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Flying Academy Flight Guide

This Guide was prepared using Flying Academy Learning Management System (LMS)

Foreword

 This guide is intended to familiarize you with the structure of conducting flights in Flying Academy, demonstrate you the flow of the flight preparation process and point out important details that must be considered in order to improve your flight management skills.

Table of Contents

Part 1. | Time Management

Time management skills are an equally important part of airmanship along with good aircraft handling, wise planning, and substantial theoretical background. In Flying Academy, we teach future airline pilots to perform their duties in a highly professional manner. Just like an airline, our Academy uses a scheduling system for our flights. Managing your departures and arrivals on time is indeed an inherent characteristic of a professional pilot.

Staying in line with the schedule also makes training more comfortable for you and your colleagues. Taking this into account, we ask you to adhere to this simple formula when planning your arrival time to the Academy:

Please bear in mind that there is no specific time when you have to start your flight preparation or arrive to the Academy, as time required to prepare your flight depends on several factors, such as:

  • Your experience in flight preparation
  • Your degree of familiarization with Flying Academy procedures and workflow
  • Your experience in aircraft type
  • The complexity of the route
  • The Weather and the Season
  • Purpose of flight (with/without instructor)

At the beginning of your training, your instructor certainly will guide you through the preparation process in great detail, but over time, more and more duties will be delegated to you. By the time you get your PPL license, you have to be able to manage your flights on your own as it is expected from the pilot in command. It definitely takes time, therefore, we strongly recommend you to be exceptionally responsible with regard to your flight preparation from the very beginning – it is an excellent way to get in the habit of using time effectively. 

Do not postpone your flight preparation until the last moment. Urgency or time pressure are very dangerous stressors that impair the ability to make effective decisions and promote pilots to accept higher amounts of risk. This is an extremely undesirable, hazardous situation that could lead to or contribute to an unplanned or undesired event, such as an accident.

Tips for Better Time Management

Here are some keys that will help you manage your time with greater efficiency and minimize  time-related pressure:

Start planning your flight one day before. Familiarize yourself with the weather forecast, prepare the route, identify your weak points that have to be improved. Begin your preparation with plenty of time to spare.

Organize your papers, equipment, records and anything else you use in flight preparation. When everything is in place and you know where each item is, you will never suffer the frustration of looking for it.

Think about the aim you are going to attain beforehand. For example, if you are planning to calculate mass and balance make sure you have all the information (aircraft weight protocol), materials (POH) and tools (weight and balance sheet) you need to make it. This will allow you to finish your task without interruptions.

Analyze how you handled similar situations in the past.

Always look how you can optimize your work. The sooner you discover more efficient ways of performing your tasks, the sooner you will start saving your time.

Prioritize your task instead of trying to do everything at once.

Part 2. | Pre-flight Preparation, Go/No Go Decision

Pre-flight preparation is considered to be one of the most important elements of risk management. The goal of risk management is to proactively identify safety-related hazards and mitigate the associated risks. Risk management is an important component of aeronautical decision making. When a pilot follows good decision-making practices, the inherent risk in a flight is reduced or even eliminated. The ability to make good decisions is based upon direct or indirect experience and education.

The purpose of this part is to demonstrate to you the logic of the pre-flight portion of Flying Academy operations, show the tools that we use in preparation of the flight, and highlight the points we consider in our decision making process.

Self-Assessment

Health evaluation

In Flying Academy, we teach our pilots that exercising good judgment begins prior to taking the controls of an aircraft. Often, pilots thoroughly check the weather, airspaces and aircraft, yet do not evaluate their own fitness for flight. Just as a checklist is used in aircrafts, a personal checklist can help determine if a pilot is prepared for a particular flight. A standardized method used for this purpose employs the “IMSAFE” checklist. It can easily and effectively be used to determine physical and mental readiness for flying and provides a good overall assessment of the pilot’s well being.

  • Illness – Do I have any symptoms?
  • Medication – Have I been taking prescription or over-the-counter drugs?
  • Stress – Am I under psychological pressure?
  • Alcohol – Have I been drinking within 8 hours? Within 24 hours?
  • Fatigue – Am I tired and not adequately rested?
  • Emotion – Am I emotionally upset?

