Southern Microlight Club of Victoria
As a person with no previous flying experience or knowledge I am perhaps finally qualified to advise on something, and that would be to give newcomers an insight as to what is involved in getting into the sport.
Where it all starts is for you to go along and have a TIF, that is a “Trial Instructional Flight” where you take to the air with a qualified instructor and you get to experience what its like to fly in one of these machines. Once you are up in the air and things are stable your instructor will allow you to take the control bar and instruct you on how to execute a few basic banks and turns so you can get a feel for what it’s like to fly these aircraft. From this point I was hooked, WOW! what an experience.
A typical one hour TIF costs around $150.00
This flight should generally be for an hour to give you a good idea as to what this sport is all about and your instructor will also get an impression about you as a student (your instructor could say to you at this stage that you are not suited to flying and should join a book club or that you are a natural born TOP GUN).
Your TIF will count towards the minimum training hours required to get your Pilot certificate, even though you may be like me and not remember anything your instructor said as at the time you were too scared, too excited, taking in the view, thinking just get me down and asking a million and one irrelevant questions due to excitement and nervousness.
With all being good after your TIF and if you are still wanting to continue, you will then be briefed on the theory requirements and training costs. The theory covers understanding the principles of flight as they apply to microlight aircraft, meteorology, navigation, airport protocols, radio procedures and aircraft maintenance. The theory doesn’t have to be completed before you start taking flying lessons but certain stages must be completed before you can qualify to fly solo etc. Most students use a combination of self study and instructor led sessions to complete their theory requirements. You will be given a workbook which you complete using various reference materials. Your thorough understanding of the material this workbook covers is key to assist you to sit and pass the 3 exams.
Most of the early flying will involve circuit work, where you take off and fly a circuit around the airfield and land again, you learn to fly in a straight line from take off until you reach circuit height 500’ and then make a tidy 90 degree turn and fly to the downwind leg where you make another tidy 90 degree turn all the while maintaining altitude, the downwind and base leg are flown at a suitable parralel distance from the runway so that if your engine fails you can simply glide in and land. Your instructor will more than likely test you by turning the engine off without notice.
Flying a microlight is a lot like riding a bike, we all remember what it was like when we first learnt to ride, just learning to balance the thing, all wobbly couldn’t hold it straight and then after a while it comes together and you find yourself doing all the little compensations and corrections to keep it balanced without even thinking about it. Learning to control the wing is also a motor skill, you get to the point where you stop thinking about it and realise that your just doing it. The time it takes to get to this point will vary on a few things, how often you go for lessons, what sort of conditions you fly in and how much time goes by where you don’t fly and consequently lose the skill. If you can remember the buzz you got when you finally “got it” on your bike, get yourself ready to feel that buzz again times 100.
Initially I thought taking off was easy as you just accelerate away and the thing lifts off, but I didn’t realise that the early part of my training was done in calm conditions, easy peasy. Later I discovered a whole new set of taking off challenges, taking off in crosswinds, gusts, thermatic conditions, wind gradients and wind shadows. After 20 dud landings I thought to myself “I’m just not going to get this” I didn’t realise that the reason I wasn’t getting it was because I was overthinking it and trying to control the landing with my mind, my timing was all wrong because I wasn’t feeling the air. To do this required me to relax, just like balancing the bike you have to feel it, sense it and instinctively react. And this folks comes from practice, practice and more practise just like you need to do to successfully conquer that bike.
The circuit work is where it all happens, taking off, landing, wind gusts, thermal air currents, wind gradients. Most accidents happen in this part of the air and this is where experience gained will benefit a pilot the most. An hour spent doing circuits will give you more skill than an hour flying around in the calm upper level air, make the training count and put your time in at circuit level.
There is a minimum mandated instructional hours (10 hours) required before you can fly solo, however it can take more than that. In my case it was confidence, my instructor was telling me that I had been flying all by myself for quite a while but I just didn’t have the confidence to go it alone. When I finally did go solo after 18 hours of dual training and 98 landings we strapped a jerry can full of petrol in the back seat to help compensate for the weight difference of not having a passenger and then off I went. My first solo circuit was perfect, my landing was silky smooth and for many circuits afterwards I struggled to do it as well.
On an average training day I would spend about 1½ hours in the air and it took me 2 months to get to solo and another month before I had the necessary hours and passed the theory exam for my Pilot certificate. My enthusiasm to learn and accomplish this was high and I pushed other things in my life asside in order to do the theory work and get to the airfield for training. There were dissapointments along the way, one such example is a four day block that I cleared in order to put in a heap of training (I was hoping to get 10 hours airtime in), well the weather wasn’t kind and then a necessary repair on the trike killed off another day while we waited for parts, this resulted in only 1/2 hour of airtime for my four day commitment, such is life.
The instructor’s charges for the training and materials are apparent, but you need to add to this the cost of your time and be prepared to make the necessary commitment to get through it. Once I got my pilot certificate it all became a lot easier as no longer did I have to worry about matching my life with the weather forcast and my instructor’s schedule. Initially I just flew around the local area building my confidence, honing my skills and enjoying the wonderful experience of flight. After a couple of months of this I embarked on the next phase of my training to get my cross country endorsement.
It’s been just on a year now since I started learning, I’ve flown a total of 65 hours with 266 landings, I still have an occasional bumpy landing and I’m still a little nervous ahead of the first take off for the day. My enthusiasm hasn’t wained at all, if anything the addiction still seems to be growing. Flying requires your total concentration and this takes your mind away from all the other things in your life that you may need a break from. When you take off you leave all your lifes troubles on the ground and once you touch down again you’ve had a thrilling and exhilarating experience and are re-energised, refreshed and better equiped to take on all of lifes ups and downs. Pun intended.
