![]() ![]() Organising your aeronautical paraphernalia is an art, but once mastered, it will become a routine. Keep your pen/pencil in your pocket/kneeboard (or, in my case, in my hair) and have a spare-you’re sure to drop it when you need it most.Have your frequencies ready and a script for speaking to the tower/ATC.Do pre-flight calculations that pilots legally need to, such as fuel usage and weight and balance.Be sure to access weather, airport information, NOTAMs and alternate airport information on the ground before you depart.As soon as you enter the aircraft, get yourself set up and then place your flight bag on the back seat where you can reach the extra things you need.Buy a flight bag that contains lots of pockets and sections (mine was so large I called it ‘flight bag village’) and keep everything in the same place every time you use it.Remain aware that on a long navex, the airport you’ll land at will be on the corner of two maps! Spend an afternoon learning to fold maps and have them pre-folded for your flight to avoid paper cutting your instructor.There are so many excellent, practical choices, with sleeves and pockets, that will allow you to keep everything in its place. Buy a kneeboard for your flight plan and maps.While we’ve bypassed most of these accoutrements these days (more on that later), a student pilot is still required to have the heaviest flight bag in the club, until they’re ready to graduate to an EFB for planning however, that requires organisation: Swamped by maps, charts, protractors, pencils, ERSA, Country Airstrip Guide, water bottle and whizz wheel in a tiny Beech Skipper with a six-foot instructor, order was essential. When I was learning to fly, 12 years ago, an instructor quipped, ‘when the weight of the flight bag equals the weight of the pilot, you’re ready to go’. Practical organisationĪviation comes with an awful lot of stuff. I set out to learn the art of organisation. One of my favourite instructors once told me, ‘to be a pilot, you need to think and act like a pilot’. My childhood nickname was ‘Kreisha chaos’.Īs countless instructors bemoaned my lack of cockpit organisation and my general scatty attitude, I realised early on I needed to change. Having no pilots in my family, no technical or mechanical knowledge and a personality type more suited to creative learning, I was an instructor’s worst nightmare. Kreisha Ballantyne makes no secret of the fact that she was an ill-equipped student pilot.
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