
Initial Flight Training, What to Expect:
At ZULUTIME PILOT we take a different approach to flight instruction. Based on our own experience training at many different kinds of flight schools, we’ve built a training model that emphasizes mastery of fundamentals, best practices and elimination of non-productive flight hours. It’s a model that promotes efficient and effective learning, and rewards and encourages students for slow and consistent progress. Our goal is to help you channel your passion into becoming a safe, proficient, knowledgeable pilot and member of the aviation community as productively as possible. By focusing on mastery of fundamentals from the beginning and by using a structured curriculum, we create safety-minded, confident, skilled pilots with sound aeronautical decision-making ability, well-equipped to pursue a lifetime of flying enjoyment. Our business model is similarly progressive relative to the rest of the flight training industry by encouraging efficient and productive training that gets students finished without unnecessary delay.
We don’t send students on expensive, aimless flights and won’t hold you back if you’re a superstar. If several training goals can be met on a training flight, we’ll make sure to combine them. Not only is this profitable for the school but it creates a thriving, positive and dynamic training environment for our students. Before training begins we work with you to set specific goals and organize a training plan that fits your schedule. Not everyone can train daily like a career-oriented pilot cadet, nor is full-time training necessary. We consider two training flights weekly and one hour of study daily a realistic minimum schedule that will allow you to complete your private pilot training within about six months. Sticking to your regular training schedule is the key to systematic progress and successful completion of your training course. Students enrolling in our professional pilot programs and all foreign students will coordinate with a dedicated training supervisor, who will advise you as you assemble the documentation required to accompany your Zulutime Pilot training application, including your TSA and visa applications.
Private Pilot Certificate:
Achieving a private pilot certificate is the starting point for nearly all pilots and is your “license to learn.” This is the basic pilot’s license that allows you to fly most light aircraft in most of the airspace in the United States. With this certificate you can fly in fair to good weather, day or night, with passengers, under visual flight rules or “VFR”. It does not allow you to fly in the clouds or for hire. The FAA requires that you have a minimum of forty (40) hours of flight time before you can take the practical test to become a private pilot (thirty-five (35) hours in a Part 141 program). The 40 hours of flight time will include at least twenty (20) hours of “dual” instruction and at least ten (10) hours “solo” flight (where you are the sole occupant of the aircraft).
During this training you will practice and master preflight procedures, airport operations, takeoffs and landings, ATC communication, navigation, slow flight, stalls, maneuvering, night operations, and emergency operations, all as set forth lesson-by-lesson in our private pilot training syllabus. These are only statutory minimums, however, and few students, in fact, actually take their private pilot checkride with only forty hours experience in an airplane. Based on national averages, most students will have accumulated 60 hours of flight time at the completion of their private pilot training, about 50% more than the FAA minimums. Keep this in mind when budgeting for your training. Each training flight will have a well-defined objective based on the course syllabus, and you will never be confused about what is the objective of the day’s training mission. A pre-flight briefing with your instructor immediately preceding the day’s flight will be the occasion for assessing the weather, the training flight plan, the training objectives and any temporary restrictions on flying in the airspace en route or at Witham Field.
During a post-flight briefing you will review with your instructor the strengths and weaknesses of your performance on the training flight, and receive constructive feedback. You will also spend significant time with our ground school curriculum learning the areas of aeronautical knowledge required by the FAA. The subject matter you will study includes: aerodynamics, aircraft systems, aeronautical decision making, weather and understanding aviation weather reports and forecasts, single pilot resource management, aircraft performance, various methods of navigation and flight planning, and will be available to you as an on-demand digital-online course.
Instrument Rating:
The instrument rating usually is added to the Private Pilot Certificate. The instrument rating allows you to fly in the clouds and land in low visibility weather conditions, under instrument flight rules or “IFR”. An instrument rating increases your options for flying and reduces the risk of getting stuck somewhere due to low visibility weather while out on a cross-country flight. Perhaps more critically, the instrument student learns to control the aircraft with precision solely by reference to the aircraft’s instruments, deepening the student’s sense of situational awareness and enabling the student to control the aircraft in any inadvertent encounter with low or no visibility conditions while flying VFR. The instrument-rated pilot refines basic piloting skills, engendering precision and confidence as a pilot. An instrument rating offers immense value to a pilot’s overall skills development and we strongly recommend our private pilot students earn an instrument rating before undertaking any significant cross-country flying.
Commercial Pilot Certificate:
The commercial pilot certificate requires 250 total flight hours and is necessary if your goal is to fly for compensation or become a professional pilot. The training includes several military-derived maneuvers designed to test precision control of the aircraft, 10 hours in a complex aircraft (retractable landing gear and constant speed propeller) and adding to your cross-country flight experience. This is the next step for pilots wishing to sharpen their piloting skills or to become a professional pilot.
Multi-Engine Add-On:
A multi-engine add-on rating adds multi-engine privileges to your existing Private or Commercial Pilot Certificate, and certifies the pilot to operate twin-engine aircraft. The ground instruction phase covers aerodynamic factors affecting multi-engine flight including engine-out operations as well as performance, weight-and-balance, and systems applicable to multi-engine aircraft. The dual flight instruction phase covers normal multi-engine flight operations, engine-out procedures and various engine-out controllability demonstrations. Ground training consists of six hours of instruction that covers aerodynamics of multi-engine operations, performance and weight-and-balance, and aircraft systems. The flight training consists of a minimum of eight flights, totaling at least 15 hours of instruction that include preflight briefings and post-flight debriefings, and check ride. Lessons consist of takeoffs and landings, go-around/missed approaches, instrument approaches, slow flight and stall prevention, normal and emergency procedures, engine failure and air restart and Vmc demonstration.
Flight Review:
As a licensed pilot, you are required to complete a flight review every two years. This includes a minimum of one hour of ground instruction and one hour of flight instruction. Our flight reviews ensure you continue to maintain a level of confidence and safety that will allow you to continue to enjoy the rewards of being a pilot.
Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC):
Instrument-rated pilots must meet certain currency standards in order to file a flight plan under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). If your instrument currency has lapsed, we can help you get back in the clouds. Our IPCs ensure you are not only instrument current but proficient as well.