Where it all starts is for you to go along and have a TIF, that is a “Trial Instructional Flight” where you take to the air with a qualified instructor and you get to experience what its like to fly in one of these machines. Once you are up in the air and things are stable your instructor will allow you to take the control bar and instruct you on how to execute a few basic banks and turns so you can get a feel for what it’s like to fly these aircraft. From this point I was hooked, WOW! what an experience.
A typical one hour TIF costs around $150.00
This flight should generally be for an hour to give you a good idea as to what this sport is all about and your instructor will also get an impression about you as a student (your instructor could say to you at this stage that you are not suited to flying and should join a book club or that you are a natural born TOP GUN).
Your TIF will count towards the minimum training hours required to get your Pilot certificate, even though you may be like me and not remember anything your instructor said as at the time you were too scared, too excited, taking in the view, thinking just get me down and asking a million and one irrelevant questions due to excitement and nervousness.
With all being good after your TIF and if you are still wanting to continue, you will then be briefed on the theory requirements and training costs. The theory covers understanding the principles of flight as they apply to microlight aircraft, meteorology, navigation, airport protocols, radio procedures and aircraft maintenance. The theory doesn’t have to be completed before you start taking flying lessons but certain stages must be completed before you can qualify to fly solo etc. Most students use a combination of self study and instructor led sessions to complete their theory requirements. You will be given a workbook which you complete using various reference materials. Your thorough understanding of the material this workbook covers is key to assist you to sit and pass the 3 exams.
Most of the early flying will involve circuit work, where you take off and fly a circuit around the airfield and land again, you learn to fly in a straight line from take off until you reach circuit height 500’ and then make a tidy 90 degree turn and fly to the downwind leg where you make another tidy 90 degree turn all the while maintaining altitude, the downwind and base leg are flown at a suitable parralel distance from the runway so that if your engine fails you can simply glide in and land. Your instructor will more than likely test you by turning the engine off without notice.
Flying a microlight is a lot like riding a bike, we all remember what it was like when we first learnt to ride, just learning to balance the thing, all wobbly couldn’t hold it straight and then after a while it comes together and you find yourself doing all the little compensations and corrections to keep it balanced without even thinking about it. Learning to control the wing is also a motor skill, you get to the point where you stop thinking about it and realise that your just doing it. The time it takes to get to this point will vary on a few things, how often you go for lessons, what sort of conditions you fly in and how much time goes by where you don’t fly and consequently lose the skill. If you can remember the buzz you got when you finally “got it” on your bike, get yourself ready to feel that buzz again times 100.
Initially I thought taking off was easy as you just accelerate away and the thing lifts off, but I didn’t realise that the early part of my training was done in calm conditions, easy peasy. Later I discovered a whole new set of taking off challenges, taking off in crosswinds, gusts, thermatic conditions, wind gradients and wind shadows. After 20 dud landings I thought to myself “I’m just not going to get this” I didn’t realise that the reason I wasn’t getting it was because I was overthinking it and trying to control the landing with my mind, my timing was all wrong because I wasn’t feeling the air. To do this required me to relax, just like balancing the bike you have to feel it, sense it and instinctively react. And this folks comes from practice, practice and more practise just like you need to do to successfully conquer that bike.
The circuit work is where it all happens, taking off, landing, wind gusts, thermal air currents, wind gradients. Most accidents happen in this part of the air and this is where experience gained will benefit a pilot the most. An hour spent doing circuits will give you more skill than an hour flying around in the calm upper level air, make the training count and put your time in at circuit level.
There is a minimum mandated instructional hours (10 hours) required before you can fly solo, however it can take more than that. In my case it was confidence, my instructor was telling me that I had been flying all by myself for quite a while but I just didn’t have the confidence to go it alone. When I finally did go solo after 18 hours of dual training and 98 landings we strapped a jerry can full of petrol in the back seat to help compensate for the weight difference of not having a passenger and then off I went. My first solo circuit was perfect, my landing was silky smooth and for many circuits afterwards I struggled to do it as well.
On an average training day I would spend about 1½ hours in the air and it took me 2 months to get to solo and another month before I had the necessary hours and passed the theory exam for my Pilot certificate. My enthusiasm to learn and accomplish this was high and I pushed other things in my life asside in order to do the theory work and get to the airfield for training. There were dissapointments along the way, one such example is a four day block that I cleared in order to put in a heap of training (I was hoping to get 10 hours airtime in), well the weather wasn’t kind and then a necessary repair on the trike killed off another day while we waited for parts, this resulted in only 1/2 hour of airtime for my four day commitment, such is life.
The instructor’s charges for the training and materials are apparent, but you need to add to this the cost of your time and be prepared to make the necessary commitment to get through it. Once I got my pilot certificate it all became a lot easier as no longer did I have to worry about matching my life with the weather forcast and my instructor’s schedule. Initially I just flew around the local area building my confidence, honing my skills and enjoying the wonderful experience of flight. After a couple of months of this I embarked on the next phase of my training to get my cross country endorsement.
It’s been just on a year now since I started learning, I’ve flown a total of 65 hours with 266 landings, I still have an occasional bumpy landing and I’m still a little nervous ahead of the first take off for the day. My enthusiasm hasn’t wained at all, if anything the addiction still seems to be growing. Flying requires your total concentration and this takes your mind away from all the other things in your life that you may need a break from. When you take off you leave all your lifes troubles on the ground and once you touch down again you’ve had a thrilling and exhilarating experience and are re-energised, refreshed and better equiped to take on all of lifes ups and downs. Pun intended.
Learning to Fly - by Steve Bell