Page 14 - Dear aviator...

continue to be, used by many different students (that’s why they often have those
white net-like elastic baggies to go over the earpieces). Having your own set means
that it is your sweat, your dandruff and nobody else’s. The cockpit is a noisy
environment and, hopefully, you will be spending a lot of time there. You have only
one set of ears and their health and continued good operation is paramount if you
wish to continue flying both for medical reasons and for maximising effective radio
communication.
Having said that, there is no need to purchase the top-of-the-line headset (which
could set you back by more than $1000); at the same time, though don’t be too
cheap and settle for a $150 one. You really do get what you pay for.
Next up, you will be purchasing a flight bag to hold all your equipment - including
your new very expensive headset. A normal backpack or briefcase would do just
fine but no… you will want the bag that has the specific compartment for that
headset and for your charts and navigation equipment and for your very special
aviation pens and pencils. Let’s be honest… flight bags look the part and are cool,
but at this early stage of training they truly are a bit unnecessary. Also… you’ll be
taking that bag everywhere because nothing screams “I’m a pilot” like a flight bag
with aviation style logos stitched across the top.
Now, most of us have a tablet of some sort. If you don’t have one now, you will get
one for aviation. You will tell yourself that it is to have a single device to manage all
of your aviation documents and lessons. But in reality you will be purchasing a
tablet to have one of those nifty flight planning apps which will give you the
impression of speeding up your pre-flight calculations and route planning. Besides
the cost of the device, the app itself is usually a yearly subscription thing costing
upwards of $100 per year. Now, please listen and repeat after me: “I will not
purchase a flight planning app until after I have earned my Private Pilot’s Licence”.
Again, this time with feeling: “I will not purchase a flight planning app until after I
have earned my Private Pilot’s Licence”. The reason for this is not to save you the
money for the app (you’ll spend it eventually down the line), but rather to force you
to become proficient in the art of good old-fashioned manual flight planning. I
cannot stress this enough: manual flight planning is one of the most important
skills you will acquire. Make it a genuine effort - not only for the exam’s sake
which, incidentally, will not allow you to use an electronic device - in order for it to
be second nature and to be able to understand why you are applying certain
calculations and what all those numbers truly mean.
It will be a fine addition to your kit after you have your PPL, but please heed this
suggestion and dispense with it for your first phase of training.
This next one may or may not be of interest to you… a hand-held VHF radio. You
will see several of these at the school with which instructors and students will
monitor the airport’s automatic weather broadcasts and, at non towered airports,
the local traffic chatter to get an idea of how many aircraft are in the circuit and of
any inbound traffic.
Some instructors have their own personal unit and (if applicable) show off being
able to get a clearance to start the aircraft on the ground frequency before even
getting in the plane.
I purchased mine for a more educational reason. I live close to a relatively large
airport. I can tune the tower frequency and listen to communication between

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