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Thursday, August 26, 2004 Vol. 1 No. 8
Prepared by Bob Miller, CFII |
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Welcome to the Over the Airwaves aviation newsletter. This irregularly published e-mailing is being sent to members of the E-Pilots listserv. The aim of this e-publication is to promote flight safety, encourage students and new pilots, enhance pilot awareness of upcoming events, and to build enthusiasm for aviation in general. Flight Training Approaches - What's Relevant and What Isn't! While the industry as a whole enjoys an admirable safety record, recent statistics show an increase in both total and fatal GA accidents. This fact, coupled with the proliferation of advanced technologies in new and older (traditional) aircraft cockpits, has led the FAA to take a critical look at how pilots are trained. - Thomas Glista, Aviation Safety Inspector, FAA Flight Standards' General Aviation and Commercial Division Civilian pilots trained under the Civil Aeronautics Regulations, circa the 1940's, were largely recreational pilots who seldom flew more than 50 miles from the home airport. They flew simple equipment, often without radios or even an electrical system. Most were taildraggers, tricky to taxi and even more difficult to land. Sadly, today's private pilot practical test standards, according to the FAA itself [FAA Aviation News, July/August, 2004, p. 7], have changed very little since the dawn of regulated aviation. The training then, and the typical training today, was maneuvers based, e.g., turns around a point, slow flight, short/soft field take-offs, pilotage, etc.. If you don't believe this, take a look at what Linda Pendleton, Flight Training Manager for Eclipse Aviation Corporation wrote in the July/August issue of FAA Aviation News: There are test-prep courses that teach students how to pass a multiple-choice test. That's working so well that students have been known to finish the private pilot knowledge test in five minutes or less. We take students to the practice area and drill them at length until they are able to do perfect turns around a point and S-turns along a road. When was the last time a pilot was killed because the turn around the point was less than perfect? But this isn't what GA accidents are caused by, says Thomas Glista (see opening quote above). The vast majority of fatal GA accidents today are found to involve a lack of situational awareness, risk assessment/management, and poor aeronautical decision-making. Present day pilot training programs focus on the development of mechanical ("stick and rudder") skills, and less on the stuff that actually kills pilots.
We've been lying to our passengers, and worse yet, to ourselves . . . about the relative safety of general aviation, says John and Martha King, owner of King Schools, Inc., writing in the July/August issue of FAA Aviation News, p. 29. They go to say that, on a per miles basis, you are 49 times more likely to be involved in a fatality in a general aviation airplane than in an airliner. Here's the solution offered by John and Martha King: Flight instructors must teach, and pilots must learn a practical, proactive procedure to anticipate and manage risks. Practical risk management means that we have to be able to actually use our aircraft. If we wanted to totally eliminate all risks from flying, we could just not fly. Blind adherence by flight schools and individual flight instructors [and Designated Pilot Examiners] to the practical test standards and associated regulations that have not been substantially updated in over 50 years is "legally" correct but professionally questionable. After all, it is these same regulations that permit a bi-annual flight review (BFR) taken in a Cessna 172 to satisfy the BFR requirements for the pilot of a Cessna Mustang (jet aircraft less than 12,500 lbs.). What we need, says the FAA, is scenario-based training that integrates single pilot resource management (SRM), risk management, aeronautical decision making, and situational awareness. The emphasis is on integration of these elements rather than the stand-alone flight teaching methods of yesterday. Mastery learning (mastering one technique before moving on to the next technique) simply does not work in flight training. We need to get flight students into the national airspace system far away from the traditional practice areas. We need to prepare students for the airplanes they will soon rent or purchase . . .which will not have familiar cockpit displays with avionics and navigation equipment that all looked and operated the same. As the FAA says in the above referenced publication, a VOR head was a VOR head. You've seen one, you've seen them all! Increasing numbers of my own mix of flight students are coming from the ranks of doctors, lawyers, and business executives. These are the folks who will one day be purchasing technologically advanced airplanes including the rapidly emerging VLJs (Very Light Jets). These include the Adam Aircraft A700, the ATG Javelin, Avocet Project, Century Jet, Cessna Mustang, Diamond Aircraft D-Jet. These relatively low cost aircraft combined with pilot-flown shared ownership options make them affordable to low time pilots of even modest means. Even more low time pilots are stepping into high performance pistons like the Cirrus SR-22, the Lancair Columbia 400, DA-40, and Eclipse 500, and even the old standby Mooney Ovations and Bravos, Piper Saratogas, Cessna Centurians. These low time pilots better know how to demonstrate something more than S-Turns and soft-field landings! If the current private and instrument pilot PTS were the mainstay of their training, they could very well become a sad statistic. So what is the solution? Here's what the FAA has to say . . .
