Learning to fly was a great experience, but if I had to do it again I would probably do some things differently. Some because I have more experience now, others because aviation changed since I got my license. So if you’re about to start your flight training, here are a couple of tips for you.

I learned to fly in Geneva, Switzerland, and airport with a 4 kilometers long runway. The VFR pattern was typically 7 minutes long in a basic trainer. On one hand, this gave some time to my Instructor to de-brief the previous touch-and-go while flying on downwind. On the other hand, compared to a 4 minutes circuit, this makes a significant difference. I soloed after 140 landings, mostly done flying in the pattern. A three minutes difference means 7 hours more with a 7 minutes circuit than with a 4 minutes one… Because I learned to fly at a controlled airport, working with ATC is not a problem for me, unlike for some pilots who are always a bit afraid to talk with a tower controller and say wrong things.

When I started to learn to fly, Light Sport Aircrafts (LSA), or Ultra Light Aircraft as we call them in Europe were not even existing. The first aircraft type I flew in was the AS-202 Bravo, and other typical basic trainers were Cessnas 152 or 172 and Piper Warriors. Now, the Aero-Club in Geneva uses Tecnam P2002 JF for basic training. They are registered as standard aircraft but could also enter the LSA category. They sip much less fuel, reducing the flight training costs. Building some flight experience on an LSA or on a classical aircraft makes not a lot of difference in terms of airmanship, flight preparation, and basic handling.

If you’re about to start with your flight training, you probably have to make a decision between classical instrumentation or computerized, glass-cockpits. I’m personally an aficionado of glass-cockpits, but this is certainly not new to usual readers of this blog. There was a great discussion on the “Glass cockpit or traditional gauges for primary training” post on www.askacfi.com.

All European pilots are also faced-up with a classical question: learn to fly in Europe or in the USA. Taking a six weeks leave and get a pilot certificate in Florida or Arizona is possible, and can be less expensive than doing it in Europe. Even with price of a transatlantic flight and accommodation, it could be less expensive. When I started to take flight lessons, my personal context was not compatible with such a trip, and the US Dollar was 20% more expensive.

What would you change if you had to go through primary flight training ? Do yo also have tips for newcomers ?

This is a guest post from my good friend Jason Schappert, who just published his new “Learn to Fly – Pass Your Private Pilot Checkride” book…

Make Your Private Pilot Checkride A Breeze

With the release of his newest book Learn to Fly – Pass Your Private Pilot Checkride Jason Schappert has been creating quite the buzz and shares with us some tips from the book on how to make your private pilot checkride a breeze.

The checkride is one of the most anticipated and, at the same time, the most dreaded moments in any student pilot’s career. Your checkride represents the pinnacle of all that you have been working for; it is the culmination of your entire private pilot training where an examiner finally grades and judges whether or not you are fully capable of flying that aircraft.

For most pilots, this is the point of no return and would understandly cause a lot of anxieties on their part. However, it is also important that you learn to overcome these anxieties so that you can truly ensure that you pass your checkride. Nerves will get you nowhere and instead make you jittery come test day.

Fortunately, there are ways that one can make his private pilot checkride a breeze.

Get Everything Ready Beforehand

Preparing to fly is just like every task that we do in this world. You would need to prepare a few things. These things would include the necessary tools such as books and charts. When you’ve prepared enough, you’d be pretty certain that you would go through the checkride quickly and it would all be over before you know it. If you’re not prepared, on the other hand, you’re simply setting yourself up for failure. Be prepared! Set everything up the night before.

Use your Checklist

There are some student pilots who, after accumulating enough experience in flying, would conveniently neglect to refer to the checklist. While this is testimony to their skill, it would also be prudent for you to look at the checklist and ascertain that what you are doing is right. You can consider the checklist as your notes in an open-note exam. Contrary to what most pilots might think, instructors would actually prefer you double check the checklist as compared to those who seemingly “know it all.”

Enjoy the Ride

Last but not the least, enjoy the ride! Don’t over think things! You’ve trained and studied for hours! Your instructor wouldn’t have signed you off if he or she hadn’t thought you were ready.

Need help studying for your Private Pilot Checkride? Jason’s book is a great place to look. Written in question and answer format it allows you to ask yourself questions and read the right answers. All questions are REAL examiner questions that Jason has collected over the years. The book features full color diagrams and is available in Ebook, audiobook, and paperback formats!

