It is not as if the first few solo hours are not anxiety producing enough.  Imagine throwing in a "for real" engine failure with just 2.5 hours total solo time to see how you perform!

Seems that is just what happened to OTA reader and  pilot Sally Kilshaw of Saratoga Springs, NY.   Sally had logged just 2.5 hours solo flight as a student in her Cessna 152 when a piston rod blew through the engine case causing causing sudden engine failure with smoke and oil spewing all over the windscreen.

Fortunately Sally's flight instructor, who happened to be her husband Alan, insisted that her pre-solo training incorporate extensive emergency procedures . . . including engine failures and fires. 

With engine shaking violently, Sally managed to locate a suitable emergency landing site.  She maneuvered her "dead stick" aircraft to the ground just as she had trained many times before.

She admits that the landing wasn't pretty, but she walked away with minor bruises and a cut lip.  The engine and airplane were a total loss.

Everybody wants to solo just as soon as they can reliably land the airplane.  This is fine as long as the student is able to deal with situations like that experienced by Sally on this fateful day.  It is a wise and prudent flight instructor to hold off that first solo until he is sure that his protégé can handle any possible in flight emergency.

Congratulations to Sally . . . and an even bigger "attaboy" to her instructor (and husband), Alan, who saved the day by providing excellent pre-solo flight instruction!

An engine fire or failure, a jammed control surface, or a serious upset can occur at any phase of flight . . . and they happen when we least expect them.  Rather than being caught like a deer in the headlights, proficient pilots act immediately and they act appropriately. 

Begin by having an effective checklist for each kind of emergency.  Know where that check list is and how to reach it in a hurry (and in the dark)!  Build your inventory of "back doors."  If you cross large bodies of water, carry a raft and life jackets.  ALWAYS have a fire extinguisher close at hand in the cockpit.  Put a handheld radio in your flight bag with extra batteries.  Create a survival kit to have in the unlikely event of an emergency wilderness landing . . . and consider including a firearm.

One of the best emergency precautions is . . . an expert aircraft mechanic.  These guys (or girls) are worth every dollar you pay them.  I have two mechanics in whose hands I place my life almost every day of the year.  One is Kirby McCall, A&P, AI at the Dunkirk Airport, Dunkirk, NY.  He and his staff are the personal physicians to my T-210.  The other is Kevin Rose, A&P, AI at the Akron, NY Airport.  He provides expert maintenance to the rental fleet I use in flight training.  Each of these gentlemen are among the best in the business.

Your other emergency precaution is . . . your flight instructor.  If he or she is good, you can count on being prepared for the worst possible disaster.  If they are not - start shopping around TODAY!

The best accident prevention resource is . . . you!  If you are proficient, nearly all emergencies quickly become non-events.

Here's the scenario.  You take off in a well-equipped, high performance airplane.  All that stands between you and your destination 200 miles to the east is a series of jagged mountain ridges extending upward between 7000' and 8,000' MSL.

You have flown this route many times before.  On this day you are concerned about the ragged ceiling with lowering clouds and fog that obscures the tops of the ridges.  Ordinarily, you would happily file an IFR plan and climb well above the mountain ridges.  This day, however, you are also concerned about the reported 8,000' freezing level and the chance of ice in the clouds.

This is a classic risk management scenario. 

If you file an IFR plan and climb up into freezing clouds well above the mountain tops you MAY encounter airframe icing.  On the other hand, if you decide to remain VFR and fly between the mountain tops and the lowering ragged clouds above, you run the risk of being "squeezed" into rising terrain.  You could, of course, remain on the ground and wait for better weather.

This scenario is very real for me.  I faced similar circumstances on each of the last two ferry/flight training flights I made from the west coast to the east coast.

So what do you do?

Okay . . . who among you selected the "remain on the ground and wait for better weather" option? 

Be careful.  That may not be the best answer!!!!!!!

Take a closer look at the above photo of the mountains and clouds.  It illustrates the favorable weather conditions for a trip over rising terrain and peaks to your destination.  You decide to launch VFR.  Enroute, however, the actual weather conditions are somewhat worse than forecast.  It's still acceptable for a safe transition, so you proceed, confident that everything will work out okay. 

