Flight Training Archives - Page 6 of 10

The A-B-Cs of a successful instrument approach

Flight instructors and student pilots as well as experienced pilots have come up with numerous acronyms, checklists or phrases to remind themselves of all the information necessary for a proper instrument approach and some of these hints so to speak are easier to remember than others. However, Hugh Gommel (an instructor at The Flight Academy in Las Vegas) has recently posted this simple and easy to remember A-B-C method for an ILS approach on the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association (COPA) blog. His method is the following:

– A is for ATIS as you need to get the ATIS information before descending.

– B is for BRIEF the approach. Hugh recommends that you always brief the approach details out loud to both your flying partner or yourself because the approach chart contains a lot of information. He also recommends that you check and verify the following important items:

The chart (make sure that its current and the approach you intend to fly).
The localizer frequency.
The final approach course.
The on glideslope altitude at the final approach fix.
The minimums for the approach.
The exact lighting configuration of the intended landing runway
The missed approach procedure including the final level off altitude.

– C is for CHECKLIST.

Hugh also recommends that you try using this approach during a flight simulation a few times to see how well it works for you before actually using it in the cockpit – definitely good advice worth following.

Controlling your flight training costs

Learning how to fly can be an expensive and time consuming endeavor. Moreover, it can be very difficult to determine a ball park figure as there are many variable to include such as aircraft rentals, fuel costs and instructor fees and these costs may vary drastically depending on where you live and the type of license you seek.

However, Scott Spangler writes on Jetwhine that there is some good news in a sense that students can always control their training costs by mastering the variables. The first and most obvious variables that Patrick mentions is your choice of licenses and aircraft to fly. He also makes a valid point when he states that spreading out your lessons over time is a bad idea as it inevitably means that you will spend more time relearning skills that were already taught to you in a previous lesson.

Moreover, he points out that flying, unlike most other recreational activities, is “a complex, long-term process that requires a substantial investment of time and money” and that “anecdotal evidence shows that more than half the people who start flying lessons never finish because they didn’t fully understand or appreciate the commitment it takes to earn your wings.” In other words, one of the best ways to control your costs is to ensure that you have both the time and the mental dedication to see the flight lessons through from beginning to end.

Hence, and to all pilots or students out there, how did you or how are you controlling the costs associated with flight training?

Four checkrides in one

Checkrides happen. It’s an inevitable part of being a pilot. But knowing that doesn’t make them easier or more fun. On Saturday, I had to do four:

JAR Single Engine Piston rating renewal. Somehow, stupidly, I had let this lapse. I can still fly N-reg aircraft on my FAA CPL but I like to keep all my ratings current so I decided to renew it.
JAR IMC rating. This rating lets me fly G-reg aircraft in clouds in the UK. It has to be renewed with a flight test every couple of years and my rating was due to expire later this year but it made sense to renew it now because it doubles up with some of the FAA tests.
FAA Instrument Proficiency Check. You can keep an FAA instrument rating current by performing six approaches, some holds and some tracking in actual IMC (or under the hood or in a sim) within the past six months. However, this is a pretty low standard of currency. You could fly them all in January and then do nothing until July. I don’t think you’d be very current at the end of it. My preference is to fly with an instructor or do an IPC every three to six months. That way I know I’m legal and current.
FAA Biannual Flight Review. I passed my CPL in October 2007 so I didn’t need to do a BFR until later this year but it seemed to make sense to wrap it up with the other stuff because so much of it overlaps.

So off I went with John Page from TAA UK in N147GT to do some holds, tracking and approaches at Southend. The sneaky so-and-so had fixed it with the controllers to switch of the glideslope on my second approach so I had to revert to a localiser-only approach. It wasn’t elegant at first as I had to check the plate for the heights and so on but I made a good recovery and would have landed safely.

This is why I prefer doing checkrides with instructors because you learn something each time. Left to my own devices, I would have done a radar-vectored, auto-coupled ILS approaches and it would have been a cake walk.