If you fly for pleasure on the weekends, such as taking your spouse
and child But if you are planning on flying with a glass panel, or on cross-country business and vacation trips, or on some airplane other than a 160 horsepower trainer, you better find some newer style, scenario-based training that takes you into the system, to the big airports, in congested airspace, at night, during rush hour, in marginal weather conditions . . . because that is where you will likely be flying. If your flight instructor is not providing you with this kind of training, talk with him. If he balks, if he insists on adhering exclusively to the PTS, well . . . . find another instructor who has been listening more closely to what is really happening in the flight training area. Ask him or her about FITS (FAA/Industry Training Standards). If you receive a blank stare back from your instructor, go shopping for a new one! Sure, this kind of training increases the risk exposure for the flight school and/or the flight instructor . . . but this is what is required if we're to significantly reduce the GA fatal accident rate. Travel Log: Ocean City, New Jersey Welcome to the newest section of Over the Airwaves. It's called the Travel Log. This section will be devoted to a more detailed discussion, with photos, of fascinating travel destinations that my family and I have personally experienced. Like everything else, I wish I had kept better records of the many fun places we've flown to in our C-210. Alas, one has to start somewhere, so this issue will be the first, and the Travel Log location will be Ocean City, NJ.
Like so many of our fascinating destinations, we made this one a one day trip. We departed the Buffalo/Niagara Airport at 10am on Sunday morning, August 22. One hour and 55 minutes later we were on the ground in Ocean City, NJ, where we met our friends, Mark & Lynn Weissman and there three children. The link below will bring you to photos and a description of this fun-filled trip. Travel Log is intended to illustrate the wonderful freedom that comes from piloting a private airplane. It will demonstrate that you can get to far away vacation spots around the continent in a couple of hours instead of a full day or more of driving . . . and without the oppressive, expensive, and invasive qualities of commercial airline travel. Each completed Travel Log report will be posted in its own section on our main website titled The Wonderful World of Flight. Click HERE to view the many photos we took on this Travel Log trip to Ocean City, NJ. This is a large page with many graphics, so it may take several minutes to load, depending upon your Internet connection speed. Enjoy! Photo Left: (Left to right): My wife, Jo, daughter Erica, Erica's friend Ashley, and me.
I'm often asked, "How much does it cost to obtain a private pilot certificate." I always reply with the same answer. "It depends upon how frequently you train, how self-motivated you are to engage in home study, and how effective your instructor is." Let's look at each of those three elements.
The private pilot certificate and/or instrument rating should never take more than six to eight months to complete, and no more than between 50 to 70 total flight hours each, start to finish. If it is taking longer, something is definitely wrong and either you, or your instructor, should know exactly what it is. You should be able to control the frequency of your training and the amount of self-study you can do. But you cannot control your instructor's training effectiveness as defined above. If this is the problem, sit down with your instructor and talk frankly about it. Hopefully, he will change. If not, you're spending money foolishly. If necessary, find a new instructor! In summary, maximizing flight training and effectiveness while minimizing costs requires specific action on both the student's part and the instructor's part. Neither the student nor the instructor should be quick to blame the other for slow progress if one is not doing his own part! Cessna 210 Flies Around the World! Not every destination can be reached in just a couple of hours like those described in Travel Log, above. This particular flight took a bit longer! Dr. Edwin Galkin and Capt. Richard Sollner returned home to Manville, N.J., on Aug. 14 after a 27,500-mile circumnavigation in a Cessna 210. This was their second trip around the world in aid of sufferers of a disease that most of us have never heard of and affects only 400 people in the whole world. Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressive (FOP) is a nasty disorder in which muscle is converted to bone if it's injured in any way.
