Lesson 24 - Make a List and Check it Twice

 

The day's lesson focused on landings, because that's operationally what I need to work on. Truth be told I'm writing this two weeks after the lesson due to having to travel for work and then family vacation, so I don't recall the specifics of each landing. I'm feeling better about things each time I go up, I'm getting a better feel for controlling the airplane on approach, and am working on engraining the sight picture of what the runway should look like on approach and making the call to go around when things aren't where they should be. 

That's not what I want to dwell on this time, though. Today, I want to talk about checklists and the tasks we do in the plane that have nothing to do with moving the controls, because that was the weakest part of my performance today. As a student, you might not necessarily think about those as being important--especially during the more "mundane" parts of the flight, but the whole idea of flying is to make sure you stay ahead of the airplane. When it comes to physically maneuvering the plane, it means making sure you anticipate what the plane is going to do when you make this or that control input. When it comes to mentally flying the airplane, it means making sure you're thinking ahead to where you're going to be next. 

There are two ways we can keep track of the more mental aspects of flying--checklists and flows. Both are designed to keep us on task in terms of not forgetting details. Checklists are good for those times in flying where you have time to refer to a printed list of steps to take. Flows are important for those times when you don't have that ability. For example, your preflight inspection is a checklist-friendly task. While many of us (myself included) have developed that into more of a flow which we then reinforce by checking it against the checklist to make sure we got everything, we do go down and check the boxes of tasks. The run-up (for me at least) is very much a by-the-checklist list of tasks which I do in order every time. Step 1, step 2, step 3... and so on. 

Once you're done with run-up and you start moving towards taking off, the checklist gets put away. It's a distraction at that point because there's 8,000 other tasks you need to be doing in order to get the plane in the air. You're communicating with ATC or other pilots if you're at a non-towered airport. You're watching around you for other planes taxiing, traffic or wildlife which may get in your way, and following the taxiway signs to get you where you need to be. That's when having a flow is key; a mental way of working through steps necessary to get the plane in the air. "Lights, camera, action." Make sure you have whatever lights you need turned on (beacon, strobe, landing lights, nav lights, etc.), make sure your transponder is set, and get ready to go. That's a flow thing. You run that checklist mentally as you're taxiing and lining up on the runway. You confirm your runway before you advance your throttle to take off. You're not reading things at that point, you're just doing. Your verbal call-outs are your mental checking of the boxes on the mental list. 

Once you hit the throttle and start down the runway, you're mentally going through the flow of checking your gauges (airspeed in particular) to make sure they're working. "Gauges alive" is a common verbal confirmation to yourself that your airspeed indicator is working. (If it's not, abort the take-off.) You're checking the other gauges to make sure they're in the green. You're watching your airspeed needle. You don't have to read a checklist to say "rotate at 55 knots," you know mentally that's when you rotate. Another verbal confirmation at 55 knots just reinforces to you that it's time to pull back on the yoke and get airborne. And while the checklist tells you your V speeds for climb out, you don't read the checklist, you just mentally know what your airspeed needs to be and you get there. Again, verbal call-outs help that mental reinforcement. Piloting an airplane is one time where it's not only okay to talk to yourself, but it's a "best practice." As a pilot it's just good reinforcement. As a student with an instructor sitting next to you, it's reassurance to them that you know what you're doing. And they kind of like to have that reassurance. 

Once you're established in your climb-out, you can pull out the checklist, though truthfully it's not very long. If you're climbing in a typical GA training aircraft, your throttle will be full open and your airspeed will be somewhere around Vy, plus or minus a few knots. For the comfort of your CFI, a verbal confirmation of this is well in order. Once you reach cruising altitude, you can run a similar check as you pull power back to cruise power. Again--it's a checklist, but not terribly long. But since at this point you have time to pull out the checklist, it's a good idea just to do the visual reinforcement in addition to the verbal one. 

Once you run this checklist, you're not done. Yeah, you're cruising, but where are you headed? What do you need to do in order to be prepared once you get there? Now I have to admit that as a deadline-oriented journalist, this kind of planning ahead is a bit foreign to me. If I'm not going to be at the practice area or other airport for 10 minutes, my mind has a bit of trouble wrapping itself around the notion of getting the radios set up now. It makes sense to do so. Once you're clear of the airspace of the departure airport, you don't need to talk to them anymore. You need to talk to those who are where you are going. It behooves you to set yourself up to listen to them instead as soon as practical. So once you've run your cruise checklist, get yourself set up for where you're going. 

"WRBC." Weather, Radios, Briefing, Checklists." Get the weather. It's that simple. Tune into the ATIS/AWOS for the airport you're flying to. Know what you're getting into sooner rather than later. This lets you plan your arrival better as well. If you know the weather, you can make an educated guess as to which runway you'll be landing on. Knowing that lets you plan your arrival route to enter the pattern appropriately. 

"Radios," means once you have your weather, tune your radio to the tower or CTAF frequency for where you're flying. Again--why wouldn't you want to hear other traffic where you're going as soon as possible? It really does just make sense. 

