The Fastest Way to Get Off the Ground - Fly, and Become a Pilot

The Fastest Way to Get Off the Ground - Fly, and Become a Pilot By Jeffrey Synk Jeffrey Synk Level: Basic PLUS Jeffrey Synk is a father, pilot, and blogger, in that order. He flies for a regional airline based out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is ...

Often people I talk to are enthralled that I fly for a living. I get to go to the airport, fly a jet airplane and I get paid for it. Not a bad life! Almost everyone I have ever talked to admits an interest in learning to fly at one point or another.
Can you blame them? Flying an airplane is an awesome experience! It's romantic. It's fun! For a long time, it was the "Final Frontier" for the ordinary person.The unachievable! A dream that only other people made real.
Then I ask them, "Why haven't you learned to fly?"
Usually they hem and haw and give reasons like: no money, no time, other commitments, too complicated...and the list goes on. I can understand and appreciate all of these reasons...but...becoming a pilot is more achievable now than ever before by becoming what is called a "Sport Pilot."
So, in this article, we will discuss what a Sport Pilot is, some of the limitations, training, and privileges of being a Sport Pilot, physical requirements, and the different types of aircraft you would be allowed to fly.
What is a "Sport Pilot" Certificate?
In October 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) began the "Sport Pilot" certification program due to a drastic decrease in the number of people becoming pilots. The FAA had to devise a simpler, less expensive way for people to become pilots than the traditional way. Until 2004, there were only four basic types of fixed-wing (airplane) pilot certificates available to would-be pilots:
- Student Pilot (beginner)
- Private Pilot (novice; fly passengers and at night)
- Commercial Pilot (intermediate; fly for hire)
- Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) (master; fly for an airline, in general)
The result, a "lighter" version of a Private Pilot's certificate called the "Sports Pilot" certificate that gives you the training and the certification to fly but is custom-made for the non-fulltime, aircraft specific, occasional pilot. This is a great response to the need for a type of pilot's certificate that is not so concentrated on a career in aviation or on the heavier level of responsibility and learning that a Private Pilot's certificate brings with it but allows people to get out and fly.
Sport Pilot: Limitations, Training, and Privileges
The age restrictions for a Sports Pilot certificate are pretty much the same as a Private Pilot's certificate. You have to be at least 17 years old for airplanes and anything else. If you are at least 16 years old, you can fly a glider or balloon. There is no upper age limit for a Sport Pilot as long as you are healthy and have a driver's license. More on this in a bit.
As for training, you still have to go through flight and ground school training and take a practical test (checkride) with a designated pilot examiner (DPE) but the number of flight training hours is not as numerous and the written test is customized to the less demanding level of flying you are pursuing.
The Sports Pilot certificate is also more restrictive than a Private Pilot certificate but it allows you to enjoy flying lighter aircraft for short flights under certain circumstances. This fits the "joy ride" desire that is exactly what attracts people to flying in the first place.
The basic limitations of a Sport Pilot are:
- Operate in the daytime only
- Must have three miles of visibility and must be able to see the ground
- Must operate in Class G and E airspace only but can include additional airspaces with proper training and endorsements
- Cannot fly for compensation or hire, but you can share expenses such as the aircraft rental and gas
- Maximum level flight speed in a sport aircraft is 87 knots (or 100 mph) but can be increased to 120 knots (or 138 mph) with additional training and endorsements
- Must fly below 10,000 feet mean sea level (MSL)
- May only fly in the United States
- May carry only one passenger if the aircraft is equipped with two seats
Physical Requirements
One of the unique aspects of a Sport Pilot is that under certain circumstances you don't have to take a FAA physical exam like Private Pilot's do but a valid driver's license may be sufficient to indicate health eligibility.
However, one of the caveat's to this rule is that if you have failed your most recent FAA medical exam and it was never rectified or your FAA medical certificate was revoked or suspended, then you need to have that cleared up first before you can become a Sport Pilot. It may just be a matter of getting some more tests done or submitting new paperwork. Check with an FAA medical examiner if this has happened to you.
But, if you have never taken an FAA physical and are in good health, then your driver's license may be enough. Check with a certificated flight instructor (CFI) if you have any questions.
The Aircraft You Can Fly
One of the best things about being a Sport Pilot is the wide variety of aircraft that you can learn to fly. The aircraft you are certified to fly as a Sport Pilot are called Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) and include:
- Two Passenger Airplanes
- Gliders
- Weight-Shift Control Aircraft
- Powered Parachute
- Newly Manufactured Ready-To-Fly Aircraft
- Some Manufactured Kit-Built Aircraft
- Hot Air Balloons
There are several other characteristics associated with LSA's, but it is easier to just say that they are low, slow, and simple to operate aircraft. And just think, within a few weeks, you could be flying one of them. Unfortunately, helicopters and powered-lift aircraft are excluded because they are more difficult to fly. If you wanted to fly one of these, then you would have to get a Private Pilot's certificate.
A Few More Thoughts
One of the best things about a Sport's Pilot certificate is that once you have your certificate, whenever you feel the desire to fly, you can head to the airport, rent an aircraft, take a friend up for a flight (or go by yourself), tour the local landscape, or enjoy a quick flight to a neighboring town for lunch. A Sport Pilot certificate is by far the fastest way to get up in the air and start flying quickly and inexpensively.
Another great thing is that you can get a Sports Pilot's certificate and begin enjoying flying as much or little as you want and stay at that level as long as you want. But, if at some point down the road, you want to move on to a Private Pilot's certificate, all the training you have put towards your Sport Pilot certificate is credited towards your Private Pilot license, so basically you just have to "upgrade" your training to the more advanced certification.
Conclusion
In this article we covered several of the most important items associated with becoming a Sport Pilot which included some of the limitations, training, and privileges of being a Sport Pilot, physical requirements and about the different types of aircraft you would be allowed to fly. I hope it has answered a few questions and has gotten you excited about the renewed possibility of you becoming a pilot
So what is stopping you now? It is easier than ever to become a pilot and start flying.
If you would like more information on becoming a Sport Pilot visit the FAA's Sport Pilot website at: http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/airmen_certification/sport_pilot/.

