Aircraft design always evolve, towards more efficiency, comfort, and safety. But sometimes designers work in other directions. Discover 12 new aircraft types in this video.

Read other Advent Calendar Posts – but no cheating !

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14

15 – 16 – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 – 24 – XMAS

Both FAA and JAA define criterions for instructors and examiners to judge a landing. Some instructors also developped an unofficial scale, with five different grades…

1 – That wasn’t a landing; that was an arrival. Check your ELT.
2 – You going to log all of those?
3  – Average. I could do better with my eyes closed.
4 – I’ve seen better; just can’t remember when.
5 – Marvelous, ace. Couldn’t do better myself.

Read other Advent Calendar Posts – but no cheating !

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 – 13 – 14

15 – 16 – 17 – 18 – 19 – 20 – 21 – 22 – 23 – 24 – XMAS

And if you’re already a pilot, feel free to use these 10 reasons to bring new members to the flying community.

Take the intellectual challenge
Pilots don’t have to be big-brainers, and holding a Master of Aeronautics is not a prerequisite, but learning to fly is also an intellectual challenge. Particularly if you get an instrument rating, the workload, decision making, and flight management will certainly stimulate you.

Meet interesting people
Whether you fly in a club, school, or within an owners group, you can be sure that you’ll meet tons of interesting persons. Other pilots, instructors, airport staff, engineers, they all have captivating stories to tell you.

Save time
Visiting remote places is much easier as a pilot. You can use the extra-speed to visit family members living away more easily, save time, and make more out of the 24 hours you get each day.

Technical interest
If you like technical things, you’re probably already attracted by airplane. Becoming a pilot means that you’ll develop your technical knowledge in various fields: aerodynamics, avionics, engines, … If you’re not upset when someone calls you a geek, try flying a glass-cockpit light aircraft, you’ll find it even better.

An impressive hobby
The social impact of having “flying” as a hobby can be surprising. I got married the day after my introductory flight, so this is not how I seduced my wonderful wife, but I’m sur it works. The way your colleagues, friends and other relative perceive you will certainly change when you’ll become a pilot. Note that green integrists might not like that…

The 100$ hamburger
Flying to a remote and exciting location is good, but flying to a nearby airport with a good restaurant is not bad either. Even if the concept of 100$ hamburger shall probably be adapted to the 250$ hamburger because of all the cost increase, it’s still really cool. Take your passengers on board, fly 30 minutes, eat on the airport restaurant’s terrace looking at other planes, and fly home.

Change the way you see the world
That might seem a silly, romantic thing, but it’s true: flying and seeing the world from above makes it look different. Pilots also learn to read the weather signs, and get a better understanding of how things are working, on a more global scale.

Can be a second job opportunity

Never say never. Getting a commercial pilot license requires more theory and training than a simple private pilot license, but it could open new opportunities someday. Getting an “upgrade” from private to commercial is also possible within a couple of months. Many pilot jobs do not pay that well, but who knows ?

Help the community
I already posted on this blog about Angel Flights, and other ways general aviation is helping the whole community. There are many of them, and numerous associations need the help of volunteer pilots.

Fun
Last but not least, flying is fun !

Anything else to add ? I’m waiting for your comments !

As comments on the “Do you listen to music while flying ?” post shown, many pilots like to fly with music, so I prepared a short list of flying related songs that could be good in flight. Then I spotted them on YouTube, to make this post a multimedia one. Don’t miss the last video… it’s seriously fun.

First one: “The letter” a.k.a. “Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane”, mostly for non-pilots.

Second one, for VFR pilots, “I can see clearly now”.

For those with more ambition, and for romantics “Fly me to the moon”, with nice video from St-Marteen.

Last but not least: “I believe I can fly”. I chose the song for its calm music and cool songs, but when I saw THAT video, I could not resist…

In Switzerland, the route to a private pilot license goes through evening classes to prepare the theoretical examination. These are not always fun and animated – I know, I’ve been the “teacher” for a couple of years in Geneva Aero-Club…

Hopefully, most student groups include one “different” student. It can be someone with a strong sense of humor, or with a particular background. Nothing negative here, aviation is not reserved to technical or academical persons. Students are here to learn, and teachers to help them.

When I was a student pilot, there was a guy in our group – candidate helicopter pilot – who initially had a restricted understanding of physics and aircraft knowledge. One the plus side, he never hesitated to ask, and this resulted in some astonishing questions.

I will always remember what he asked when the “weight and balance” course was nearly over. We were already packing our stuff and were close to get home when he raised his hand, and asked… “Does all aircraft have a center of gravity, or is that an option the manufacturer can include or not ?” As you might imagine, this has been followed by a long silence in the room. No one, even the teacher, knew if that was a joke or a serious question.