Since some of the legs of the trip were more than 2500 miles, additional fuel was required. They carried an additional 162 gallons of fuel in three tanks located the second and third rows of seats were normally located, requiring a special ferry permit from the FAA. With this additional fuel, they were able to fly their longest legs with a reserve of 500 miles or about three hours. The instrument panel includes a Bendix/King KLN 90B GPS (Global Positioning System). ILS and VOR navigation and VHF radio communication. An Argus 5000/CE moving map for navigation. A solid state transponder, a Stomscope for thunderstorm detection and a high frequency radio transceiver. Their route could be summed up by the words "West along the Tropic of Capricorn". Flying westward gave them more daylight and by staying within the Tropics, they could take advantage of the Trade Winds. They joined the Tropic of Capricorn by flying South to Easter Island by way of Miami, Panama and Lima, Peru. From Easter Island, we continued west out over the Pacific, crossing through French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Western Samoa and Vanuatu, completing the crossing in Australia. They crossed Northern Australia and then over the Indian Ocean by flying to the Cocos Islands, a few hundred miles South-West of Sumatra, then on to Mauritius to finally reach the African Continent in Mozambique. From there, they crossed over to the Atlantic shore and followed the coast North to Gabon and Ghana. They entered South America at Natal, Brazil. Following the Northeastern shore of South America, they stopped on the Island of Trinidad, and then enter the United States in Charleston, South Carolina. A "short" hop brought them ultimately back to New Jersey. In all, they made twenty stops in six weeks and will covered over 30,000 statute miles. Click HERE to view their entire trip log with photos.
Every flight student, from those just beginning their training to those getting ready to take their final check ride has lots of questions. They range from what supplies and equipment to buy, where to obtain their flight physicals, how to prepare for the FAA knowledge test, what to expect on the checkride . . . and what to look for in a good flight instructor. These and many other questions are addressed on AOPA's flight training website. This site is located at http://flighttraining.aopa.org/ Either click on or paste this URL link into your web browser and bookmark it as one of your favorites. You'll spend hours drilling down through its various links to unlock the answers to nearly all of your questions. And you can even practice taking the FAA written exam on this site. General Aviation . . . No Second Class Citizen: How many times have you operated in and around a Class C or Class B airport, midst those big airliners, and wondered about your relative importance as a little airplane driver? Well, you can take comfort in knowing you ARE important! Here's why . . . Did you know, for example, that the airline fleet of airplanes makes up less than five (5) percent of the total number of non-military airplanes in the United States? The balance are general aviation airplanes. Did you know that general aviation airplanes fly over 70 percent of ALL non-military airplane hours flown in the United States? Did you know that general aviation airplanes fly over 50 percent of ALL IFR flight hours flown in the United States? Here's the bad news . . .despite reporting fewer accidents in 2001, the accident rate for general aviation aircraft increased slightly from 6.33 accidents per 100,000 flight hours in 2000 to 6.56 accidents in 2001. General aviation was the only category of air transportation to report an increase in its accident rate. So, hold your head (or nose) high as you taxi around that big airport. General Aviation is the biggest game in town! Source for all of these data: Instrument Procedures Handbook, FAA-H-8261-1, published by the U.S. Department of Transportation, 2004.
