Behind The Yoke

So far in preparation for my future flight training, I have two great books under my belt: Your Pilot’s License by Jerry A. Eichenberger and Stick and Rudder: An Explanation of the Art of Flying by Wolfgang Langewiesche.

Your Pilots License is a great book to begin with. It’s very basic in its conception and it explains to you what to expect in training, how much it will cost, some flight theory, explanation of procedures, etc. Very much enjoyed it. I wanted a little bit more though.

Stick and Rudder was awesome. Very geared towards more flight theory and how the wings and the ailerons works, how wind behaves, how lift is lost and gained in relation to nose attitude and Angle of Attack, etc. It was an excellent second book to read to psyche me up for training. I highly recommend these two books to get you going in flight training.

I’m currently thinking about going the route of finding an Independent Flight Instructor for my flight training instead of going to a flight school. I came upon a school called Skybound Aviation based out of Dekalb (PDK) county in GA. I sat down with a flight instructor and he gave some me great advice about flight training in general.

The biggest eye opener after sitting down with him was realizing how little flight time instructors need in order to teach others to fly. They may be well qualified and give great instruction but I would feel much more comfortable creating a real relationship with my instructor rather than feeling like I’m going to school and having time constraints with airplane rental times, etc.

Most young and newly rated instructors have aspirations of flying for the airlines so they get instructor positions at various flight schools to ‘build time’ to reach the minimum hiring requirements. Honestly, I don’t want to receive instruction from these young lads. I’d rather learn from a career instructor or one that has decided to focus on instructing because they enjoy what they do. If your instructor wants nothing more than flying for the big boys, then I would reconsider where your getting instruction.

I’m really glad I had the opportunity to visit the Skybound Aviation and sit down and talk with some of the instructors because it changed my perspective on my goal of gradually becoming a flight instructor and building strong networks among the flying community. The old adage still stands - success is all about the relationships you build with others - including your flight instructor.