Helicopter Flight Information
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Helicopter Flight Information |
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Are you ready to Solo?First we must define 'solo'. Solo is that time which you are the only (sole) occupant of the aircraft. Some time ago, I had a student who had done much of his flight training at a school in Ormond, FL. He came to me to finish the training for his private pilot's license. He only had minimal currency and training to complete, and had already logged all of his required solo time. When he was finished, I signed him for his practical test, but when the examiner reviewed his logbook, he began to inquire of this student as to what solo flight was. The student confessed right away that at the previous flight school, they were not allowed to fly by themselves, and that they had been instructed to log time as solo where a flight instructor had accompanied them on the flight. Of course this disqualified the student for his practical test, but it gave the FAA the ammunition they needed to pursue action against this flight school which they already had knowledge was doing things this illegal way. The student then pursued legal action against the school for money spent. When should a student solo; a subject of much debate at times. There are a number of students who brag about their early solo as if it is something that demonstrates that they are a better-than-average pilot. Sorry to pop your bubble, but not the case. There are a very few students for which flying just seems to come more naturally than others and for them, an early solo may be appropriate, but just how early? Most importantly, students, instructors, and school operators all need to realize that solo flight is about more than someone just being able to fly the aircraft fairly well, and being turned loose to build time. I have been with those students who think they have the aircraft mastered but really can't fly worth a crap, and I have worked at a flight school or two who wanted to get the students soloed as soon as possible so the instructor can get the next paying customer started, you know, those schools where it is all about the money. This article, however, is about the facts, period. Only 10-hours of solo time is required for the private pilot rating and in helicopters it will usually take 55-60 hours of total flight time before that student will really be ready for the check ride leaving 45-50 hours which could be divvied up between solo and instructional flight. There are specific tasks which must be accomplished during the solo, and beyond that, solo is time where the students flying skills usually deteriorate especially while building time for the commercial. There is good reason for this, there is no experienced pilot in the other seat to critique the students flying; something he/she really needs continuously, and at the very least, through the completion of the commercial practical test. An issue of significant importance when talking about solo, is the quality of the flight instructor. There are a number of flight instructors out there who are just playing, and as a result do not have a great value to pass on to their students. Flight instructing gets very boring, but as with all jobs, it needs to be done right all of the time. It is easy to pick out these instructors just by observing their actions and behavior in the air, and on the radio. There should be no tolerance for this, and when observed, this conduct should be reported to the school for which they fly. This goofball, playing around style of instruction is most common among the largest flight schools when the flights are taken to an airport other than that where the school is based. When it comes to flight with joker flight instructors, the student might as well solo early because beyond general flight skills, they are not going to learn anything of value from these flight instructors. In fact students flying with these poor flight instructors will learn to become the same type of flight instructors themselves. It is the hand-me-down fact of life. So, when should a student solo, and for how long. By FAR with the exception of Robinson helicopters, there is no minimum except for meeting the requirements of training which comes to about 9 hours of flight time for an add-on rating, and 20-hours for an initial rating. So technically, if an add-on student were able to master the aircraft and were flying anything besides a Robinson, they could solo at 9 hours. However we all know that no student can solo safely at 9 hours. There is good reason that SFAR 73 for Robinson stipulates at least 20-hours of flight time before solo, and it isn't just because Robinsons are a problem because they are not. In my opinion, no student should solo with less than 30-hours, and then only for the 10-hours or so that it takes to accomplish the required solo tasks. The extra time before solo is some of the most beneficial confidence building time that a student will receive. There is also no confidence builder like solo time, but it should be when the student has the experience to be exceptionally safe. There are a large number of students who have never continued their flight training and/or careers because of things that went wrong on their early solo flights, when in fact, these students would have done significantly better if solo had just been limited according to the above. Actually, if instructors and flight schools developed strict solo guidelines, solo overall would become significantly safer. When I solo a student, the students will get 3 supervised solos. The first will be a simple pick-up to a hover, and then a landing from a hover with no turns or other maneuvers. Then I get back in the aircraft and do a confidence analysis. If I feel the student is ready, I get back out and let them do hovering turns and landings (their second supervised solo). Then after another confidence analysis, I solo the student for traffic patterns (the third supervised solo). These three supervised solo flights may occur on different days, or all in the same day. It depends upon student confidence, and whether or not there will be interim training.
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