Flight Lesson #1

Lesson 1.1 Basics

Date: 25-07-2025

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Flight Preparation (ANWB)
  • Aircraft
  • NOTAMs
  • Weather
  • Briefings
• Aviation instances
• Performing the Pre-flight inspection (walk around)
• Starting the aircraft
• Taxiing
• Run-Up (Before take-off checklist)
• Airport Circuit

Introduction

In my first flight lesson for my Private Pilot Lesson, I have been introduced to multiple aspects of flying. In the past, around 3 years before this first PPL lesson, I did a trial lesson where I only controlled the plane at around 2500 feet, but only controlled the yoke, rudder pedals and trims.

This lesson it was the first time after around 300 hours of Microsoft Flight Simulator where I controlled the plane for the full flight except the landing phase. In the PPL learning curve, you will perform this after around 8-9 lessons when doing take-off and landing/circuit exercises.

The theory of this lesson mostly consisted of:

• Flight preparation and planning
• Aircraft Technical Log (ATL) and Hold Item List (HIL)
• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• The multiple instances
• Performing a proper walkaround

Flight Preparation (ANWB)

Before we step into a plane, we are required to plan and prepare our flight. We don’t want to be unprepared when flying, and also both the pilot flying and pilot monitoring must be on the same pace. You don’t want to be overhyped about flying and taking of unprepared with all possible risks that comes with this.

My flight school uses the ANWB abbreviation for this:

• Aircraft
• NOTAMs
• Weather
• Briefings

In each stage we check all related things and we search for reasons/risks not to fly.

Aircraft

In the aircraft stage we check and calculate the following things:

• ABC: Departure airfield, destination and our alternate. We always must have a back-up airfield which can be the departure airfield. Also in case of VFR flights, we set multiple waypoints with visual references that we fly.
• Aircraft Technical Log: we check if the aircraft has any flyable technical malfunctions and when the plane must be maintained. Normally, a plane like a Cessna 172 goes into maintenance every 50 hours of utilization. Every aircraft has a physical technical log and must be on-board of a plane when performing a flight.
  • When an aircraft gets a maintenance treatment, all issues described before are resolved
  • The first flight after maintenance, the check for flight control and correct positions for the trim is highly important to check
• Hold Item List: The hold item list of an aircraft contains inoperative functions but flyable issues. For example; the autopilot does not work but the rest of the plane works like expected. Another example can be that the landing lights doesn’t work. This makes the plane only flyable on clear weather-days and between sunrise and sunset.
  • Checking this list before-hand is really important.
• Fuel calculation: For every flight, we will perform a fuel calculation. We don’t want to get ourselves in situations where we have too less fuel to complete our flight. That’s why we calculate the fuel needed following certain rules, like having enough fuel to reach our alternate airport.
• Mass and Balance: To stay between the technical limits of our plane, we calculate the mass (weight) and balance (gravity/forces) of our flight. For example, carrying more passengers/baggage can result in less weight available for fuel.
  • Also, when performing acrobatic stunts (utility) we must not exceed the utility boundaries of the plane.

NOTAMs

In the NOTAMs (Notice to Air Missions) contains information about possible risks in a flight. These can consists of:

• Runway closed
• Restrictions due to army practices or government visits
• High construction crane (or other (temporary) object higher than 100 meters)
• Defect of a windturbine obstacle light
• ILS system not working
• VOR navigational system not working

Checking these kind of risks can help us having a safer and better prepared flight. We check NOTAMs for:

• Departure airport
• Destination airport
• Alternate airport
• En-route

Weather

Nothing can be that unsettled like the weather. We must also take this into account when preparing our flight. We will check the following things here:

• Significant Weather Chart (SWC): This is a chart that shows weather anomalies (jetstreams/thunderstorms) on great heights, mostly above 15.000 ft.
• Low Level Forecast Chart (till 15.000 ft) (LLFC): This is a chart that shows weather anomalies on heights below 15.000 ft
• Significant Weather (SIGWX)
• General Low Level Forecast Chart/General Aviation Forecast (GLLFC/GAFOR)

Briefings

In the briefings section, we have finished the rest of the pre-flight preparations and we will brief our co-pilot and passengers about the coming flight. We brief about:

• The route we will fly
• Briefing about the airport/aerodrome we will land
• Threat and Error Management (TEM): We will consider any possible threats or risks related to our flight. For example, we see a good weather forecast, but looking outside shows heavy wind or thunderstorms incoming. In this case it is a great idea to postpone our flight ideas. Skipping checklist or proper flight preparation is also considered as a threat and must be avoided.
• Questions from passengers to the flight crew

These were all points from the flight preparation.

