Getting ready for your checkride? This is a question that’s been coming up quite a bit on the checkrides I’ve sat in on. How will you answer the question when asked? Check out this video.

If you can master slow flight you can excel in really “perfecting” you landings. The video below discusses slow flight along with some clips from the Online Ground School.

Density Altitude is something I once never calculated, cared about, or even knew what it was all about. I tell you this because I don’t want you to fall into the same trap I did as a student pilot thousands of hours ago… This Video You’re About To Watch Will Shock You!

Shifting winds, density altitude, runway conditions, etc… All can attribute to similar occurrences to what you’re about to watch.

The best part about this video is I was able to interview the pilot Chris Palmer who’s actually a great friend in the industry.

I promise you’ll walk away from this video a safer pilot. I’m so thankful Chris has shared this footage with us. Remember A Good Pilot Is Always Learning – Jason

Learn More About What Chris Is Doing On His Blog Angle of Attack

What did you think? What are your experiences with density altitude or difficult runway conditions? Tell Me Below!

The G1000 is like a dream. However the transition to a glass panel can be a difficult one for pilots to make. Last night I was able to fly a Cessna 350 with my student and show you guys some of the G1000 capabilities.

Here’s a great interview I conducted with my student shortly before and right after his Private Pilot Checkride.

If you guys missed it here it is! I spent an entire hour with you guys! My loyal following answering your questions. Below is the recording of that webinar.

For those of you who are wondering what exactly the Online Ground School looks like inside. This video shows you every detail.

First Flight Solo! For students it can be a thrill for instructors like myself… It quite honestly makes me nervous. I know my student is ready otherwise I wouldn’t have signed him or her off however there is still the slightest feeling of anxiety.

If you’re nervous about your first solo or are unsure as what to expect check out this video! As I left the camera rolling in the back while my two most recent students soloed.

Landing technique comes naturally for some and for others it takes a few extra hours. In the video below I’m going to take you on an instructional flight I did so you can watch first hand how I teach landings and work with students to help them succeed.

Below is an interview with a friend of mine who we met on my Flying Across America journey. Mike Daniels our newest certificated pilot has long been active in General Aviation and is even working on a homebuilt. Check out the interview and grab some tips on how Mike passed his checkride. Here’s a hint… He might have used my book too!
The video portion of this acts up just a bit but the audio is still great for you guys to enjoy

Mike’s Twitter
Mike’s Website
Mike’s Podcast

Text Transcript

Jason:

Hey everybody, Jason Schappert here with a buddy of mine, Mike Daniels who actually just passed his private pilot checkride. And I flagged Mike down, he is a MzeroA fan and also somebody who helped us out with Flying Across America. So, Mike has been a great asset to myself and everything and he is share to share his knowledge with you guys.

So, Mike, how are you doin’ bud?

Mike:

Doin’ pretty good, how about you?

Jason:

Me, I’m absolutely doing wonderful. I want to share a story with you guys real quick. When I first met Mike, Mike is in Vegas and we flew into Vegas. Mike and I were talking on the phone and everything, and I told Mike where I was and where he would meet us. So I was looking around for Mike and his wife, and Mike comes up to me and goes, “Are you one of them?”

And here I am in the middle of Las Vegas going, “Maybe I’m one of them, I don’t know.” I look at Mike and he’s a big scary guy, so I was kind of worried. But sure enough it was Mike and he wasn’t scary as I thought. That was my first impression of Mike Daniels and that was interesting.

Anyways, Mike, what everyone really wants to know is about the checkride. A lot of people have fears and anxieties with the checkride, and all I want is a recap of yours. What did you do, planning-wise, to prep us for it. Kind of run us through your checkride and what you did for it.

