Plastic Pilot

Flying light aircrafts in and out of large airports is much easier with some flexibility, on both controller and pilot side. The main problems are the distance needed between an airliner and a light aircraft because of the wake vortex, and runway occupancy time by the light aircraft, which usually taxies slowly.

One way light aircrafts pilots can help controllers is by flying high approaches followed by a long landing - closer to the taxiway. The first picture below has been taken while flying a normal approach to Geneva runway 23, aiming at the touch down zone.

On the left hand side, one can see to white and two red lights - the PAPI. This is an optical vertical guidance system. When flying too high, the four lights are white, slightly high results in three white and one red, on slope (like on the picture) gives two white and two red lights, slightly low is indicated by one white and three red, and way low gives four red lights.

The second picture has been taken (by luck) at the same distance, approaching to the same runway, but on a high-approach. To facilitate our integration in the approach sequence the controller asked me to land long and vacate the runway using the second taxiway to the right.

The goal was to vacate quicker, and allow for an earlier line-up of the airliner wating on the left side. As you can see, the PAPI lights are all white.

Just in case you wonder, the round thing in the axis is not a flying-saucer landing pad, but a radio-navigation beacon known as VOR (more precisely a Doppler VOR).

Flying high-approach, inner circuit with short final, high-speed approach, or other special variants helps to maintain a smooth flow of traffic. But there is a possible pitfall. Don’t accept to fly anything to please a controller. It’s much better to fly a couple more 360’s than crash-landing, and if you start something that later becomes uncomfortable, I’ve two words for you: go around !

How to chose your flight instructor as a new student pilot ? You don’t know anything about flying and have to select someone you will spend more than 50 hours with… There is certainly some magic in the relation between a student and his instructor, and no one can predict if a pair will match or not.

I flew with 12 different instructors or examiners of various breeds, so here is a guide of those I know or heard of.

Airline Pilot Wannabe
Because most airlines impose minimum flight experience to new hirees, newly certified pilots can’t get hired immediately. To build up experience many get through the intructor training, and then teach newbies for a couple of years.

As they aim at an aviation career, they teach in a very professional way. The only issue with such an instructor is the risk to loose it by the second an airline will hire him.

Side-Job Pilot
Commercial pilots operating as “taxi drivers” in business aviation do often complement their income by instructing. On the plus side, their experience flying in more varied airports than airlines is extremely valuable. They also frequently operate on their own, where airline pilots get more support from their company.

The negative side with such instructors is their lower availability, and sometimes extremely volatile schedules. If you select one, expect some last minute cancellations.

Side-Job Non-Pilot
Many instructors have another “main job”. This can be aviation related (airplane mechanic, air traffic controller) or not. I even know a head hunter and a college maths teacher which are also flight instructors.

There is nothing wrong with that, and even if they are not available full time for their trainees, their schedules are usually stable, and despite not being optimal, planning is easy. Because they are active outside aviation, these instructors can understand easily how complex it is to learn flying parallely to a job.

Volunteer
I never flew with a volunteer instructor. I heard of them via friends who fly in French aero-clubs, where they are quite numerous. If you have any information or experience flying with a “free” instructor, let me know in comments please.

Retired pilot
This is a rare specie, and by luck I got one and made my basic and IFR training with him. Because of age restriction in airlines and other flying companies, pilots tend to still be very active when reaching retirement. Some don’t go playing golf, but start or continue to train new pilots.

They combine the advantage of high experience of side-job pilot, professionalism of airline pilots wannabe, and all their time is available.

Final word
Remember that as a student pilot, it’s important to feel good with your instructor. If it’s not the case, you can ask for a new instructor if you don’t like yours. Dot.

Flying in and out of Nice Côte d’Azur airport is always a scenic experience. The two parallel runways are on an artificial peninsula on the mediteranean sea. Arrivals normaly overfly the airport and then turn around over sea, overfly the St-Honorat and St-Marguerite islands before landing.

Departures are normally from runway 04, towards Monaco, and then turn right and come over the “Baie des Anges” (Bay of Angels) again. Try to get a window seat on the right-hand side to maximize the pleasure of flying in Nice.

I always flew through terminal 2, and the transit time is normally short. It is possible to be in a taxi 5 to 10 minutes after leaving the airplane. Departing Nice is as easy. After passing security control, you are in the departure hall. There is no corridor, tunnel, stairs, air-bridge, metro, so walking distance is really minimal.

AirFrance offers many flights to Paris, but also to most European airports. North Africa is also well connected, and Delta offers daily flights to New-York. EasyJet offers flights to 14 other european cities.

I don’t know if this comes from the mild climate of Southern France, but I can’t see a lot of drawbacks of Nice. May be the lack of train connection, but this is partly compensated by a good regional bus network. May be the worst thing is the permanent sea-breeze and resulting “firm” landings.

The list is not over yet, but Nice will probably be close to the top of my “Best European Airports” selection. I tried to resist, but I can’t do it anymore… Nice is a nice airport. Sorry.