Aviation instances

In aviation, we have multiple instances that care about the safety and general guidelines:

• International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO): This is an international organization of 193 countries which monitors, describes procedures and overall increasing the safety of aviation worldwide. ICAO however only publishes requirements and not so much rules to follow.
• European (union) Aviation Safety Agency (EASA): This is an European organization that does the same as ICAO but for Europe. EASA rules are required to comply with by law, when in Europe.
• Luchtverkeersleiding Nederland (LVNL): This is the Dutch airspace regulator.

Performing the Pre-flight inspection (walk around)

Before we step into an aircraft, we must perform a pre-flight imspection everytime before even starting the engine. This consists of checking different aspects of the aircraft to not be suprised in the air with all risks that comes with that.

To keep things simple, we often call this the walk around. This because we make a logic circle around the aircraft. In general terms, we will check for the following:

• Oil leaks under the aircraft
• Tires (grip and canvas check)
• Brakes
• Ailerons – freedom and connection to yoke
• Rudder
• Flaperons (flaps)
• Elevator
• Oil value of the engine (at least 5 in the Cessna 172)
• Fuel amount and water check
• Pitot Probe cover removal
• ATL -> in aircraft
• Flight controls check -> free and correct

Starting the aircraft

Because of these planes having a so called “hot prop”, which means if the iggnition is on, you could start it by hand but this is VERY DANGEROUS. The key must be out of the ignition at all times when not in the aircraft. Hot prop means that the propellor turning can start the engine. This is because the turning movement actually runs the magneto’s and that will power the spark plugs in the cilinders. This is a very clever design so the plane can start the engine in mid air. The oncoming wind will automatically turn the propellor and so provides power to the rest of the engine. This is only true when the ignition is not set to “Off”. When set to off, the mass (+) is connected to the ground (-), creating a short curcuit.

When starting the aircraft, we set our seats, close doors and windows and set our seatbelts. We go ahead with the before starting checklist which contains items like checking circuit breakers, yoke movement and freedom etc.

Set the mixture to full rich and then we start the engines with a “On the brakes” callout. The movement of the propellor moves us in a forward direction and we don’t want to have an unwanted movement.

Taxiing

Taxiing means driving the aircraft on the ground. Before we can take-off from the runway, we need to drive the aircraft to the runway using various taxi-ways. These are very clearly marked with yellow lines. Make sure to have the nose wheel on the yellow line as much as possible.

In a Cessna 172, a great taxi speed is to have the engine around 1000 RPM and to have the speed around a light sprint. As our speed indicator will not work on the ground we have to do this on feel and sight. Before braking, set the engine to idle and then start braking.

The speed indicator starts working at around 35-40 knots, which is around 75 km/u. This is a way too fast taxi speed.

Run-Up (Before take-off checklist)

Before setting the aircraft to full power and trust on the engine completely, we first do a run-up, which is mostly done in the before take-off checklist. This means setting the engine to around 1700-1800 RPM (half of the capacity) and testing both of the magneto’s independently. Sometimes, one of the magneto’s isnt working properly or we need to set more power to burn excess fuel to run the engine more stable.

By setting the engine to this value, the oil and fuel temperature will rise, just enough to perform a correct take off. The engine of a plane is the same as a car, you dont want to directly use full power then it’s too cold.

After the run-up has been done, we will taxi to the yellow line, check for the base-leg to be free. After that we can enter the runway after announcing or getting ATC clearance, do the runway memory items and take off.

• Set transponder to ALT
• Flaps 10 degrees
• Trim: Take-off position (around 3/4 degrees)

Airport Circuit

Before going into the air and hear terms throwed around like “Upwind”, “Crosswind” and “Base leg” it is good to know how a circuit/pattern is built:

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