do not want to spend time (which is also money) unlearning one way for another. Plus a dedicated instructor will give another perspective.

I am lucky enough to get to sit in the right seat and observe as she takes off, fly's around and land. Not everyone gets multiple discovery flights before training! I often have feet on the pedals and hands on the yoke to just "feel" what is going on. Who knows, maybe it will be entirely different with the instructor. I have been observing like crazy and always have like +3 questions for every 1 answer!!!
 
Badger said:
I'd spend time reading the POH and learning about the systems in general.
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Actually, other than flying (11 flights since we bought it) I have been the primary when it comes to maintenance, research and just getting to know the platform. She likes to fly. I really, really want to know our plane before I start flying it. I have assisted on the first annual so now very comfortable removing top and bottom cowlings, changing oil, changing plugs, etc. I have been through the POH several times. We are both somewhat uncomfortable with the higher potential for carb icing on the 182. Seems to be a few camps on whether to use full carb heat then off vs fly with half or even partial, etc. And the single biggest concern for us during purchase was the fuel bladder design and the potential to miss water when sumping. Ironically, I have never been in a plane without a constant speed prop! So, many thanks to our A&P who explained it to me quite well. When it comes to the panel, I have a pretty good understanding of everything but the VOR instruments. Its all so cool to learn!
 
exncsurfer said:
I think it would be beneficial to 'chair fly' in the actual plane. You could go through the various POH checklist items and just get the muscle memory going. But you'll have plenty of that live when you're training, still I would have liked to have had that option. Figuring out where to find the various instruments, knobs, and switches should make it easier when you get busy flying.
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I really need to do this - and low cost!!! I will admit, it feels funny but I can see where it would really help. Since I only sit in the right seat or in the back if my daughter calls "shotgun", the pilot side instrument scan is completely foreign to me. I will start doing this on nicer days (was wicked cold last week here in MN).
 
exncsurfer said:
I think it would be beneficial to 'chair fly' in the actual plane. You could go through the various POH checklist items and just get the muscle memory going. But you'll have plenty of that live when you're training, still I would have liked to have had that option. Figuring out where to find the various instruments, knobs, and switches should make it easier when you get busy flying.
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What he said. you have a very unique advantage, you can char fly in the plane itself. do it, if i had one, i would do that every day. learning a zillion knobs when you are already 80% saturated takes time and honestly it sucks some times. for example, today instead of setting the altimeter right before a turning descend i turned the mic volume way down and then freaked out because i cant hear my CFI's "god voice". get into the plane everyday, go through check list, build muscle memory and know plane inside out. ohh, good time for ground school too. by the way, doing a 20 min preflight in single digit weather sucks big time :)
 
Cold weather itself does not mean you can't fly. Ice and clouds might. But airplanes fly best when it's cold.

Depending on where you live, summer may not give you any better scheduling. No ice (usually), but clouds and wind.

Unless it's truly infeasible, why wait for the instruction? Just get at it. Sure, you'll have to cancel lessons for weather. It's going to happen anyway.
 
I found pictures of all the avionics and taped them to a board so I'd have my "panel" available while reading, talking, chairflying. Made it easier to start pointing in the right direction while leaning systems and such. My examiner allowed it during the oral, too.

You're lucky, you're training in your own plane so it is unlikely to change. I had to rebuild my paper panel a couple of times since I was renting. :(
 
Have your wife take you up and you do the radio communications. Learn how to communicate at a controlled field while she does the flying. Learn how to initially call approach and have the frequencies loaded for the change to tower and then ground, etc. I have observed more than one student that were exceptional at flying the plane but had stress issues communicating at a controlled field.
 
MAKG1 said:
Cold weather itself does not mean you can't fly. Ice and clouds might. But airplanes fly best when it's cold.

Depending on where you live, summer may not give you any better scheduling. No ice (usually), but clouds and wind.

Unless it's truly infeasible, why wait for the instruction? Just get at it. Sure, you'll have to cancel lessons for weather. It's going to happen anyway.
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I think I said the wrong thing regarding cold weather flying. I'm not worried about the winter flying (at least not yet!). I am more worried about the cold start of the plane and not screwing anything up. I know there are a couple of camps - some keep it plugged in all winter and some plug in before the flight. We are going with the plug it in in the night before. We have the battery on the tender all the time. Our goal (for now) is to only go up if its 20F or warmer. As we get more comfortable with the cold starts I think we'll start pushing that. Last week we had a low -27F :(

The main reason I am waiting on instruction is that I know I will be way too busy for the flying anything until late March.
 
Possum said:
Have your wife take you up and you do the radio communications. Learn how to communicate at a controlled field while she does the flying. Learn how to initially call approach and have the frequencies loaded for the change to tower and then ground, etc. I have observed more than one student that were exceptional at flying the plane but had stress issues communicating at a controlled field.
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Okay dumb question - is that allowed - me talking on the radio without having a PPL?

This may sound weird but the radio part doesn't scare me any. I kid with my wife because I think the chatter is so terse. I was a submariner and as I recall every communication was: Them, You, message. And the response was always a exact repeat back using the same structure. But aviation chatter is obviously different!

So when we are 10nm out (IIRC) she calls in: "Tower, Us 10 miles southwest with delta inbound" or something like that. On a submarine the other end would have fully repeated that back. Instead it seems the tower immediately responds with an order something like "Us call your 3 mile ??? for runway 28 right". And then to be even less structured (to me!), she repeats back the order: "Call my 3 mile ??? for runway 28, Us". So instead of the "Them, Us, message" it is just "message, Us".

I am really comfortable setting both nav/comms and selection via the audio panel. And I always have the handheld on while we are out there messing with stuff. But I need to learn a lot more! Things like what specifically must be said by the tower to be able to land or take off is quite specific! And all the unique phrases that mean a lot more than what I think I am hearing.
 
Hank S said:
Rudder during takeoff is nothing, it's just how you steer the plane in the ground. Then when you takeoff, keep steering with the rudder.
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I should probably clarify here...ironically I am not too worried (yet!) about the rudder once the plane is airborne. Actually, I am still trying to perfect being able to taxi right down the middle at 20mph! Each time I veer off one way or the other I start thinking "How the hell will I keep it straight right up to about the 65mph takeoff speed!" And as is so typical, I try to explain this to my wife and she gives me this look like I'm a total knob (which I am) and she says: "Oh you want to try some high speed taxiing". I'm like duh, that is exactly what I would want to practice but I don't know the term or that it is even legal to taxi and not take off unless its a emergency!!!
 
You can do anything your wife is willing to be responsible for without a license, as long as she is in the airplane. I frequently let kids as young as 12 fly the airplane from the right seat. It's all legal, but I'm responsible as PIC.

However, it does not count as instruction unless she's a CFI.
 
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