What this course is for#

SLOP4386 · Week 1

It teaches three things#

• take off
• fly one circuit
• land

Twelve weeks. That is the whole syllabus.

Why that is enough#

The hard part was never the shooting.

The hard part is that this aircraft is difficult to fly and expensive to break, and there is nobody in it but you.

The aircraft#

Its centre of gravity sits behind its aerodynamic centre.

Disturb it in pitch and the disturbance grows.

That was on purpose#

An aircraft that resists being pointed somewhere is slow to point.

Remove the resistance and it points immediately.

Nobody can#

The corrections arrive faster than a human produces them.

So a human does not make them.

Four computers do#

They sample your stick, sample the aircraft, vote, and move the surfaces many times a second.

Your hand does not reach the control surfaces.

So what is your job#

You state what the aircraft should be doing.

Something else decides how.

Twelve weeks on what that leaves you responsible for.

The order of the syllabus#

Week 1 is not the cockpit tour.

Week 1 is how to get out.

Week 10#

This type has no second seat.

Your first flight in it is solo.

Everything before week 10 exists because of that sentence.

The gate#

No simulator check, no authorisation.

No authorisation, no aircraft.

This does not bend.

What you are graded on#

Not elegance. Not the landing.