Seville Land-Away

Before you do you PT1 there is a planned land away trip at Seville. This is approximately 30 minutes as the laymen flies. However we will choose a route which takes about 1.5hrs.

The weather was clear, winds were calm but the visibility was not so good. One of the biggest limitations is the temperature. It is estimated that there is a 5°C difference from Jerez to Seville and given it was already 30°C at Jerez, you can imagine how much of a difference this makes to both the human limitations of the crew (given the aircraft are not air conditioned) and that of the aircraft itself! 

It's a fantastic trip up to the foot hills north of Seville. The complex terrain makes it more interesting for navigating and really hammers home the importance of precise planning and a flawless execution of times and headings. Of course after a long trip it would be rude not to refuel yourself as well as the aircraft!

The video shows it all a little better.

Visual techniques

Apologies again as this is another late post. Non the less....

So you've been flying solo for a while now and developed all of your general handling techniques such as:

• Practice forced landings (PFL's)
• Stalls
• Steep turns
• Emergencies
• Circuits

In addition to this you will learn how to navigate using visual techniques, remaining in visual flight rules at all time. Naturally all of these techniques are developed to a commercial standard here and utilising the published Standard Operating procedures laid down by the company.

Most training oranisations will have an interim test which we call PT1. This is essentially testing you on all the skills you have learned so far. Unlike the UK PPL license tests, this is far more formal and requires a higher standard. That isn't to say that the PPL is unsuitable in anyway, you just have to bare in mind that eventually we need to fly commercially and therefore the school demands a high standard early on. Makes sense really!

The idea of PT1 is to have this done and passed before any further progression onto instrument flying.