Pleasance takes the controls from outgoing AOPA CEO Mark Baker, who earlier this year announced his intention to retire. Pleasance will begin his new job on January 1.

Baker said in a press release that Pleasance was “a pilot’s pilot with a genuine passion for flying.”

Pleasance began his aviation career while in his teens, doing odd jobs at the local airport in exchange for flying lessons. His aviation résumé includes more than 50 different types of aircraft and 8,000 hours logged, flying everything from “simple trainers to business jets and vintage warbirds” according to AOPA.

He has served as a corporate pilot working for celebrities, such as fellow aviator John Travolta,  flown bush charters in Alaska, and holds a CFI certificate. Pleasance also served for many years on the board of the Experimental Aircraft Association.

And while he left professional aviation to pursue a career in business, he never left aviation behind, as Pleasance continued to fly for fun, according to AOPA. He owns a Piper Meridian, Vans RV-6, and Progressive Aerodyne SeaRey. 

“I’m grateful for the privilege I’m being given to lead this incredible organization that has had such a positive impact on my life and the lives of all of us who love aviation,” Pleasance said.

He comes to AOPA from Cisco Systems Inc., where he led the acceleration center—designed to accelerate the success of mission-critical aspects of Cisco’s business transformation. He also has experience in marketing and consulting at Google and McKinsey & Company.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as a MBA in management from University of California at Los Angeles.

The post AOPA Names New President and CEO appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The one-and-one is the minimum required per FAR 61.56, and when you add in the time for brief, debrief, and logbook endorsement, you often go beyond an hour, which makes the CFI late for their next client. It is much better to set aside three hours so you aren’t late—and more importantly—aren’t rushed.

• READ MORE: The One-Time Water Landing

Yet many pilots insist that one hour on the ground and one in the air is all they need, or are willing to pay for. Some pilots expect to be automatically signed off for the flight review, even if they don’t demonstrate the requisite knowledge or fly to the level of their certificate.

It doesn’t work that way. Find a CFI who is up-front about this as the Airman Certification Standards for the certificate you hold are what you should be using.

This particular client had held a private pilot certificate for more than 20 years and flew several times a month. Over the years, he had owned airplanes, but at that time, his aircraft was down for its annual, so he was renting a Cessna 172. He didn’t want to rush the flight review. As he put it, he often flew with his grandchildren and was adamant to take his time in the name of safety.

He was more than 25 minutes late. He apologized—traffic was worse than expected when he left work. As we settled into the classroom for the ground portion of the flight review, he discovered he had left his headset at home. He put new ear seals on it the night before and had left it on the kitchen table.

• READ MORE: The Importance of Following Checklists

I offered to let him borrow a spare headset. Instead, he looked at me apologetically and asked if we could stay on the ground rather than fly because his brain, he said, would not be in the airplane. 

He then told me about a rule he had for himself—the rule of three. If three things delaying the flight were distractions, he made it a rule to cancel. I have heard this so-called rule from many other pilots. Three is a cosmic number, one told me, adding that “things happen in threes” is a cliche for a reason. 

I am a student of the accident reports published by the National Transportation Safety Board. When you read them, the bad decisions are clear as day. Often the pilot is rushed or distracted.  Accidents, especially the fatalities, are often a chain of poor decisions.

Distracted = Dangerous

Flying is one of those things that demands our undivided attention. Any distraction can be detrimental to safety. When and if you are in the cockpit of a jet getting paid the big bucks, we hope you’ve learned how to compartmentalize or recognize your own limitations. There will be some days when you are too distracted to fly.

When you fly as a hobby, the stakes aren’t as high. This is not the last chopper out of Saigon, as my first CFI used to remind me. Yet even student pilots can face a lot of pressure to fly, and it comes from all directions. 

It can be a challenge for a student pilot to cancel a flight, especially when the CFI is pressing for it to happen. As a commercial candidate, I encountered a CFI who argued we could “dodge” the thunderstorms that were approaching the airport. The commercial certificate requires more knowledge of weather than the private certificate, and I had embraced this with gusto. The idea of dodging anything didn’t sit well with me.

• READ MORE: What You Need to Know About Tires When Learning to Fly

I had obtained three weather briefings—one the night before, the morning of the flight, and the last one an hour prior to the flight. On that last one the briefer remarked the cold front that was bringing the storms had “moved much faster” than the weather models had anticipated. Based on this available information, I canceled the flight. 

Dark clouds were approaching from the southwest while the CFI somewhat grudgingly helped me put the cover back on the airplane. As we were draping the cover over the fuselage the temperature dropped like someone had opened a window on a cold day. It started to hail. It came down so hard and fast a line boy ran onto the ramp to help us. I felt good about my decision.

Make It Fair

At all times it should be remembered that flight instruction is not compulsory education, but it is a business. For this reason many schools and independent CFIs have a no-show or late cancellation penalty.

