Aero-Tips!
A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard
this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer
statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of
"there are no old, bold pilots.") It's part of what makes aviation
so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it
all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.
Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner,
master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us
-- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators, and as
representatives of the flying community. Some of them, you may have
heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we
might never have considered before, or something that didn't
"stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for
the practical test.
It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers
become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our
ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those
strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow
them to soar magnificently through it.
Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you
through the Aero-News Network. Suggestions for future Aero-Tips are
always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips.
Remember... when it comes to being better pilots, we're all in this
together.
Aero-Tips 05.10.06
Pilot logbooks serve a number of purposes. On the most basic
level, they record information that proves our legal ability to
fly. For some a logbook represents a challenge, to log a target
number of flying hours or to fly a certain number of airplane
types. There are even financial incentives to logging flight
time.
The legal
FAR 61.51 tells us what is
required to be logged for pilots to exercise pilot privileges:
- Training and aeronautical experience used to meet the
requirements for a certificate, rating, or flight review
- Aeronautical experience required for meeting the recent flight
experience requirements
That’s it. If you don’t plan to use flight time
toward a certificate or rating, or to show basic currency (example:
three landings in the last 90 days for passenger-carrying
privileges) then you don’t have to log the time.
The challenge
Most pilots boast, however, about the total time they’ve
spent in aircraft. Many pilots log most or all of their time in a
specific airplane type, while others strive to record experience in
as many types as possible during a flying career. A logbook is the
accepted means of substantiating those boasts—so most pilots
log every flight they take.
The financial
If you own an aircraft, or even plan on owning one, you know
that time-in-type is one of the biggest variables in insurance
costs. The more experience you have in a make and model of
aircraft, they less expensive insurance will usually be. Time in
similar-configuration airplanes (retractable gear, tailwheel,
multiengine, piston rotary wing, etc.) is a big factor as well. If
it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen -- and the
place to write it down is a pilot’s logbook.
Me, I think a logbook is far more than a legal document or an
insurance record. I tend more to the “challenge” end of
the logging spectrum -- not to log time in different types
(although mine has some unusual entries, including Stearman and
F-15E Strike Eagle time) but to amass the highest number of hours I
can, and to record the sights, sounds, and feelings of each flight
as well. A few words in a logbook’s Remarks instantly spark
memories of flights taken long ago. My logs are more a
pilot’s diary than a past-tense daily planner.
Aero-tip of the day: Know what you must log,
and what you might log to remember flights gone by.
Bolen Gives Congress a Rare Thumbs-Up
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