PPL and CPL

[HercFeend]

QUOTE (pacblue @ Feb 28 2009, 08:20 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey guys, just letting you all know my journey to my PPL is over, i passed last night and got very drunk after, bring on CPL now. cheers for all the help on this site that iv received!! thanks guys!

Congrats PacBlue. Very well done.

[2fst4u]

i have a couple of questions about getting a ppl-helicopter and then maybe a cpl-helicopter.

do you HAVE to enrol at a flight school or can you just book each individual lesson? Helipro doesnt really help with this topic, it just tells you how many hours and what they need to be to get your license.

also, how have you guys paid for the immense fees involved? north shore's website gives an example of the costs involved (around $27 500 just for ppl-h) i have savings but that would only cover half of the flight time. and then theres the cpl costs and exams needed before you can start earning money for your flying. did any of you get jobs at the flight school or anything similar?

you may have read my topic on my newly accuired love for helicopters. i would really like to keep flying!

[NZ255]

Air force?

[2fst4u]

yea, the problem is that im colourblind. in my ohter topic i said that i found out i can be a commercial pilot but im not sure the RNZAF would allow it at all. that would be cool though

[HercFeend]

QUOTE (2fst4u @ Mar 8 2009, 09:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

yea, the problem is that im colourblind. in my ohter topic i said that i found out i can be a commercial pilot but im not sure the RNZAF would allow it at all. that would be cool though

Are you sure? Have you asked / applied? You need to get a definitive answer from them, then you'll know your options.

[2fst4u]

QUOTE (HercFeend @ Mar 9 2009, 09:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are you sure? Have you asked / applied? You need to get a definitive answer from them, then you'll know your options.

checked if the air force will take me? i've called them and they told me that i cant be ANY aircrew (even air host/ess (not that hard even if i were completley colourblind)) or ANY technical trades (armament technician, avionics etc) but if i can be a commercial pilot then what the hell is wrong with flying for the air force?!!!!! is just cooler, not more colour involved

[benwynn]

In a time of war, I guess you can only expect the un expected. I doubt any airlines would take you anyway, perhaps a flying school as an instructor or something though.

[towerguy]

enemy position is 1200m west of the blue smoke, caution friendly forces marked by green smoke - cleared in weapons hot!

colour blindness not an issue - I don't think so!

[Goose]

Right so im meant to be sitting my ppl flight test on thursday or friday, really not looking forward to it as i dont think im as ready as my instructor thinks i am, still have a few more days of revision and a simulated test with my instructor today. Any advice for the test?

[HercFeend]

QUOTE (2fst4u @ Mar 9 2009, 06:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

checked if the air force will take me? i've called them and they told me that i cant be ANY aircrew (even air host/ess (not that hard even if i were completley colourblind)) or ANY technical trades (armament technician, avionics etc) but if i can be a commercial pilot then what the hell is wrong with flying for the air force?!!!!! is just cooler, not more colour involved

Speaking from experience of a previous life as RAF aircraft electrical engineer, I can say that the coloured markings, indicators and lights found in any and all military aircraft cockpits and flight decks would, should and does preclude anyone with colour blindness from working on them – it would be impossible to use, fix and or operate many systems and without sounding melodramatic, be potentially fatal to you or even worse someone else........ Would you be happy taking this risk?

[HercFeend]

QUOTE (Goose @ Mar 10 2009, 09:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right so im meant to be sitting my ppl flight test on thursday or friday, really not looking forward to it as i dont think im as ready as my instructor thinks i am, still have a few more days of revision and a simulated test with my instructor today. Any advice for the test?

Relax bro, just relax. You're ready, if you weren't your instructor wouldn't risk his reputation putting you in for it.

Ask the examiner to take control if you need him to while you carry out some admin task or another - like refolding your map if you need to...! I did this twice.

Good luck, you won't need it but here's some anyway

[pois0n]

QUOTE (HercFeend @ Mar 10 2009, 01:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Relax bro, just relax. You're ready, if you weren't your instructor wouldn't risk his reputation putting you in for it.

Ask the examiner to take control if you need him to while you carry out some admin task or another - like refolding your map if you need to...! I did this twice.

Good luck, you won't need it but here's some anyway

Hahaha CE did that for you? What a legend!

I had to do both

[HercFeend]

QUOTE (pois0n @ Mar 10 2009, 01:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hahaha CE did that for you? What a legend!

I had to do both

Top geeza he is

[HardCorePawn]

QUOTE (Goose @ Mar 10 2009, 09:51 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Right so im meant to be sitting my ppl flight test on thursday or friday, really not looking forward to it as i dont think im as ready as my instructor thinks i am, still have a few more days of revision and a simulated test with my instructor today. Any advice for the test?

If you basically fly the same way you do for any flight you take your instructor on, you should be fine... Like others have said, they won't put you forward unless they think you're going to pass!