This usually takes the form of a signed contract between the school, or CFI and the learner. This policy should be discussed at the first meeting and expectations established. There is often one “free pass” then after that a penalty is levied, such as the cost of one hour of aircraft rental or an hour of the instructor’s time. If the CFI does not show or is late, they owe the flight student a free hour of instruction.

• READ MORE: Don’t Skimp on Ground Instruction in Flight Training

If the learner at least makes an effort to let the CFI or school know they can’t make it, that goes a long way. One of my mentors who ran a flying club for many years took a very hard stance on this, saying if the learner was not responsible enough to make a phone call or at least send a text letting us know they were going to be late, or were not going to be there at all, they were not responsible enough to be a pilot.

When late cancellations or no-shows become a habit, the CFI and/or the flight school may stop scheduling the student altogether. If you have to consistently cancel lessons, perhaps this is not the time for you to pursue flight training.

You are paying a lot of money and investing a lot of energy in your aviation education, so do your best not to get in your own way. If the deck appears to be stacked against you, such as in the form of “the rule of three,” ask yourself if this is the day for you to be in the air.

As for the client who was there for the flight review, a quick text canceled the aircraft reservation. I assured him I was not angry with his decision not to fly, because when a pilot demonstrates good aeronautical decision making—such as recognizing that their head won’t be in the game —I say learning has taken place.  

The post Do You Have the Rule for a No-Go? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Three miles out from the airport, the pilot of the C-340A announced he was doing a straight-in. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the larger, faster airplane was not configured for landing as its approach speed was 180 knots. The published flap extension speed for the C-340A is 160 knots, and the landing gear extension speed is 140 knots.

Muscle memory, checklist use, and procedures often go hand in hand. Had the pilot of the C-340A flown the traffic pattern for the airport beginning with maneuvering for 45-degree angle entry on to the downwind at midfield, he might have remembered to slow down the airplane and configure it for landing.

NTSB reports are full of similar but thankfully mostly non-fatal events that can occur when the pilot on a straight-in forgets the landing gear—often at a non-towered airport. 

At a towered airport, the controllers often contact the pilot and advise them that their gear is not down with a simple “check gear” query. NTSB investigations into gear-up landings often include a statement from the pilot, who note that the straight-in, devoid of the usual cues such as turning on to the 45 or downwind, resulted in forgetting to run the checklist, which included the action of lowering the landing gear with the phrase “gear down and locked.”

Many instructors, myself included, advocate for at least three gear checks: downwind, base, and final. In the faster aircraft such as a twin, the landing gear is often deployed on the 45 as a means to help slow down the aircraft.

In a fixed-gear airplane you don’t have to worry about the landing gear position, but checking the position of the gear if possible (like looking out the window in the high wing aircraft) is a good habit.

Verbalizing the checklist on each leg of the pattern is also a good habit. There may be things that are “deferred,” such as putting the propeller to full as one does on final in a complex airplane to facilitate a go-around if needed.

My U.S. Air Force Academy-trained instructor beat this into me—and recitation had to end with “check list complete” in my authoritative pilot voice.

On a straight-in approach, you miss the cues for aircraft configuration changes, such as power reduction and addition of flaps.

Here’s a teachable moment: dropping all the flaps at once can potentially bend metal if the aircraft is outside of V_FE, and will trigger a pitch change that catches many novice pilots by surprise. The natural reaction is to take all the flaps out in one movement, which makes the bad situation worse.

I demonstrate this to the learner at an appropriate altitude and at a flap-friendly speed in the practice area just so they know what it feels like and what it does to the airplane and why it is not something you want to mess with when you are close to the ground.

We then discuss how the incremental deployment of flaps prevents the pitch surprise, as does following the prelanding checklist on each leg of the pattern to achieve the published speeds for each leg as recommended by the manufacturer.

Poor Approach, Poor Landing

One of the first lessons to be taught to the novice pilot is that a poor approach results in a poor landing. If you are behind the airplane, as in slow to reduce throttle, start the descent, deploy flaps, that landing will be ugly. This can happen during straight in approaches as the legs of the pattern are a reminder to the pilot to run the checklist and reconfigure the aircraft.  Instead, the pilot relies on experience and knowledge of the aircraft performance to determine when to do configuration changes. This experience is best gained with a seasoned CFI next to you and flown in an appropriate environment, like at a towered airport when the pilot requests and ATC grants a straight-in approach.

Straight-ins at non-towered airports are especially dangerous as we learned by the Watsonville collision. When an aircraft comes bombing into a pattern already occupied by other aircraft, it is very much like running a red light. There may be someone closer than you think on a collision course. You can’t slam the brakes on an airplane in the air. Entering the pattern on the 45 at pattern altitude provides better situational awareness as it gives the pilot more of an opportunity to scan for traffic, see and avoid it.

It is for this reason many instructors discourage their learners from doing straight-in approaches. While I agree they are not a good idea at a non-controlled airport, they should be, at the very least, briefed and the scenario flown in the practice area so the learner knows when to refer to the checklist, when to reduce power, when to lower the flaps, etc.