Mike:

Basically I did a lot of study. What worried me most was the oral since I wasn’t worried about the flying. I felt that I had the maneuvers pretty good, and the only way I seem to be able to learn anything study-wise to prep for the oral was to write it down. You do all those acronyms that we use, to crack everything we’re supposed to know that we know that the examiner is supposed to ask. I wrote them down and studied as much as I could up to the day of the checkride. I was studying up to the last minute.

As far as the flying goes, I was practicing all the maneuvers at the PTS. I was going up to two hours, three times a week, couple of weeks before the checkride. Three or four days before the checkride, I put up my instructor to fly with me a final time. He basically did a mock checkride as far as the flying goes.

Jason:

Very cool…

Mike:

Because I read your book…

Jason:

Oh wow, we can imagine that but we had to bring up. Hahaha.

Mike:

So I read it, and luckily enough I got across those podcasts. The timing was almost perfect when they were doing episodes on how to pass the checkride.

Jason:

That’s the thing. There’s so much information out there to get their hands on, not just on my website but all across the Web. So let’s talk about this now.

What was the most difficult question you were asked on your oral exam, and what was the part that worried you most on the flight?

Mike:

The most difficult question I was asked on the oral exam was… actually he brought a bunch of problems on the board. Different questions, different problems and he had me go down and answer all those problems. One of them was density altitude. He picked an airport in California. He wrote up some weather information on the board, and I had to calculate it.

Basically, I had a little paper density altitude chart with me and it was a start. I had to project past that and then double check myself with a wizard wheel. 2400 feet was the density altitude for this airport but the weather would beat you. That was a tough one. Hardest one was to calculate the takeoff roll with the weather information he gave me for the Tomahawk we are riding. That’s a 1977 Tomahawk with charts like… really small, really hard to draw lines across.

Jason:

Right, exactly, that was so old. That’s awesome, that’s interesting that you carried your density altitude form with you and part of that is flying out west. We don’t usually do that in Florida. We have what you refer to as a wizard wheel we call it an A6B in Florida. I don’t know what happened to you guys in Vegas.

Mike:

We just call it wizard wheel.

Jason:

I know I was just teasing you. Haha. So what about the flight? What were you most worried about going into the flight?

Mike:

Just nervousness of being judged, being graded. I’m usually an in-charge kind of guy, and it’s really hard to be judged and critiqued so.. I was pretty nervous about it, I made some dumb errors but obviously not bad enough to fail me because I passed. Probably my weakest maneuver is that in soft-field landing. Although I can pull them off, but I’m not the best with those. I can do them with the standard most of the time but when you’re going pretty fast you can get cracked up and nervous.

Jason:

Part of that is that you’re flying in a Tomahawk so you’re lowering your plane with the T-tail. That doesn’t make it easy for soft field landing, that’s two things against you. That’s pretty interesting, so was there anything on the flight you wish you could’ve had back like, “I really mopped up those steep turns” or something like that.

Mike:

That would be it, yes, the steep turns. I want my steep turns. I started my steep turns and I was like… well, maybe I wasn’t prepared for this particular part but I didn’t quite realize it was going to be a figure 8. I thought I was going to do a steep turn to the left and then maybe do a right or something. I didn’t quite understand what he was saying. Basically, he wanted me to do a steep turn to the left and come back on the same heading, and then immediately roll right into one on the right. I didn’t catch that at first, and when I came out flying on my heading, he was like, “You’re supposed to fly…” so I guess I didn’t quite understand.

Jason:

That’s interesting because for a commercial pilot you had to do that consecutively. Turn to the left and instantly one on the right. That’s commercial pilot stuff. Private pilot, you’re allowed to hold your heading a little bit. Maybe he’s holding you on a higher standard and see how you perform.

Mike:

Maybe he’s a little confused because he does a lot of checkrides.

Jason:

Yeah, maybe he was like, “I don’t remember what certificate this guy is going for.” You should’ve been lucky that your certificate in the mail would say, “commercial pilot” and you’d be like, “Yeah!!!”

