Welcome to Checkpilot.ca

Familiarization Flight: No formal instruction, observe, hands-on control, simple exercises. Progress brings ease.

Prepare for flight by comprehending aircraft components, functions, and key indicators. This tutorial introduces essential elements, empowering confident pre-flight assessments.

Simulator Discovery Flight 

 Aircraft Familiarization and Preparation Introduction

Pilots must keep onboard essential documents like Airworthiness Certificate, Registration, and Pilot's License for flight safety and compliance.

Flight Preperation

Lesson on interior components of an aircraft

Lesson on flight instruments

Engine Instruments 

7 minutes

Overview

Will discuss where ancillary controls are predominantly used. These include forced approaches, with cruise checks, and downwind checks (also overall comfort in air cabin). 

Objective: To teach the purpose and operation of carburetor heat, mixture, and other ancillary controls.

Motivation

These controls will assist if you are to hot or cold, and in operation of the aircraft. They  are also vital to

the safe and comfortable operation of the aircraft.

Essential Background Knowledge

Explain: 

 (a) Causes of ice formation in the carburettor. Point out the most critical temperature and humidity conditions; (under certain moist conditions -13 to +38, induction system supceptable)

 (b) Symptoms of carburettor ice and importance of early detection; 

 (c) Carburettor hot air system and how it is used to remove ice or serve as a source of alternate air; 

 (d) That in some cold weather operations, it is possible to induce ice accumulation by using carburettor heat; 

 (e) Engine symptoms and instrument indications while ice is melting; 

 (f) The need to allow adequate time to enable accumulated ice to be completely removed; 

 (g) Value of a carburettor air temperature gauge, and where the probe is located; 

 (h) How carburettor ice can often be anticipated and prevented by use of carburettor 

heat (refer to procedures recommended in the Pilot Operating Handbook); 

 (i) Effect of carburettor heat on fuel/air mixture ratio and possible engine symptoms; 

 (j) Importance of correct fuel/air mixture ratio and how this is affected by temperature, density and humidity; 

 (k) Correct use of mixture control to maintain correct mixture at take-off, climb, cruise 

and descent power settings; 

 (l) How mixture control can be used to re-establish correct fuel/air ratio and obtain 

optimum engine performance when carburettor heat is used. 

 (m) Use of windshield defogging equipment, heater and air vents; 

 (n) The use of other controls (e.g. cowl flaps). 

Lesson Outline

Taxiing an aircraft involves managing speed and direction with careful control inputs, such as throttle for movement, rudder pedals for steering, and brakes for slowing or stopping. Pilots must maintain situational awareness by following Ground Control instructions and taxiway markings. Taxiing should be done at a controlled, slow speed, adjusting control surfaces for wind conditions. Pilots follow checklists to configure systems properly and stay in communication with Ground Control throughout. Taxiing requires precision and attention to avoid obstacles and ensure smooth operations.

Objective

Gain proficiency in safely maneuvering the aircraft on the ground.

Motivation to Learn

Taxiing is an essential part of every flight, both during takeoff and landing. Mastering the proper techniques is crucial for avoiding obstacles and preventing potential damage from wind or other hazards while on the ground.

Lesson Outline

• Fundamentals of Aerodrome Operations
• Ground Maneuvering Techniques

In this lesson, we will cover various aircraft attitudes and movements. By the conclusion, you will be required to proficiently demonstrate at least one attitude, either a climb or a turn, based on your preference.

To learn the range of attitudes through which the aircraft will normally be operated and used to obtain a desired flight path.

Safety is paramount in aviation. In this lesson, you'll practice key safety actions during every flight, including maintaining a vigilant lookout before changing directions or altitudes and ensuring clear, verbal confirmations when transferring control of the aircraft. These practices are essential for safe and effective pilot training.

Maintain a constant lookout for other aircraft during training, as visibility can be obstructed by your wings or fuselage. Break your scan into quarters, focusing on each section for a few seconds. If another plane appears stationary on your windshield, a collision is imminent. Listen carefully to position reports.

When flying with an instructor or co-pilot, it’s crucial to clearly understand who has control of the aircraft. Use clear, verbal confirmations to transfer control, ensuring that both parties know who is in command at all times. This practice is essential for safe and effective flight operations.

The cruise attitude is the foundational position from which pitch and bank are derived. It involves straight, level flight at constant speed and altitude, with wings parallel to the horizon. Typically, you’ll see 1/3 ground and 2/3 sky through the windscreen, though this varies with torso length and seat height.

Pitch refers to the nose’s position relative to the horizon. A nose-up attitude angles the nose above the cruise attitude, while a nose-down attitude points it below. To maintain the desired pitch, apply the necessary control pressure, then use trim adjustments to reduce the need for constant input.

To bank, roll the aircraft by turning the control wheel. Once the desired bank angle is reached, neutralize the control wheel to maintain the bank.