Make sure you are up to scratch on the ground work... it is the first part of the test, and like they say "first impressions last"... so if you can handle that OK, it will create a good impression


The other thing to remember, is that as soon as you have failed, the flight examiner has to give you the opportunity to cut the test short... so if he doesn't say thing anything during the flight... chances are you've passed!

Oh, and if you haven't already done it... make sure your log book is all up-to-date and your hours are all totalled and signed off/endorsed by the CFI etc. and you have all the required minimums... and then double check it!

Nothing worse than showing up and then realising you are short 0.5hrs of simulated IF etc... sounds like pretty simple stuff, but I know someone who was missing 10hrs because they had added some things up incorrectly!

Oh, and before I forget... make sure you have LOADS of cash on you on the day... Bar shouts are expensive!

[2fst4u]

I hate to be so ignorant, but you guys obviously don't understand my colour-blindness. I can see and name every colour with speed and accuracy. Blue and green smoke are completely different to me. colour-blindness doesn't mean I see NO colours, it means they just look different and shades that seem impossible to distinguish between for a non-colour-blind person can look completely different to me (not in a different colour way, e.g., I can see DPMs (or camouflage) in the bush clear as day, because the shades are different so on exercises with cadets, I always pick out the enemy first). Therefore, I like to think of it not as a disability, (like the aeronautical society sees it) but as a heightened ability. blue and green on an attitude indicator- easy, yellow and green on an airspeed indicator - easy, RED and GREEN and ORANGE on warning lights etc, simple.

Take traffic lights for example. Every colour-blind person can tell you order that the lights are, red on top, orangey/yellow (depending on it being LED or not) green on bottom, whereas some non CB people have no clue. Sure, you might argue that these CB people don't know the colours, and that they have just learnt the order, but I think it's other things that cause them to learn the order. As a kid, crayons were the hardest for me (the actual crayon's colour, not the colour it makes on a page because on a page it is clearer), so i learnt what each colour crayon's shape was (they wore down in different ways). Therefore, in an aircraft, a colour-blind person may have more spatial awareness. Say a "low rpm" warning light starts flashing- a non CB person might think "what light is that? Orange- low RPM- ok I will do this" but a colour-blind person might think "I can see THAT light is on, I will do this." That's 2 entire steps in the train of thought taken out, maybe seconds saved for a life and death situation?

I'm sorry to go on such a huge rant, and but in on another conversation, but I hate it when people tell me I can't do something when I know I can. I KNOW I can fly an aircraft well, having different colours being sent to my brain doesn't give me less skill or intelligence or instinct, it just makes me want to prove everyone wrong.

[benwynn]

Nobody is stopping you having ago buddy!

[Anthony]

I almost know what you mean 2fst4u.
According to the Ishihara plate tests that I did once, I am colour blind. However that does not affect me at all in life. I can see every colour perfectly and being supposedly colour blind does not limit me in anyway.

However, I recently went to the optometrist for an eye checkup and asked to be tested on this. He did the plates again and said that I was borderline CVD - on the pass/fail line according to Ishihara's standards. He got me to do another test - one where you arrange different coloured blocks in order according to colour hue or something. I passed that 100%. He said that I had perfectly fine colour vision, despite the fact that I fail the plates.

Either way, although the plates would fail me - it doesn't affect me (it doesn't manifest itself in real life - like you said: traffic lights and stuff) and I won't let it stop me. I am shortly going to join the ranks of those going for their PPLs as well. So anwyay, go for it mate - give it a go!

[Goose]

Cheers for the advice guys, i failed the sim flight test today tho my stalling in a turn was what did it, lost altitude immediately so got a fail, but in my defence we have hardly practiced it because the plane wont stall in a turn properly anyway. On top of that my forced landing was to high and so was my flapless approach. Have a revision flight first thing and then another sim. Prob more revision thursday and flight test on friday i think.

Wasnt a good flight all around today, nothing i did really felt as tho it was my best, and i could see exactly what i was doing wrong but couldnt seem to do anything about it. Just a bad day i guess, hopefully will be better tomorrow

[bestpilotindaworld]

QUOTE (Goose @ Mar 10 2009, 09:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

hardly practiced it because the plane wont stall in a turn properly anyway.

What kind of plane are you in??

[HercFeend]

QUOTE (Goose @ Mar 10 2009, 09:15 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cheers for the advice guys, i failed the sim flight test today tho my stalling in a turn was what did it, lost altitude immediately so got a fail, but in my defence we have hardly practiced it because the plane wont stall in a turn properly anyway. On top of that my forced landing was to high and so was my flapless approach. Have a revision flight first thing and then another sim. Prob more revision thursday and flight test on friday i think.

Wasnt a good flight all around today, nothing i did really felt as tho it was my best, and i could see exactly what i was doing wrong but couldnt seem to do anything about it. Just a bad day i guess, hopefully will be better tomorrow

If it's any consolation at all, the flight before my NZ test I flew the worst I had ever flown in my life....... Passed test with flying colours