Day In The Life Of A Student Pilot - Flying Stage
Looking to start flight training or maybe just curious to see what a typical day for a student pilot is like?
Now the days can differ quite considerably, there are a lot of variables that can alter your days such as weather, aircraft maintenance and delays. I will write about a typical day I've had recently to give you an insight.
16/07/22
5:15 am Wake Up - Time to get up for an early first off-blocks flight. It only takes us around 15 minutes door to door from our accommodation which is ideal!
6:00 am Arrive at Flight School - I arrive at the airport at least an hour and a half before the scheduled off-block time. I have already planned most of my flight the evening before so when I get in I will now just update the last little bits such as the weather, today's performance calculations and my navigation route calculations with the current weather.
I then find my aircraft on the apron and start my 'A Check', which is a detailed checklist we run through on the first flight of the day to make sure the aircraft is safe to fly. All being well I come back into the school and sign the aircraft check off.
For my lesson today I have two hours of solo flying for hour building so I have planned my own lesson with what I aim to achieve. As I'm close to our first in-house test I plan to cover all general handling manoeuvres (Steep turns, Stalls, PFL's etc) as well as flying to another airfield nearby to practise circuits and familiarisation with that airfield. This requires planning my route to and from Cranfield Airport and booking in with the airport for circuits within a planned slot time.
6:30 am Ready to Brief - My instructor runs through today's flight brief with me. We start with a WANT brief which consists of...
Weather: Big to small. Surface pressure chart, 215 & 214, METAR's and TAF's.
Aircraft: Mass and Balance, Performace Calculations and Aircraft Tech Log.
NOTAMS: Any Notams to affect your route.
Threats and Errors: Anything to be aware of for this particular flight eg. Gliders, Clouds, Congested Airspace, pilot-induced errors that could occur etc.
We then run over the lesson plan for today, the instructor looks over my route on my map and PLOG to check my planning and any threats/errors. Then we get asked a few safety questions before they can then sign us off for the solo flight.
7:15 am Walk to Aircraft - Having already done my 'A Check' I remove the chocks and hop straight into the plane. After a few more checklists and gathering the airfield information, I make my first radio call to ATC requesting permission to taxi.
Me: "Oxford Tower, G-LDGC, QNH 1013, information C, school line, request taxi"
Tower: "G-LDGC, information correct, taxi via Bravo and Charlie to Charlie One"
Me: "Taxi via Bravo and Charlie to Charlie One, G-LDGC"
7:30 am Off-Blocks - With clearance to taxi from ATC you're off! A few more checks prior to the runway followed by more clearances from ATC and you're ready for take-off.
"G-GC, Cleared for take-off, runway 19, surface wind 230/05kts"
"Cleared for take-off, G-GC"
9:30 am On-Blocks - Two hours later I'm parked up on the apron and walking back into the school. As it was a solo flight there isn't much to de-brief with my instructor since they weren't in the plane and so it's really more if I have any questions or anything I want to go over with them. Then you're free to go. I had a flight test coming up soon so my homework was to revise now for that.
In reality, flights don't always go to plan, you may wake up super early one morning or be waiting till 5pm to then go in for your flight you've been spending time preparing on and you get cancelled last minute due to any number of factors such as low cloud or the aircraft has a fault. Or you could be holding before the runway and a warning pops up on the aircraft forcing you to come back to the school and cancel your flight. There are also times when you will be sat in the school for most of the day waiting for the weather to clear in the hope you can go flying and it just doesn't clear quite as much as you require. On the flip side you could then be flying day after day, mentally and physically exhausted and excelling through your training, wishing you had more free time. It's never a constant smooth ride through flight training but that's the reality of being a student pilot, no matter where you train!
Just remember to try and embrace the challenges and enjoy every step of your experience as this is the start of one exciting career! I know I have to remind myself of this too!
All the best,
Ashleigh x