Thirty minutes later, with peaks in front and behind, you begin to feel a little bit uncomfortable.  The broken skies above are now overcast.  The outside temperature at your altitude is -8C.  You drop a bit lower to remain VFR.  Suddenly, several of the surrounding peaks are obscured by the lowering clouds and declining visibility.  What do you do now?

Choices:  

(1) continue maneuvering between the peaks, or (2) secure an IFR clearance and climb up into the icy clouds above?

No fair claiming that the pilot should not have gotten caught in this predicament!  Recall, he had a favorable weather briefing before starting out.  Unfortunately, the forecast was wrong!

More scenario information:  The airplane has no anti-icing capability other than pitot heat.  It has no terrain avoidance technology. 

Answer:  The pilot is clearly boxed in between two serious risks.  He is surrounded by threatening terrain below and icy clouds above. 

Looking at the relative risks of each, there's no question in my mind that he must secure an IFR clearance and climb.   In fact, given the described circumstances, he might consider declaring an emergency and immediately climb with or without an IFR clearance.

Remember, we are assessing risks here.  In all probability, impacting mountainous terrain will likely be fatal.  Climbing into icy clouds, on the other hand, may not pose a serious icing risk.  Recall that not all freezing clouds contain ice.  Given the capability airplane, even if moderate icing were encountered, there is a good possibility that it could climb through the icing layer and even find VFR above. 

Is this the correct answer?

Regrettably, there is no "correct" answer.  This is why scenario-based training coupled with aeronautical decision making and risk assessment is such a complicated subject.  What works in one instance may not work in another, and there certainly is no "one size fits all" solution as is often proposed in the FARs. 

If this were me in the above scenario, I'd choose to take my chances with the icing layers above rather than play Russian roulette with the terrain below.  Not everybody would make this choice, but given the factors in this scenario, climbing is the far more prudent option, in my opinion.

Yes . . . there will be some who would elect to remain on the ground until a perfect weather picture presents itself.  But the real world doesn't work that way.  If it did, few of us would own airplanes and most people would still be taking trains!

One of the strangest paradoxes in aviation can be observed when a timid student pilot who otherwise spends hours on the cell phone is instructed to push the aircraft microphone button and talk.  In this instant, cold sweat can be seen beading up on their forehead.  Their voice trembles as they begin to utter those first stammering words.

"Ahhh, Anytown tower, this is Bugmasher 3434. I wanna, ahhh, land right now, please!"

At that moment, the student pilot would like to be just about any other place in the world than in the left seat of an aircraft in flight.  Fearing that the entire world is listening, they suffer pangs of anxiety that are normally reserved death row convicts as they are strapped into the electric chair! 

What causes mike fright?

I've asked myself this question every time I have sat next to a "micro-phobic" flight student.  In most cases, I believe it comes simply from not knowing what to say or in what order to say it. 

This problem can be solved by understanding that every microphone exchange between pilot and controller follows a standard pattern.  If you know the pattern, the mike fright goes away. 

So here's the pattern . . .

Who you're calling . . . who you are . . . where you are . . . what do you want to do!

For example:

"Buffalo Approach, Skyhawk 2344Y, just off Anytown Airport, going to the north practice area."

or

"Anytown tower, Skyhawk 2344Y, 8 miles west with information Sierra, inbound for landing."

Sometimes you want to do something a bit more involved or complicated.  Instead of spewing out your intentions in one long message, simply use the word "Request."

For example:

"Anytown tower, Skyhawk 2344Y, 9 miles east with information Tango, Request."

When the tower replies, tell them your request.

"Anytown tower, Skyhawk 2344Y would like to touch and go on Runway 5 and then remain in your pattern for multiple touch and goes."

See the communications pattern?

Who you're calling . . . who you are . . . where you are . . . what do you want to do!

  Helpful tips . . .

Put the microphone close to your lips and speak UP!  Controllers are busy folks and sometimes the noise of other controllers talking in the background hinders their ability to hear you.  So speak up!!!!!!

The circumstances are all too familiar.  A wet grass, short runway, and a direct crosswind.  In this accident case, the pilot of a Cessna 182 landed long on a 1,910' x 70'wide grass strip this past June 19. 

Rather than applying power and going around, he elected to chop the power, raise the flaps in hopes of improving tire traction, then ran off the end of the runway and flipped over.

