UK Instrument Rated Private Pilot and Instrument Flight Instructor
Having taught quite a few hours of PPL instruction, it was quite a contrast to be able to instruct for the CB-IR (Competency Based Instrument Rating). I’d known my first student for some time, having given him an RNAV/G1000 training session in the Redbird simulator and later mentored him on his first cross channel flight. Andrew has a share in a Turbo Arrow based at Bournemouth, so would need to
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This week saw the final step in my journey to become a qualified EASA IRI (Instrument Rating Instructor) – similar to an FAA CFII – which allows me to instruct pilots towards a full Instrument Rating as well as the UK IR(R). Over the past 18 months, I’ve passed 11 CPL Theory exams, undergone a six week practical training course and Assessment of Competence to become an EASA Flight Instructor,
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A second daytrip on the same weekend in my shared TB20, G-CORB from Gloucester, this time to Hawarden and back, with Russ, another Bristol Aero Club member. It may be some time before I can fly her again due to other commitments, so I wanted to make the most of the time available. Hawarden isn’t too far away (about 100 miles) and offers a free instrument approach when landing. The
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Our shared TB20 is back at Gloucester after some months of downtime with technical issues. I was keen to get back in the saddle, not having flown much IFR at all through the summer. I’d promised a flight in it to Mark, one of the Bristol Aero Club pilots, who had qualified to IR(R) last year. He’s a wheelchair user, so that was quite unusual from a logistics viewpoint. On
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Probation In Europe under EASA, newly qualified flight instructors must first operate under the supervision of more experienced instructors until they have instructed for 100 hours and signed off 25 solo flights. During this time, they can’t sign off a first solo or a first solo nav away from the circuit. Typically the supervising instructor is the Chief Flying Instructor at a flying school, but it can be any unrestricted
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John, one of the more proactive members of Bristol Aero Club, organised a visit to D&D (Distress and Diversion not dungeons and dragons) at NATS (National Air Traffic Services) in their Swanwick centre near Southampton. These are the controllers who answer the distress frequency 121.5 which is available to all aircraft throughout the UK airspace 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The centre also handles all commercial traffic in
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Gloucester – Sleap – Mona – Welshpool – Gloucester The Bristol Aero Club monthly flyout in June flew to Mona (EGOQ) in Anglesey, North Wales. I had advertised my availability to come along in my role as instructor and two students were quite keen to fly a leg each. We made clear it wouldn’t count as part of their formal syllabus, but the hours did count towards the 45 minimum
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Our last day, and we were keen to get home in good time. The forecast wasn’t brilliant, mainly some concerns about visibility than anything else. However we could all make use of our IR(R) ratings in the UK if we needed to. We’d also gain an hour by moving our clocks back when crossing back into the British timezone. After a leisurely breakfast, another Uber got us out to the
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The weather had been good to us but was starting to look a little more unsettled, and we were aware that we had two long days of flying to get back home to Gloucester from Malmo in our club PA28. Today’s legs would be Malmo – Flensburg – Bremen – Rotterdam. VFR Flight plans required for first and last legs only because they crossed international boundaries. We reckoned that this
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Guess the next country? If you fly north east from the top right hand corner of Germany, which country do you think you’d reach first? Finland, Russia, maybe Sweden? Well you’d be wrong. The fifth largest Danish island of Bornholm awaits you. It’s in the Baltic rather than much of Denmark in the North Sea, and combines a lot of tourism with a busy fishing industry. Transport is either by
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