Congratulations!

It is my pleasure to begin with congratulations to those who have completed their First Solo Flights or qualifying Flight Tests. As all pilots know, this first flight alone becomes forever imprinted on your memory—the moment of taking a flying machine into the air by yourself, and landing it safely. Similarly, pilots know that the successful completion of a qualifying Flight Test is the paramount event built on many months of hard work, sweat, and commitment.

 

Congratulations to Sandy Wade who completed her First Solo Flight on March 8, 2010; congratulations to Sandy's Flight Instructor, Naomi Jones.

 

Congratulations to Katie de Sousa who completed her First Solo Flight on March 8, 2010; congratulations to Katie's Flight Instructor, Naomi Jones.

 

Congratulations to Nicholas Mufford who completed his First Solo Flight on March 2, 2010; congratulations to Nic's Flight Instructor, Mayank Mittal.

 

Congratulations to Karlee Janzen who completed her First Solo Flight on February 22, 2010; congratulations to Karlee's Flight Instructor, Rod Giesbrecht.

 

Congratulations to Ed Chapman who completed his First Solo Flight on February 17, 2010; congratulations to Nic's Flight Instructor, Phil Craig.

 

Congratulations to our very own Naomi Jones who successfully completed the Flight Test for her Group 1 (Multi-engine) Instrument Rating with Todd Pezer on February 15, 2010.

 

Congratulations to Jonathan King who completed his First Solo Flight on January 25, 2010; congratulations to Jonathan's Flight Instructor, Rod Giesbrecht.

 

Congratulations to Darren Kroeker who successfully completed his Private Pilot Flight Test with Pilot Examiner Jim Scott on January 23, 2010. Congratulations as well to Darren's Flight Instructor, Naomi Jones.

 

Congratulations to Christine Zboyousky who successfully completed her Private Pilot Flight Test with Pilot Examiner John Laing on January 7, 2010. Congratulations as well to Christine's Flight Instructors, Rod Giesbrecht and Phil Craig. .

 

Congratulations to David Kim who successfully completed the qualifying Flight Test for his Multi-engine Class Rating on November 16, 2009 with Pilot Examiner Todd Pezer. Congratulations also to David's Flight Instructor, Philip Craig.

 

Congratulations to Rick Hunter who successfully completed the qualifying Flight Test for his Multi-engine Class Rating on November 14, 2009 with Pilot Examiner Todd Pezer . Congratulations also to Rick's Flight Instructor, Philip Craig.

 

Rick Hunter receives the Ed Huggett Instrument Rating Award, while Dean Bicknell and Darren Kroeker receive Samuel Ruiz Private Pilot Awards

The year 2010 has only just started, but three

students have already claimed student awards

for outstanding achievement on Transport

Canada Instrument Rating written examination.

The first award was claimed by Rick Hunter

who claimed the Ed Huggett Instrument

Pilot Award.  Rick is enrolled in Langley

Flying School’s Professional Pilot Program

and is currently preparing for his Commercial

Pilot Flight Test.  Rick is the fourth student to

receive the Ed Huggett Award and its cash

prize of $700; previous recipients include our

own Peter Waddington, Raman

Srivastava, Sagar Canakapalli.

 

Shortly after Rick claimed his prize, two students from our Private Pilot Program scored top marks on the Transport Canada Private Pilot Licence written examination—Dean Bicknell and Darren Kroeker became the sixth and seventh recipient of the Samuel Ruiz Private Pilot Award and its $700 prize.  Previous recipients include Sean Walker, Alan March, Ville (Will) Tuokkola, Kevin Mickelby, and Ryan Ostermeier.

 

Only the Adam Katagiri Commercial Pilot Award has yet to claim a recipient—awarded to Langley Flying School Students who achieve 90% or more on the Transport Canada Commercial Pilot Examination, the Adam Katagiri Award also has attached a $700 cash prize.

Olympic Airspace Restrictions make for Interesting Times

As the new pattern of flight training operations have emerged following the imposition of the restricted airspace, it is clear that we can say that these are interesting times for pilots on the Lower Mainland.  While the first day certainly seemed chaotic as our Flight Instructor staff flew “probe” flights to Chilliwack, Abbotsford, and Bellingham, we have since settled into pretty well predictable patterns of operations, thanks especially to the folks at the Kamloops Flight Information Centre (Pacific Radio) who have had to administer a complex array of flight plan openings and closures, as well as the associated transponder squawk codes—well done to these hardworking folks.  Most round-robin training flights must be planned around two flights plans—outbound and inbound—and the inbound (return) plan must be activated with an assigned transponder code 15 minutes prior to crossing the CYR’s 30-mile marker.  We have settled into the pattern of treating the CYR 185’s Victoria Monitor as an outer controller.  Like the Kamloops Flight Service Specialists, the folks at Vancouver Centre have been stellar in setting up a well organized transition pathway through the restricted airspace.

 

Keep your eyes peeled along the Mission Corridor . . .

One thing that is clear, however, is that the corridor over Mission is becoming an extremely busy pathway as the only direct route to the only open training airspace, and the only viable location for unrestricted circuit practice (Chilliwack Airport).  Everyone has to pass through here, it seems, and with the high work loads associated with flight plan and clearance administration and communication, GA pilots and training crews will have to exercise extra vigilance, especially when lower ceilings dominate the area.  The solution for many has been to transition westbound using an overfly over the Abbotsford airport, but for the flying schools at Pitt Meadows and Langley Airports, the Fraser River route is direct and economical.

 

 

 

Private Pilot Students to graduate first as Recreational Pilots—Solving the Problem of restricted Student Flying during the Olympics

One of the greatest challenges flying schools have had in preparing for the Olympic airspace restrictions has been the management and administration of the solo cross-country flight training of Private Pilot students—Student Pilot are prohibited outright from flying solo in any airspace lying within the 30 NM outer ring of CYR 185, and while we could accommodate most of the other restrictions governing flight training during the Olympics, this one had us stumped.  Langley Flying School Olympic operations were planned by the partnership of Flight Instructors Phil Craig and Rod Giesbrecht, and sure enough they came up with the amazing plan that conforms with the Olympic restrictions, yet enables student pilots to continue their training during the lock-down period.   Simply stated, Private Pilot student progress through their training as normal, but skip solo cross-country training flights; they then write the Transport Canada Private Pilot written examination, and complete the Private Pilot flight test, but they apply only for their Recreational Pilot Permit (RPP), which does not require any solo cross-country experience.  Once they have their RPP, they are cleared to fly solo in the restricted airspace and can now accumulate their cross-country solo time.  When they have accumulated the five hours required, they then submit their application for their Private Pilot Licences and training program as complete. This crucial loophole—simple and effective— permits flying schools to move their students smoothly through their Private Pilot training during the near 8-week restricted period. Phil and Rod suggest that effective use of transition flying time might even save students overall time for completion and therefore the associated costs.

 

Fly Safe everyone,

 

David Parry,

President and Chief Flying Instructor,

Langley Flying School

dparry@langleyflyingschool.com