Jeffrey is a captain at regional airline and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He flies the CRJ200, CRJ700, and CRJ900. He holds an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate, a CL-65 (CRJ200) type rating, and is a Gold Seal Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI). He has over 4000 hours total flight time.
He writes the blog "Almost the Speed of Sound" (http://www.flycrj.com) which is about his experiences, insights, and thoughts about being an airline captain and flight instructor. He is also the author of "The CRJ Quicknotes Study Guide" which is available at http://www.flycrj.com/order.html

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeffrey_Synk

Aviation Call Sings

from Wikipedia

Aviation Call Sings

A general aviation aircraft in the United States with its call sign (N978CP) displayed on the fuselage.

Call signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation and whether or not the caller is in an aircraft or at a ground facility. In most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign corresponding to the aircraft's registration number (also called N-number in the U.S., or tail number). In this case, the call sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) phonetic alphabet. Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, followed by a unique identifier made up of letters and numbers. For example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa.
In most countries, the aircraft call sign or "tail number" or registration marks are linked to the international radio call sign allocation table and follow a convention that aircraft radio stations (and, by extension, the aircraft itself) receive call signs consisting of five letters. For example, all British civil aircraft have a five-letter call sign beginning with G. Canadian aircraft have a call sign beginning with C–F or C–G, such as C–FABC. Wing In Ground-effect vehicles (hovercraft) in Canada are eligible to receive C–Hxxx call signs, and ultralight aircraft receive C-Ixxx call signs. In days gone by, even American aircraft used five letter call signs, such as KH–ABC, but they were replaced prior to World War II by the current American system of aircraft call signs (see below).
The – (dash) in the registration is only included on the fuselage of the airplane for readability. In air traffic management systems (ATC radar screen, flow management systems, etc.) and on flight plan forms, the dash is not used (e.g. PHVHA, FABCD, CFABC).
After an aircraft has made contact with a air traffic control facility, the call sign may be abbreviated. Sometimes the aircraft make or model is used in front of the full or abbreviated call sign, for instance, the American aircraft mentioned above might then use Cessna Eight-Charlie-Papa. Alternatively, the initial letter of the call sign can be concatenated with the final two or three characters, for instance a British aircraft registered G–BFRM may identify as Golf–Romeo–Mike while the American aircraft might use November–Eight-Charlie-Papa. The use of abbreviated call signs has its dangers, in the case when aircraft with similar call signs are in the same vicinity. Therefore abbreviated signs are used only so long as it is unambiguous. ^[6]
The United States does not follow the five-letter call sign convention, and in that country the registration number begins with the letter N followed by up to five digits and/or letters in one of these schemes: one to five numbers (N12345), one to four numbers and one suffix letter (N1234Z), or one to three numbers and two suffix letters (N123AZ). The numeric part of the registration never starts with zero. To avoid confusion with the digits 1 (one) and 0 (zero), the alphabetic letters I (India) and O (Oscar) are not used in registration numbers.
Commercial operators, including scheduled airline, air cargo and air taxi operators, will usually use an ICAO or FAA-registered call sign for their company. By ICAO Annex 10 Chapter 5.2.1.7.2.1 - Full call signs type c, a call sign consists out of the telephony designator of the aircraft operating agency, followed by the flight identification. The flight identification is very often the same as the flight number, but could be different due to call sign confusion, if two or more flights close to each other have similar flight numbers (i.e. KL649 and KL645 or BA466 and BA646). For example, British Airways flight 75 would use the call sign Speedbird Seven–Five (with the last word properly pronounced fife), since Speedbird is the telephony designator for British Airways and 75 would be the flight identification. (The telephony designator is not the same as the call sign, although the two are sometimes conflated). Pan Am had the telephony designator of Clipper. (see list)
For these call signs, proper usage varies by country. In some countries, such as the United States, numbers are spoken normally (for the example above, Speedbird Seventy-five) instead of being spelled out digit by digit, leading to the possibility of confusion. In most other countries, including the United Kingdom, they are spelled out. ^[7] Air taxi operators in the United States sometimes do not have a registered call sign, in which case the prefix T is used, followed by the aircraft registration number (e.g. Tango- November-Niner-Seven-Eight-Charlie-Papa).
