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6 aviation cliches that are true – and 3 that are not

January 31, 2014/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

Aviation is filled with “experts.” These self-appointed sages never miss a chance to share their tips for safer flying, usually from the lofty perch of a rocking chair at the FBO. But not every cliche can be discarded. Most of them exist because there’s a kernel of truth.

Picking Up Where You Left Off

January 23, 2014/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

6 aviation cliches that are true – and 3 that are not

January 31, 2014/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

Picking Up Where You Left Off

January 23, 2014/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

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6 aviation cliches that are true – and 3 that are not

January 31, 2014/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

Aviation is filled with “experts.” These self-appointed sages never miss a chance to share their tips for safer flying, usually from the lofty perch of a rocking chair at the FBO. If you’re a new pilot these experts can be intimidating, with their catchy phrases and serious advice. Eventually, you may decide to simply tune it all out: “just a bunch of old timers telling lies.”

That reaction is understandable and some of the advice you’ll get is undoubtedly bad, so there’s nothing wrong with being skeptical. But not every cliche can be discarded. Most of them exist because there’s at least a kernel of truth inside.

With that in mind, I offer six famous aviation aphorisms that really are true:

Always have an out. Sometimes expressed as, “never run out of airspeed, altitude and ideas at the same time,” this is my nominee for the most popular tip for new pilots. But just because it’s overused and obvious doesn’t make it any less useful. From weather to performance, you should use this phrase to nag yourself throughout every flight and ensure you haven’t been boxed into a corner. Here’s a tip my first instructor taught me: on a cross-country flight, set a timer to go off every 10 minutes. When the timer beeps, ask yourself what your out is. Do you have an emergency picked out landing field if the engine were to quit? Where is the good weather if things become marginal? Do you have your VORs tuned in case your GPS fails? It’s a little paranoid, but it’s good training and it will instill solid habits. You should always have a Plan B and probably a Plan C as well.
Aviate, navigate, communicate. The second most popular advice is also famous for a reason. Flying is complex, and especially in busy airspace or during an emergency it’s easy to get distracted. These three words are in a very specific order, to remind you that flying the airplane is more important than anything else. When you feel confused or overwhelmed, fly the airplane first, then figure out where you are and where you’re going. Only when you’re comfortable about those first two should you worry about Air Traffic Control and talking on the radio. They can wait.
Rudder matters more than ailerons. You’ve probably heard some of those experts complaining about how “kids today” just don’t use enough rudder. I think this is a little bit overblown, but it’s true that we can all do better with our precision flying skills. The rudder is no exception. For example, are you religious about keeping that ball centered on climb out? It can add 100 ft/min to your rate of climb and on some hot day years in the future, that 100 ft/min might be critical. The rudder is essential for making good crosswind landings and avoiding spins during slow flight, so you need to get those feet off the floor and keep them active. As you transition into faster airplanes and maybe even taildraggers or twins, you’ll learn that the rudder is an even more critical control. There’s nothing wrong with pushing hard on those pedals!
Reduce power slowly. I won’t restart the holy war about “shock cooling” here–some pilots believe in it, others don’t–but there’s no reason to chop the power on a piston engine unless you’re practicing an engine failure. Unlike car engines, airplane engines are air cooled so they’re more sensitive to rapid temperature changes. When you reduce power from 2400 RPM to 1100 RPM, that’s not doing those pistons and cylinder walls any favors. Four cylinder engines like the Cessna 172’s Lycoming IO-360 are pretty resilient, but large six cylinder or turbocharged engines do not handle such abuse nearly as well. Get in the habit of planning your descent so you can slowly and smoothly reduce power over time, instead of one big pull. At the very least, your passengers will appreciate it. In fact, when I first checked out in a Cessna 210, my flight instructor told me that I couldn’t reduce power more than two inches of manifold pressure every two minutes. Was that overly conservative? Maybe. But it did help me develop a smooth touch on the throttle.
Always land with one hour of fuel in the tanks. Everyone has their favorite rule of thumb about fuel planning, and some pilots will even argue that “the regs say 30 minutes is enough.” If you’ve ever landed with 30 minutes in the tanks, you know how frighteningly low that looks on the fuel gauges. Make one hour your minimum, no matter how far you’re flying and no matter what kind of airplane you’re in. Then, if you do encounter unexpectedly bad weather or some other surprise, you’ll still have a nice cushion to execute that Plan B (see cliche #1). This rule should be absolute–when the gauges say one hour is left in the tank, your wheels are on the ground. Period.
Always get a big picture weather briefing. Getting a good weather briefing is easier than ever these days, with iPad apps and high resolution radar images. But many pilots get caught up in the latest weather products and forget to understand the synopsis. Who needs that? Just look at the radar loop and the METARs, right? Hardly. This approach misses the forest for the trees. A truly great weather briefing starts with a solid understanding of the big picture: where the highs and lows are, where the fronts are and what the upper level winds are doing. Once you know this, the actual observations and forecasts will make more sense and you’ll be much better at interpreting Mother Nature’s road signs in the air. Reading on your iPad that the visibility is going down one thing; understanding why it’s going down is another. It takes some practice, but it’s the best weather tip I ever learned.