Outside a request from a tower, there are times when a straight-in is called for, such as when a magneto fails a few miles outside the traffic pattern and the airport is the closest suitable runway.

This is the scenario I use with my learners, as I experienced it in the real world as a learner. My CFI demonstrated the proper technique, troubleshooting the issue to no avail, calling my attention to the diminished engine power available and sight picture, and ensuring that we had the runway made before applying flaps and reducing the power to idle.

Many years later, I was the CFI and had this happen. The straight-in and landing was a nonevent. The chief mechanic brought me fragments of metal that had been the left magneto to show my ground school class.

Another scenario where a straight-in is appropriate is when the weather that was VFR or MVFR drops to IFR and you, the noninstrument-rated pilot in the non-IFR-equipped aircraft need to get down quickly.

Don’t Be That Pilot

There are pilots who, when they hear another pilot on the radio state they are planning to do a straight-in approach, will scold the pilot or even threaten to call the FAA on them. This is not a discussion to have on the radio.

I have witnessed this at nontowered airports. I tell my learners not to engage that person. Focus on flying the airplane. If you are the pilot doing the straight-in for any of the above mentioned reasons—weather, a mechanical issue, or perhaps even an airsick passenger that necessitates getting on the ground quickly but not declaring an emergency—wait until you get on the ground before you get into a “discussion” with the other pilot. 

The post Why Straight-In Approaches Aren’t So Straightforward appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The event is scheduled for October 15-17 on the campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

“Last year’s summit was successful because of the strong technical program delivered by industry leaders and experts. This year will be the same,” said NAFI president Paul Preidecker. “But instead of addressing six themes as we did last year, this year we decided to bring more focus by supporting three very important ones: training the trainer, mentorship, and peer support, and pilot health and well-being.”

The event—which has the slogan, “Come to NAFI Summit, go home a better CFI”—is an opportunity for instructors of all levels and varying backgrounds to meet with their peers and discuss educational techniques, learner challenges, and opportunities to enhance their careers.

There will be 28 educational sessions during the two days. Among the topics to be discussed will be specific strategies instructors can use to “reach” their learners, as well as more technical topics such as the appropriate uses of autopilot during IFR and teaching emergency procedures in the most effective manner.

According to NAFI, there will be 21 exhibitors at the event, including Sporty’s Pilot Shop, King Schools, Avemco Insurance, and Redbird Flight Simulations. Several online training courses will be represented, as well as manufacturers of safety wearables, designed to enhance the educational experience.

Celebrity guests are also expected, and include keynote speakers Dr. Susan Northrup, FAA federal air surgeon, and Bruce Landsberg, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association senior safety adviser and recently retired National Transportation Safety Board vice chairman.

Northrup will be discussing the FAA’s rulemaking committee report. Instructors are tasked with knowing the rules and where to look them up and teaching this practice to their learners.

Landsberg will focus on how instructors can best teach fundamental aviation concepts to their learners.

On the evening of October 16, a dinner will be highlighted by aviation educators and instructors John and Martha King. The Kings have more than 50 years experience as aviation instructors. 

Registration for NAFI Summit is $350 for nonmembers and $300 for NAFI members. Further discounts exist for Master CFIs and DPEs, as well as active military attendees.

There is also reduced pricing for flight schools that sign up as a group and bring at least three instructors or a maximum of 10 to the event.

Additional information, including how to register, may be found here.

The post NAFI Unveils Focus of Upcoming Summit appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

This was the learner’s third flight lesson, and already he had mastered the use of the checklist. 

I stood back, silently observing—it appeared someone had not used the checklist when they shut down the aircraft. 

To shut down the engine, the mixture knob or lever is pulled full aft, with the knob or lever left out. Yet, looking at this cockpit it was obvious someone had put the knob back in.

As that was not the correct procedure, the learner took extra care with the inspection, calling my attention to several other discrepancies. He found several electrical switches left “on,” the most disconcerting of which was the avionics master switch. This aircraft had several placards warning the pilot to make sure the radio was off before activating the avionics master switch and to make sure the avionics master was off before activating the aircraft master switch.

According to the chief mechanic and owner of the Cessna 172, if these procedures were not followed, a surge of power could be sent to the radios, possibly damaging them. Apparently this had happened in the past. In addition to the placards, there was a warning written in all caps and in red on the checklist.

• READ MORE: How to Beat the Summer Heat When Flying

This wasn’t a one-time experience. The mixture knobs in other aircraft were also found in the full rich position. It was obvious someone—perhaps several someones—were not following the checklists.

The flight school was busy, as most of the instructors were flying eight hours per day, and there were multiple student pilots with solo privileges renting the aircraft. The concern of the chief CFI was that the instructors were not teaching checklist use, or worse yet, not demonstrating and modeling proper cockpit procedures. The CFIs were reminded to carefully watch their learners and remind them to use and follow the checklist during each phase of flight. 

