Peter's Flight Log

What is the flight camp?

The Air Activities Center flight camp is an excellent opportunity for Scout members to experience being a pilot student. Just between me and you, this is why I decided to join the Scouts as a Fellow.

Yes, I could sign up at one of many flight schools around Sydney; however, learning to fly with the Scouts takes the experience to a new level. I'll come back to this later.

First, I'll explain the flight camp's objectives as I understand it.
The camp is designed to give Scouts aged 15 years and over their first aeroplane control experience. As a student, I could climb, descend, turn, and, of course, fly straight and level.

I even had the opportunity to stall (i.e. get the plane to fly in a way that its wings can't generate enough lift) and recover.

For younger scouts, this is an experience that, in many cases, has created a strong interest in aviation that resulted in a career. It rekindles my obsession with aviation for me (let's say, a mature-age student).

Pre-pandemic, the camp was lived-in. Students would camp on the airport ground and do ground school and flight during the day. Post-pandemic, students attend on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from morning to afternoon. Around ten scouts participate in each camp.

What did I learn?

Each day starts with the briefing. In the briefing, we learn some theory, such as "how the wing generates lift", and preview what we'll do later in the plane, such as "you'll practice straight and level flight".

The learning objectives for this camp were:

• The effects of controls, where we learn what happens to the aeroplane when the pilot manipulates the ailerons, rudder, and elevators.
• How to fly straight and level.
• How to climb.
• How to descent
• How to turn without losing or gaining altitude, and how to do climbing and descending turns.
• How to avoid and recognise a stall condition.

Each of those topics brings along numerous dependencies. For example, to understand the mechanics of straight and level flight, you must understand the concepts of lift, thrust, drag (and its types), weight, their effects on the wing (as a lift-producing device), wing characteristics, the lift formula, and stability (to name only a few).

Apart from the mechanics of flight, much of the time in ground school is used to explain aviation safety practices.

The concept of "airmanship" is drilled again and again. This term encompasses safety practices and an appropriate mindset that promotes practices such as "lookout" (where you actively look for other aircraft and obstacles in your aeroplane path and around), "work-cycle" (where you simultaneously perform a lookout and monitor your aircraft's attitude and performance), "control heading" (where your plane travels in a smooth and coordinated manner), "engine handling" (where you monitor oil temperature and pressure, fuel quantity, and the fuel + air mix ratios), and "orientation" (where you know where you are in space).

Eight months later

I completed the camp in January 2023, and it's now September. What do I remember from the camp? What are my key takeaways?

Without a doubt, it was it was a wonderful experience. The trainees, flight instructors and volunteers were all excited to be there. Some trainees were in their teens and keen to consider an aviation career. This camp was the best start in this journey as there can be.

I am not looking for a career by doing this, but to fulfil a dream. I am a practical and down-to-earth person, and such things feel a bit strange to me, but learning to fly "for fun" and learning to fly with scouts makes this effort extra special.

In my chats with some of the instructors (also scouts), I discovered that they (like me) decided to learn to fly at a "mature" age. Not only that, but ALL of them were engineers of one kind or another. These instructors decided to learn to fly after retiring or semi-retiring from their regular jobs. They decided to commit to something that required a lot of study, exams, money, and commitment instead of fishing or playing golf. This was a shocking discovery for me. I (wrongly) believed that learning to fly is for younger people who want to make a career out of it. Indeed, there needs to be more time to start at or around 50 years of age!

It turns out that it isn't. With some planning and commitment, older student pilots can move through the various certifications and become private pilots, commercial pilots, or even instructors if they want it bad enough.

So now, an RPL (Recreational Pilots License) or a PPL (Private Pilots License) is just the beginning. I should look at a commercial certification and become an instructor to continue discovering the immense wealth of aviation knowledge.

Well, that is something I will decide later. But the thing is, the thought has been planted firmly in my mind, and it started at this flight camp.

A quick review of my first five hours of flight training (video).

I'm in the driver's seat! I recorded this video while I was waiting for Bob (my instructor on this flight) to return.