Click here to visit Schapp Aviation – MzeroA.com, grab yourself a copy and Pass Your Private Pilot Checkride!

Rush…

Rushing through flight preparation is a great way to ruin a good flight. I saw once a student pilot leaving to a remote, exciting airport, and he felt great about it. When I saw him back couple of hours later I asked how it was, and the answer was quite sad: closed! Too bad this guy missed the NOTAM.

Flight preparation represents a significant part of the time spent around aircraft. Not having good weather and NOTAM information, or not having a clear navigation plan is a great way to waste a flight. Even on short flights, a plan B is a must.

Rushing through the pre-flight checks is also a good for getting in trouble. An open fuel cap, or a covered pitot tube are not that hard to spot but can lead to lot of problems. There is at least one registered case of a pilot forgetting to remove chokes, and then asking his passenger and fellow pilot to remove them with the prop running. A fatal error, literally speaking.

Don’t pay attention…

Enjoying a flight and chatting with your passengers in flight is great, and sharing the passion is cool. Not paying attention to engine instruments is also a great way not to detect possible engine problems soon enough. FADECs constantly monitoring all parameters are great. Engine problems are not always sudden, but not monitoring the instruments does not help to identify them. Fuel management is also a good thing to ignore if you want to get your share of shame. Fuel does not massively vanish from the tanks (except if you first forgot to close a fuel cap, see above…) and there is no reason to experience fuel starvation in a perfectly working aircraft.

Weather also evolves quickly and not maintaining a constant watch is good for getting trapped in bad situations. Restricted airspace evolves much less dynamically than weather, but aircraft move rapidly. Not paying attention to the navigation, missing a turning point or drifting away of the planned course and then violate some airspace is also a good way to get your local aviation authority looking at you very closely. And they will pay a lot of attention to you.

Continue…

Turning around can be frustrating, but continuing can be much worse. Continue a VFR flight in marginal conditions, and its cousin continue a VFR flight in IMC. For IFR pilots in light aircraft, continue in icing conditions. Continue to fly straight ahead even if you’re no longer sure of your position. Continue to descend because clouds get lower, even over rough terrain. Continue to descend along the ILS, because the lights are almost in sight. Continue on this low fuel conditions, because the winds can’t be that bad for the remaining time. Continue on this rough engine, because your homebase is the airport coming after the next one.

A good pilot must be patient, remain attentive, and know when to say stop and divert.

This is a guest post from Jason Schappert, the Certified Flight Instructor behind www.m0a.com, sharing about his high-altitude training. I learned from this and I hope you will as well. Vincent.

I’ll never forget my high altitude training. Watching through a window as the first batch of students went into the hyperbaric chamber I was honestly a bit nervous. Yet my nervousness quickly turned to laughter as they brought the students up through the flight levels.

Upon reaching 18,000 feet they asked the students to remove their oxygen masks, as they passed out simple toys and things for the students to do.
The gentleman nearest to the window I was looking through was given a cube with shape cut outs in it. A toy that we’re all familiar with and understand that you put the proper shape into the proper hole and it falls into the cube.

The gentleman picked up the cube along with the square shape and preceded to jam it into the circle hole over and over wondering why it wouldn’t work.

Across from him a lady was asked to write her name on a piece of paper. After much scribbling and writing mindless jargon. She passed out and the attendants quickly put her oxygen mask on her.

Watching this made me think. What if this really happened in an airplane? These pilots couldn’t even align shapes or write their names let alone fly an airplane!

If you have the chance I highly recommend taking a visit to a hyperbaric chamber. A little know fact, hypoxia occurs the same way to the same person every time. In other words if you get dizzy, then get a headache, then you notice your fingertips turn blue (cyanosis) this onset of hypoxia will occur the same way every time. Going into a chamber will help you realize your symptoms as hypoxia begins to set in.

Think about adding your high altitude endorsement to your flight training agenda. A good pilot is always learning!

Read more from Jason on www.m0a.com and read about my own experience with hypoxia.

When I was preparing for my PPL theoretical exam, a fellow student asked our teacher at the end of a lesson about mass and balance: “Do all aircraft have a center of gravity, or is this an optional piece of equipment ?”. I never forget the question, but can’t remind how the teacher did react. All pilots know it’s important to have the center of gravity within acceptable limits, and know how to calculate its position. But do YOU remember why it’s important ?

