Wing tips
Sky-high success
Recent 2FTS graduates PLTOFFs Dirk Taylor, Matt Dunn, Damien Reardon and Todd Brown talk about how to stay ahead of the pack on the pilots course.

Instrument flying | Night flying | Formations | Navigation | Advanced Flying | Final testing | Wings parade

Not everyone passes the 2FTS course.

Photo by PTE John Wellfare

Phase 1: Basic flying
This first phase is aimed at converting students onto the PC-9/A and working through basic emergency procedures. Students practice standard taking off and landing, gliding, precautionary forced landings, simulated engine failures, stalls and aerobatics to name a few skills.

The advice
PLTOFF Taylor: I guess the hardest bit there would be trying to break old habits coming from the CT-4 into the PC-9. It’s easy to say but hard to do – dump all your motor skills and your memory skills and stuff from the CT-4 and take up this new PC-9 stuff. What really helps is sticking to what’s in the student air training guide – if you do everything that’s in there, you can’t go wrong. To sum it up in one word: preparation.

PLTOFF Dunn: Get onto the numbers and the procedures, the checks, all the bookwork. You need to get that out of the way so you can then concentrate on flying and how you’re going to fly.

 

Phase 2: Instrument flying
The instrument flying phase is one of the hardest on the course. Students fly from the PC-9’s back seat with a white hood over the canopy, making it impossible to see out. During 14 flights, students learn to use their instruments to climb, descend, and perform steep turns and runway approaches, while also handling emergencies and other standard flying concerns.

The advice
PLTOFF Dunn: It’s a very procedural phase; you have to get your mind around the procedures. That’s where the progression on the ground comes in – planning out every contingency when you’re on the ground so that when you’re in the air you don’t have to think about it and you can go ahead with your plan.

PLTOFF Taylor: Also knowing how to prioritise and when to prioritise, because most of the time you’ll have 10 things that you need to do, but you have to pick which ones are more important than the other ones.

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PLTOFF Matt Dunn

Phase 3: Night flying
Once students are rated to fly on instruments, they begin the night flying phase. Students go through most of the procedures they worked on during the day, but in darkness. It’s also the students’ first opportunity to fly solo at night.

The advice
PLTOFF Reardon: On your fourth flight you fly solo and by then you’re pretty confident in flying circuits. Then it’s just a matter of applying different attitudes, different numbers in the cockpit, to the circuit.

PLTOFF Dunn: When everything’s good and sweet, night flying is easier than the instrument phase. But you really need to trust your instruments. If you do get yourself mixed up and turned around in your head, you could cause yourself trouble if you don’t trust your instruments.

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PLTOFF Damien Reardon

Phase 4: Formations
Students deploy to Learmonth or Albany for three weeks of formation flying, during which they partner another pilot through 16 flights to learn standard formations, combat formations, station changes and instrument approaches in formation.

The advice
PLTOFF Taylor: Towards the end it gets pretty extreme; you’re flying very close to each other. The instructors work out almost 90 wingovers, pulling three to four Gs sometimes just around the corners, so you come back and you’re sweating and working pretty hard. If you relax, it’s a lot smoother.

PLTOFF Reardon: Try to relax on the stick. If you have a tight grip, you get the really sharp oscillation, which you don’t want when you’re that close.

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PLTOFF Dirk Taylor

Phase 5: Navigation
Students learn to plan flights and prepare maps. They undertake long flights with several turning points and have to stay on course and reach their destination. Many navigation routes are overnight stays.

The advice
PLTOFF Dunn: A lot of people have a bit of trouble with reading the map – it’s something you develop after a while. Around this sort of countryside with hills that are very small, you’ve got to really know what you’re looking for on the map. By that stage, you should know how to fly pretty much, so you can put the concentration into other things.

PLTOFF Taylor: Preparation. I did all my maps before the nav phase even started and that’s what got me through it.

PLTOFF Brown: I did it the other way. At the start I had things on the map that I didn’t need and so as I went on I could make the maps more basic for what I needed. I just made one or two maps ahead because I found that I wanted to change things after each flight.

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PLTOFF Todd Brown

Phase 6: Advanced flying
The advanced flying phase introduces harder flying techniques and more complex emergencies. Students begin flying closer to the limit of the aircraft’s capabilities and are tested to a higher standard than before.

The advice
PLTOFF Dunn: You’ve got to be careful not to drop your bundle because you can be feeling that you know how to do this already and then you don’t study and you don’t prepare. It’s about keeping your focus and remembering there is still work to be done.

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Phase 7: Final testing
The last part of the course is the final instrument handling test and the wings test. The instrument handling test returns students to the hooded canopy and tests their ability to trust their instruments in more trying conditions, with more simulated emergencies and equipment failures. The wings test is the conclusive test of the course. It’s conducted with either the chief flying instructor or the CO as the assessing officer and is the last hurdle before students can graduate from the course.

The advice
PLTOFF Reardon: You get the occasional guy who fails just before wings or at wings and it’s a bit of a shame because they’re so close. I think you’ve just got to trust your ability and step it up to the next level.

PLTOFF Brown: No-one’s going to help you, so you’ve got to help yourself up there. They want to see that you can make a decision by yourself and run with it, so if you can do that, and be confident, and make the right decision, you’ll be okay.

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There’s nothing quite like receiving your wings.

Photo by PTE John Wellfare

Phase 8: Wings parade
After two years of solid work and at least 38 weeks of flying training, students must march onto the parade ground to receive their wings.

The advice
PLTOFF Dunn: It can be hard to get into doing drill again, but by then we’re pilots, so it’s all good.

PLTOFF Reardon: I don’t think you care too much about how you look at the time; you just want to get that set of wings on you.

PLTOFF Taylor: It’s the one thing you’ve been working so hard for over two years and finally you’ve got it.

PLTOFF Brown: Most people you see will have a pretty serious face when they walk up, [but] as soon as the wings go on, they’ll smile and they won’t be able to stop smiling. One after the other they’ll do it. Everyone does it, you can’t help it.

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Pilots course is one step in a long journey

 

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