Do you want the best possible ATC services? Start by sounding like a professional pilot on the radio. You can do this by listening closely to corporate and airline pilots as they talk with ATC. This revealing exercise will likely uncover any possible shortcomings in your radio technique. Here are a couple of sure-fire ways to NOT sound like a professional pilot: When checking in with ATC, don't say this: Buffalo Approach, this is Bugmasher 2345 with you . With you where???? The controller obviously knows you're "with him" if he hears your transmission. Try dropping the phrase, with you, from your radio vocabulary and give him a position and altitude report instead. And also drop the phrase, this is. It is redundant! Say this: Buffalo Approach, Bugmasher 2345, twenty east of the Buffalo VOR, 5,500. ----
Approach Control:
Bugmasher 2345, squawk 2464 and ident. Actually, no reply to this call from ATC is even necessary. Instead, simply enter the squawk code and press the ident button. ATC will see your response come up on the radar screen. Why tie up the com frequency with a needless reply? ----- When approaching a non-towered airport, don't say this: Buffalo Airfield Traffic, Bugmasher 2345 over the State School, inbound for landing . . . If I hear this when I'm in the pattern, I usually reply, Bugmasher, Centurian 4720Y is over the hardware store, number two for landing. When the Bugmasher asks me where the hardware store is, I reply, You tell me where the State School is and I'll tell you where the hardware store is! Imagine the consternation of an out-of-towner approaching the Buffalo Airfield to land with this guy in the pattern. Does he know where the State School is? We often hear the same radio blunder when operating near the Genesee County (Batavia) Airport. It goes like this: Genesee County traffic, Bugmasher 2345, over the ponds, inbound for runway 28. Again, the out-of-towner will have no idea where you are! Instead, say this, Genesee County traffic, Bugmasher 2345 is on a 45 degree entry to the left downwind, Runway 28, Genesee County. ---- And for instrument pilots who should know better, don't let this tongue-twisting approach clearance read-back trip you up: Buffalo Approach: Bugmasher 2345, you are five miles from Klump, turn left heading 280 degrees, maintain 2,500 'until established, you are cleared for the ILS runway 23 approach. Contact tower on 120.5. Bugmasher 2345: Buffalo Approach, Bugmasher 2345 is five miles from Klump, turn left to a heading of 280 degrees, maintain 2,500 'until established, we are cleared ILS runway 23 approach. Contact tower on 120.5. This is a mouthful for even a veteran IFR pilot - especially during a very critical phase of flight. It also takes up a lot of radio air time. Instead, reply like this: Left 280, 2,500 'till established, cleared ILS 23 approach, tower 120.5, Bugmasher 2345. This read-back is short and sweet . . . and tells the controller exactly what he wants to hear back from you! ---- This all may sound like silly little stuff. After all, what's a few extra words on the frequency? Well, here in WNY, the controllers are nice, the traffic is relatively light, and we move at a somewhat slower pace than more urban areas of the United States. You'll get eaten alive, however, if you ramble on the frequency in busy Class B airspace. Worse, if flying VFR, the controllers may turn you away if they're too busy to wait for your long-winded radio replies. Did You Check That Fuel?? What causes airplane engines to fail in flight? Here a couple of possible reasons. You may think of more.
Checking your fuel is one of the most important steps in your pre-flight check. CFIs spend a lot of time explaining the various fuel quality checks you can perform on the airplane you are about to launch. One that I like, particularly, was described to me recently by Dan Maloney, airline pilot and CFI. He suggests pouring about a capful of recently sumpted fuel onto a small piece of white paper. He notes that 100LL fuel will evaporate almost immediately, leaving almost no trace or residue on the paper. If this 100LL fuel was contaminated or mixed with Jet-A somewhere in the fueling process, a clearly defined oil stain will remain on the paper. The paper will also emit the characteristic smell of oil (Jet-A). Dan says he does this anytime his airplane (RV-4) is fueled at airports where Jet-A is available. Fuel contamination (or incorrect fuel) has been the culprit in far too many aircraft accidents. NEVER leave the ground without checking that fuel!