Now before you assume that all aviation cliches are true, I feel compelled to debunk a few. In my opinion, these tips are flat out wrong:

You can never have too much fuel, unless you’re on fire. Baloney. If you’re trying to get a ratty old 172 in the air on a hot summer day with three passengers, you absolutely can have too much fuel. In fact, as you progress into larger airplanes, you’ll rarely top off the fuel tanks. Certainly, you should not violate rule #4 above, but there is a price for carrying too much fuel. More is not always better.
You should hand fly all instrument approaches. Some CFIs teach this to instrument students, implying that “real pilots fly the airplane.” The theory is that autopilots can’t be trusted when the weather is low, and you need the practice anyway. While there’s nothing wrong with practicing hand flying (and we should never become autopilot-dependent), when the weather is really low it’s wise to let the autopilot fly the airplane. That allows you to shed workload, monitor the situation and respond to any abnormalities. You’re not a bad pilot for using the tools you have on board; in fact, that’s great cockpit resource management (CRM).
You never can be too safe. This is my least favorite saying in all of aviation. Don’t get me wrong: I am passionate about flying safely, as we all should be. But if this cliche were true, we’d all fly around with six jet engines, an extra pair of wings and nine pilots on board. There’s obviously a point at which the safety benefits of new regulations or technology no longer pay off. The challenge–and fun–of personal aviation is that we control how safe we are. We decide when to fly and when not to, we decide how proficient we are and we make the final decisions in the left seat. We can fly as safely as we want to.

I’ve just scratched the surface here on famous aviation advice. Do you have any catchphrases or aphorisms you like? Add a comment below.

Picking Up Where You Left Off

January 23, 2014/in Tips and technique/by studentpltnews

One of the more difficult aspects of pilot training is starting back after a lengthy break. If you have ever had to take two or more weeks away from your training, in an otherwise consistent schedule, you have experienced the “rust”. “Rust” is the term that pilots use to describe the degradation in flying skills when you haven’t flown in a while. Rust can be noticeable in as little as a few days while you are early in the training process, or maybe not noticeable for a few weeks once you are a more experienced aviator.

Small amounts of rust will be shaken after a single flight , assuming your hiatus is relatively short. But what should you do if your break in training was longer? Maybe a year or more?

Step 1 – Create a plan

Once you have decided on your flight school and instructor, you need to set a plan in motion that covers knowledge assessment, remedial flight skills, and a syllabus to your end goal – probably checkride. With a qualified instructor as your mentor, you should first begin with a knowledge assessment and study plan. Take advantage of a ground lesson with your instructor and review the major items of your flying knowledge up to where you left off. And place particular emphasis on the last few topics before you took your break.

Many students mistakenly assume to start back at the beginning with the idea that the knowledge gained earliest is the oldest and therefore, most rusty. What that theory does not account for is the law of repetition. Although the knowledge gained first dates farthest back in time, it was also the knowledge repeated most often and used frequently during your flight training. This early knowledge was also less complex. Instead, start with the more recent topics which will also have the most impact on your next flight since knowledge generally precedes the flying skills.

Once you know where your knowledge stands and have created a study plan to get back into the swing of things, you can shift your focus to flying skills and “muscle memory”. “Muscle memory” is the term we use that explains how you know what to do with your hands and feet without even having to think about it. Although flying is never without thought, certain actions come as second nature when you are current and proficient as a pilot. This skill set must be sharpened before you can begin to work on more complex items like maneuvers and landings.

Keep in mind the first flight or two after coming off of a break is not going to bring you back to the point where you left off. But you should expect to have an accurate assessment of what will be needed to get you back to that point. As with any success, it’s difficult to accomplish a goal without a plan to execute.

With your study plan in place, and firm skill assessment, you and your instructor can formalize a plan or syllabus to pave the way to the goal of completing your certificate. This plan should be documented and contain specific objectives so both you and your instructor can monitor progress and make adjustments when needed. The absence of a plan and no meaningful way to measure progress is often the source of students feeling as if no progress is being made. This can also be a contributing factor to losing the motivation and passion to complete your goal.

Step 2 – Follow the plan

Now that you have all of your goals and methods in place to achieve those goals, it’s time to implement the strategy. It would be a disservice to suggest that everything was going to work out as planned, but there are additional steps to minimize set-backs and veering off course.

First, set aside the necessary time in your schedule. Don’t just show up to your lessons and expect the magic to happen, or wait for your instructor to spoon-feed information. If you create a schedule for your self-study the same way that you schedule time for your flight lesson, you will be well on your way to success. Lesson preparedness will save you money during your flight training.

Next, set a consistent schedule with your instructor. Maintaining a steady flight training schedule of at least two lessons per week is great plan to experiencing measured success week after week. When your training is more sporadic, it’s difficult, if not impossible, to develop routines and the necessary muscle memory. Frequency is obviously important to success in flight training, but consistency and predictability in your schedule are also very important factors not to be overlooked. If you have to cancel a lesson due to weather or other conflicts, try to reschedule a makeup lesson as soon as possible.

Last, keep track of your progress on your plan. Creating a detailed road map to completion of your certificate is only an effective tool if you keep that record current. Your records should show progress of lessons, individual notes on lesson performance, and items to improve for the next lesson. Documenting those observations allows you and your instructor to maintain the same progress plan for your training and ensure that you don’t get side tracked. Using that plan at home helps you continue to reinforce your plan and keep your preparation relevant to the items currently experiencing difficulties. The added benefit of keeping your own copy of these records is to gain confidence from your previous success when you feel like nothing is going right in your lessons.

Enjoy

After many months of diligent work, you have succeeded in obtaining your new certificate or rating. Now what? Your new license is not the end of your training and enjoyment; it is the beginning. There is a common expression in aviation that your license is merely a “license to learn”. No statement could be truer, but not to worry. You will not be practicing slow flight and stalls for the rest of your flying days. There are many great activities to do with your certificate, which is ultimately why you got into flying in the first place. Each time you fly you gain valuable experience and experience is the root of learning.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

6 aviation cliches that are true – and 3 that are not

Picking Up Where You Left Off

6 aviation cliches that are true – and 3 that are not

Picking Up Where You Left Off

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

6 aviation cliches that are true – and 3 that are not

Picking Up Where You Left Off

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