Then we went off to the local area for the dreaded compass turns. I can master computers and GPS systems with manuals 500 pages thick. But a simple magnetic compass, a stopwatch and some schoolboy maths does my head in every time. Then some other VFR SEP/BFR type stuff: practice forced landings, stalls, steep turns etc.

After that, recovery from unusual attitudes. With foggles. On the back up instruments. In turbulence. My gyros toppled completely and I was nearly sick but this is good practice. It was a pleasure to get the circuit portion of the checkride over and land after nearly two hours aloft.

Then the paperwork. As Wernher von Braun said “Going to the moon is easy but the paperwork is very difficult.” (His biography was called “I aim for the stars” but some wag suggested that the subtitle should be “…but sometimes I hit London.”) Anyway, I’m back on the top line now and good to fly.

Spin training

Spin training is not for the squeamish or for the feint of heart. In fact, the AOPA ePilot newsletter recently recounted a 2006 incident involving a Cessna 152 where a flight instructor and her student were killed during spin training because the student may have frozen up at the controls while attempting a recovery. The plane had showed no signs of mechanical failure and had also been used on the same day for spin training without incident; however, it was reported that the student pilot had a history of panicky and impulsive behavior during stressful flying situations.

Hence, Tracy of the Around the Pattern blog mentions the incident in a long and well written post where he recounts the spin training that he received while in the United States Air Force (USAF). Although he received his training 35 years ago, Tracy can still recite the six basic recovery steps which are worth repeating here:

Throttles – Idle
Rudder and Ailerons – Neutral
Stick – Abruptly Full Aft and Hold
Rudder – Abruptly apply Full Rudder Opposite the Direction of the Spin and Hold
One Turn After Applying Opposite Rudder – Stick Abruptly Full Forward
Controls Neutral and recover from the Dive

His post then includes a more detailed discussion about the proper procedures under each of these steps and he also recalls how they would regain the attention of a student pilot in the Air Force (i.e. yelling, hitting the pilot on the head with a half-inch thick aircraft checklist, kinking the oxygen hose and finally the last resort: hitting the eject button).

The post is well worth a read and Tracy promises a follow-up post about how he found himself in an inverted spin with both engines shut off.

Sporty’s new G1000 training course

In case you are still flying a traditional aircraft and our planning to make the transition to a glass cockpit, Sporty’s has just released the new Garmin G1000 Checkout for a retail price of US$89.95. The package includes a two disc DVD training video that runs for 107 minutes (hosted by air show announcer Rob Reider who has narrated other videos for Sporty’s), G1000 PC Software Simulator, syllabus and cockpit poster and according to the company website, the course is ideal for both VFR and IFR pilots or as a refresher course for current G1000 users.

Todd Macrock has already posted a short review of the Garmin G1000 Checkout on MyFlightBlog.com and he states that he preferred this product over another one by Sporty’s that he recently reviewed (Sporty’s Air Facts: Flying Glass Cockpits). He also points out that the Garmin G1000 Checkout contains some great scenario-based training.

So if you are already a fan of some of Sporty’s other training products, then the Garmin G1000 Checkout might be worth checking out.

Flight training pitfalls

Jason Schappert of MzeroA.com has a great post about overcoming flight training pitfalls which he begins by sharing his own experience with an instructor that was definitely NOT a professional motivator. Jason then outlines some of the pitfalls for both instructors and students with the key takeaway being that instructors need to be motivators in order to teach their students to be good and safe pilots while student pilots need to talk to other pilots to gain insights into flying and learn from their mistakes.

However, Vincent of Plastic Pilot makes an excellent comment to the post when he points out that:

It is important to have a good match between student pilot and flight instructor. Not all pairs can do well, and it does not mean the student or the instructor is bad. If you don’t feel good with your instructor, try another one. No shame in that.

In other words, remember that math or English teacher who’s teaching style or method made it very difficult for you to grasp the subject? The same thing can occur when learning how to fly only the stakes are much higher during flight training. Thus, having the right match cannot be emphasized enough and neither can consulting with your peers for advice or assistance.