I have flown in just about everything, with all kinds of pilots in all parts of the world -- British, French, Pakistani, Iranian, Japanese, Chinese -- and there wasn't a dime's worth of difference between any of them except for one unchanging, certain fact: the best, most skillful pilot has the most experience. — Chuck Yeager Certainly, as a flight instructor, I recognize the enormous importance of initial and recurrent training. Without this training, man would never safely fly. But, as famed test pilot and first man to break the sound barrier reveals, one's ultimate flying skills come from experience. It comes from hundreds, no, thousands of hours of "in the system" flying. It comes from those moments of second guessing one's decision to fly (or not to fly), from pressing on when one should have landed sooner, it comes from learning to manage scarce cockpit resources, e.g., information, time, hands, eyes, etc., and from learning, perhaps the hard way, that weight [gravity] is the most enduring of the four forces of flight. It is important to note that pilots having lots of IN THE SYSTEM experience are typically airline, corporate, or military pilots. This means they receive mandatory recurrent training in all stages of flight. This training goes well beyond the simple bi-annual flight review (BFR) required of private pilots. Again, as a flight instructor, I'm a pretty self-confident guy when it comes to flying skills, but I am always humbled in the presence of guys with fatter log books, who have 20,000 or 30,000, hours of PIC time. No amount of training can come close to what those guys know about flying. It is no accident of labor law that the guy in the left front seat of an airliner has the most flying hours. All other things made equal, the guy with the most experience is the better pilot. Flight students take note: If you want to become a better pilot, go out, fly often, and get into the system! And in Summary . . . In summary, Over the Airways isn't your typical training memo that espouses learning the A-B-Cs of flying the way your father was taught. As you can see from your reading above, the world of aviation is changing faster than the FARs and traditional flight training manuals can keep up. I learned this from thousands of hours flying high performance, single engine airplanes in the big system, in seriously poor weather, in very crowded airspace, controlled by overworked and understaffed ATC facilities. This experience is augmented by conducting an equal number of flight training hours in all forms and shapes of airplanes, from C-152s to Mooneys, to Saratogas and Bonanzas, to the latest in glass cockpits including the C-182 G1000. It is time, I believe, for somebody to step up to the training platform and yell out, saying that teaching the same things, the same way, is what is contributing to the unacceptably high general aviation accident rate. If we want the GA segment of aviation to grow and thrive, we have got to become more proficient pilots. And this requires a major paradigm shift in the way we train and re-train pilots. One way, of course, is to train primary and instrument pilots IN THE SYSTEM. Get them out of the practice area and the nearby familiar airports. My Advanced Instrument Procedures course, where I take locally-only trained pilots into the New York City airports (JFK and Teterboro) and Philadelphia International, is one of several examples of the new scenario-based training that the FAA has been aggressively pursuing. But we need far more of this. We need to create more realistic training scenarios than simulated vacuum failures under the hood. We need to get students into cold clouds in the wintertime and on IFR approaches to actual minimums. Pilots need to experience ATC issued full route clearance amendments, in turbulent clouds, while hand-flying in congested airspace. The role of the instructor is to ensure flight safety, then to sit quietly as the student learns to process information and make decisions on his or her own. In short, giving step by step instruction on making steep turns, soft-field landings, and stalls . . . all in accordance with the PTS, and nothing more, simply is not going to cut it anymore!
Past Issues of
Click on any of the links below: Vol 1, No. 1 - May 28, 2004 Issue Vol 1. No. 2 - June 15, 2004 Issue Vol 1. No. 3 - July 9, 2004 Issue Vol 1, No. 4 - July 15, 2004 Issue Vol 1, No. 5 - July 23, 2004 Issue Vol 1, No. 6 - August 10, 2004 Issue Vol 1, No. 7 - August 18, 2004 Issue Correction: The last issue of Over the Airways mistakenly reported that a complex endorsement is required to serve as a safety pilot on an airplane with a retractable gear. After some investigation, led principally by reader Larry Sentiff CFI, we discovered that a complex rating is not required to serve as a safety pilot on a Mooney 201 (retractable gear), but a complex endorsement is required for the safety pilot to log PIC time in this airplane. Safe Flying,
Bob Miller, CFII |
If
you look at the total numbers of airplane operations, e.g., landings
and take-offs, as well as the total numbers of airplanes in the sky
at any one time . . . you are the most important game in town.
Here's
another commonly heard blunderous reply:
