I thought I would begin a thread to share my experiences as I commence the ACP program.
Just over a week to go until my own Day 1 and I have passed my Private Written (PAR) and today passed the IRA (95%), FII (90%) and IGI (92%).
Sheppard Air really works! I am kicking myself as I doubted 2 of my answers, changed them…and therefore got them wrong. Should’ve stuck with the gut reaction to those questions.
I did get a few helicopter questions on the FII and IGI that threw me a little dropping those scores, but mainly all 3 tests drew heavily from the IRA question bank.
As well as studying for the writtens I have also gained my FCC Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit - just a case of submitting the application and permit fee!
Aiming now to crank out the CAX in the coming week now I have finished work, and proceed to FIA and FOI if possible. I will also be working through the questions found in the ATP Piper Archer supplement book and hitting the memory items for that aircraft.
Excited to be close to starting but also concentrating on using this next week or so to my best advantage.
After 6 days of study I just passed my CAX with 93%.
I studied an average 4-5hrs a day and I used Sheppard Air solely and went through all questions twice with correct answers only, twice with all answers showing and then 3 times through Marked Questions. I also manually calculated every one of the Weight and Balance and Performance questions to ensure I fully understood the formulae needed, memorized them and then jotted them down on scrap paper at the beginning of the test.
FIA and FOI to go which I’ll crack in the next few weeks…and time to submit the ForeFlight subscription refund application to Training Support!
What a blast this first week has been; some great instructors, excellently maintained aircraft and a steep but manageable learning curve. In total I managed 7.2hrs from 4 flights this week, including 5 takeoffs/landings and 1 go-around, as well as practicing Steep Turns, Power On and Off stalls and slow flight.
Having the writtens already knocked out provides a great advantage as you have a much firmer base of knowledge to build upon and have more bandwidth available to study maneuvers, flows etc. I’ll reiterate again that if possible complete at least the PAR, IRA and CAX prior to arrival if possible if not more.
I have been treating this week as my full-time employment, and been at the center from 8am to 5pm which allows for plenty of personal and group study time, allowed me to sit in on some more advanced students ground classes and to begin to use the Sim to practice flows and use of the Garmin 430 outside of my flight hours. Staying on site also allowed us to salvage a couple of hours after the forecast looked IFR all day there was a break in the weather at 3pm which we used to squeeze in a flight.
Absolutely loving the program so far, have only good things to say about the instructors who are not only knowledgeable but have comprehensive ground lessons available to run when the weather is poor.
Things I could have done prior to arrival to be even more prepared:
Find some YouTube videos or a manual for the Garmin 430.
Practice the basic VFR radio calls for arrival and departure.
Played around with foreflight a little, especially the weather reporting features.
This coming week will be focused on Takeoffs and Landings - hoping for good weather to maintain the rhythm and consistency from Week 1. I also hope to complete the FOI written this week to get that out to Way, leaving just the FIA remaining.
Week 2: The program continues to exceed expectations this week, achieving a huge amount and really feeling like progress is being made. Managed 5 flights this week, 9.6 hours, focused on mastering Takeoffs and Landings at towered and non-towered airfields cramming in 61 landings. This concentrated period has really helped to nail the technique although plenty more scope for refinement, particularly mastering holding the aircraft in ground effect for as long as possible during the round out.
Accelerated is the name of the game here, I never thought we would advance this quickly, but with focus, study and great instructors the pace is eminently achievable. If the weather holds I should have my Takeoff / Landing evaluation this week, about one week ahead of schedule.
Other areas of focus / tips for this week: Lots of practice of radio calls mastering this aspect of flying so it is not a distractor from controlling the aircraft; working on memory items/flows from the checklist to remove any reliance during maneuvers; continued practice with both Foreflight and the Garmin 430 to reduce time looking at these vs instruments/outside the cockpit.
As hoped I was able to take the FOI knowledge, scoring a 100%, which now leaves the FIA as the last remaining FAA knowledge exam which I will try to crack while in the Private stage, hopefully prior to studying for the Private oral.