When a force is applied to an object, it makes it move, and / or rotate. If the object can move freely, like an aircraft in flight, it will rotate around its center of gravity. The farthest the point where the force is applied, the higher the rotation. The so-called “moment” is the force multiplied by the distance to the center of gravity. This is nothing else than the good old lever principle: “Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth.”

Because the center of gravity of an aircraft is never located at the center of gravity, the lift generates a moment. In light aircraft, the center of lift is typically behind the center of gravity, so lift generates a nose-down moment. This moment is compensated by some aerodynamic forces generated by the horizontal stabilizer. To compensate for the nose-down moment, the stabilizer generates some downward forces which create a nose-up moment. Because this force is far away from the center of gravity, a minimal magnitude is sufficient.

So the moment of lift (upwards, behind CoG, nose-down) and the moment from the stabilizer (downwards, behind CoG, nose-up) compensate for each other, making the aircraft stable, easy to control, and reduce the required control forces. But the distance between the center of gravity and the center of lift is not that big…

If the center of gravity moves behind the center of lift, the direction of the moment created by the lift changes direction: lift is still upwards, but it’s now in front of CoG, creating a nose-up moment. The force from the stabilizer is still downwards, and still behind the center of gravity… and still creating a nose-up moment. There is no more compensation and the sole way to compensate for the moment is to use extra control forces, but it’s not granted that the aircraft will remain stable and controllable…

Flying with passengers in the back seats of a PA28 or C172 makes quite a difference in the required control forces. This is why the typical differences training for a new aircraft type includes a flight at maximum take-off mass.

Nobody will check that you’re flying with a properly positioned center of gravity before you go flying. It’s one of the numerous duties of pilots to ensure the plane is loaded correctly, before and during each and every flight. As soon as you operate with a center of gravity outside the approved limits, you become a test pilot.

Insurance companies don’t like test pilots at all.

Aviation safety is one of my favorite topics. There’s a lot to do to improve the safety of our flying, and not only in the cockpit. These posts will give you food for thoughts and hopefully make you a safer, more prepared pilot. I organized them in various topics, pick your favorites, and take the time to explore the others. There’s always something to learn.

Checklists – an important tool for pilots and great enhancement of safety. But there are some pitfalls associated with the use of checklists. Do you know the difference between check and do lists ? And what about the risk of reciting checklists like mantras instead of really checking their items ?

• Do you write your own checklists ?
• Checklists and memory items
• Flow patterns, do lists and checklists
• Line-up check ? Done ! Really ?

Basic rules – best practices, common sense, many principles are known, assimilated, become a second nature… but accident reports periodically show what happens when they are disregarded. A refresher is always good.

• The top priorities in flight – yes, the good old aviate, navigate, communicate
• The clean cockpit strategy – well known by the airlines, easy to implement in light aircraft as well
• Airspace watch – one other pilot’s basic duties which is often disregarded
• 3 rules for safer night VFR
• What are your aviation golden rules ?

Aircraft systems – safe pilots know their aircraft inside out. Reading the manual is not the funniest thing to do but a very sensible one. Particularly when it comes to degraded modes and emergencies. Modern equipment makes aviation safer, as long as pilots know how to use it…

• The Cirrus Perspective “blue button”
• Equipment failure training
• Is GPS bad for general aviation ?

What if ? – we all know about typical emergencies. The best way to be prepared is to think well in advance, in the comfort of your club chair, and not to improvise under pressure.

• Emergency landing gear extension – Keep it simple
• In flight incapacitation – What would you do ?
• Flight plan and alerting service – When to use it ?

Human factors – most of recent aviation accidents have human factors as contributing causes, if not main cause. Human factors exist at many levels, during the flight, but also well before…

• Bank angle illusions
• Learning from other’s mistakes
• Are rich pilots safer ?

And if this not enough, you can visit this last one: 5 links for safer flying.

A couple of years ago I used to teach “Flight preparation” theory classes to student PPLs in Geneva, which included weight and balance and take-off performance. The weight and balance limits are easy to teach, but exact performance calculations are not easy. Wind and temperature are known at the last moment, and who really weigh all what’s on board to the pound ?

I’m not naive – I know that pilots don’t always make detailed performance calculations and I’ve no problem with that. Taking off from a 4.000 meters (13.000 feet) long runway at sea-level, alone in a Cessna 172 with full fuel, temperature below freezing and 15 knots of headwind is not a problem, no need to check the aircraft manual.

