Canadian aviation regulations require that a pilot take steps to maintain recency, and one of the ways to do this is to attend a Transport Canada approved seminar at least once every two years. It had been almost two years since my last seminar, so I decided to attend the one held on March 21 in Toronto. The posted topics looked interesting: Weather and Pre-flight Inspection.
I found the weather part of the seminar somewhat disappointing, since it consisted solely of a screening of AOPA’s “Weather Wise” DVD. Although this is a fine DVD, many of the regulatory details it refers to are specific to American aviators. A brief discussion of the differences would have been valuable. Some of the “incorrect” information I noticed were the flight service frequency, the interpretation of temperature gradients on weather maps (the rules of thumb given were for temperatures in Fahrenheit, which you won’t find on a Canadian weather map), and the option to climb above clouds to remain VFR.
The Pre-flight Inspection presentation was both interesting and entertaining. The presenter had taken photos of a variety of planes exhibiting conditions that would render them unairworthy. These ranged from the subtle (like loose rivets) to the blatantly obvious (such as an engine compartment full of straw). It would have been nice to have seen some issues specific to composite airframes though.
Although attending this seminar keeps me legal for another two years, I think it’s in my best interest to do more on my own as well. By their very nature, these seminars can only touch on one or two topics, so there’s still plenty of opportunity to forget other important stuff from ground school. One way I do this is by reading as much aviation material as I can get my hands on, such as EAA’s Sport Aviation, and AOPA’s Flight Training. Another way is through various projects which require some research, such as my custom checklist and aviation survival kit.
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