If you want to get your Private Pilot Licence in Canada, the process isn’t difficult, but it can become complicated.
As I continue this series about looking back over how I went through the journey to become a private pilot in Canada, I realize now that there were many things I could’ve done to make the journey shorter and more efficient. I’m hoping this can become a way to encourage any of you who are out there flying around in “uncontrolled” airspace to get back on track, literally, and get to your destination and achieve your goal of getting your PPL.
I’ll start with a quick review of the past six steps I’ve talked about:
Step #1 – The Medical Exam – Bottom line… you need it, it’s a legal requirement in Canada. I’m going to assume that you’ve already been to an airport and have the desire to get your PPL, perhaps you’ve even taken a few initial flights. But if you’re seriously considering getting your PPL, your CAT 3 Medical is required. Read more about it here.
Step #2 – The Radio Exam – I didn’t get this done soon enough… and that meant understanding the radio communications took me a longer time than it should’ve. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as getting a “Radio Certificate” until I was nearly ready to solo… somehow I must’ve missed it in the ground school portion of my training. If you take your flight lessons after you’ve completed the radio exam, you’ll have a better understanding of the procedures for understanding the communications in the cockpit. Read more about it here.
Step #3 – The PSTAR Exam – The PSTAR Exam is something you’ll need to pass prior to flying solo for the first time. It stands for Pre-Solo Testing of Air Regulations. If you had a chance to check out my free PSTAR App, then you get the idea of the Air Regulations. I put this in at Step #3 so you can realize sooner rather than later the kind of rules and regulations that exist, and the kind of things you’ll need to stay on top of as a pilot.
Step #4 – Ground School and Flight Lessons – Ideally, start these both at the same time. Doing the one will help inform how quickly you can learn the other. Transport Canada requires that you complete a minimum of a 40 hours ground school in order to obtain your PPL. You can read more here.
Step #5 – The Ground School kit – There are a few things you should consider purchasing to make your ground school and flight planning easier.
Step #6 – Give Yourself a Debrief After Each Flight Lesson – The most efficient way to learn your required air exercises is to get the truth about how your lesson went, and then make notes about everything you did right and everything you did wrong. Then you take the time to check your Flight Training Manual to re-read the lesson in order to better understand your errors. If you study and prepare like this before your next flight lesson, you’ll suddenly find you’re a better pilot. When it comes right down to it, you get more out of your flight lesson based on what you put into it.
What Kind of Equipment Do You Need in Order to Learn How to Fly?
When it comes right down to it, there’s equipment that is essential, equipment that is a preference, and then there’s equipment that’s optional.
My best advice is to really consider what each of these categories are for you. I’ll go into some details of what I’ve really valued and also what I believe isn’t necessary.
Things I Believe Are Optional
I want to start this off with items that I believe are optional. There are things you may be told by your instructor, your school, or your buddy who just buys everything, but the bottom line is that these are items that I believer aren’t necessary, only optional.
- An E6b Manual Flight Calculator. Nobody uses these in the real world. It’s like insisting on doing math calculations with an abacus rather than a calculator.
- The AIM – Aeronautical Information Manual. It’s a big book filled with important information, but it’s available for free online where you can have access to it all and carry it around with you without all that extra weight.
- The Private Pilot Reference Guides. You can buy a book filled with all the Transport Canada Study and Reference Guides, but they’re available online for free.
- The Air Command Weather Manual and Workbook. It’s the official Transport Canada resource for Meteorology, but this information is covered in other manuals or services.
Standard Equipment for Student Pilots
Now I’ll make a list in order of what I believe is the most important down to the least important.
- A good headset. Really, you will be in pain after an hour of flying with the low quality rental headsets that are available for most student pilots. Get a headset such as David Clarke, Bose, or Lightspeed and you’ll immediately find yourself more comfortable during your flight training.
- An ICOM A6 or A24 handheld radio. It’s a great backup radio for your aircraft, particularly if you’re using a rental aircraft where you don’t really know the age or condition of the radio onboard. Having a backup radio is not just a good insurance policy, but it’s great to be able to learn quicker listening to the various radio frequencies and develop your listening and communication skills for the specific procedures required for using the radio.