Well, Mike, I won’t take up anymore of your time. One last question here. Let’s say there’s someone listening here right now, that is in your shoes… or your former shoes I guess. Right now, what words of advice could you give them to help them succeed on their private pilot checkride or any checkride for that matter.

Mike:

Obviously I think the thing that helped me more than anything was feeling confident that I know I could do it. You gotta know you can do it, you gotta be confident. I mean, of course I had a little doubt, but projecting my confidence is what instills the examiner to think that, “Yeah, you’re gonna be okay.”

The first thing I did to prep is a passenger debriefing, and he said I gave him the most thorough debriefing. He said more than once, “Your instructor prepared very well for this.” I guess that helped overcome the little errors I made, the preparedness I had for it. So be confident, study, know everything in the sectional so if he points something in the sectional… oh, he did something that was really neat, I want to mention. I’d never seen this done before, I think this is a great technique. He put us on Henderson Airport here in Vegas. You’re standing on the runway, I want you go to up to 24000 feet, tell me what is your airspace is. If you’re in D, then you’re in E for 500 feet then you’re in for Nellis. We just kind of learned it on the way up. It’s a pretty neat exercise for that particular unique area I happen to fly around.

Jason:

That’s very neat, I did similar things to my students. “Hey, you’re in a rocketship you’re going straight up.” That’s tough like the Class E airspace. Where does E start, where does G end? It gets so confusing for a lot of people. That’s a really great exercise for people to do. So that is very cool, Mike. So you are a private pilot? Have you taken the lifeline yet? Or what have you been up to?

Mike:

Oh yeah, we did. This Saturday, I get a checkride and on Monday, the 20th and the following Tuesday. Anyway, the following Saturday we did a little flight in the Tomahawk to Jean, Nevada. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, but it’s a 0L7 if you’re interested. There’s a casino out there in Jean, of course this is Nevada. It’s 40 miles south of town, it’s not a really far flight. But it gets really hot really fast a lot here in Vegas, so I didn’t really want to be up late in the air. So we went out there, had breakfast, flew back and we were done like 9:30 in the morning and it’s already a lot of  degrees out there.

We’re finally doing some flying together, my wife and I. We’re really looking forward to doing some of it, but it’s so hot at this time of the year that we’d try to do a lot of long flights to just kind of fly around the valley out here. Maybe by Hoover Dam, get some pictures or something, just cool down a bit.

Jason:

That’s awesome, very cool. Before I let you go, tell everyone what you are building in the garage and in the living room. I’m building a Xena ZH-750. It’s an STOL. It’s a great little airplane. The rudder’s done back here behind me. The stabilizers are done in the garage, we’ll start the elevator next. We’re gonna keep building that it will be a lot of fun.

Jason:

That’s very awesome. Cool, Mike. Thank you so much for your time. If you guys want to follow along Mike, links to his Twitter and his blogspot are right down beneath the video so you can check that out and know more about Mike. Mike, thank you so much for your time and everything. I really appreciate it.

Mike:

Can I plug my podcast?

Jason:

Everything! Oh yes, your podcast, what was I thinking?

Mike:

Milehighflyers.com.

Jason:

You plug it for me, because I’m not gonna do it justice. Go for it.

Mike:

You can listen to us at Milehighflyers.com. That’s where you can find our podcasts or you can go to iTunes, milehighflyers. It’s a pretty good podcast. Basically four or five of us get together and talk. Most of the crews in Denver watch milehighflyers. I’m out here in Vegas, my wife’s on it, because she observes a lot more of my flight experience. She’s on it, every new episode in it.

Jason:

That’s cool. So a link to that guys will also be down beneath this so you can listen to the podcasts, listen to Mike. Mike, I think that’s all have I for you today. Guys, remember a good pilot is always learning. I’ll catch you guys later.

Mike:

Sure, I got my license because of you.

Jason:

Thanks, see you!