Grip the yoke gently to sense movements accurately. Keep heels on the floor for precise rudder control. Controls firm at high speeds, softer at low speeds.

 Pitching, Rolling, and Yawing describes how an airplane moves along three axes—longitudinal (pitch), lateral (roll), and vertical (yaw). These movements are controlled by the elevators, ailerons, and rudder, respectively, allowing the pilot to maneuver the aircraft in three-dimensional space.

Pitching occurs around the lateral axis, where the airplane pivots like a teeter-totter. Pulling the yoke pitches the nose up; pushing it pitches the nose down.

Rolling occurs around the longitudinal axis. Turning the yoke left rolls the airplane left; turning it right rolls it right. Ailerons control these movements. After establishing a bank, return the yoke to neutral to avoid continuous rolling.

Instrument Indications introduces the primary flight instruments: airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, heading indicator, vertical speed indicator, and turn coordinator. These instruments, often called "The Six Pack," help determine the aircraft's attitude—whether nose-up, nose-down, or banked—and indicate corresponding changes in speed, altitude, and direction.

This lesson focuses on mastering Straight and Level Flight, where you'll maintain a constant altitude and heading. Key elements include adjusting attitude, throttle, and trim for stability, while using rudder and aileron inputs to stay on course. This exercise develops precision in controlling the aircraft's primary controls to achieve smooth, stable flight without climbing, descending, or turning.

Objective

1. To learn how to maintain a constant heading, altitude, and airspeed at different power settings.
2. To understand how a combination of attitude and power are used to achieve different desired air speeds and altitudes.

Motivation to Learn

The ability to maintain a heading, altitude, at different airspeeds is a fundamental skill of flying. You will use it on cross country flights, in the circuit, air traffic controllers will require you to maintain headings and altitudes in controlled airspace, or you might have controlled airspace ceilings or floors that you need to fly directly under or over. The sooner you can master this skill the sooner your instructor will stop barking in your ear on the way to and from the practice area :-)

Lesson Outline

• Compass Errors
• How Power and Pitch Affect Performance
• Increasing and Decreasing Airspeed
• Use of Trim

Exercise 7: Climbs teaches how to control the aircraft while ascending. Key elements include adjusting attitude, increasing power, and managing airspeed to maintain a stable climb. You'll also use trim to reduce control pressure and rudder to maintain heading. This exercise develops skills in initiating, maintaining, and transitioning out of climbs efficiently.

Exercise 8: Descents teaches how to control the aircraft while losing altitude. You’ll adjust attitude and reduce power to initiate and maintain a stable descent, while managing airspeed, trim, and heading. This exercise develops skills for smooth, controlled descents

Objective

1. To learn how to judge glide distance
2. To learn proper descent techniques with and without power.

Motivation to Learn

If you take off you will land. Learning proper descending techniques are important for landing with power and without power. Having the proper background knowledge and the proper technique will help you master exercises 18 and 22.

Lesson Outline

1. Maximum Glide Speeds and Judging Your Glide Path
2. Descents Without Power
3. Descents With Power
4. Use of Flaps

Essential Background Knowledge

1. When clearing an obstacle, what type of climb would you use? And why?
2. Why does the aircraft tend to yaw to the left in a climb?
3. When returning to straight and level flight from a climb, we continually use the climb power setting. Why is that?
4. What are some types of descents used?

Exercise 9: Turns teaches how to perform coordinated turns while maintaining altitude and airspeed. Key skills include using ailerons for banking, rudder for coordination, and adjusting power as needed. This exercise focuses on smooth entry, execution, and recovery from turns while keeping control and stability.

To safely and successfully perform a co-ordinated turn at various angles of bank.

To safely and successfully execute a steep turn.

Objective

1. To learn the various normal degrees of bank, including steep turns.
2. To learn climbing and descending turns.
3. To learn how to turn onto selected headings.

Motivation to Learn

Turning is clearly a fundamental aspect of flying. Understanding proper turning techniques are essential to becoming a proficient pilot. You will also need to be proficient at steep turns for your flight test. Furthermore, it is important to know how turning affects the stall speed of your airplane.

Lesson Outline

1. The different angles of bank
2. What is adverse yaw and why it occurs during banking
3. Entering and maintaining a turn
4. Climbing and descending turns
5. Steep turns of greater than 30° of bank
6. Turn rate and turn radius
7. Other considerations

Flight for Range and Endurance focuses on optimizing fuel efficiency for either maximum distance (range) or longest flight time (endurance). Pilots learn to adjust power settings, airspeed, and trim to achieve efficient flight performance, key for long flights or conserving fuel.

To learn how to cover the greatest distance possible or stay in the air the most amount of time possible per unit of fuel.

Links to previous lessons

• Previously we used different power settings in a descent to establish a certain performance.
• Today we will use a lower power setting for flying straight and level.
• This knowledge will help you in the future when you find yourself in an unexpected situation.