I hope these short reviews provide prospective students with a little more visibility of what training COULD look like, caveated of course that weather, aircraft availability and other factors can delay progress at any stage of the course.
Loving the updates! Since we seem to be neighbors-ish (Woodstock GA), I’d love to be able to connect with you offline to ask some more specific questions about your progress and your journey up to this point. What’s the best way to make that happen?
Clear skies and calm winds over the last 2 weeks have allowed me to fly almost every day over and continue to make amazing progress through the program - I am hoping to Solo this week, and if the weather holds to work though the Solopattern work as well as XCs in the next weeks, about 1 month ahead of schedule.
This block of training has included an initial Take Off and Landing evaluation with the Lead Instructor followed by a further block of about 20 hours to refine these skills, and introduce Instrumnet flying in goggles and night night flight was a great experience flying 100NM XC and then landing 10 times in the dark.
I would characterize these 2 weeks as a deepening of basic skills of flight and a synthesis of individual elements into a more refined, less conscious effort in the cockpit. Situational awareness has increased immensely with ATC communication becoming much simpler and able to follow the flow of ATC calls, understand their meaning, listen for and respond to my own aircraft callsign and build the mental picture of activity in the airspace - in the earlier weeks task overload made this very difficult.
Memory items and flows have been refined through continuous repetition and practise with the checklists. This will be a constant focus throughout the course - one tip I would provide is to try to understand what the checklist is doing to better understand the sequence of the flow and logic of what is being pressed/pulled etc. By understanding what condition you are putting the aircraft in you can visualize what you are doing to the aircraft as you work through the flow.
I have no negative comments from this 2 week block - my instructors have been awesome, the aircraft incredibly reliable and the weather on our side. I am still loving the program and amazed by the progress made in the first month. I am aware that the next few hurdles are just over the horizon, including of course the checkride…continuing to hit the books each day to get ready for that…as a result I have not had time to study for the FIA exam and am VERY glad that I have the rest of the writtens out of the way!! Follow all the advice on this forum and complete them prior to arrival, you won’t regret it!
The Private Pilot phase is passing by quickly, with some noticeable milestones achieved over the last 2 weeks. Good weather allowed me to compete the required Solo TOL hours last week - a great, if slightly disconcerting, feeling to taxi away from my instructor for that first solo flight. Solo hours certainly work to concentrate the mind and ensure air speeds and descent rates are maintained correctly without an instructor to make suggestions or take the controls. I found that the relative calm in the cockpit was great to allow my mind to stay ahead of the aircraft, and to think about the checklist items and communications required fo each element of the pattern.
I cut short one of the solo flights due to some descending cloud layers and deteriorating PIREPs from approaching traffic - good opportunity to exercise PIC decision making.
The weather deterioarated a little this week with summer thunderstorm conditions common to the South-East USA cancelling a number of planned flights however my instructor and I were able to squeeze in two 200mile cross-country flights this weekend practicing VFR navigation and utilizing ATC more effectively including Flight Following.
The first of these flights certainly increased the workload in the cockpit compared to recent flights, allowing some areas for refinement to be identified in terms of cockpit mangement and having data on hand to stay ahead of radio frequencies etc. The second flight gave an opportunity to confirm these elements were in place by staying well ahead of the aircraft and having a great flight. It was fun to monitor the accuracy of th VFR flight plan and tick off the visual checkpoints on each leg, and also to build a more detailed picture of airspace activity that included glider operations, parachute drops as well as transiting airlines.
I hope to be able to complete the 2 solo cross countries in the next week although this is a known bottleneck in the program as weather and visibility tolerances are justifiably high for these flights so perfect weather is needed for each one. Time not spent flying will be spent continuing to work on theory revision ahead of the soon to be scheduled checkride (!).
Still loving the course - and at the age of 42 hope to reaffirm for other ‘mature’ individuals considering the jump to an aviation career that you are certainly not too old for this course.