One of the greatest assets on our Flight Across America was a neat iphone/ipad app known as ForeFlight. I had the opportunity to catch up with these guys once again at Oshkosh this year. Check out the interview below.

Interested in learning more about ForeFlight? Check them out here ForeFlight Mobile

The Terrafugia Transition is a pilots dream. Below is my exclusive interview with the companies CEO Carl Dietrich.

Interested in learning more? Vist the offical website of the Terrafugia Transition http://www.terrafugia.com/

And so it begins! As many of you have known for quite sometime now i’ve been preparing to launch an Online Ground School.

Well it’s about to go LIVE in exactly ONE WEEK!

To help keep you learning and active until then i’ve developed Private Pilot 101 a FREE Online Ground School course that will give you one video every other day (about 30 mins in length) until the Online Ground School Launches. http://PrivatePilot101.com

Bose just released the A20 at Oshkosh and guess what! I was one of the first to get my hands on it and get you guys the exclusive interview! More great interviews from Oshkosh to follow along with pictures! Keep your eyes on the blog.

Bose® A20 aviation headset – portable model, Bluetooth

All Comments Must Be In By August The 8th To Win!

Text Transcript

Hey everybody, Jason Schappert here of MzeroA.com with my new buddy, Matt, who is a CFI also an A&P who just so happens to work for Bose. What we’re talking about today is the new Bose A20 headset and Matt’s gonna give us a great overview of that headset, and some key features that you guys can look forward to as my readership.

Matt, take it away.

Matt:

Sure. We’re really happy to introduce the Bose A20 this year at Oshkosh. It’s been on the market now for just 6 days. It features a lot of the same DNA as headset A10, what most people know: magnesium headband and of course a center-pitted spring and all those things that allow to have a really comfortable fit. What we’re really talking to people about here is the new technology. It’s capable of even more noise reduction in the A20 than we’ve ever been able to have before.

Microphone on the outside of the earcup, as well as one on the inside that senses the noise better than we’ve been able to sense. And then we have a new driver, essentially the speaker, that goes inside the headset that delivers the signal with greater fidelity and actually cancels a lot of that nasty noise we don’t really like to listen to.

New features on the headset? Well, we’ve got a couple of new things: Bluetooth, cellphone connectivity on the control module as well as auxilliary audio in. Allows you to go ahead and plug in your portable GPS or maybe an MP3 player if you so desire so you can listen to some great tunes while flying off.

So, the other thing that Bose always talks about is the communication audio. We really focus on that because what people really want in a headset is one that has clear audio.

Jason:

Awesome, Matt! There you have it guys. A quick recap of the A20. If you guys are interested in checking this out, go beneath this video. There’s gonna be a link talking all about the A20 direct to Bose’s website that you guys can check. So I wanna thank you Matt so much for everything and remember, a good pilot is always learning. See you guys later.

Okay, real quick, Matt hooked us up with some great Bose stuff.  Took back EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2010 Bose bag and a Bose hat. I’m giving them away, I’ll ship them you, whoever can leave me the funniest aviation or airplane-related story in the comment box below. So put your funny cap on and tell me the funniest aviation story you have in the comment box below and the Oshkosh bag and the Bose hat, I’m shipping them to you. Let me know and remember, a good pilot is always learning. Catch you guys later.

Saturday July 31st At 2:30PM Center Stage at The Learn To Fly Discovery Center (J-13 On The Oshkosh Map)

Topic: 5 Common Pilot Errors

Ok so i’ll let the video do most of the explaining here. Take a look at it and let me know what you would have done in the comment box below.

You’re going to like this one it really makes you think!

If you’d like to learn more about the powers of wake turbulence check this out

Text Transcript

Hey there everybody, Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com. I wanted to talk to you, actually I wanted to ask you guys a question, about what you would do in this situation? Kinda like last week, the blown tire. I had another.. not really a mishap, but something came up that normally doesn’t come up when you’re learning to fly. At least in my 3000, 4000 hours of flying I never experienced anything like this yet. So I was flying with a student… wait, let me backtrack a bit. We’re all familiar with wake turbulence. Just like a boat produces wake and those wakes come up, airplanes gonna produce a wake as well.