A common problem is that pilots tend to become a bit lazy with time. We easily think “I made it in similar conditions before, I don’t need to re-calculate all of it”. Degree per degree, pound per pound, one slowly reaches the limits of the aircraft. I tried to to teach the students to detect unusual conditions. Flying on particularly hot days, or with one more passenger than usual, or operating at unusual altitudes shall ring a bell.

Check this accident report from AOPA. It’s about a Bonanza crashing few hundred feet after take-off. Shifting winds also play a role in this accident but both weight and balance calculations reveal interesting points. The aircraft was in overweight, and had four persons on board. Because of high temperature the density altitude was 3000 feet higher than the elevation. Quoting the AOPA article: “The pilot stated that he “mentally” performed a weight and balance after topping off the airplane’s fuel tanks. He also said he had previously performed takeoff-over-obstacle calculations for the airport in similar warm-weather conditions.”

One is always smarter after an accident and criticizing from the comfort of my living room is easy… but I’ve one extra remark. The video clearly shows that the landing gear remains extended all the time. This raises the old question: when to retract the landing gear ? As soon as airborne, or when a landing is no longer possible ? The decision depends of the type of take-off, but also of the type of aircraft. I personally don’t like the emergency landing gear extension system of the Bonanza. I would tend to leave the gear down longer on a Bonanza because of it. Could gear retraction have saved the doomed aircraft ? Hard to say.

This accident carries several lessons. Take some time to think about it and let me know what it teaches YOU.

This post is a report from fellow pilot and twitter @matthammer, about an in-flight incident involving the mixture control. The author is a private pilot from New Jersey, working on his commercial certificate and instrument rating. Vincent.

It was a routine cross-country for me, a round-robin from TTN, to MSV, AVP, and back to TTN. The weather was beautiful, winds aloft were practically calm, and, aside from the occasional light chop, it was a smooth ride. The aircraft also seemed to be performing fine — my pre-flight showed no discrepancies, and the run-ups (one at each airport) went without so much as a hiccup. Things turned out to be a little more interesting than I planned on the last leg, though.

After departing AVP I began a climb up to 3000 feet, 1500 feet lower than my planned altitude to avoid an unexpected broken layer. During this climb I noticed the mixture knob felt a little more loose than normal, but didn’t really think much of it at the time. Thirty or so miles later I had cleared the broken layer, and decided to climb up to my planned altitude of 4500 feet. This is when things became a little more interesting.

After arriving at 4500 I went to lean out the engine a bit more. But much to my surprise, after a few turns, the entire mixture knob (including a good 8 or so inches of the cable) came out of the panel and fell on the airplane’s floor. “Wonderful,” I thought to myself. Thankfully my flight instructor had really drilled me on handling various contingencies in flight — so rather than freaking out, I diverted my attention to flying the airplane and assessing the situation. I reasoned that since the airplane was still running smoothly, and I was only 40 or so miles away from TTN, I would just continue the flight. I also decided that if any other adverse situations developed I would get help from ATC (I had flight following from Allentown at the time).

At about 12 miles out I began a gradual (300FPM) power-on descent to TTN’s pattern altitude of 1200 feet. If the engine started coughing, I planned to declare an emergency to Trenton’s tower. Thankfully, the entire descent went without so much as a hiccup. I set up for a right base on runway 24, and landed with a little extra power.

Shutting down the engine actually turned out to be the biggest challenge. Normally you just pull the mixture knob all the way out, which starves the engine of fuel. But obviously that wasn’t going to work, since the knob was currently lying on the floor. So instead I started by turning the master and mags to the off position. That didn’t work, so I pulled the fuel shutoff valve. After (what felt like a minute and a half or so) of sputtering, the engine finally ground to a halt. I finished securing the airplane, checked to make sure there was no way it could be accidentally started, and left to inform the dispatcher of what had happened.

Looking back, I feel pretty confident that I handled it well. I never once felt as if I was pushing things in a way that compromised safety, yet I also managed to avoid the hassles (read: government and media) of declaring an emergency. The incident also reminded me of the importance of training for emergencies. I would rarely go a dual flight without some sort of simulated emergency. Even though this particular situation was not one that I had been trained to handle, my CFI had drilled the emergency handling mindset deep into my head.