An email was sent to all the renters and students, asking them to please use the checklists especially on aircraft shutdown. Some of the learners were confused by the email, because they thought the only problem that could arise from an improperly shutdown aircraft was the potential of a “hot prop,” the term for the magnetos being left on.

When the magnetos are shut off, the spark is grounded to the airframe. If the magnetos are left on, the spark is not grounded, and there is the possibility the prop can “kick,” as in move forcefully on its own if bumped or repositioned by hand. Approach the propeller like it is a big dog you don’t know—with caution and respect.

• READ MORE: Discovering Situational Awareness in the Instrument World

I have seen the aftermath of someone getting hit by a prop. It was at a Saturday morning fly-in pancake breakfast. It was winter and one of those cold, clear days that are so rare in the Pacific Northwest. The owner of the Cessna 172 was moving the prop by hand to a vertical position to signal that he needed fuel. 

I was two spots away when I heard the impact. I turned in time to see him on the ground. The engine hadn’t started because the mixture was out, but the prop had rotated on its own, coming down rapidly and striking his arm.

Although shaken, he said he was fine, as he was wearing a heavy winter jacket, and it prevented him from getting a serious injury. Or so he thought. A few minutes later he collapsed. We thought he was having a heart attack. He was lucky that several of the people in attendance were paramedics. When they got his jacket off, they discovered his arm was broken— there was bruising and swelling — and determined that he was in shock. 

I share this story with my learners. Oddly enough, the one who was skeptical of the damage a  live propeller could do was the one who had the ignition key break off during aircraft shutdown. It was the policy of the school to quickly switch to “off,” then back to “both” to determine the mags could be grounded to the airframe, then shut the engine off. As he switched back to both, the key sheared off. The mags were stuck on. 

We shut the aircraft down by pulling the mixture full after and depriving the engine of fuel and turned off the master switch. I ran inside to get the chief mechanic while the learner stayed with the airplane, standing behind the strut, and warning his classmates of the potentially live and therefore dangerous prop. 

We both watched as the chief mechanic used one of his specialized tools to turn the mags to the off position and removed what was left of the key. As he got out of the aircraft he looked at the student and playfully admonished him: “Go easier on the Wheaties! You’re breaking the keys!”

As for the identity of the pilot who was improperly shutting down the aircraft, he was a private candidate who thought he was helping the other pilots by putting the mixture to the “rich” position at the end of the flight because it was on the engine start checklist, and he wanted to save the pilots a step.

After he was educated about the importance of following the checklist, the behavior ceased as learning had taken place.

The post The Importance of Following Checklists appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

This is not what a CFI wants to hear when the learner is doing the preflight inspection. The learner was looking at the nosewheel of the Cessna 150, specifically, at a scalloped pattern on the side of the tire. She’d never seen this before—and frankly, in my more than 30 years of flying, neither had I. But I knew ugly when I saw it. 

One of the things I teach my learners is not to be embarrassed about asking for help, or asking a more experienced pilot or mechanic a question about something you find during a preflight. With this in mind I took a photograph of the tire with my smartphone and sent it to an A&P/IA with the text question, “OK to fly?” although I had a pretty good idea what the reply would be.

And I was right. 

The reply came back immediately: NO. A few more lines followed, mostly caveats about tires blowing at awkward moments and inquired if I needed help. I quickly explained the situation and ended with the phrase, “Decision: no-go.”

Although disappointed we could not fly, I was happy the learner had the opportunity to see a less-than-standard tire, because it allowed us to have a discussion about aircraft tires. They take a beating at a flight school, so it’s important for the learner to know what is normal and what is not. There is a reason that the checklist includes “check tires for proper inflation, damage, and flat spots.”

Negative transference—that is, applying information from something similar but different—can bite a pilot, especially with tires. One of the big mistakes made by fledgling pilots, especially those who are renting aircraft, is that they think airplane tires are the same as automobile tires, according to Randy Hedrick, customer support engineer for Michelin Tire. 

“Car tires have a wear bar. Aircraft tires don’t,” Hedrick said, noting that the flight students may not realize the aircraft tires are worn to the point of impending failure or more commonly, improperly inflated. 

“We recommend doing a pressure check before the first flight of the day. It’s normal for tires to lose pressure during the day, [so] losing up to 5 percent in two to four hours is acceptable.”

Renter pilots often don’t check the pressure of the tires as part of the preflight inspection. Improperly inflated tires can cause vibration—and that will definitely get your attention during ground operations, especially during takeoff and landing. 

Can You Change the Tire?

Most flight schools keep spare tires stocked, especially when they are also an FBO and have a visiting aircraft in need of maintenance. If they have a replacement tire, you have the tools, and it is your aircraft, so the FARs permit you to change the tire. But please don’t try to do it unless you have the proper tools and know how. 

Every mechanic contacted for this story said the same thing: It’s best to have someone with experience (like an A&P) show you how to do it at least once. There are more steps involved when changing an aircraft tire than there are when changing a tire on a bicycle or automobile, and different techniques and the right tools are a must.