Time on duty check

To offset the risk of fatigue, every pilot should get plenty of rest before the flight. Refer to Flying Academy Operational Manual to check duty time limitations and verify that you are eligible to fly.

Pilot Documents

All Flying Academy pilots shall comply with obligation to carry and present the following documents:

  • Valid pilot license
  • Valid medical license
  • Radiotelephony license
  • Passport, ID
  • Logbook
  • Pilot’s insurance
  • Instructor’s endorsement (for students going for the solo flight during their PPL training)

Flight Planning

Before boarding an aircraft, a pilot must thoroughly plan the flight. A well-planned flight provides a professional atmosphere, enhancing safety, and accomplishment of flight objectives. Also, adequate flight planning prior to flight can avoid unnecessary in-flight problems. This subpart of the guide demonstrates the logic of flight planning we use in Flying Academy. It points out the aspects a professional pilot should consider prior to taking the “Go/ No Go” decision.

Weather

Be it a local flight or a long cross-country flight, decisions based on weather can dramatically affect aircraft performance and flying safety. This subpart is designed to point out the tools we use to make informed decisions regarding weather and flight safety before and during a flight.

  • METAR & TAF
  • GAMET
  • Precipitation radar
  • Significant weather charts
  • Predictive synoptic map of Europe
  • Satellite images
  • Webcameras
  • Icing levels
  • Phone call to the weather briefing office (optional)
    • Czech hydrometeorological institute                 (+420) 244 032 231
    • Airport meteorological office BRNO                  (+420) 604 210 865 ; (+420) 545 216 487
    • ATIS BRNO                                                                 (+420) 545 521 222
    • Airport meteorological office OSTRAVA            (+420) 597 471 131 ; (+420) 602 558 465
    • Airport meteorological office KARLOVY VARY (+420) 353 331 104 ; (+420) 731 431 247
    • Airport meteorological office PRAHA                (+420) 220 372 141 ; (+420) 220 372 144
    • Meteorological watch office PRAHA                  (+420) 220 372 143
    • ATIS PRAHA                                                               (+420) 220 378 300
    • Airport meteorological office KBELY                  (+ 420) 255 762 609

Aerodromes and airspace checks

  • NOTAMs
  • AisView
  • Airspace use plan (AUP)
  • Sunset & sunrise tables
  • LARS (in case local flight activity at Brno/Tuřany, Ostrava/Mošnov and Karlovy Vary controlled airports is planned)

Preparation of the route

  • Aerodrome(s) charts (departure, destination, en-route, alternate)
  • Aeronautical VFR Chart
  • Navigation LOG
    • Manual filling
    • Skyvector (optional)
    • Rocket Route (optional)
  • Destination/alternate aerodrome: (fuel availability, local procedures, landing fees)

Performance calculations

The performance or operational information for the aircraft such as the data pertaining to takeoff, climb, range, endurance, descent, and landing can be found in Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH) and Flying Academy Operational Manual. The use of this data in flying operations is mandatory for safe and efficient operation.

  • Fuel calculations
  • Weight and balance
    • MyFBO
    • Manual calculations
  • Take off, landing performance
    • POH
    • Operational Manual

Aircraft documents

The following documents, manuals, and information shall be carried on each flight as originals or copies unless otherwise specified:

  • Maintenance statement
  • Certificate of airworthiness and Airworthiness review certificate
  • Certificate of registration
  • Third party liability insurance certificate
  • Radio station license
  • ATO certificate
  • Airplane logbook
  • Weighing protocol
  • Noise abatement certificate (if applicable)
  • POH
  • Operational manual
  • SOP
  • QRH

Final Checks Before you go to Airport

After all the preparations are done, don’t forget to check if you have all the following items with you: 

  • Weight and balance
  • Navigation Log
  • Aircraft keys
  • Dispatch
  • Headsets
  • Ipad
  • Safety vest
  • Airport card

Now you are ready to go. Request for handling that will take you to the airport. Handling can be requested in one of the following ways :

  • Handling BRNO:   (+420) 731 655 033 or ask the front desk to call handling for you.
  • Handling PRAHA: ask the front desk to call handling when you are ready to go to the airport

Notifications

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