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Trust But Verify

November 29, 2012/in Personal stories/by Studentpltnews

Scenario-Based Training

November 9, 2012/in Tips and technique/by Studentpltnews

When I was in high school, I did a project which involved interviewing military veterans. There were four veterans I interviewed – two who were in the Vietnam War and two in Korea (one was my grandfather). The main focus was to interview them about their personal experiences, and about combat. To do this I had to […]

Trust But Verify

November 29, 2012/in Personal stories/by Studentpltnews

Scenario-Based Training

November 9, 2012/in Tips and technique/by Studentpltnews

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Trust But Verify

November 29, 2012/in Personal stories/by Studentpltnews

Trust your gauges. Trust your gauges. Trust your gauges. I can still hear the chant from my instructor during my instrument training. Even when VFR, I always find myself leveling off by looking at the attitude indicator and verifying with visual reference and other non-direct indicating instruments. It`s a tough habit to break (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but I found a little bit of motivation for the verification step hidden in a short flight to have supper with some pilot friends.

We had six planes in all. Taking off from Clermont County Airport (I69), the destination was only 15 minutes away. We were going to Blue Ash Airport to have the “Last Supper” as we called it. You see, Blue Ash was closing and we wanted to land there one last time before “they” closed it. There was a restaurant within walking distance of the parking area, so the food became a must.

I hopped in the left seat of a Cessna Skyhawk. To my right was a recreational pilot who was close to his private license who came along for the ride. On takeoff, I could tell something wasn’t quite right. It took almost half of the 3500 ft runway to build up speed for rotation. Vr in this plane is 55 kts. Around midfield, at an indicated speed of approximately 48 kts, the plane leaps into the air. It took a lot of nose down trim to keep the plane at Vy (79 kts).

Odd, yes., but given the young apprentice sitting next to me and the short duration of the flight, I thought nothing of it. I was confident and certainly didn’t want to seem worried so I was able to convince myself that all was normal.

On the way to Blue Ash, I notice a maximum cruise speed of 94 kts. This plane would normally do 110kts. Did I leave my flaps down again (story for another time)? Is something broken? Everything looked and felt fine, except for my airspeed.

Let’s pause the story and hit the rewind button to four months prior. I was fortunate enough to represent Sporty`s Pilot Shop at a trade show in Alaska. While I was there a bush pilot told me a story about when he took a 30,000 hour commercial pilot on a fishing trip in a Super Cub. During takeoff, he gets up to speed and rotates. The commercial pilot starts panicking and shouting “Airspeed! Airspeed! Your airspeed indicator isn’t working.” His response to this: “What`s an airspeed indicator?”

The commercial pilot`s entire flying career was based on trusting his gauges, where the Bush Pilot flew largely by feel. I could hear Bob Hoover in the background saying, “The plane doesn’t know the engines aren’t running.”

Back at Blue Ash, I`ve made it to final approach. It just so happened that the traffic in the pattern was using runway 24, meaning we had a 6 knot tailwind. I thought nothing of it for an experienced pilot like me. To make matters worse, Rwy 24 is a right-hand pattern. I have special hatred for right-hand patterns. I always end up high and fast. So on final, my airspeed indication is getting slow. I`m at final approach speed, but screaming down final as if I requested permission for a fly by.

With five planes behind me watching, I flared and flew a third of the way down the runway before forcing the plane to touch down. After a couple of bounces and porpoises, I was beyond midfield and not even in the ballpark of having the weight transferred from the wings to the wheels.

Luckily, this big, bad, macho pilot (me) has very little pride when it comes to going around. With five planes in the pattern, I announced my go around. Hitting the throttle, pulling up flaps, still trusting the airspeed indicator, I climb out again with a lot of nose down trim to keep the airspeed at Vy.

The windsock at the end of the runway confirms that we had a tailwind, but not a huge one. Glancing over at the ground peed on the GPS, it says I`m doing 90 kts while the airspeed is indicating 65 kts. A choir of angels sings, the light bulb goes on, the fog lifts from the valley. Looking back, I should have figured this out on takeoff, but my macho man attitude and instrument mentality had led me astray. Remembering my bush pilot friend from Alaska, I flew the next approach based on what felt right with a couple of groundspeed call outs from the pilot sitting next to me (the verification step). We made it down with no further issues and enjoyed our final trip to Blue Ash.