For starters, you need to chock the other tires, find the jack point on your aircraft, and then have some blocks of wood to balance the jack. You have to be careful as you jack up the airplane and reposition the jack because the tire may move in.

Once the airplane is jacked up and the tire off the ground, you have to cut the safety wire. This releases the bolts that hold the brake pad in place, allowing you to take the wheel apart. That’s right—take the wheel apart.

The inner tube can take on a life of its own. Be very careful about the valve stem and be sure the tire tube is not kinked or folded. Installing the tube, whether new or used, involves talcum powder to guide in the inner tube. You have to be careful not to allow the tube to crease or fold, because that can introduce uneven wear, which you will feel when the tire rotates during ground operations.

These are just a few of the things we were warned about. There are many more steps to it, and even if you’ve done it before, you’ll probably want your A&P to check your work. You also need to log the tire change in the aircraft maintenance log.

Even putting air in the tire is not as straightforward as it is with cars. With automobile tires you find the pressure printed on the sidewall. On an airplane, that information is printed in the aircraft’s pilot’s operating handbook or airplane flying manual. Be able to find that information, noting the pressure for the nosewheel and main gear are usually different. 

Always verify those numbers before you ask someone to put air in the tires.

Flight School Tire Challenges

The flat spot is the most common issue found on flight school tires. This is caused by slamming on the brakes and locking them up.

Flat spots can be a challenge to see if the aircraft has wheel pants, so be ready to gently roll the aircraft forward by hand and check the tires all around during the preflight inspection. If the chords are showing through the tread, it’s usually a no-go situation. But there are some pilots who want to make the flight so badly that they get hit with an invulnerability stick and take the aircraft out anyway.

Please don’t be this person.

When you report an issue with a tire to the flight school you expect the maintenance crew to take a look at it. Most of them are good about this, as the aircraft doesn’t make any revenue when it is sitting on the ground.

If you are skeptical that the tire has been inspected, you can do the old chalk trick – make a line on the tire with chalk. If the tire is inspected the chalk line should disappear as the tire rolling over the ground will erase the mark. If the chalk line remains, the tire was not checked.

The post What You Need to Know About Tires When Learning to Fly appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Answer: The short answer is no. But unfortunately there’s a lot of “tribal knowledge” surrounding logbooks and what can happen. FLYING contacted the FAA for the correct information.

Endorsements

The CFI should be familiar with Advisory Circular 61-65 (H), which contains the endorsements an instructor is allowed to give. The language is copied verbatim. If you are a learner pilot, the first endorsement you will get is the TSA citizenship verification endorsement in accordance with 49 CFR 1552.3(h).

FAR 61.51 covers pilot logbooks and details how to log “training time and aeronautical experience.” It states that each person must document and record the following time in a manner acceptable to the administrator:

(1) Training and  aeronautical experience used to meet the requirements for a certificate, rating, or flight review of this part.

(2) The aeronautical experience required for meeting the recent flight experience requirements of this part.

Part B covers logbook entries, stating that “for the purposes of meeting the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section, each person must enter the following information for each flight or lesson logged:

(1) General—

(i) Date.

(ii) Total flight time or lesson time.

(iii) Location where the aircraft departed and arrived, or for lessons in a full flight simulator or flight training device, the location where the lesson occurred.

(iv) Type and identification of aircraft, full flight simulator, flight training device, or aviation training device, as appropriate.”

The savvy CFI logs all instruction given, including ground time and the topics covered. If the learner takes the time to be there, they should get credit for the experience.

As far as “messing up an entry in a logbook,” FLYING posed a series of questions gleaned from scenarios encountered in more than 30 years of flight training on both sides of the CFI certificate.

Ink Color

I start with this because when I was working on my CFII certificate, I logged time in my own logbook with blue ink and the CFII who I was training with positively clutched her pearls over that one.

According to the FAA, they do not require a specific ink color for a paper logbook.

The logging of time spent using an advanced aviation training device (AATD) can be controversial as there are some CFIs who refuse to do it, saying it will “ruin” a logbook.

According to the FAA: “Simply logging time (in any capacity) does not ruin a logbook, but the pilot must ensure they are properly categorizing the flight time logged. For example, if a pilot decided to record their time spent using an AATD in their logbook, that is acceptable. However, the AATD time could not be counted toward cross-country time for pilot certification.”

Set Up Your Own Logbook

As most logbooks have a few blank columns, it’s a good idea to designate them to suit your needs. For example, you might have one for ground training received or given, AATD, solo flight, etc. You can have an entire section set aside for ground instruction, dual instruction given, etc.

Endorsements

There are many logbooks with preprinted endorsements, but you may run out of room. The FAA does not require endorsements to be on a specific page or in a specific location in the logbook. 

“Endorsements can be made in a pilot’s logbook or other documents acceptable to the administrator if the learner uses an electronic logbook rather than paper, in order to show they meet the aeronautical experience requirements for the certificate or rating that may be in paper form or electronic,” FAA said. “Keep in mind that many endorsements require a CFI’s signature which may not work with an electronic logbook.” 

