Preparing for my first BFR

[nddons]

I'll need to take my first biennial flight review by December 7. I had hoped to get another rating by then to satisfy as a BFR, but unfortunately that won't happen. So, what should I do to prepare? Should I study as if I was taking my checkride again, and bone up on my manuevers, or is it less formal?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[tonycondon]

you dont need one until December 31. Flight Reviews are based on calendar months. its not a checkride, bone up on knowledge if you feel you must but it really is just a review of where you are at as a pilot and the CFI should uncover any weak areas during the oral and practical. have fun with it and learn something. thats what its all about. nothing to get nervous over.

 

[Maxmosbey]

I know one guy who it took two hours on the oral, and a total of five and a half hours in the air to get through his BFR.

 

[tonycondon]

I know one guy who it took two hours on the oral, and a total of five and a half hours in the air to get through his BFR.

yea i had a student like that once. took at least 2 hours of oral. one of my favorite flight reviews though. that guy is a pretty good pilot!

 

[tlglenn]

You could look into completing a Wings phase. That would help you maintain greater proficiency.

 

[poadeleted20]

If you are as prepared as you were for the PPL practical test, it should be a breeze. That's not to say you need all that, and not many instructors are likely to ask for turns around a point on a flight review, but your knowledge/skill in the areas of legal requirements for flight (pilot and aircraft, documents and inspections/currencies), preflight planning (including weather reports/forecasts, and NOTAMs), aircraft systems, takeoffs/landings, slow flight/stalls, XC navigation, airspace, radio comm, and basic instrument flying (including VOR/GPS tracking and lost/inadvertent IMC procedures) should be solid. If it is, it should only be a morning's or afternoon's work. If it isn't, then you are looking at one of those all-day flight reviews (or even more). And if you get only the regulatory minimum 1 hour ground/1 hour flight, either you're the child of Chuck Yeager and Jackie Cochrane with the FAR/AIM on a flash drive plugged into a USB port in your head, or your instructor isn't doing his/her job right.

 

[Ghery]

My first annual review for the club (we do a mini or full BFR every year) was an opportunity to try something new. CFI suggested we take the club's Arrow. I hadn't flown a low wing, never mind a complex, before. Great learning opportunity. By the end of the summer I had my high performance (C-182) and complex (Arrow) endorsements. Don't worry, it is a learning experience every time, especially if you fly with different instructors. Got a new idea on what to do if the engine quits on downwind this summer (dump full flaps, point the nose at the runway and keep the ASI at the top of the white arc - aggressive, but effective).

 

[tonycondon]

Got a new idea on what to do if the engine quits on downwind this summer (dump full flaps, point the nose at the runway and keep the ASI at the top of the white arc - aggressive, but effective).

this one's new to me. care to elaborate on the technique and the benefits?

 

[jesse]

My BFR took me a couple thousands hours of ground on flashchat.

 

[Tristar]

Aww did Tony give you a star for your efforts? You shoulda told him your abilities in such winds deserved 5 stars!

 

[Richard]

this one's new to me. care to elaborate on the technique and the benefits?

Do you want to stay up long or get down quick? Landing field assured, go down quick.

The engine quite for a reason. You may not know what that reason is. Get down quick is the best option in Ghery's case. Evacuate the airplane on the ground.

 

[tonycondon]

Do you want to stay up long or get down quick? Landing field assured, go down quick.

The engine quite for a reason. You may not know what that reason is. Get down quick is the best option in Ghery's case. Evacuate the airplane on the ground.

well thats how i usually teach it if the airplanes on fire or something. for normal engine failure i prefer to have time to do things like evaluate my landing decision, call for help, troubleshoot the problem etc.

 

[poadeleted20]

Got a new idea on what to do if the engine quits on downwind this summer (dump full flaps, point the nose at the runway and keep the ASI at the top of the white arc - aggressive, but effective).

In most cases, unless you're flying an incredibly tight pattern, you are barely within gliding range of the runway on downwind (unless you're going to land across rather than along the strip). Dumping full flaps, dumping the nose, and aiming at the end of the runway is not going to get you in position to land on the runway for which you were on downwind, although it will assure that you land on the airport surface (albeit not on the runway). Given that the statistics suggest it's better to land under control on the airport surface (runway or not) than to land out of control off the airport, if there's any doubt about your ability to make the runway after an engine failure, you're better off sacrificing the airframe for your human frame by landing on whatever flat on-airport surface you can make. OTOH, if you can make the runway, you are better off landing on the runway than on off-runway airport surfaces which can be less than hospitible to landing aircraft. Choose wisely.

Also, you're going to surprise/scare the hell out of tower and anyone else watching this who doesn't know what you're doing, so practice this only with prior coordination with the tower or other aircraft in the pattern at a nontowered airport.

 

[t0r0nad0]

My first annual review for the club (we do a mini or full BFR every year) was an opportunity to try something new. CFI suggested we take the club's Arrow. I hadn't flown a low wing, never mind a complex, before. Great learning opportunity. By the end of the summer I had my high performance (C-182) and complex (Arrow) endorsements. Don't worry, it is a learning experience every time, especially if you fly with different instructors. Got a new idea on what to do if the engine quits on downwind this summer (dump full flaps, point the nose at the runway and keep the ASI at the top of the white arc - aggressive, but effective).

I thought the point of the BFR was to do it in the type of plane that you fly most regularly unless you were going for an additional certificate/rating???

 

[Ghery]

I thought the point of the BFR was to do it in the type of plane that you fly most regularly unless you were going for an additional certificate/rating???

Not necessarily. And in this case the CFI was the one I learned to fly from. He needed to see if I still knew how to fly an airplane, and as we had been flying together over the past year, he already had an idea about that. So, learning experience.