All the symptoms were there but I chose to ignore them. The pitot tube had a partial blockage leading to a false reading, much lower than normal. My mind was too busy showing this rookie how we real pilots fly.

Moral of the story: If it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. Trust, but verify your gauges. A simple cross check of the groundspeed indication on the GPS would have revealed the issue and I could have made the adjustment before I attempted a landing.

Scenario-Based Training

November 9, 2012/in Tips and technique/by Studentpltnews

My project was successful and I learned a lot, mainly to honor our veterans for what they did. Each veteran was interviewed separately and they did not know each other. However, they all had one experience in common. They told me that their rigorous boot camp training was a major reason why they survived combat. During a firefight, their training with various weapons and scenarios was key to overcoming the potentially crippling fear of combat. When their adrenaline was rushing, hearts pounded, and overworked lungs were burning, their training took over almost like they were on autopilot.

As pilots, there are lessons to be learned from this description. Unless we are flying low over moonshine country, we have no one shooting at us, but these veterans also said their time in service involved very long periods of extreme boredom, followed by short periods of extreme chaos and fear. As pilots, we experience long periods with little to do but monitor instruments and equipment and take in the views (cruise flight), and short periods of high workloads (takeoff and landing). We shouldn’t experience fear unless something goes wrong, or something breaks. We should expect that our training will take over and guide us through a particular event. If you were to experience a real emergency, do you feel confident your training has prepared you to handle it?

The PTS (practical test standards) book for every license spells out what’s expected from the student. It also spells out what’s expected of the examiner. The examiner is expected to, whenever possible, ask scenario based questions. They ask these during the oral, or give scenarios in flight for the student to work through. This shows the examiner that the student knows this task to the highest level of learning — correlation.

We all learn at different levels. The first level is rote learning. Examples of this level of learning would include memorizing aircraft V-speeds or limitations. Knowing why we use Vx to clear an obstacle or Vbg (best glide) in an engine-out emergency is the next level of learning — understanding.

The third level, application, is putting any knowledge to use in the airplane. The highest level of learning is when you realize how all the different areas of aviation (systems, limitations, weather, performance, regulations, etc.) relate to each other. You take everything into consideration when making decisions. This is called correlation. Scenario-based training encourages this highest level of learning to help you make safer decisions.

Scenario-based training should be a major part of your lessons, whether you’re a student or an instructor. For example, instead of reading and understanding the electric fire/failure checklist, practice it in the air. Once you secure the simulated fire, turn off the master switch (when in a non-congested area and not under a mode C veil), take off your headsets and work the problem to the ground (have a radio and speaker on for collision avoidance). Does your airplane require electric for flaps or gear when landing? Were you talking to ATC at the time? Now do this scenario at night, what changes? How does the workload increase? What about engine failure/fire to a forced landing?

Instead of taking the plane to 500 feet about the ground, try doing this by a runway or suitable grass strip and take the plane all the way to the ground. Talk about differences coping with abnormal or emergency procedures at night, over mountainous terrain or over an overcast layer. What about something slightly less dramatic like high oil temperature, a stuck throttle, a door opening in flight (if not a limitation)? Do this and watch you or your student’s confidence grow.

There are many different scenarios that can be created, mostly based around the aircraft’s emergency section in the operating handbook. There are also many scenarios that can occur that the manufacturer does not provide a checklist for. It’s valuable to work through the less likely scenarios as well, but always with an instructor and never compromise safety. This type of training should be done prior to the checkride. Not only to pass the examiner’s scenario-based questions and tasks, but for your personal growth and safety. Moreover, scenario-based training is the best preparation for after you receive your license. It keeps you current and safe and ensures you’re always learning.

If something goes wrong while flying and your adrenaline is rushing and your heart starts pounding, scenario-based training will be crucial to help get you over your fear, and work the problem to continue flying safely and to the nearest airport. Keep your instructor’s number close by to enlist his help and experience.

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Trust But Verify

Scenario-Based Training

Trust But Verify

Scenario-Based Training

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Trust But Verify

Scenario-Based Training

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