December 2009 Newsletter

THOMPSON VALLEY SPORT AIRCRAFT CLUB

(Member of Recreational Aircraft Association)

Beautiful Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada

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Next meeting: Saturday, December 12, 2009, at 5:30pm.
Location: ABC Restaurant

What it takes to get a Private Pilots License in Canada

By Daniel Berwin

I decided to upgrade my Ultralight License to a PPL and this is a bit of the maze that I was required to follow.

To start the problems there is no flying school within any reasonable distance around.  I found an instructor that is freelance and decided to go with this direction.  The instructor was Dan Nelson and we have known each other for some time and he came highly recommended from several individuals.

The next step was to find a plane.  The only way you can be instructed by a freelance instructor was to own your own plane.  After several nights on the phone I found a willing individual that would be willing to let me buy a share in his plane.  The plane chosen was a low time 150M.  This has been a great little plane and actually less expensive to fly than my Ultralight. Fuel is about $25 per hour without the maintenance costs.

Now I had the plane and instructor the next step was to go to Transport Canada and file a letter of intent.  We flew down to Kelowna in Dan's Super Cub and slipped in the back gate with a code that Dan had in his little black book.  Dan has a black book but the contents are defiantly not past girlfriends they are codes and numbers for gates, contact names and frequencies for airports that he as traveled to around the country.  We had a chat with TC representative named Sandra Turk.  She was straightforward and direct with information and gave us the go ahead.  Off we went back home.

It took about three weeks to get the plane into my name and confirm that the insurance was good and my previous liability insurance was going to be good for training and would cover the plane.  We could not insure for hull damage so had to take the risk of you break it you buy it.  I used this time to get my class 3 medical.

After some initial flying, I found it was not as easy as I had hoped.  I have 270 hours in Ultralights so thought this would be easy.  First major problem was I now had to fly left handed.  This was like shaving with the other hand and took about 3 hours before I could land without taking my hand off the throttle.  The rest seemed like a flight review and learning to be more controlled and fly exercises instead of just flying around.  My navigation needed brushing up along with checklists, transponders, carburetor heat and a few other details not used with Ultralights.

Now I wanted to solo.  You need to pass the PSTAR and someone to sign off the student pilot permit.  Kathleen in Vernon could provide this service so I studied up for a couple days and we headed off to Vernon.  After writing the exam we started to fill out paper work and she asked for citizen ship ID.  Sorry don't carry any in my Wallet so we flew home and came back the next day with my birth certificate.  Lessen learned but also a reason to fly.  Now I could solo with only a phone call to Dan.

I now had to check off all the requirements for the PPL.  I was credited 10 hours for my Ultralight time so only needed 35 hours and the following flight experience.  17 hours dual flight time, including 3 hour cross country and 5 hours instrument time.  12 hours solo time, including 5 hours cross country with one trip of 150 miles and 2 full stop landings at other airports.   This meant I had to fly lots this summer and with a reason and good weather this was all I needed to check off all the items.   My dual cross country was to Penticton to meet the flight test examiner but he was not available, so just ended up going to get familiar with the airport.  My solo cross country was to Williams Lake with a stop in Cache Creek and 108 mile airport.

My ground school was a CD ROM course from Aerotech that was OK'd by Sandra at TC and after I finished it, went off with a letter of recommendation from Dan to write the written exam.  My studying included the Ground Up 200 questions, 4 exams from AeroTech Ground School, Transport Canada's Sample exam and a review of the PSTAR questions.  I passed but not with great marks as it is a lot of information to digest at home with no classroom.

Next was the flight test with Harvey in Penticton.  I actually enjoyed this part, and though my flying was not perfect, it was generally a good performance.  I also wrote the Language exam at the same time as Harvey is the examiner for that as well.

I now had all the documents and needed to send them to TC through a designated person and Kathleen had volunteered to do this for me as she is all able to do this.  She gave me the list on the phone.

· My citizen ship ID (passport)
· Class 3 Medical Certificate
· Student Pilot Permit
· My Log book
· Pilot training record (PTR) from Dan
· Exam results from Written, Flight and Language tests.
· PPL application for license
· PPL new booklet application for new license
· Passport photos
· Some money

I will also include a list of the costs with this just to show what money went where.  From start to finish it took about 5 months and seemed like a lot of hoops and not very clear steps laid out.  Maybe this is what a school can do for you.  I have managed to do this on my own so it can still be done.  My Total flight time ended up being more than my required 35 hours, but we also did some flying around that was not direct training like flying to Vernon for PSTAR.  My total hours were just over 45 hours and the cost without the purchase of the plane was just over $7700.  I should be able to recover the invested money in the plane if and when I sell it back.

Costs

Total $191. for medical
$100. Medical
$36. Lab work
$55. Process Fee from Transport Canada.
Total $332.  Books and Ground School
$233. Aerotech Ground School (I borrowed maps needed for course)
$71. Books and Maps from Calgary Pilot Supply. (I had Gound up books)
$20. New Flight Supplement
$8. Passport Photos and Photocopies
Total $738. Exam Fees
$95. PSTAR Exam
$150. Fee for TC Written test
$300. Flight Test and Language Test
$55. License Application for TC
$138. License Application Processing
Total $892. Other Fees
$110. Registration Fee for Plane into my name
$200. Liability insurance
$57. COPA membership for insurance
$525. Taxes to purchase plane
Total $2400. for Instructor Fees
Total $1760.. for Annual and Plane Maintenance
Total $1407 for Fuel costs

Grand Total $7720.

While all these costs are not directly related I had to incur these in order to complete the process.  Fees for Exams and Taxes total $1428. without plane and study materials costs.

Contacts
· Dr Beall - Medical
· Susan Turk - Transport Canada in Kelowna
· Colleen Hewitt - Transport Canada Registration
· Aerotech - TC approved Ground School Course
· Kathleen - Flight school in Vernon.  PSTART Exam, Final License Application.
· Stan - Pentiction for Written examination.
· Harvey - Pentiction for Flight test and Language test
· Dan Nelson - Free Lance flight instructor.
· COPA - Insurance

If anyone needs the actual contact numbers for these individuals I have most of them or can get them.

Dan

Christmas Dinner

The dinner will be at the ABC Restaurant again, at 5:30pm  on Dec. 12th. Please let Jim Bottoms know if you plan to attend. jimbottoms@yahoo.ca  Don't forget the gift exchange!  

A reminder that the hangar rent will be due in December, and so will be the membership fees. Bill Davidson and Jim Bottoms will be ready to take your money at the Christmas Dinner. So make sure you bring your wallet; I like to have the membership list updated as soon as possible, and Bill has to pay Mr.Blair at the beginning of January.

The executive: Everyone has agreed to fill the same position for the next year. Folks, we are not getting any younger; we need new members to keep the Club alive, how can we achieve that? If we can not get some free advertizing, we should have enough money to buy some.

2010 calendars: they are ready! I had 50 printed, and 11 are gone already. I got a great deal on them this year, the price is very low! The pictures are very good too. Thanks to Bill Davidson, Bill Huxley and Dave Jones who supplied some of them.

At one of the last meetings it was decided to cancel the Summer meetings for next July and August as everyone is normally too busy.

Also this next year we will go back to have all meetings on the second Thursday of the month, in the evening. We tried Saturday morning meetings for the Summer months but it did not work that well.

#1 hangar was rebuilt, and is now home to the Breezy. The job was very well done, as proven by the fact it survived the last windstorm!

#3 hangar is still available, and #5 is now empty too.. If interested, call Bill Davidson at 250-573-2357 or pilotbill@telus.net

The Old, Bold and Rich Pilot

By Barry Meek.

I recently read an article about how pilots, particularly VFR pilots, are more capable of survival in hard economic times than the average Joe the non-pilot. The author reasoned that we’re comfortable with uncertainties like bad weather, that we’ll poke our noses into the cloud, take the chance attempting to break out on the other side into sunshine, or to reach a destination. Supposedly we’re more capable of dealing with uncertainties than most people. It’s about the accomplishment, the satisfaction of a job well done, of taking a risk and surviving. The risk referred to is a financial investment.

Stereotyping people is always dangerous. I don’t like to do it, but I gave this idea a lot of thought. Maybe I missed the point of the article, but I’ll comment anyway. I know many pilots who venture just a bit further into the changing weather attempting to find the hole. Some are better at it than others, and some won’t even go there. You might think that the high-time flyers, the ones with all the knowledge, experience and good judgment would be the leaders heading through the clouds. But I doubt it. Time after time, the accident reports that conclude with “theVFR-pilot continued on into IMC” involve low-timers. Of course there are exceptions, but statistically, go ahead and count ‘em. It’s a fact. Besides, if it were true that these high-timers were also bold investors, they should all be awfully rich.

In the relatively short career I’ve enjoyed flying VFR in sparsely settled areas, with questionable weather briefings, little support from any FIS, and no reporting stations to count on, I admit to having a lot of luck on my side. I would consider myself a ‘low timer’ but what sets my time apart from most other fellows doing this work is I’m older than most. In general terms, your advanced age brings wisdom, experience, knowledge, and caution. Most of us older pilots I dare say, have the will to LIVE, probably because mortality looms closer than it does for the young guys. Also, we’ve been there and done that. We’ve been to more funerals of friends and relatives, we’ve sympathized with survivors, and imagined the morbid thought that we could be next. Our invincibility ended years ago.

Poking your nose into cloud searching for the hole, has its place. You can’t say absolutely don’t do it, particularly when you’re on a payroll and someone expects a certain effort on behalf of his pilots to get the flight done. It’s a balancing act between safety and risk. If the pilot squeaks through the storm and exits his airplane with knees shaking and his stomach in knots, he completed his flight safely, but sometimes it’s ordinary, blind luck.

There were times along the way when I bit off more than I was comfortable with. We all have. The ‘cowboys’ among us however will do it again and again. After a particularly scary ride one day, although I made it through, I was angry at myself for pushing my personal limits. I could have killed myself and cost my employer a lot of money.

Getting back to the point of all this, to say that pilots are better equipped to stay invested in a falling stock market because of their experience in deteriorating weather, would be a bit of a stretch. Risking cash in an investment is simply not the same as risking their job or life flying around in bad weather. I see no connection. I have poked the prop into cloud but it doesn’t mean I’ve done well dabbling in the stock market. Far from it. Decision making is an individual art whether with your life or your money. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is a difference.

bcflyer@propilots.net

To read all of Barry's previous articles, go to http://www.ocis.net/tvsac/BMLetters.html

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Due to the limited space available on the server, the archives will not contain anything older than one year. I welcome your feedback. Do you have any contributions for the newsletter? Photos would be great! (At least 600 pixels wide) So would flying stories, project updates or tall tales... Contact me: Newsletter Editor: Cam Villeneuve 1-250-374-4181 villeneuve@shaw.ca