Hi, can you share some examples of bad habits that private pilots may pick up? If a private pilot is building hours and looking to join either a Part 135 or Part 121 airline operation in future - what are some of the drawbacks they face flying on their own vs. joining the ATP program?
Thanks
Ravi,
Lack of checklist discipline is a common bad habit. Poor radio skills, and just all around lack of cockpit discipline Rond out my personal list.
When you fly with just one instructor, you essentially become in many ways a copy of that pilot. When you attend a large program like ATP’s and fly with numerous instructors, everybody is standardized and should be flying to the same standards and procedures.
To be clear, a Private Pilot cannot join an airline of 135 operation, you need to have an ATP license for the airlines or a Commercial License for the 135 operators.
Chris
Ravi,
I’d saying the biggest issue with many PPs is a lack of discipline. There’s that old saying that character is doing the right thing when no one is watching and sadly many people don’t. It’s easy to take shortcuts when it’s just you.
I think one of the greatest elements of ATPs training is Day 1 you’re introduced to the crew concept and other than the solo requirements you’re never flying on your own. Working with others can be a challenge but CRM (Crew Resource Mgmt) is critical to being a good airline pilot but it’s something that people who train on their own often struggle with.
Adam
Ravi,
As the others mentioned, I think the biggest challenge to overcome as a Private Pilot is adopting bad habits from the instructor. If you train with an instructor who is leisure all the time, they lean their seat back at cruise, or just say - “you’re doing good,” kicking their feet up on the desk during a debrief, you’re not getting proper instruction. Stay true to yourself, discipline and you will have no problems.
Checklist usage is important, in fact - I have seen many checkrides and debriefs with examiners where they say, “checklist usage could have been better, but it was sufficient.” One of the biggest habits I had to break was going from a smaller-scale school of learning how to flow through a checklist like ATP’s. ATP’s is laid out that if you follow it verbatim, you will be successful. There will be times to learn flows and scans when you get to the airlines, and then back them up with a checklist - for now, you’re fully on checklists.
The other thing I see Private Pilots struggling with is communications, I have sat down and skimmed the JO 7110.65 Z - Air Traffic Control guide to find phraseologies and understand what controllers are saying when they are. Listening to LiveATC helps a lot of students, finding busy C and D airspaces/fields that have both IFR and VFR traffic. I remember driving home listening to LiveATC at my home airport to just listen to IFR clearances and handoffs to get an idea of what is next in the phase of flight.
Always be thinking ahead, be relaxed, but don’t just be loose in the plane, think what can I be doing when there is “nothing going on right now.”
Brady