- From the Ground Up. The standard go-to book across Canada for reference material for all matters relating to ground school. It is filled with a lot of extra information you don’t need, but having the ability to reference the topics you find out are essential makes learning things easier. Buy it if you love to read about every little detail of aviation. Otherwise, a good ground school course will cover the essentials for you. This may be one of those purchases that you use as a reference if you get stuck on something and need to dig in a little further to grasp the concept.
- The Flight Training Manual. It’s produced by Transport Canada and is the Canada-wide resource for learning and understanding the Air Exercises you’ll be tested on for your Flight Test.
- A copy of the POH for the aircraft you’ll be operating. This is the book you’ll want to make reference to several times and know it very well. Note here: you should be sure to get the exact Pilot Operating Handbook as no two aircraft are identical, and the details you’ll need specifically for your aircraft will be unique to a specific POH.
- A logbook. You’ll need to note your ground school and your flight lessons right from day one.
- *A subscription to the Canada Flight Supplement. The CFS is the Aerodrome Directory book that list most aerodromes and airports in Canada. It is required documentation to take on each flight.
- *Current VTA and VNC charts. VTA and VNC Charts are available through NavCanada and can be purchased online or at your flying club. The VTA Charts cover a detailed view of the major airports across Canada while the VNC charts are less detailed and cover the rest of Canada. You’ll use both of these in your ground school. When you begin to fly, you will need to keep ordering updated charts, however, some services as you’ll see below provide updated charts digitally.
- A Flight Computer. (such as a CX-3) There are a variety of kinds you’re permitted to use on your Transport Canada written exam. You’ll use it to do aircraft performance calculations and flight planning exercises as you begin to understand what you’re required to do prior to your flights.
- A Protractor and a Chart Rule. These are two items you’ll use most in ground school as you work with your printed charts and begin to make flight plans. In the real world, services such as ForeFlight are replacing the need for these things but your ground school instructor might insist on you doing things this way, really, just because you’ll need to do it for the Transport Canada exam.
*I’ll make a note here to specify that if you look into getting a subscription to ForeFlight, it will come with a digital copy of a CFS as well as all charts for across Canada. For studying purposes, having an actual VNC/VTA Chart and a hard copy of the CFS are very handy and practical.
What Items Would I Recommend You Work With?
There are a few items I’ll list here that I believe to be essential. There are ways to get by without these services, but what the following offer in terms of value far outweigh the cost in my mind:
- ForeFlight. When it comes to being more efficient and saving a ton of headaches, ForeFlight fits into that category for me. It makes things so much easier, you should try it out and give it a chance, even if you’re an “old school” type of pilot that enjoys the paper charts and pencils. You might be surprised.
- Educational Software that Helps Save Time. I’ll put a disclaimer out here right off the top to let you know of my bias of the educational products Hangaaar provides that aim at helping pilots save time and make things more efficient. I believe good educational products that are convenient and efficient to access can also provide additional safety as they make it easy to stay on top of the knowledge and regulations that you need to know to operate your aircraft effectively and safely. However, even if you decide to go with another provider for things like iPhone and iPad Apps to help you prepare for your PSTAR exam, or a PPL Exam App I think you’ll be glad you did. Regardless of the company you decide to go with, I believe there is much to learn from those who’ve gone before us who can help accelerate our journey and also help us avoid any big losses along the way.
If it Adds Value to Your Life, It’s a Good Choice
Regardless of what I think or what others tell you, at the end of the day, it’s an individual choice as to what you decide to invest in. Some guys love to have the t-shirts and hats and the big GPS enabled watch; if those items add value and make you feel good, that’s great! Go at it and accept what you love about it!
Whatever you decide works for you, I can accept that and appreciate that we all have a varying degree for what and where we find value.
The bottom line, enjoy it and hopefully it gets you even more committed to flying and enjoying aviation!
That said, you can now check out Step #8 – Everybody Needs to Do Their Two Weeks
Last, we are so grateful for your feedback and support! Thank you so much!