The next memorable question came out during the “Aircraft Knowledge” course. We were told how to drain the tanks after refueling, to make sure there’s no water left in the tanks. I don’t know if our favorite colleague did not listen from the beginning, but his question was “How can the engine work if we drain tanks after refueling ?” Don’t get it ? He thought we were talking about fully draining them…

Once again, no shame. When I became a theory teacher myself, I had to cope with such questions. I always preferred students asking than those pretending they understood anything which then failed the tests. The private pilot’s population is much more diversified than some tend to think, and there is no reason to discourage anyone.

I always thought there were three parts in the PPL theory syllabus: what is needed to fly, what is needed to pass the exam, and a part which is needed for both. Unfortunately many candidates never get to the end of the theory classes and decide to search for another hobby.

Sadly, the national authorities are not making the process easier, and to this respect Europe probably has something to learn from the US. Preparing for the IFR theory exam calls for a minimum of 200 study hours, and the examination itself lasts for not less than 4 days (in Switzerland).

Retrospectively, it took me much more time to get ready for that theory exam (1 year of week-end studies) than to actually learn to fly IFR (3 months, with one or two flights a week, some being cancelled due to winter / spring weather).

It’s a shame that because of how the theory is presented and checked, so many student pilots give-up before even sitting down in a plane. In a period where the number of pilots reaches an historically low level, a more pragmatic approach to training could change things. May be those with strange questions can be good pilots…

The core of the “Principles of Flight” course (a.k.a. PoF, a.k.a. Aerodynamics) is the chapter about the four forces. This piece of propaganda and disinformation has been designed to make pilots think that four forces apply to an aircraft and govern its spatial evolution: lift, weight, thrust, and drag.

This is a fundamental mistake, and I’ll unveil here what are the true four forces involved in flight physics. If you’re a pilot you probably know them, and if you envisage to become a pilot, it’s good you know them before.

At first. it’s not lift that moves the plane upwards, it’s only pilot’s dreams and hopes. No flight can take place without a pilot, which by definition is a dreamer. Otherwise, he would work in a bank, or worse, an administration (more on that later – no offense. May be not.).

The force that opposes to dreams and hope, tending to bring the airplane down is not the weight. It’s the strong power of reality. All the “because it is so”, “you can’t do that”, “no way”, and other silly answers.

Theory says that the force making the plane go forward is thrust. This is also wrong. The only thing that can possibly accelerate a plane is money. Try  to get it out of the equation, and the plane will stop. It’s sad, but it’s so. Oops, part of “reality”.

Finally, the force opposing to forward movement is not drag, but administration. You don’t believe it because you think administration is part of reality ? True. Administration is so strong that it is by itself counter-acting dreams AND money !

That being said, there is only thing to add: the propeller is not used to pull planes forward, but rather to refresh the pilot. To demonstrate that, stop the engine, and look how quickly the pilot starts to sweat.

Part of this post has been inspired by a funny drawing found on a blog in french: Penpen au Quebéc. Thank you, and see you tomorrow for something slightly more serious !

If you have kids, you know how important (and hard) it is to explain them to cross roads at the zebra-crossing only. What has this to do with aviation ? It’s all about runway markings, kids, and Toulouse Airport…

Someone working for the french ATC told me this story a couple of years ago. A group of kids living east of Toulouse Blagnac airport (home of Airbus) had to walk daily to their school, west of the airport. A rather long walk so when they found a hole in the airport perimeter fence, they were quite happy.

After a couple of days, they got caught by the security service, and were severely sermoned by the guys in charge. To plead their cause, the kids told that they were really careful, and always crossed the runway at the zebra. If you’re a pilot you probably already got it, if not you’re may be a bit lost.

There are several markings on runways, to guide pilots. The centerline (where the nose-wheel is supposed to be…), the touch-down zone (where the main wheels should normally get in contact with the ground… softly), and the threshold (from where the runway is usable for landing).

The picture below shows the threshold of runway 32 Right in Toulouse – the one the kids were crossing. According to ICAO requirements, the threshold is materialized by a series of parallel markings across the runway. One must admit that it seriously looks like a Zebra crossing.

The hole in the fence got fixed, and the kids had to walk around again… For this time, the “I crossed at the zebra” excuse did not worked. Sorry kids.

Aviation is a serious activity, and as all serious activities it also contains a serious part of fun ! From true stories, like this pilot who wanted to say he made a kiss-landing, but talk to his passengers about a “french-kiss-landing”.

The communications between air traffic controllers and pilots are also sometimes… surprising, like when a controller told to a pilot who was not responding as quickly as expected: “You’re like my wife, you never listen to me !” Maintenance staff can be funny as well. A pilot once reported in a plane log-book “Dead insects found on top of the dashboard”, the engineer on duty checked it and noted “Alive bugs ordered” in the “Answer” column of the book.

Even if a student pilot being lost is not really a funny situation, some can find a funny way out, like this student calling on the emergency frequency and saying “Unidentified airport with a Cessna 152 orbiting overhead, identify yourself.”

May be I will once open an “Aviation fun” section in this blog, but for the time being you can find more in PilotFriend’s humour section. Their collection is quite impressive. Enjoy !