Student Pilot Shopping List

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Oh, as a side note, I wear polarized sunglasses and the LCD screen on my HTC Evo 3D works just fine. I use Naviator on it in-flight. Garmin 296 works too. iPad does not work.... not sure what the story is with that one.

What happens when you turn the iPad 90 degrees?

This is my flight bag:
https://secure2.convio.net/dptv/sit...EW_PRODUCT=true&product_id=2202&store_id=1561

 

[Everskyward]

P.P.S. Around here they always ask students to get medicals before the "discovery flight".

Seems like that would not be a great idea since you are asking someone to commit a fair amount of money and some time before he or she has "discovered" whether flying is for them or not. I can see how it would weed out tire kickers but some of them might turn into buyers. I was already a fixed-wing pilot with a medical, but I took a helicopter discovery flight on a whim and ended up getting an add-on. If there had been more barriers in advance I probably would not have done the discovery flight.

 

[N801BH]

I agree with Mari... let them get the discovery flight out of the way and if the person is still interested, or like all of us, completely addicted then move on to the medical.. I would suggest the CFI has a frank talk with the potential student on the details and implications of a failed 3rd class medical and if it looks like it is headed that way hopefully the DR will stop the test and suggest the LSA route... IMHO.

Ben.

 

[flav8r]

I was already a fixed-wing pilot with a medical, but I took a helicopter discovery flight on a whim and ended up getting an add-on. If there had been more barriers in advance I probably would not have done the discovery flight.

I agree.. A discovery flight is much cheaper than a 3rd class medical.
If you don't pass the medical at least you can still have the enjoyable memory of having flown or the motivation to correct the medical issue (if possible).

 

[Fearless Tower]

Fearless: Good point. If he will be flying a lot of different type of aircraft during training, he would need lots of sticks. Wouldn't that variety of aircraft slow down his ability to learn to fly?

Primary training in a variety of aircraft can slow a student down, but my point was more related to only flying one type of airplane - the 172.

Depending on where the training is being done, the student may be training at a flight school with say 4 or 5 different 172s. Depending on the years/options, every one of those 172s may have a different fuel tank configuration. Flying all of those 172s isn't going to slow the student down from a training standpoint - they'll all fly the same, but the fuel stick thing would be problematic.

 

[Tristar]

One thing to consider: If a student purchases a headset that ultimately is quite what he/she wants, the student later will have the option to (1) sell it to another student or (2) keep it and let passengers use it.

Yea my two spares turned into part of the stack of borrowed ones at my flight school.

 

[pericynthion]

+1 on getting the medical out of the way at the beginning of training rather than waiting until solo time. Especially if the student is in his upper 30's or older.

It's better to discover any possible medical difficulties and address them before many AMU's are spent on training just to find out you need to delay because of a medical reason.

Yes, but DON'T ship them off to the AME without either asking them some questions yourself, or listing examples of potentially disqualifying conditions.

A good friend of mine suffers from ADD. With the right medication he has it completely under control, and had absolutely no issues during the first 20 hrs or so of his private training. His CFI sent him to get a medical without any discussion, he flunked, and now he can never solo in a powered airplane. If he had been made aware of the issue then he would have a sport pilot certificate by now and be doing fine.

 

[N801BH]

Yes, but DON'T ship them off to the AME without either asking them some questions yourself, or listing examples of potentially disqualifying conditions.

A good friend of mine suffers from ADD. With the right medication he has it completely under control, and had absolutely no issues during the first 20 hrs or so of his private training. His CFI sent him to get a medical without any discussion, he flunked, and now he can never solo in a powered airplane. If he had been made aware of the issue then he would have a sport pilot certificate by now and be doing fine.

That's a real problem.... I mentioned it a few posts back..

Ben.

 

[AuntPeggy]

Since medical information is protected, how do you balance both the privacy required by HIPAA and the need to council a student?

 

[SkyHog]

Since medical information is protected, how do you balance both the privacy required by HIPAA and the need to council a student?

I believe HIPAA only applies to information given to medical professionals and those in the medical services industry. That might be the loophole.

 

[pericynthion]

You tell the student that she doesn't have to tell you any private medical details, BUT you explain the problems and consequences of a failed medical with examples. Then she can make an informed choice to either just take the window-fog test, talk about it with you the CFI, or talk about it with a professional such as Doc Bruce before filling out any FAA forms.

 

[Matthew]

Since medical information is protected, how do you balance both the privacy required by HIPAA and the need to council a student?

It's actually pretty simple - you ask the student, and tell him/her that there are certain things that will cause a failure on the medical. IF the student cares not to answer, that's the student's business. ADD/ADHD is a killer, as are a number of other things. In this case, it might be helpful if a certain AME who frequents this board were kindly asked for a help-list of items that are most likely to cause a failure for a first time student medical. Those questions could be asked of the student. Another resource is the AOPA Turbomedical that is available to students (or at least it used to be...) once they get a student AOPA membership. It has an online medical and will give help and hints along the way. None of that info gets passed on to FAA.