The temptation to salvage a bad approach and landing can be more than many pilots can handle.  These pilots develop a mindset that they are going to get in and land no matter what!

The proficient pilot is always ready for a go around!

The actual act of landing and coming to a safe stop is viewed by the proficient pilot as the reward for doing things right.  He or she figures that any number of things can go wrong in the landing process . . . too high or fast on the approach, a long float over the runway, a ballooned or bounced landing.  Any of these unstabilized conditions are sufficient justification to add power and go around.

Unless you are out of fuel, on fire, evading a thunderstorm, or crippled up with ice, never try to salvage a bad landing!  Going around for another try is the safest thing to do.  Had our accident pilot done this, things would have likely turned out much better!

Yes, of course, holding patterns still exist and are sometimes even used, but thanks to improved radar coverage, flow control, better weather forecasting and detection, and other ATC vectoring tricks, banishment to a holding pattern is rapidly going the way of the non-directional beacon.

But guess whose keeping us on our toes?  Yep . . . your friendly Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) when conducting an instrument check ride.  Also, per FAR 61.57(c)(1), we instrument pilots must either experience or practice holds every six months to maintain our instrument currency.  So if we must practice them, let's practice them correctly!

Recall the anatomy of a holding pattern.

Holding patterns begin and end at a specific point called the holding fix.  Everything else is oriented on that fix.

Review the illustration to the left.

How we maneuver into a holding pattern . . .

Believe it or not, nobody other than your Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) and perhaps your flight instructor really cares how you get yourself into a holding pattern.  When ATC assigns or clears you into a hold, they expect you to go to your assigned holding fix, to maintain your assigned altitude, and to remain in the hold until cleared to depart.  That's about it.

So what is this noise about types of holding entries?

Honestly, I don't know!  But here's what the book says . . . (and we wonder why people grow frustrated with instrument training!)

1. Parallel procedure: When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in sector (a), turn to a heading to parallel the holding course outbound on the nonholding side for approximately 1 minute, turn in the direction of the holding pattern through more than 180°, and return to
the holding fix or intercept the holding course inbound.

2. Teardrop procedure: When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in sector (b), fly to the fix, turn outbound using course guidance when available, or to a heading for a 30° teardrop entry within the pattern (on the holding side) for approximately 1 minute, then turn in the direction of the holding pattern to intercept the inbound holding course.

3. Direct entry procedure: When approaching the holding fix from anywhere in sector (c), fly directly to the fix and turn to follow the holding pattern.

A couple of more things we need to know about holding patterns . . .

Pilots should make all turns during entry and while holding at:

1. 3° per second, or
2. 30° bank angle, or
3. a bank angle provided by a flight director system.

Maximum Holding Speeds (KIAS)
Minimum Holding Altitude – 6,000 feet	200
6,001 – 14,000 feet	230
14,001 feet and above	265

Here's what Paul Berge, retired air traffic controller and former editor of IFR Magazine has to say about entering holding patterns:

For more of Paul Berge's views on holding, click HERE.

It may come as a surprise to those new to aviation that most piston airplane engines are more similar to our lawnmower engines than they are to our automobile engines. 

Rather than employing an elaborate electrical system like that found in an automobile engine to create a spark to ignite the fuel/air mixture, our airplane engines use a simple little device called a magneto . . . actually two identical magnetos for redundancy-sake.  It is the same device found on lawnmowers.

An aircraft magneto is driven mechanically by the engine.  It changes mechanical energy into electrical energy. Operating on the principle of electromagnetic induction, the magneto generates its own primary current and therefore needs no outside source of electrical power such as a battery or generator/alternator.

The magneto generates its own low voltage current to energize the ignition coil, which is inside the magneto. The magneto’s ignition coil transforms (by electromagnetic induction) the low voltage current to high voltage current.

The distributor in the magneto picks up the high voltage current from the coil and delivers it through the coil to the spark plugs at the proper time to ignite the fuel-air mixture in the engine combustion chamber. The delivery of current to each spark plug is timed according to the firing order of the engine.

Just as you pull on the rope to start your lawnmower engine, you simply give a tug on your propeller to start your airplane engine.  It is the manual turning over of the engine that causes the mags to perform their electricity making job.  Once the engine fires, the mags continue to make "spark-giving" electricity.  It can't get much simpler than that!

