Jim Davis has a passion for instructing. He has been training civil and military pilots, in the air and on the ground for 50 years. His other passion is writing, which he studied at Curtin University in Perth. You can see, and buy, his two pilot text books PPL and Flight Tests at www.jimdavis.com.au
As one of the most experienced instructors to teach flying in both Australia and South Africa, Jim Davis has amassed a wealth of personal knowledge about how to tutor both student pilots and experienced pilots at all levels of their careers. His advice laid out here is directed at instructors, but contains a lot of good material equally valuable no matter which seat you sit in.
Preparation for Flight: that’s what it says on the form – but it really means planning. Planning isn’t something you do, and then move on – it’s meant to happen all the time. So, from day one you must get it into your student’s head that a good pilot is planning continuously the whole time he is anywhere near an aeroplane.
On the ground, he’s amongst machinery that is both fragile and lethal. Its small wheels, clumsy steering and crappy brakes make it poorly suited to manoeuvring. And it can’t reverse out of stupid situations.
43 Air School was an operation I started and ran for many years. Some time after I sold it I went back there to visit a friend.
As I walked past one of the hangars I saw an amazing site. A student, in uniform, climbed into a Cherokee that was facing towards closed