That’s something we commonly try to avoid by taking off above the wake and climb up above it. On landing, we try to land beyond their points, stay above the glide path, etc. You can learn more about that in other videos I’ve done.

What happened in this situation was, we were on a right downwind for runway 18. While we’re doing that, a C-130 which was just in a quick touch and go on runway 36… the winds were calm, the tower cleared him to do it. So he’s doing a touch and go on runway 36. Here we are, we’re on a downwind basically parallel with him, preparing to land on 18. The tower said, “Caution. Wake turbulence.” I mean, the C-130 is a big old airplane. So, I got to thinking, I never go to learn about approaching wake turbulence head on. The C-130 just took off this way and we’re trying to land that same  direction. Normally you both land on the same direction or taking off in the same direction, not opposing like that.

What we ended up doing is we just asked the tower, “Can we just do a 360?” I was just confused and my student was like, “We’ve never read about that kind of situation in your books or anything like that.” So maybe you can be the first to talk on that subject. What would you do in that situation? You know, a C-130 has just taken off at 36, and you’re trying to land at 18. So how can you avoid that wake turbulence? What we did was we just did a 360 on downwind, we got cleared by tower to do that. It gave us about extra 3 minutes. Plenty of time, and landed without a snag. But what would you do in that situation?

Leave me a comment below. You got a big airplane producing a lot of wake taking off 36 and you’re landing on 18, opposite of what we learned in the books. Leave me a comment below and tell me what you think. Always remember, a good pilot is always learning. See you guys later.

So what would you do in this situation? You’re coming into land and without warning you blow out a tire. Quickly you realize you’ve got no control over the airplane and are cutting it fast for the grass. What would you do? Can you imagine if there were runway lights? Runway signs? Other aircraft? Buildings?

What would you do in this situation? Leave me a comment below after watching the video!

Text Transcript

Hey everybody, Jason Schappert here of MzeroA.com driving back from the airport after a long day of flying. Actually our day ended..this is a question I wanna post to you… the day ended with a flattire. The left wing tire blew on 12 Romeo today. A little bit ofsideloading and a little bit of a hard landing with a student,that’s what caused the tire to blow. But the thing is, we literally lost all steering capability.

Now I was wondering “Why is my student aggressively going towards the grass right now?” so I jumped on the controls, and realized this airplane’s out of control basically. We went right into the grass thankfully there were no runway signs and we missed the runway lights and everything. This hasn’t happened before, never has it really veered off like that but it blew the left main. So I got a question for you. What is the proper procedure for something like that?

My first instinct was, we tried to get control of the airplane but it was really difficult. I realized on our projected route we’re not gonna hit anything so it’s fine. But think about if you are heading towards a runway light or runway sign? I mean my initial reaction would be, “Okay, pull the mixture back to idle” but everything happened so fast and we landed at 67 miles per hour. Things are happening real quick. So, are you gonna be able to think of that? Pull the mixture back to idle? SO I wanna see if any of you guys have a similar experience probably that you’d like to share. You can do so at the comment box below and also, what would you do if you’re in that situation? You just landed, you blew a left main or even blew a nose gear and lost control of the airplane effectively. Not really your fault, I mean, you blew a tire.

So what would you do in that situation? So go ahead and leave me a comment below. I’d love to hear what you think and what you would do in that situation and you can assure that you can get a response from me if you’re leaving that comment or if you’re watching us on MzerA.com and leave a comment on there. I can’t guarantee a response on any other video site but if you’re in MzeroA.com looking at this post, you can guarantee a comment back from me. So, anyways, this is all I got for you and remember, a good pilot is always learning. Catch you guys later.

