Glenn Daly’s Private Pilot Flight Curriculum

Stage One

1
Your 1st takeoff; ;the effects of controls; the 4 things you can do in an airplane: climb, descend, straight and level, turn; the inherent stability of general aviation airplanes

2
Combining 1st lesson maneuvers; flaps and their effects; “What happens when the engine quits?” … not much, really; airport traffic patterns; communicating with the bureaucrats: ATC; landing considerations

3
High work & nerve inducers: slow flight; an introduction to power off stalls – and how benign they can be; shallow, medium and steep banked turns; the importance of clearing turns

4
More high work; mo’ slo’ flight; power off stalls; power on stalls; spin awareness; steep turns; engine out emergencies and how easily they are resolved – as easy as A – B – C and, for good measure, D & E

5
Perhaps a tad more high work; an engine out emergency; introduction to ground reference maneuvers in preparation for flying near airports: rectangular patterns; s-turns across a road; turns around a point

6
Mo’ ground reference maneuvers; flying the airport traffic pattern precisely and how important it is to your continued good health

7
Ever wondered about how all those complicated, mysterious instruments work? This is the lesson: flight solely by reference to instruments – how subtle it can, and should, be

8
Landings, landings, landings – and the same number of takeoffs; the beauty and mystery of the ‘flare’; airport traffic patterns; ATC terminology and how to comprehend and comply with same

9 – ???
More landings; recovering from bad landings: bounces, balloons, floats and the infamous and dreaded ‘porpoise’ – pretty in the ocean, ugly as sin on the runway. Then one day it will all come together and you will SOLO … and your life will never be the same

13-ish
Learning how to handle a bizzy airport traffic pattern and appease short-tempered controllers

14
More bizzy airport traffic pattern work – and, if you’re very, very good, your second supervised SOLO

– SOLO Practice –

Stage Two

15
Specialty takeoffs and landings: short and soft field – Vx, Vy, ground effect and the dreaded ‘no-flap’ landing

16
Navigation: pilotage, dead reckoning, radio navigational aids – VOR’s and flying TO and FROM them; GPS

17
Night operations: “Oooh, look at all the pretty colors.” Instrument work; navigational work; the mysteries of landings at night.

18
Emergencies: they never happen, but it’d be nice to know what to do when they do

19
Navigating to a nearby airport; understanding airspace: Class Bravo, Charley and Delta – in particular, avoiding the dreaded communication: “Advise when able to copy this phone number”; specialty takeoffs and landings; no-flap landings

– SOLO Practice –

20
The Dual Cross Country: “Over the rivers and over the woods, to Grandmother’s House we might go.”

– SOLO Practice –

21
The night Dual Cross Country: “Are we really gonna approach and land right next to that big, bad, Boeing 757?”

Stage Three

22
Your 1st SOLO cross country

23
VOR tk & intspt review; JLI, IPL, MZB and getting your kicks on V-66

24
Your long SOLO cross country

25
Preparation for the Private Pilot Practical Test: all the maneuvers you forgot from your first lessons, and then some

26
Preparation for the Practical Test

– SOLO Practice –

27
Preparation for the Practical Test

28
One or more ground sessions: aircraft maintenance records; FAR/AIM Part’s 1, 61 & 91

– SOLO Practice –

29 + (more as needed)
Preparation for the Practical Test

– Private Pilot Practical Test

Congratulations to the World’s Newest Private Pilot