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Flight school takes off
by Doug Ashbury
NNSL (Jan 30/98) - Pitch, yaw and roll. If you want to fly, these are just a few of the things you need to learn.
"It's one thing to talk about how an aircraft produces lift, but once you get into the plane and feel it, that's when it all comes together," Desmond Stauffer said.
Stauffer is the flight instructor with Air Tindi Ltd.'s Northern Flight Training Centre.
Three times a year, he takes people through the first step to legal flight, ground school and in-flight training.
The winter course, offered through Aurora College, just took off this week with 10 participants. It takes two and a half months -- 40 hours of ground school and 45 hours of in-flight training -- to complete the private pilot's licence. Students train in single-engine Cessnas, following a curriculum set by Transport Canada.
It also takes a few bucks -- about $5,500 -- to get a private pilot's licence.
"A lot of people look at that and get scared. But you have to set a budget and you do pay as you go," Stauffer said.
"For a person to succeed it takes dedication. The most difficult part is making the time commitment."
As well as the two nights a week in the classroom, participants should study at home, he said.
Flight training starts about halfway through the course.
Stauffer said only about a quarter of those who start the course in the North finish. But some take the ground-school course for its own sake, never intending to fly.
Stauffer, originally from Edmonton, has been an instructor for six years, four in Edmonton and two in Yellowknife.
After working as a retail manager, he decided it was time for a change. He took gliding while in the air cadets.
Asked what the most common student faux pas is, Stauffer said that when students taxi on the runway for the first time, they often grab the controls and start to steer. To taxi properly, direction is controlled by the feet, which move the plane's rudder. |