Rather than pulling on the propeller to start the engine, most of us simply switch on an electric starter motor to turn over the engine . . . which in turn causes the magneto to start making its "spark-giving" electricity.  That switch usually exists in the form of an ignition key (pictured left).

The typical aircraft ignition key has five positions:  (1) off; (2) right mag; (3) left mag; (4) both mags; and (5) starter motor.  Turning the key all the way to the right or 5th position causes the starter motor to engage.  Releasing the key causes it to drop back to the "both mag" or 4th position.

A magneto uses a permanent magnet to generate an electrical current completely independent of the aircraft’s electrical system. The magneto generates sufficiently high voltage to jump a spark across the spark plug gap in each cylinder.  The system begins to fire when you engage the starter and the crankshaft begins to turn. It continues to operate whenever the crankshaft is rotating.

Most standard certificated airplanes incorporate a dual ignition system with two individual magnetos, separate sets of wires, and spark plugs to increase reliability of the ignition system. 

Each magneto operates independently to fire one of the two spark plugs in each cylinder. The firing of two spark plugs improves combustion of the fuel/air mixture and results in a slightly higher power output.  If one of the magnetos fails, the other is unaffected.  The engine will continue to operate normally, although you can expect a slight decrease in engine power.  The same is true if one of the two spark plugs in a cylinder fails.

If you are experiencing chronic hard engine starts despite proper magneto care, consider the possibility of a weak magneto rotor magnet.

During start the impulse coupling snaps the magneto to a high speed and produces a spark even with a weak magneto. In cold weather the starter turns the Continental or Lycoming engine slower and the engine accelerates slower because of the cold, thick oil. The engine fires, but fails to start because after the impulse snaps, the magneto must produce a spark at near cranking speed to accelerate the engine.

If the magneto can't produce a spark at this low cranking speed the engine fires but quits. A normal magneto should have enough rotor magnetism to spark the plug at 150 rpm so that the engine not only fires but continues to run. If the aircraft magneto's rotor magnets are weak, the engine has to turn faster before enough energy is produced to spark the plug.

Magneto rotor magnets may have lost much of their strength.  The magnets are typically not restored to full strength at overhaul because of the high cost of magnetizing equipment.

For more information on magnetos, click HERE.

Do you want to know the two words most frequently spoken by a proficient pilot when making a the final approach to landing?  They are (or should be) "Airspeed ~ Runway." That's because it is the airspeed indicator and the location of the runway that should be the PRIMARY things he or she should be attending to during this most critical phase of flight! 

This was apparently not the case for a Cherokee Six pilot performing touch 'n goes in Venice, Florida in May, 2004.

NTSB Probable Cause Finding:

"Failure of the pilot to recover from an improper landing flare resulting in his failure to maintain airspeed (Vs), an inadvertent stall, loss of control, and in-flight collision with terrain during an uncontrolled descent."

Sadly, this fatal accident was witnessed by the pilot's wife who was standing in a nearby hangar.  According to the NTSB report, she observed her husband doing touch and go landings to runway 22. 

Just prior to the accident her husband approached to land on runway 22. The airplane never touched down on the runway.  As the airplane neared the runway she observed it do a slight lift back up to about the height of a 2 1/2 story building. The right wing then raised up and the left wing dropped down. She stopped watching the airplane and ran to a person at another hangar to call for help.

Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident with winds at 310 degrees at 11 knots.  The pilot had total time of 87 hours of which 21 were logged in the Cherokee Six.

Having the distinct advantage of observing many students and low time pilots as they commence their final approach to landings, I get to see a great deal of confused thinking taking place.  I can see their eyes rapidly shifting up and down, left and right as they frantically look for queues on how best to land their airplane.  I can only imagine the confusion that is going on in their brains as they are bombarded by a virtual flood of visual information.  Such may have been the case with the Cherokee Six pilot.

The focus should be exclusively on AIRSPEED and RUNWAY!

The two most important elements that count when making that final approach to landing are:  airspeed and runway.  Pilots who are able to keep these two elements in the center of their scan and thinking seldom have difficulty with landings.  Practice this as you make your approach to landing.  Call out your airspeed as you come over the runway threshold.  Know what it is the moment your wheels touch the runway surface.

Had the Cherokee Six pilot developed this skill, chances are he would have not experienced his tragic end.