This is such a rocking interview with a guy who really embodies what general aviation is all about! So much that he is even starting a movement behind it! John is the man behind MyPilotLife.com an true general aviation movement that’s proudly displaying a love for general aviation in a unique way.

John is also working on his instrument rating and I found it an awesome opportunity to talk with him about his struggles and things he’s had to overcome while flying IFR.

This is such a great interview and can’t wait for you to hear it.

If you’re interested in seeing John’s work and showing others how you really do live the “Pilot Life” check him out at MyPilotLife.com

This video covers the basics of what every pilot should carry in his or her flight bag! Pretty neat gear review and insights plus this video contains a nice twist thanks to the guys over at MyPilotLife.com Check it out…

All Comment’s Posted By Friday July 24th 2010 Are eligible To Win!

Text Transcript

Hey there, everybody! Jason Schappert of MZeroA.com here with you, doing a video response to an email I received just the other day from a gentleman named Jim.

Jim sent me a question wondering what he should buy as far as a kneeboard or a flight bag, or what other pilot supplies he needs. So I wrote Jim back, and we got talking, and we just became friends just talking back and forth. That’s something real important you should know, I respond to each and every email. So don’t hesitate to shoot me an email if you have a question.

So I’m going to answer the rest of Jim’s response.

The first thing as far as kneeboards go, what I personally use is the ASA-VFR kneeboard. It has everything you need all on there. Different frequencies you could use, the FAA flight plan on here, VFR cloud clearance requirements. So a lot of really neat stuff are on the kneeboard that can come in handy. This is a piece of sheet metal and elastic with a hook for a pen. I think I paid 10 bucks for this at the flight shop. Another thing you’re going to need eventually is a headset. This is a Bose headset, a higher end model. I personally use the Zulus, both high and very expensive headsets. I started out on a set of passive David Clarks. It’s real important that you have your own headset. You’re not running in flight schools all the time. It’s better to have your own. Don’t hesitate to spend a little bit more money on the headset department.

There’s something called passive and something called noise cancelling. Bose, Zulus… David Clark even makes a noise cancelling model and they really make it nice. Go to something like Osh Kosh or Pilot Shop. Try them on and check them out. But don’t hesitate to spend a litte more money on the headset department.

Another thing: handheld radios! Not just a handheld radio though, take a look at this. This is an adapter that you could plug your headset into the handheld radio. So you’re not just talking on it like a walkie-talkie. Now you can plug your headset into it and hear into that, especially when you’re in the cockpit and it’s so loud you may not hear through this little speaker. So don’t just buy the radio, also buy the adapter. Now this is a Sporty’s model, the SP-200 and this model lets you do nav as well or tune through a VOR. So you have comms and you’ve got a means to navigate. So real important, I always keep it in my flight bag as well.

Lastly, you are gonna need some sort of flight bag. This is a Sporty’s flight bag and this was actuallly generously donated to me by the Pilot Life guy. It’s the guy who made this shirt you’re looking at right now. Now we’re gonna run a little bit of a contest. Beneath this video is a comment box. All you have to do is just leave a comment on something you think I may have left out because there’s gonna be a Part 2 to this video. So leave me a comment below on some
things… Hey Jason, I think all pilots should have these as well or I think you should have A, B and C.

I will choose the best response, not only include it in my video, and also ship you this Sporty’s flight bag with areas for your sectional charts, padded headset area along with the Pilot Life t-shirt of your choice. That’s from the guys at Pilot Life, mypilotlife.com is their website, very helpful guys, very cool guys. I suggest you check that out, but go ahead right now, leave me a comment below. Jason, what did you leave out that I think every pilot should have in his or her flight bag and you win these things here along with the cool Pilot Life t-shirt.

That’s all I have for you today. Remember, a good pilot is always learning. See you guys later!