When something unexpected happens, the first step is *always* to fly the airplane. Doesn’t matter if you’ve lost your engine, you still have a best glide speed which you need to maintain, and you should be heading for a suitable field to land on if necessary. (You were keeping an eye out for good places to land in an emergency before the engine cut out, right?) Second, you need to assess the situation. Is it an actual emergency? Are you in immediate danger? What’s the most logical thing to do to arrive on the ground in one piece (preferably at an airport, but always be ready to accept that that may not be an option)? If it is an actual emergency, let ATC know (make sure you’re squawking 7700, unless you have flight following — in which case you should give your squawk code to ATC during your mayday call). But either way, after you’ve decided on the best way to handle the situation, COMMIT to your plan. Don’t second guess yourself unless it’s glaringly obvious that you’ve made a mistake. Youíre better off with a mediocre plan started in time, than with a perfect plan started too late.

Currently training for my CPL license I recently had the chance to practice the commercial maneuvers for the very first time… more specifically Chandelles, Lazy Eights, Eights-on-Pylons and Steep Spirals.

Chandelles:

First off were the Chandelles and this maneuver also turned out to be the easiest one. The chandelle can be described as a maximum performance 180-degree climbing turn. You start out by establishing a 30-degree bank, adding full power and gradually start pitching up. When you have turned 90 degrees the pitch should be at its maximum. For the remaining portion of the maneuver the pitch attitude should be kept constant while gradually reducing the bank angle so that the wings return to level after 180 degrees of turn and with the airspeed just above the stall speed. A good rule-of-thumb for pitch attitude at the 90-degree point is about 8 degrees of pitch-up on the attitude indicator. This worked very well for me and I actually got the whole maneuver right on the very first attempt.

Take a look at chapter 9 of the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook for a detailed description as well as illustrations of the maneuver. (The document opens at the top of chapter 7 so you need to scroll down near the bottom to find these maneuvers).

Lazy Eights:

The next maneuver I set out to try was the Lazy Eight. This one proved to be a little more challenging although a very useful advice from my instructor helped me quite a bit. The Lazy Eight maneuver is comprised of two consecutive 180-degree turns in opposite directions while making a climb and descent in a symmetrical pattern during each of the turns.

If this sounds a bit complicated at first you can take a look at the instructional video below for a breakdown of how the maneuver is flown:

As you can see in the video we establish several key points throughout the maneuver.

• The first one is the 45-degree point. At this point the pitch up attitude should be at its maximum and the airplane should have smoothly rolled into about 15 degrees of bank.
• The second key point is the 90-degree point. After passing through the 45-degree point the bank angle should gradually continue to increase so that the maximum bank angle of about 30 degrees is reached at the 90-degree point. At the same time the pitch attitude should be gradually decreased so that you return to a level pitch attitude at the 90-degree point.
• At the third key point – the 135-degree point – the bank angle should be reduced back to 15 degrees of bank and the pitch attitude should be at its lowest while descending back to the same altitude at which you first entered the maneuver.
• The final key point is the 180-degree point at which you should have returned to straight-and-level flight at the same altitude at which you first entered the maneuver and the heading should be in the exact opposite direction of your entry heading. As soon as you are straight-and-level at the 180-degree point you start rolling the airplane into a bank in the opposite direction to do the whole thing over in the opposite direction…

These key points provide a good framework on which to base the necessary control inputs throughout the maneuver. However, while trying to accomplish these predetermined flight attitudes at the established key points it is important to remember that there should be a smooth and gradual change in both pitch attitude and bank angle throughout the entire maneuver.

The way my instructor taught me to accomplish this was by initially rolling into about 5 degrees of bank and then bringing the ailerons back to a neutral position while allowing the airplane to continue rolling into a bank by itself. The first time I flew the maneuver I tried this and found that it worked very well. As I continued to pitch up towards the 45-degree point the airplane would indeed smoothly continue to roll into a bank by itself. When I passed through the 45-degree point all I needed to do was to start releasing some of the back pressure on the yoke and the airplane would continue to increase the bank angle on its own while the nose was gradually lowered towards a level pitch attitude.

All in all the first 90 degrees of the maneuver required very little control inputs on my part. After rolling into the initial 5 degrees of bank all I needed to do was to control the pitch attitude with back pressure on the yoke while keeping the ailerons and rudders neutral and the airplane basically did the rest for me.

As I allowed the airplane to return to a level pitch attitude at the 90-degree point and relatively close to the clean configuration stall speed the nose of the airplane sliced sideways through the horizon and into a descending pitch attitude without any significant intervention on the flight controls by me.

