Sun Dec 02, 2007 11:58 am
#531647
I agree that unexpected things can happen on a first solo, but I don't think that doing the air law exam in itself would contribute a huge amount to dealing with those accidents, anymore than Aircraft General, or indeed Navigation.
For every example that you could present that showed that a knowledge of air law could have prevented an accident, I'm sure an example could have been found to show that another area of learning could have prevented an accident. I would suggest that the Southend example was as much about handling as it was about knowledge of air law, coupled with ATC not being aware that it was a student pilot. I don't see how air law helped that student, and I am presuming that the student in question would have done air law, because it seems to be the general practice.
I doubt that a student who lost radio comms, for example, during their first solo is going to remember which flashing light from the control tower is going to land. They will intuitively know that red=bad, green=good. But was it a flashing light...or a steady light..
Assuming of course that the tower even HAS lights readily available.
If the purpose of the Air Law exam pre-solo is to encourage students to undertake one of the more boring and dry topics, then certainly, it achieves that purpose. If the exam is there to make the student safer, I doubt it achieves the purpose, any more than mandating one of several other exams (RT, NAV, General Knowledge) which could all be relevant to situations that a student might find themselves in with a first solo that has gone wrong.
An argument could be made about knowing who has right of way, and landing clearances, but I would expect that sometime during the 10-12 hours pre-solo this should have been covered by the instructor to the degree that a student needs for first solo.
IE: If you were operating from a AG field, you would know the procedures, similarly if you were operating from a Towered field, you'd know those procedures. You might not know the procedures for OTHER kinds of fields, but you aren't expected to at this stage.
But as you say, I had to do it, so why not everyone else :o I don't think its a bad thing to be required to do airlaw pre-solo, I'm just not sure it is linked directly in anyway to the ability to go solo.
Murphy