I completed my biennial today in a c172. Completed 2.6 hours of dual and an evening of ground school this week. As I said, the last time I was current was in 1978. The FARs and airspace have change a lot. I never complete my instrument rating and I will be doing this with a retired United captian as my instructor.
That's excellent news -- congrats, and welcome back! When you last flew, I think, the U.S. hadn't adapted the ICAO airspace classes yet, so I guess that the class A/B/C/D/E/G codes are probably all new. Sadly, there are a few of other things that you need to watch in the U.S. these days:
1. Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR's) pop up all the time, often with little notice, and it's going to be much worse during the presidential campaign this year (they follow the presidential and vice-presidential candidates from town to town). Two of my last three trips to the U.S. have involved planning around TFRs. The saddest irony was President Bush's decision to attend the first flight centenary celebrations in NC, which brought in a TFR that shut down all the surrounding airports so that pilots couldn't actually fly in for the ceremony. Having VFR flight following from ATC helps, but it's still no guarantee -- you have to go to one of the Web sites and check before every flight.
2. Following up on #1, you really have to know your intercept procedures these days. Typically, they seem to use a police heli rather than an F-16 to intercept small planes (a 172 can easily outmanuever an F-16 because of its slower stall speed), but either way, you need to know all the procedures cold.
3. Airport security is all over the place, but it can sometimes get silly. Some airports still have an open gate, while others actually have security scanners for GA pilots and their passengers, and others require prop-locks, etc. Make sure that you don't walk out onto the field without your license and other ID.
That said, it's not as bad as it sounds. I don't find flying in the U.S. too much more restrictive than flying in Canada -- most of the time, there's no difference at all. Of course, the D.C.-area pilots stuck under the huge, perpetual TFR surrounding Washington might not agree.
All the best,
David
_______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