For check rides most learners print out spreadsheets of their experience and have the CFI sign those.

Mistakes

Mistakes do happen. Usually they are math errors.

Filling out a logbook takes a fair amount of concentration, as does totaling up the columns and double checking the math before you sign the page. Take care when you do this, and please be extra careful when it comes to totaling up required experience for a check ride. You do not want a learner to go for a check ride and be turned away because they are missing 0.2 of something, or a takeoff and night landing or two. 

If you make a mistake, correct it. Please note that the FAA does not have specific guidance on correcting logbook errors. According to the source at the FAA, “choosing a particular correction style (white-out, crossing out the error and correcting, crossing out the line and making a new entry, etc.) is up to the pilot.”

The post Does the FAA Punish Pilots for Logbook Mistakes? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

He complained there was something wrong with the airplane. The engine wasn’t producing enough power. He had attempted two takeoffs and wisely chose to abort, as it did not lift off when he expected.

“It pretty much ate up the whole runway!” he said. 

When asked if he had done the performance calculations, specifically accounting for density altitude, he acted like a deer in the headlights. He had not performed the computations because he didn’t think the conditions warranted. The field elevation was approximately 492 feet—certainly not what you would consider high elevation, and the temperature was in the mid-80s Fahrenheit. He was from Arizona, where the temperature routinely topped 100 in the summer, so this was not hot, and it didn’t feel humid out there, at least not by Midwest or Gulf state standards—also places he had been.

“Don’t you need all three to create density altitude?” he asked.

No. No, you don’t.

• READ MORE: The Importance of Embracing Proficiency Culture

He was surprised to learn that a single one of those factors can reduce aircraft performance, which is why those numbers need to be crunched and double-checked before every flight. And I mean every flight.

Of all the skills that go by the wayside after the check ride, determining aircraft performance is right up there next to “obtaining a weather briefing” and “weight and balance.” If you don’t make it a habit to use these skills, they fade—and quickly. I will never forget the private pilot who had her certificate for all of four months yet couldn’t remember how to access a weather report or read a takeoff performance chart and therefore had no idea how long the takeoff roll would be.

Consider what is off the end of the runway as well. If the performance chart says you need 1,120 feet to clear that 50-foot obstacle at the end of the runway, and the runway measures 1,900 feet, ask yourself where could you go if something went wrong? Is there a golf course? An industrial park? A lake? Don’t forget to review the short-field takeoff checklist and review the fine print, especially with regard to leaning the mixture for best power.

Watch the Weight

We can’t control the weather, but we can manage the weight of the aircraft. On warmer days, it is not uncommon to limit the fuel load of an aircraft to adjust for its reduced performance.

Most flight schools that use scheduling software have a place to put notes in the rental reservation where you can leave a remark such as special refueling instructions, such as do not refuel after flight. To be safe you might want to add a Post-it note in the dispatch binder or on it, or a note on a whiteboard in the CFI cubicles can work. This is a belt-and-suspenders and a staple-gun approach, but if your flight school doesn’t have the ability to expediently and safely offload fuel, it can save a flight. 

Don’t forget to note the time to climb in your calculations. It is a bit chilling to have planned for a climb rate of 500 feet per minute to clear a ridgeline but then notice the aircraft is struggling to achieve 300 feet per minute. This is one of those times you will want to fly  a shuttle climb, going back and forth in a confined space.

Protect Pilot Performance

High altitude, heat, and humidity also degrade the performance of a pilot. Most aircraft in the training fleet don’t have the same caliber of environmental controls as modern cars, so pilots, especially flight instructors, have to be creative. (You know it is a hot day at the airport when the CFIs keep the door of the aircraft open during taxi and don’t close it until just before takeoff.)

You can try to work around it by scheduling flights early in the morning or late in the evening but if that is not an option you have to adapt.

• READ MORE: Separation Anxiety: When Your Instructor Moves on, Your Logbook Tells the Story

In the Seattle area, anything over 90 degrees is unusual, and our homes, airplanes, and bodies aren’t used to it. There was one summer where it really got us. I still had to fly, so I scheduled as many of my learners as I could in the cooler part of the day—two before noon and one for when the day began to cool. I had learned that even if I used those products advertised to control sweat and stink and wore a cotton T-shirt under my flight school uniform (a black polo made from a material that nature never knew existed), by midday my shirt was sweat soaked and I felt as though I needed a bath in tomato juice.

I started changing my T-shirt at least twice a day, and when the temperatures reached the 100s, drew upon primacy, drawing upon my days as a teenage girl at slumber parties: I froze my own T-shirt. It’s not quite what we did back in those days, but the principle was sound, and I highly recommend it. Put a clean, dry T-shirt in the freezer overnight. Wear it the next day during the flight. You will be surprised how comfortable it is and how long it stays cool. 