Cross Country Flight! What better excuse to fly then going somewhere far for lunch or to meet a client. However it’s important that you always have a backup! Yes, even as a VFR pilot have an alternate and have a backup for your route. Ask yourself these questions: Does my alternate have fuel? Will my alternate be attended by someone when I get there? Check out this video and relate it to your flying.

Ever had to divert? I’d love to hear it! Shout out to me below the video

Hey there everybody, Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com here wanting to talk to you a little about cross country deviations. Now it’s so important to always have a backup. I’m gonna explain to you why. Let’s take a look at what we did on our Flying ACross AMerica journey. The first thing we were doing is we were in the El Paso Airport, or actually Dona Ana, a little airport just west of El Paso. We wanted to go from El Paso to Midland. Everything had been fine until the controllers told us they had some moderate to extreme precipitation moving right towards Midland where we wanted to go.

So our first option was to divert to an airport just called Wink. We found that on a sectional, we’re gonna use that as a backup. After talking to controllers, talking to flight service, we determined that Wink wasn’t the best alternate to have. We’re strictly VFR and we’re still choosing alternate. So, myself, Vincent and the flight service station all decided that Carlsbad was the best alternate. It was well north and off-route, but it was civil place where there was good weather.

Use the controllers, use flight watch and use flight service stations to their fullest extent. They’re there to help you. You can pick up Flight Watch on 122.0. All you have to do is just ask for Flight Watch. “Flight Watch, this is Cessna 512 Romeo.” Let them come back to you, explain to them where you’re at in relation to a VOR and they will give you every information you desire and even help you pick up an alternate based on different airports. Our big stipulation was, “Okay, the airport has to have fuel.” If we really got to a jam and had to put it down to a ground, it doesn’t matter because we’ve still got plenty of fuel. But we’d like to land in an airport that has fuel. They got that, they can research airports with good weather and has fuel for us. Very helpful when we need to keep our head in the cockpit and outside the cockpit trying to scramble through some weather. So, Flight Watch at 122.0 can really help you out next time you’re on a cross country.

Well, we’re wrapping up here. We’re actually in Georgetown right now, heading to Baton Rouge, then Pensacola and home. Can’t wait to be wrapping up Flying Across America. But remember, VFR cross countries, always have an alternate. I’ll catch you guys later. Remember, a good pilot is always learning. See ya!

IFR Radio Communications – Holding Patterns are tough, shooting partial panel approaches can be stressful, but the glue that holds everything together is your ability to communicate on the radio.

It all starts with copying and reading back your IFR clearance! This video is going to help you bridge the gap and copy an IFR clearance like a pro!

Check out the video

I Use The Acronym CRAFT To Copy Clearances. What About You? How Do You Copy IFR Clearances? Tell Me Below.

Ok, so not flight training related! but I couldn’t help but share this video with you guys it’s just too cool

Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below

Mountain Flying can be dangerous if you don’t take the time to prepare for it. CFIT (Controlled Flight Into Terrain) is best defined as flying a perfectly good airplane into some sort of terrain usually a mountain.

This is primarily due to pilots having a lack of understanding when it comes to flying in the mountains.

In the video below you’ll learn
- How to approach a mountain pass
- How to always leave yourself a way out
- How mountain waves effect you as a pilot

Hey everybody. Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com bringing you an awesome video podcast that I actually just got the chance to do today and that is mountain flying. Here is a picture from today, and here also is a video we took from today. This is all part of our flying across America journey.

We departed from El Paso and headed due west to Tucson today. So you can see we can some real exciting experience flying in the mountains. I want to share with you this week about our experience and about some of the dangers of mountain flying. Like, the weather’s getting bad and a lot of pilots are getting out there flying, the Rocky Mountains are a lot different mountains than the Appalachian Mountains or anything on the East Coast for that matter. Remember, I’m just a Florida-based pilot so this is all new to me although I have a good idea of what mountain flying was.

So let’s go ahead and I’ll show you a little bit along with some pictures that we took today about mountain flying.