Some variations of call signs exist to express safety concerns to all operators and controllers monitoring the transmissions. Aircraft call signs will use the suffix "heavy" for large aircraft, to indicate an aircraft that is going to cause significant wake turbulence, e.g. United Two-Five Heavy; All aircraft capable of operating with a gross take-off weight of more than 255,000 lbs. must use this suffix whether or not they are operating at this weight during a particular phase of flight. These are typically Boeing 747, some models of the 757, 777, or 767, Airbus A340, A330 and A300, McDonnell Douglas DC-10 or MD-11, or Lockheed L-1011 aircraft. The suffix "super" is used for the Airbus A380.^[8] For air ambulance services or other flights involving the safety of life (such as aircraft carrying a person who has suffered a heart attack), "lifeguard" is added to the call sign. For flights in which life is not in direct danger (such as transporting organs for transplant), the call sign prefix "Pan-Pan-Medical" is used before the normal call sign, e.g. Pan-Pan-Medical Three-Three-Alpha, Pan-Pan-Medical Northwest Four-Five-Eight, or Pan-Pan-Medical Singapore Niner-Two-Three. Pan Pan (pronounced "pon-pon") is the voice radio signal for "urgent", while Mayday is the voice radio signal for "distress". The word may be omitted for air ambulance services with assigned call signs, especially when they have notified air traffic control operators that they are on an air ambulance mission at the beginning of their flight and do not change from one controller to another. The Life Flight air ambulance service, for example, might simply identify as Life-Flight Three. An aircraft that has declared an in-flight emergency will sometimes prefix the word Mayday to its call sign. [1]
Formerly one of the rarest call signs, "Concorde", was once used to identify British Airways Concorde aircraft. The intent of this call sign was to raise the air traffic control operators' awareness of the unique performance of the aircraft and the special attention it required. The call sign was appended to British Airways' normal radio call sign, e.g. "Speedbird-Concorde One"^[9]. In normal service, Air France did not use it at all; its Concorde flights simply used the standard Airfrans call sign.^{[citation needed]}
Glider pilots often can use any of three different call signs. Since most (not all) gliders now show standard CAA general aviation registrations e.g. G-xxxx they can call using the same call sign and abbreviation rules as other light aircraft. Before these registrations came in (between 2004 - 2008) they used to use and normally still do use either a three letter code issued to all gliders by the British Gliding Association know as the aircraft's Trigraph e.g. XYZ normally calling ATC as "Glider X-ray, Yankee, Zulu" or if they paid extra could get from the BGA a numeric or mixed numeric and letter code known as a competition number for marking their aircraft and as a call sign. For Example R4 "Romeo Four", or 26 "Two Six" or F1 "Foxtrot One". Optionally gliders will normally tag on the "Glider" in front of their call sign when calling ATC units so that the controller knows for example that the glider will be unable to maintain a particular height as Gliders are normally either descending in a straight glide or circling to climb. Some gliders are still not required to carry a CAA General Aviation type registration as they are older designs or prototypes and can therefore only continue to just use their Trigraph or Competition number as a call sign. These are known as Annex II aircraft as they are listed in EASA Annex II.
Military flights often use more than one call sign during a flight. Administrative call signs are used with air traffic control facilities similar to those of commercial operators. e.g. Navy Alpha-Golf-Two-One, Reach-Three-One-Seven-Niner Two.
Tactical call signs are used during tactical portions of a flight, and they often indicate the mission of the flight and/or an aircraft's position in a formation.
For example, Canadian Air Force 442 Rescue Squadron, based at Comox, British Columbia uses the call sign "Snake 90x" depending on the tail number of the helicopter: 901, 902, etc. When tasked on a search and rescue (SAR) mission, however, the aircraft call sign becomes "Rescue 90x".
Ground facilities identify themselves by the name and function of the facility: e.g. Seattle Tower for the tower air traffic control operators' position, SoCal Approach for a TRACON, or Boston Center for an Area Control Center. All other ICAO countries around the world, for example the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), use 'Control or Radar instead of Center in their airspace. (Langen Radar, Brussels Control, Paris Control, ...).
The ICAO 24–bit transponder code is intended for non-human usage in the Mode-S and ADS-B protocols.
Marine Callsign: WD9598 was used in the 1960's TV show flipper, by Portar Ricks.