The second half of the 180-degree turn was somewhat more challenging as I was required to use the controls more actively to reduce the bank angle and controlling the pitch attitude throughout the descending portion of the turn.

This maneuver is also to be found in chapter 9 of the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook. (Located near the bottom of the document).

Eights-on-Pylons:

After a couple attempts on the Lazy Eights I set out to try the Eights-on-Pylons.

I recommend you watch this instructional video for a thorough explanation of the maneuver:

You can also check out chapter 6 of the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook for a detailed description of the maneuver. (The Eights-on-Pylons maneuver is located near the end of the document).

Before the flight I made myself a table of applicable ground speeds and corresponding pivotal altitudes that looked something like this:

As you have probably noticed by now this maneuver is flown in the shape of a figure eight around two pylons on the ground. While turning around one of the pylons the airplane’s lateral axis should appear to pivot on the pylon as if the airplane’s wingtip was attached to the pylon by a string. This is accomplished by maintaining corresponding ground speeds and pivotal altitudes throughout the maneuver according to the table above.

I can’t think of much more to say about this maneuver apart from one handy rule that I recently picked up from a co-student and which has helped me quite a bit with remembering how to control the airplane correctly through the maneuver. Except for when you are flying in no-wind conditions (which very rarely happens) your ground speed will vary throughout the maneuver and hence so will your pivotal altitude. The clue to remember is to always pitch towards the pylon….if the pylon moves backwards behind the wingtip then you pitch back by applying some extra back pressure on the yoke. If the pylon starts moving forward ahead of the wingtip then you pitch forward as if to catch up with the pylon.

Steep Spirals:

The steep spiral maneuver which is flown with idle power is an efficient way of losing altitude while remaining over a selected point on the ground. This maneuver is similar to that of turns around a point which you have probably been through if you hold at least a Private Pilot license. In fact this maneuver is flown as turns around a point while descending at idle power and the maneuver is complete after three full 360-degree turns.

Here are a couple resources I would like to share with you that explains and illustrates this maneuver:

Chapter 9 of the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook. (The steep spiral maneuver is located near the bottom of the document).

Google tools
The google search engine is great to get pilot reports and find more information about your destination airport. Searching by ICAO code or location indicator in Google Earth and Google Maps gives good geographical insights of the destination and the route. If you’re wondering how hard a landmark will be to find, give it a try in Google Earth or Google Maps. One note though, some of the pictures are more than 10 years old…

YouTube
YouTube for flight planning ? Yes, definitely. When I fly to an airport for the first time I like to have as  much information as possible. Looking at videos of the approach taken by other pilots gives additional information and is kind of a preview. Here again, seaching by ICAO code or location indicator is the most efficient way to find what you’re looking for.

Airliners.net
Just like YouTube gives information in video, airliners.net gives information via photos. What does the airport look like ? Even if charts are quite accurate, a photo gives much more information.

liveatc.net
If your new destination is in a different country or has specific procedures, what about test-driving the local ATC ? liveatc.net provides live audio feeds of ATC almost worldwide. If you think ATC is the same everywhere, try listening to New-York JFK (KJFK) and then Geneva (LSGG). Some preparation can only help.

Official AIP online
Several European countries offer their AIP online, some for free. Here is a short list: French AIP, UK AIP, Belgian AIP. The Swiss AIP can’t be accessed online but you can subscribe to the paper version here.

Less official information online
Different websites managed by aviation enthusiasts provide extensive but unofficial information databases. Nav2000 (French only) covers France, Switzerland and Belgium. It offers chart extracts, photos, price of fuel, contact information, pilot reports and much more about airports and ultralight bases.

www.fl95.de (German only) offers flight planning and weight and balance online. It contains a database of en-route points and of aircraft for the weight and balance.

Flight plan filing
Several sites offer flight plan online. Some require that the flight starts or ends in the country operating the website, other are more flexible. Olivia, the French system (also in English) allows for NOTAM, weather and flight plan filing. The German DFS AIS (German and English) provides flight plan filing as well as TAF / METAR / NOTAM briefings. eurofpl.eu offers the possibility to send a flight plan directly to the EUROCONTROL systems. www.homebriefing.com offers full service, but users have to pay for flight plans.

Aircraft manuals
Many aircraft manuals and checklists can be found online. They can not be used as replacement of the official documents of YOUR aircraft, but can be helpful. Click here to access the download page of Diamond Aircraft.

Your link here
If you know about great online resources for flight preparation leave a comment and I’ll update this post.