Essential Background Knowledge

• For a constant angle of bank, would a faster or slower aircraft have the faster rate of turn? And why?
• What is aileron drag and how does it affect the aircraft in a turn?
• Why is back pressure needed for turns of a higher angle of bank than gentle turns?
• What does it mean to fly for maximum range?
• What does it mean to fly for maximum endurance?

Exercise 11: Slow Flight Summary

The goal of slow flight training is to help pilots control the aircraft at low speeds near stall speed. This skill is essential for safe landings and stall recovery.

Key Steps:

1. Pre-Flight: Review slow flight capabilities and check the aircraft.
2. Entering Slow Flight: Gradually reduce power, extend flaps, and maintain altitude using pitch and throttle adjustments.
3. Maintaining Slow Flight: Control airspeed with pitch and altitude with throttle, and use rudder to stay coordinated.
4. Exiting Slow Flight: Smoothly increase power, retract flaps, and return to normal flight.

Key Focus: Coordination, control at low speeds, and avoiding unintentional stalls.

Objective

• to learn how to control the aircraft during slow flight
• to learn how to recognize and avoid inadvertently entering slow flight

Motivation

Slow flight is not a part of flight in which you should be scared. Learning how to remain in complete control of the airplane, as well as recognizing the symptoms of slow flight, will help you to build more confidence as a pilot.

Lesson Outline

1. Review of flight for maximum endurance
2. When Slow Flight might be encountered and where it should be avoided
3. Purposely entering and maintaining slow flight and returning to cruise flight

Stalls (Exercise 12) are a critical component of flight training where the pilot learns to recognize and recover from aerodynamic stalls. A stall happens when the aircraft's wing exceeds its critical angle of attack, causing a loss of lift.

Exercise 13: Spinning involves teaching pilots how to recognize, enter, and recover from an aerodynamic spin. A spin happens when one wing stalls more than the other, causing the aircraft to rotate in a downward spiral.

Exercise 14: Spirals is a flight training maneuver focused on recognizing and recovering from spiral dives, where an aircraft enters a steep, descending turn and rapidly accelerates.

Objective:

• How to recognize the ingredients required to create a spiral dive.
• How to recognize you are in a spiral dive.
• How to recover from spiral dives.

Motivation

Spiral dives can easily develop if you find yourself in clouds or poor visibility. Once you enter a spiral dive you might only have 178 seconds to live! The ability to recognize the spiral and recover can save you and your passengers lives. The key is interpreting what your instruments are telling you. You will be able to sense a spiral dive on a beautiful day with great visibility, but it is much harder to recognize the behaviour of the aircraft when everything is white.

Lesson Outline

1. Description and causes of spiral dives.
2. Recovery from spiral dives and important considerations.
3.  Instrument indications.

Essential Background Knowledge

• What is the utility category? What importance does it have on our ability to perform certain flight maneuvers?
• What is the recovery procedure for a spin?
• What is a spiral dive?

Exercise 15: Slipping is a maneuver used to lose altitude quickly without gaining significant airspeed, particularly useful during approaches to landing when needing to descend steeply.

Motivation

Knowing how to slip the plane correctly is very useful to a pilot. Good control of slips will help you control your forced landings during training and also to control your crosswind landings. A forward slip may even become useful during a flap failure.

Exercise 16: Take Offs focuses on teaching pilots the proper techniques for a safe and efficient takeoff, ensuring they understand how to manage the aircraft's performance from the start of the roll to the climb-out phase.

To safely take-off in an aircraft in various wind conditions.

Separate this lesson from crosswinds.

To be able to make decisions and perform the proper technique for a take-off under certain conditions

To be able to make decisions and perform the proper technique for a take-off under certain conditions

Exercise 17: The Circuit focuses on practicing the standard traffic pattern (circuit) around an airfield, which helps pilots develop coordination and precision in handling the aircraft during takeoff, flight, and landing.

Exercise 18: Landing is focused on teaching pilots the correct techniques for approaching the runway and executing a safe and smooth landing.

Exercise 20: Illusions Created by Drift teaches pilots how to recognize and correct for the visual illusions that can occur due to wind drift during flight, particularly during approaches and landings.

Exercise 21: Precautionary Landings focuses on teaching pilots how to execute a landing in the event of an emergency or when a normal landing at an airfield is not possible, such as in remote or unfamiliar areas.

Exercise 22: Forced Approaches trains pilots on how to handle emergency landings when engine power is lost or severely reduced, requiring an immediate landing without the ability to reach an airport.

OBJECTIVE

To understand and be able to perform the procedures necessary during an engine failure in the cruise portion of flight in a single engine airplane.

MOTIVATION TO LEARN THIS SKILL

Objective

  To learn:

• how to prepare and conduct a safe cross-country flight