FAA Aircraft Identification regulations

The Federal Aviation Administration regulates call sign standards within United States airspace. These conventions are generally used world wide.^[10]

position	call sign	comments
President of the United States	Air Force One	any US Air Force aircraft when the president is aboard, typically VC-25A aircraft, Executive One Foxtrot when only the family of the president is aboard.
President of the United States	Marine One	any Marine aircraft when the president is aboard, typically VH-60N or VH-71 Kestrel helicopters, Executive One Foxtrot when only the family of the president is aboard.
President of the United States	Navy One	any Navy aircraft when the president is aboard, to date this call sign has been used only once[11]
President of the United States	Executive One	any civilian aircraft when the president is aboard, Executive One Foxtrot when only the family of the president is aboard.
Vice President of the United States	Air Force Two	any US Air Force aircraft when the vice president is aboard
Vice President of the United States	Marine Two	any US Marines aircraft when the vice president is aboard
United States Secretary of Transportation	Transport One	any aircraft when the secretary is aboard, Transport Two when the Deputy Secretary of Transportation is aboard
Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration	Safe Air One	any aircraft when the secretary is aboard, Safe Air Two when the Deputy Administrator
United States Department of Energy	RAC followed by tail number	any Department of Energy Flight
	FLIGHT CHECK followed by tail number	any flight testing navigational aids
	SAMP followed by tail number	any United States Air Force aircraft conducting air sampling
Canadian Forces Air Command	CANFORCE followed by tail number	Canadian Air Force flights