flying lesson - what is standard practice?

mayoman1973 · 19-08-2025 11:38AM #1

I took my first flying lesson few weeks ago and have been itching to get back at it again. I enjoyed the experience but was not exactly what I had expected.

From parking my car at the airstrip to getting in the plane and airborne was about 3 min. I was expecting some sort of flight plan, map to be looked at. Instructor was very good and had me controlling the airplane within1 min of takeoff, oncehehad her at around the 700 ft mark.

My question is, I thought every flight would require the pilot to do a walk about the airplane, even as just a tyre kicking exercise. This guy didnt as much as check the fuel level. We werent flying over water so I guess not a huge deal. I eventually settled but kept thinking has this plane been serviced recently or indeed what is the min requirements for such. You rarely if ever hear of any light aircraft issues in this country and any that I have read of in other countries are a lot of the time put down to pilot error. Does running out of fuel count as pilot error or not noticing a flap, aerlon hanging loose ?

EchoIndia · 19-08-2025 01:35PM

Do you know for sure that the pilot had not done the preparatory work before the flight?

easygoing39 · 19-08-2025 01:41PM

You could have been the 3rd flight that day,or the pilot could have been at the airfield an hour before you and done the pre-check while you were still in bed.

phonypony · 19-08-2025 02:22PM

A light aircraft generally has a maintenance schedule of 50 hour and 100 hour checks (flying hours). It will also have an annual inspection and a revalidation of its Airworthiness Review Certificate. There will be out of phase maintenance for defect rectification, airworthiness directives, structural inspections, corrosion prevention, etc. Engines also require overhaul every ~2000 hours. Once the maintenance is complete an engineer signs off the certificate of release to service- this is then essentially kept current by doing a pre-flight inspection before the first flight of each day.

As others have said, the pilot may have already flown that day and was ready, no flight plan to be filed for a jaunt around the local area and no navigation required due to familiarity. Was this a grass strip on the east coast south of Dublin?

In terms of your other questions- running out of fuel CAN be attributed to pilot error via lack of planning, etc. It can also be due to a mechanical issue (like a fuel leak). Loose flight controls you would probably notice on the pre-flight. There are plenty of interesting light aircraft accident reports to be found on the AAIU website.

mayoman1973 · 19-08-2025 02:58PM

I pulled into car park. Pilot landed, taxied, turned off the engine. Previous guy got out, pilot then shouted my direction to hop in and away we went.

Astral Nav · 19-08-2025 05:26PM

TBH in this day and age it sounds a bit lax. To understand what you're doing you need a short briefing. Normally a shortened walk around between flights is performed (not as much as getting it set up first thing).

VFR (visual rules) means you don't t follow a set flight plan, you have the freedom to just fly around once you're away from the airstrip so fair enough.

Maps and plans aren't really necessary for an introduction flight.

Sounds like airborne was okay.

A mixed bag but I suggest you expect a bit more structure for any lessons you may take.

Hotblack Desiato · 20-08-2025 01:46PM

Doesn't sound like a lesson though, more like an introductory flight, the sort of thing people get as a present. Get them up there, give them a little go on the controls, let them see if it's something they are interested in doing, or is it something they find terrifying and never want to do again. I'd imagine the proportion who do an introductory flight and come back for actual lessons is small enough.

flying lesson - what is standard practice?

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