So approaching a mountain pass. Today was all about finding the right pass and the right route to go through. So we take a look at our mountain and we can see here we have three peaks and we have some gaps in between or a pass in between. The thing you always wanna do, you never wanna approach a pass or a mountain gap like that head. You always wanna approach it at a 45-degree angle. This allows you to get a better look at the pass and it also leaves you a way out. That way, if you get there and you realize you don’t like what’s on the other side or it’s getting a bit too turbulent for you, you can just make a 90-degree turn. Whereas if you approach it head on, you would have to make a 180-degree turn. So you’re leaving yourself an easy way out and also give you a good look at the mountain pass so always approach at that 45-degree angle.

Also, check out the weather in the pass. One thing you’re gonna notice when you’re starting to fly out west is that the FAA has put ASOS and AWOS stations in the mountain pass that you can tune to and listen to what the weather is like in the pass. Because, just because the weather is beautiful at the airport or at the other side of the ridge that you are going to doesn’t mean the weather is also beautiful in that pass. It’s a different elevation, different winds, different conditions. So, if they have an ASOS or an AWOS in that pass, it’s real important that you listen to that so check the weather just like the METAR at the airport that you’re going to.

What about mountain waves? Let’s look at this picture. So we got our strong winds. This is what actually happened to us today. Let us look at it from left to right. We had a great tailwind carrying us up the mountain and over it. However, on the other side, this is where you get those low clouds and you can see how it kinda eddies down the mountain and that’s what causing your turbulent air because the air gets so disrupted by that mountain. You get a lot of turbulence on the backside of that mountain. So just because it’s all nice and easy that way, you know, it’s gonna get turbulent on the other side and that’s the same if you’re approaching on the opposite direction and there’s turbulence first. Turbulence and mountains go hand in hand especially on a windy day.

I talked to flight instructors that fly the mountains and when they know the wind is at 15 to 20 knots, they just don’t go flying because this is the kind of turbulence that can beat you up right into that mountain.

You know we had a ton of updrafts and downdrafts today as you can see in some of these pictures. It’s nothing to mess around with especially with the tailwind that close to you. So let’s go ahead and talk about some tips for safe mountain flying.

First one. Know your density altitude. This is gonna directly relate to your aircraft’s performance. The Cessna 150, this has a 100 horsepower. So with density altitude on top of we’re already flying at 8500 feet, didn’t make things easy for us today. Today had to be a really early morning flight and the airplane, you could feel it, it was so sluggish. I wouldn’t dare do what we did today in the heat of the afternoon. There’s no way you could be able to do it. The airplane may be able to get off that ground and get that high but it wouldn’t be maneuverable enough to do what we needed to do today.

Know your route and know your backup route. Have your first route and have a backup route as well just in case that pass is blocked. Remember we said, the weather in the pass can always be different. And the last tip I have for you is always have a way out. Just like we said approach a pass or the gap at a 45-degree angle you are leaving yourself a way out. So when you’re turning around, just leave yourself an extreme back up where you can turn around to where you know it’s safe and you can put the airplane down in another airport or at least get flying ina better direction. So that’s all I have for you guys on mountain flying today. Beneath this post if you’re looking at it from MzeroA.com, there are some great pictures of my mountain flying today. If you’re not, you’re watching this in Youtube, go to MZeroA.com/mountain-flying. So go ahead and take a look at that and, I look forward to seeing you guys next week. I will be in California, or actually later this week so we can have some video podcasts coming to you direct from California, the west end of our flying across America journey.

So that is all I have for you today. Remember, a good pilot is always learning. See you guys later.

Class B Airspace houses the nations biggest and busiest airports! This can make just flying out of there a hassle. Work on requesting and reading back VFR clearances from controllers as much as possible. Check out the video below it’s a great place to start.

When you’re done watching the video leave me a comment with your question or opinion at the bottom of this page!