On those hot days, I learned to carry frozen bottles of water in the airplane. Put the bottle in a clean tube sock to absorb the condensation. Sip from the bottle in between maneuvers, and in particular before landing, as dehydration can manifest as fatigue and slow down your reaction time. Also, you can be dehydrated without being thirsty. You may find it useful to take a few sips off water bottles as part of your before-landing checklist, as it increases alertness.

The Difficult Conversation

Using deodorant and daily bathing is not a universal thing. This was explained to me by a colleague who had some bad experiences with learners from other cultures, to the point her flight school added a page on hygiene information to its welcome-to-our-school packets. The CFIs told stories of using air fresheners in the cockpits and classrooms and using lemon-scented polish on the aircraft windows to try to mask the odor.

It is particularly awkward when it is a co-worker who needs the talk. I was forced to do a Redbird training session with a CFI who was a heavy smoker, and frankly smelled like a cross between an ashtray, a latrine, and a skunk. I’d been warned, but that did not do the situation justice. My eyes were watering, and I cut the lesson short—then promptly went to the gym around the corner, showered, and changed my uniform.

I had two more learners that day, and I wanted the focus to be on flying—not fragrance.

This column first appeared in the July/August Issue 949 of the FLYING print edition.

The post How to Beat the Summer Heat When Flying appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Although we were not getting flight following—the request was denied because ATC was too busy—I insisted on monitoring the frequency. I was about to explain why to the learner when another pilot requested the RNAV 35 approach to the airport starting at ARWEL, an IFR fix a few miles to the east of us and about 1,000 feet above us as published. 

• READ MORE: Improving CFI Training Remains a Never-Ending Goal

“We’re about to have company out here,” I said.

The learner, who had been a private pilot for several years but did not have an instrument rating, mentioned he flew in this area often and saw a lot of airplanes, but they were never on the airport frequency.

“That’s because they are on with Seattle Approach,” I replied. 

We talked about how this is different from the air-to-air communications frequency used in the other practice areas that pilots used to announce their location and intentions. Not only do these auditory tools back up the ADS-B information, they also prepare learners for their cross-country flights and instrument training, which as any IFR pilot will tell you, is radio intensive.

• READ MORE: The Confidence Factor in Learning to Fly

The experience requirements for a private pilot certificate per CFR 61.109 include three hours of flight training in a single-engine airplane on the control. Also required is the maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight.

Usually, this experience comes from the learner donning a view-limiting device and spending .2 to .5 of an hour under the device while they fly headings, altitudes, and maneuvers at the direction of their flight instructor. 

Occasionally a CFI will pick up an IFR clearance and have the learner fly an approach into an airport. But for the most part private pilot candidates don’t learn about the IFR approaches until they begin their instrument training. This can be a challenge when the learner flies out to their “favorite practice area,” blissfully unaware that they are close to IFR fixes—essentially, they are “playing on the freeway.”

Know Where the Traffic Congregates

In ground school we learn to be extra careful near VORs, over published ground visual checkpoints, and in the traffic pattern because these are places where aircraft congregate. We should be mentioning IFR fixes as well that may be well away from an airport.

Do you know where the instrument approaches begin at your airport? Ask an instrument-rated pilot, like a CFI, to show them to you. This is best done pulling up the appropriate instrument approach plate and comparing it to a VFR sectional. You may discover that your favorite place to do turns around a point is just 1,000 feet below an initial approach fix for the ILS. 

• READ MORE: The Art of Ground School

Some flight schools make photo copies of the local instrument approaches and overlay them on a VFR sectional so that their noninstrument-rated pilots will know where they are. This is accompanied by textual descriptions of what to be on the lookout for and appropriate procedures, such as listening on a particular frequency or an altitude limitation or caution.

According to the renter pilot I was flying with that day, he had no idea he was in the vicinity of the RNAV approach and what altitudes were used by the pilots flying the approach. Although the conditions were VFR, we obtained an IFR clearance and executed the RNAV 35 into the airport so he could see where the pilots flying the approach would be in relation to where he liked to fly. 

He was delighted. He had been flying for years but never knew what was going on in the instrument world. He said he had no intention of getting his instrument rating but was happy to have better situational awareness—and learning took place.

The post Discovering Situational Awareness in the Instrument World appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Development of Confidence

The learner’s confidence often comes from their trust of the instructor.

Does your instructor inspire confidence? Do they have a vested interest in your training? Do they get excited for you when you reach a milestone like your first solo? Do they come up with creative ways of teaching when you are having difficulty? Or do they become frustrated when you’re not getting it and complain that they are “too good” to “still be a CFI?” 

• READ MORE: How Do You Obtain a Student Pilot Certificate After a Break in Training?

While you don’t necessarily have to like your instructor, you do need to respect them, and they need to respect you for learning to take place. If respect is not present, the best thing to do is change instructors.

Practice and Drill

“Why are we doing this again?” the learner asked when the CFI asked for a demonstration of ground reference maneuvers. 

The answer is because practice and drill increase proficiency, and proficiency results in confidence. A good portion of your flight training will be reviewed to make sure you consistently meet the airman certification standards (ACS).

