Ready to Fly!

[MichaelM-MO-509]

Hi Ken -

Getting ready to visit 3 well recognized flight schools in Florida next week. All of the information you have given me will certainly help! Quick question about math in a flying career: It has been awhile since I have taken a math course in school... I have strong basics (addition/subtraction/ mutiplication/ division) and took Algebra and Geometry in high school. A retired pilot told me a great aviation math skill is knowledge of calculus. Should I take an intro to calculous class? How often do you need to hand figure formulas? During training, are calculators allowed? Are the math skills needed that advanced?

Hope you are well and all the best,

Michael

[Republic Airlines Ken]

Michael,

Ha! If I needed to dig up and dust off any remaining calculus knowledge tucked into some dark corner of my brain, my passengers and I would be in some serious trouble!

I think that that retired pilot was generally right in the sense that it's helpful to be able to run numbers in your head quickly sometimes, and it's good to be able to logically think through problems in the way that something complex like calculus can challenge you - but I wouldn't feel the need to specifically take a class on calculus.

The strong basics you mentioned are much more important on a day to day basis. Off the top of my head, here are some of the more pressing daily math related issues that you may come across down the road (some of this applies more at the airline level, and some at the general aviation level):

- weight and balance issues (pax and bags), and correlating your weight numbers to available runways and the performance requirements needed based on obstacles, runway contamination and winds.
- fuel burn calculations, especially with respect to holding duration, alternates, altitudes, speeds and reroutes.
- time and distance to climb or descend, with respect to meeting ATC or airway restrictions.
- rate of descent needed for a 3 degree glidepath based on groundspeed (important for establishing a stabilized approach)
- visual descent points (VDP - the point on a non-precision approach where, should you see the runway after this point, you would be in an unsafe position to try and descend to land)
- and a whole bunch of other things here and there...

The good news is that only some of these things are used frequently at the piston engine level, and also, you've got more time to apply them, since you're typically traveling a bit slower. Also, there are lots of good "rules of thumb" out there to help you. ATP lists a number of them in their Training Supplement (some of the descent planning and VDP calculations, single engine driftdown, etc), and there are many other sources out there as well. I picked up a book a while back called "Mental Math for Pilots" that had many different shortcuts for estimating all sorts of things. Good book. Not necessary, but it gets you thinking in the right way.

Calculators are allowed on any aviation test and in the aircraft as well. They can be plenty useful, but often it's good to just run a few numbers in your head or on paper for a good figure. Either way, your instructor and groundschool will cover much of this and you'll be able to apply it gradually, so it's not like you're tossed in the deep end!

let me know if that answers your question.