BECOME A PRIVATE PILOT

A private pilots licence is just exactly that, but it can also be that most important first step to becoming a commercial pilot. Almost everyone from 16 years upwards, with no upper age limit, can train to become a private pilot, which enables the holder of this licence to act as pilot in command or co pilot in any aircraft for private use.

The private pilots licence course, known as the PPL, can be undertaken in a full time or part time capacity, depending on the individual's circumstances and here at Atlantic we can cater for both.

The course itself consists of flight training and ground school/theory training. Firstly, let’s look at the flight training. A student is required by the Irish Aviation Authority to have a minimum of 45 flight training hours before he or she is allowed to take the flight test with an examiner for the grant of the PPL. This training will normally fall into three stages as follows;

Stage 1

This involves all the upper airwork such as climbing, descending, turning, flight at various and critical speeds, gliding, stalling and all possible emergencies, for example what to do in the event of an engine failure. This stage would typically take up to 10 hours.

Stage 2

This training takes place back at the airfield and in the case of Atlantic, at Cork Airport. The student is taught a form of training called circuits which basically means taking off from the airfield and flying a rectangular pattern around the airfield culminating in an approach and landing. This exercise is repeated many times over to teach various types of take offs and landings and any emergencies that may occur during this phase of flying. It is at this stage that a student will complete his first solo flight and depending on each individual it may occur anywhere between 12 hours and 25 hours of his or her flight training, probably one of the best life experiences ever.

Stage 3

At this stage the student will be a competent flyer and a pretty good handler and it will be time to teach navigation. This part of the training is very enjoyable seeing a lot of the country and sometimes abroad from a birds eye view and even more interesting when a student gets to fly into and out of other airports. During this stage of the training he or she will get to fly solo navigational flights and a very special solo flight called the qualifying cross country triangle which will involve leaving Cork Airport and flying to two other different airports and then returning to Cork again covering more than 150 nautical miles.....and all solo flying.

The ground school or theory side of the PPL is conducted here at the school and consists of nine subjects - aircraft general knowledge, flight performance and planning, airlaw, human performance and limitations, meteorology, navigation, operational procedures, principals of flight and communications. These subjects are tested by the Irish Aviation Authority on the last Friday of every two months in Dublin in 4 exams. These exams are all done in one day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. At the school we run two ground schools, one for part time students on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights from 7-9 pm and for full time students, or part time students who would prefer this course, we run a two week intensive course from 9- 5 pm Monday to Friday.

It is very important that a student works hard and trains well for his or her PPL as like everything else in life - a good foundation means a good flying career, whereas a shaky foundation means....well...