On the ground drill can mean taking practice knowledge tests—as few as 10 questions at a time —until the material is learned, or going through practice check ride oral exams until the material is understood, not just delivered by rote.

What Hurts Confidence

Confidence is shaken if the learner gets the impression the CFI is making up answers to questions or if the CFI puts the learner into dangerous situations, like flying in a thunderstorm or icing conditions.

Some CFIs make excuses, like the CFI who flew into a closed airport twice (two different airports) with a learner because he didn’t check the NOTAMs. I asked the CFI why he didn’t check the NOTAMs before the flight and was told “that’s the student’s job.” Riiiiiight. Apparently he hadn’t taught his learner how to check NOTAMs because no one taught him.

• READ MORE: When Flight Training Stalls

If a flight is going poorly, the worst thing an instructor can do is tell the learner “just sit back, I’ll take us back to the airport.” It’s much better if the CFI engages the learner, if at all possible. If they don’t physically want to fly, have them run the radios, do navigation—all the while asking them to take the controls again.

The exception to this is when the learner does something willfully dangerous, like attempting to buzz something on the ground or not listening to the CFI when they tell the learner to go around. If the CFI has to take the controls to prevent a crash because the learner cannot follow directions, remove them from training.

Disengaged CFI

If the instructor views teaching as a chore, or complains how they want to move on, the learner can start to wonder if they are truly getting an education or simply paying for someone else to pad their logbook. This erodes learner confidence.

I wish I had a dollar for all the times I have heard pilot candidates remark they weren’t sure if they learned anything from their CFI because the flights were pretty much the CFI just sitting there. There was no feedback, good or bad.

A lack of communication can make a learner doubt themselves. I tell my learners if I am quiet in the cockpit, they are doing a good job. I learned to say this because a rather anxious young man was worried I was upset with him as his father had warned him, “It’s never good when a woman is quiet.”

Identifying What Makes You Anxious

If there is something that makes you anxious about flying, let your CFI know what it is. A good CFI will help you deconstruct the issue and come up with a workable solution for improving your confidence.

For example, if you are worried about getting lost, plan a dual cross-country flight using only pilotage and dead reckoning. Cover up the magnetic compass and make the GPS and VOR off-limits for this exercise.

The CFI might even toss in a divert. On the next flight add in a VOR (if available) and have the learner triangulate their position. Once you have that down cold, add in the GPS as a backup measure during cross-country flights.

Landings

Landings can cause anxiety. The ground is rushing up at you, and if you don’t have good airspeed control or there’s a crosswind that is taxing your capability, it’s easy to scare yourself.

Break down the process to identify the items that are giving you the issue: Is it staying ahead of the airplane? Run the checklist to get a better grasp on the procedures and “chair fly” the pattern, identifying what speeds and altitudes you are at on each leg.

• READ MORE: The Art of Ground School

If you are having trouble determining when to flare, have your CFI demonstrate how to fly 6 inches over the runway in the landing attitude, then do a go-around. The learner repeats this maneuver until they get comfortable.

Crosswinds

Since we can’t control the weather, an aviation training device (ATD) is excellent for learning how to handle crosswinds.

Start with crosswinds at 30 degrees and work up to 90 degrees and increase velocity. The learner gains muscle memory in the sim that can be replicated in the aircraft. Then make it a point to fly on wind days to get real-world experience.

You will be surprised at how much more confident you feel

Check Ride Oral Exam

It is often said that check ride failures most often happen during the oral exam rather than the flying portion.

If you have test anxiety, ask your CFI to set up mock oral exams for you. These need to be more than just reading out of the oral exam guide. Have another CFI put you through your paces. 

Understand that the purpose of the mock oral exams is to find the soft spots so that they can be reinforced before the actual check ride.

Overconfidence

The opposite end of the spectrum is the overconfident pilot who resents instruction.

If the learner has flown with another CFI who didn’t do preflight and post-flight briefings, or didn’t use a syllabus or emphasize checklist use, the learner can become resentful of the replacement CFI, suggesting they are trying to undermine the learner’s confidence by showing them what they don’t know. That’s the wrong attitude for a learner to take.

Every time you fly with a different CFI, anticipate you will learn something, just as CFIs pick up something from each learner they fly with.

CFIs need to be careful not to criticize the previous instructor, or say things like, “I can’t believe you don’t know this.” That can be a challenge sometimes, like when the learner doesn’t do clearing turns or use the rudders in flight.

“My other instructor told me not to do that,” or “my other instructor never made me do that,” are red flag phrases which usually translate to “something was lost in translation.”

If a learner is successful in another aspect of life, like their career, they can be of the mind that learning to fly will be very easy for them. When it isn’t, that can be a challenge to their self esteem.

The CFI can help the learner by pointing out that learning is a process, and anything as skill and knowledge dependent as flying is going to take time and practice and patience. Both the learner and CFI need to recognize this so that learning can take place.

The post The Confidence Factor in Learning to Fly appeared first on FLYING Magazine.