Page 16 - Dear aviator...

One mention should be made with regard to the log book. Often the school will
provide you with your first log book or you may be required to purchase it yourself.
Regardless, it will be your life; well your aviation life, anyway. It will contain every
single flight you will do both as a student and as a pilot. You will be taking it with
you for your flight tests and later for your job interviews. It is a legal document so
try to write neatly in it and keep it tidy.

Health and Medical and other documents (for Australia)

This paragraph is mostly geared towards student pilots operating in Australia. I
imagine that similar requirements are in effect in other countries.
Once you have decided to commit to pilot training you will be entering a new world
and a new way of life - both of these very expensive. You will get a taste of this
expense way before you even start training. Let me explain how.
In order to be granted access to the exclusive club of aviation you need an ID. This
comes in the form of a unique number called an ARN (Aviation Reference Number).
The saying is that the only free thing in aviation is your ARN which you request via
a very simple online form.
The next thing you need to get is an aviation medical certificate. The type of
certificate depends on what licence you intend to train for, but regardless of the
type, it is only a designated aviation medical examiner (DAME) that can issue you
with a medical certificate so don’t bother with your GP - they won’t be able to help
you. The details of the types of medical certificate are beyond the scope of this
paragraph but suffice it to say that if you are training for a PPL you will need a
Class 2 medical, and if you are training for a CPL you will need a Class 1 medical.
The actual details may vary, but for me the process worked out as follows: I called a
DAME close to my house and I booked an appointment about a month later. He
immediately sent me a list of tests I needed to get done. In short it was eyes, ears,
heart and blood work. If you have additional conditions those will be addressed
separately. Those results were then forwarded by the various specialists to my
DAME and I went to do the final check up with him. That appointment is when he
will say yay or nay with regard to the certificate. If he is not satisfied, he may refer
you for additional testing.
The catch is that each test and examination costs money, and since they are
aviation-specific tests, they cost a bit more money. In certain cases you can expect
to spend in the range of $500 to $1000, depending on the type and number of
tests.
The reason why I bring up the topic of medical certificates (which should normally
be addressed by the school before you start training) is that there are some schools
which will start to train students before they have their medical certificate. This is
potentially disastrous for the student because of the following consideration. Please
read carefully! You are legally allowed to fly as a student without a medical
certificate (since your instructor is the legal pilot in command). However, you must
have a certificate in order to take the flight test. This means that technically
speaking you could go through your entire training without having a medical
certificate and then, on the eve of your flight test, discover that due to some

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