flying an airliner and a small propeller plane are two different worlds, but they both need airmanship, attitude and skill. Anyway if you compare the workload of a 60s airline pilot with yours you will realise how things are way easier today. I’m afraid that aviation is still afflicted by false myths and this is changing things in the wrong way..
I met and heard of many pilots doing their job “cuz dad told me to do so”, and I personally think that their 100hrs as F/O on 737 are not worth 10hrs of my biplane aerobatics.. The art of flying is being able to push an aircraft to its limits, discovering the physics of flight together with the machine (and not in a book or a sim), it’s navigating with a stopwatch and a map, is making a flightplan without a GPS or inertial platform, it’s sharping your sight to spot landmarks.. Needless to say these things are impossible (and would be silly) to apply in modern commercial aviation, that’s nobody’s fault, but as I said going from A to B with a 737 in 4 hours it’s just a job..
It’s a matter of personal tastes I think, I hope u got what I mean, as usual I get lost with examples and never get to the point 😉

Alex

I think you also forgot to mention that your type of flying is actually fun! Going from A to B in an 737 is indeed just a job and really you’re just a bus driver in the sky. But one without the pressure of having to drive!

Both sentences are wrong: the ATPL course has at least 2 hours of aerobatic flying to test unusual manouvers. Spinning a 320 is impossible, unless u hack the flying software! But have u ever seen a 707 doing a barrell roll? 😎
Ever heard of the sentence “he was an airline pilot with 10.000 hours! How could he spin and die in his small Cessna??”.. Flying an airliner has nothing to do with proper flying.. I met aeroclub 500hrs pilots with an incredible sense of flying and 1zillion hrs airline pilots not being able to feel lack of turn coordination with their a$$
A dear friend of mine who was both military and airline pilot always jokes about his 12.000 as a commercial long range pilot “12.000 hours??? Oh come on! I passed 2/3 of them sleeping!!” 😀 😀 😀

Alex

I agree with all of the above Alex! If the ATPL has 2 hours of unusual manoeuvres then how has Martin managed to get out the spinning in a Zlin? A bit confused.

Martin,

Could you please clairifie your statement about ground school here in the States the last time I look we were required alot more ground school time then what was going on in the UK. Also you seem to forget if you go to work for a US based Airline they make you go thru each month a certain amount of mandatory ground school.

Also what school are you talking about at Ormond Beach,

And for the record here in the States you still have to go thru spin training to recieve your Private anyone who thinks they doen’t need spin control training is asking for trouble in my book.

So Mr.Weaver question then if you are come to America to get time because of a medical reason do tell what type of medical problem you have because you might find it rather hard to get your ticket. How do I know because I have a Heart Coundition that the FAA have told me that I’m most likely will not pass my medical. The FAA has come up with alot of new rule starting in 2005 involving medicals.(mind you I have been flying since I was 14 with the same medical problem)

Cheers
RER

In the PPL across the pond you now only have to do ‘spinning awareness.’ This basically means that your instructor will demonstrate a few spins and then you’ll have fulfilled the requirements of the course. Some bold instructors might let the student have a go themselves.

I personally believe that this is bad practice. It means that you could get through a whole PPL and then ATPL without doing any spinning yourself. I can accept the view that ATPLs generally fly large cargo/passenger aircraft completely disimilar to something like a Zlin – but you must remember that they are all also entitled to fly a lot of other things that will spin more readily.

I think I am correct in saying that the majority of people who come to grief during spinning do so because they panic. A spin is not an unsafe thing to practice but it is unpredictable. Because of this people do panic about it. For example, if you spin a correctly-loaded cessna 150 without flap there is absolutely no reason why it won’t recover given the correct control imputs but it might just do one more turn than you’re expecting it to.

And what do they say? – Knowledge dispells fear. You are far more likely to survive a spin for real if you know whats going on from experience. I don’t think there’s any substitute for a bit of practice…..
and let’s face it, you’re more likely to die crossing the road.

Hmmmm, very true Mike. Mr Weaver slagged me off in quite an aggressive way for suggesting that it would be a good idea to lose his gung-ho attitude. I’m not saying that all men take a macho attitude to aviation, indeed, most pilots I know are very level-headed and sensible people but its the small minority like Weaver that get into the accident reports and make us all look bad!

Irony was, after he attacked me over I got a PM asking me for advice!!! Made me laugh out loud – he certainly has some nerve! I just assumed he was doing it on purpose to try and get a reaction!