"Briefing." Whether you have a passenger, CFI who wants to make sure you know what you're doing, or just by yourself, talk about what your plan is. What are you expecting in terms of runways? What's the wind doing? How do you anticipate entering the pattern? You may be wrong--if it's a controlled airport, ATC may have you do something completely different, but you have at least given some thought to how you're going to proceed, and have let your passengers know what you're planning on doing. If it's an airport with multiple runways, your briefing will be your way of telling yourself and your passengers whether or not you're comfortable taking one runway versus another if ATC at that airport gives you the option. 

"Checklist." Yep--run that cruise checklist again. Check your fuel, gauges, etc. And now that you know you're in good shape, you know where you are, and you have an idea of how you're going to proceed, you can contact ATC at the airport to get better instructions from them. 

With ATC instructions on where you're going to land, or following traffic patterns at an untoward airport, you can now begin your descent, which--yep--another checklist. You have time, so use the checklist here.

Once you're in the pattern to land, you're back to flows. There's too much going on to worry about checklists. Call-outs here are important as you get to each milestone. "Below 110, flaps 10." "Below 85, flaps 20." Again--good reminders for you, good reassurance for your CFI. Airspeed call-outs are also a good idea. It's mental reinforcement of the steps you need to take to get the plane safely on the ground. 

Once on the ground and off the runway, you can pull out the checklist again run those items. Yeah, the checklists are short and can easily be memorized, but reinforcing with the checklist is always a good idea.

As the saying goes, "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate." As pilots, even if we're the only ones in the plane, that last aspect is crucial. Whether we have people in the plane with us or not, we have to make a habit of explaining what we're going to be doing. If we can explain it, we can better execute it. And if you have a CFI (or DPE) in the right seat, they're going to need to know that you know what you're doing.

Lesson 23 - Learn your ABCs

 

Today was a review day. We hadn't focused on basic maneuvers (slow flight, stalls, turns, etc.) in a while, and my instructor likes to make sure I keep those skills sharp. Despite the blissfully calm winds and cloudless skies, ATC wasn't letting anyone do touch-and-goes at the airport today, so pattern work would have to wait anyway. My instructor and I reviewed slow flight and stall procedures in our pre-flight briefing, and I mentioned wanting to work on using ailerons and opposite rudder to align the plane with the runway as an exercise so I could get a better feel for that. Nothing extravagant, but certainly a good chance to continue to sharpen skills. As the lesson unfolded, there would be one skill I completely blanked on, and it's a skill you most decidedly want to be instinctive. 

Pre-flight inspection, run-up, etc., went pretty much by the numbers. I don't ever want to think that aspect is ever "routine," because familiarity breeds contempt, and I don't ever want to miss steps in any part of that process. That's why we have checklists against which to compare things. But I figured today was going to be a good day when I actually got the engine to start on the first try! (Seriously, that's happened like three times.) Set radios, get clearance, taxi to 17L, full throttle, pull back on the yoke, and get the bird in the air. Today's take-off was measures better than my last one. My entire attitude today was different from my last outing, and my ability to fly reflected that. 

I flew us to the practice area and set us up for some slow-flight exercises. From straight-and-level, reduce power to around 1700RPM, once the speed is below 110 knots (which is pretty much right away since cruising speed is around 95 knots), drop 10 degrees of flaps. Below 85 knots, drop to 20 degrees, then below 75 knots, drop to 30 degrees of flaps. In an ideal world, you do this without losing any altitude. That didn't happen my first time, I'm rather embarrassed to say I dropped 600' of altitude in my first try. Ugh! Climb back up and try again. Second try was oh, so much better. Got into slow flight, made left turns, right turns, even some controlled descents and tried to climb, though with 30 degrees of flaps in 180hp plane, you're not gonna climb much if at all. But that, too, was part of the lesson. 

Stalls were next, which is similar to slow flight. I was slow to adapt to my slowing airspeed and calling out flap applications as airspeed decreased, so I got flying really slow at a few points in time. It's really almost immediate from when you apply 10 degrees of flaps to when you follow up with 20, then 30 degrees as your airspeed slows that quickly in this exercise. I was hesitant and things didn't go as smoothly as I hoped. Still, recovery was pretty solid, so all in all, nothing to be too worried about. We'll keep practicing it. We then worked on rudder and aileron control to keep the plane aligned with the runway or other points. This went well, giving me a good feel for how the plane responds to control inputs for getting (and staying) aligned with runways.

Leaving the practice area, my instructor pulls the throttle to idle and says "your engine just died. What next?" Suffice to say had this been a real emergency, I'd probably not be here to write this. My brain completely froze and I forgot what to do. I knew scanning for a place to land and running checklists were in there somewhere, but I was losing altitude at 95 knots while I was trying to process what I was supposed to do. Um, oh, yeah... Best glide speed. I knew that was in there somewhere...

This is one of those skills that a pilot needs to learn. Period. Your life literally depends on it. That's not hyperbole. Your engine quits, you need to know how to safely land. It needs to be automatic. This is where your ABCs come in. (Aviators love acronyms, so it's fitting that this most basic one is for arguably the most important task.) A = Airspeed. Step one is to get to your best glide speed. Just do it. Pitch the nose up until you're at 68 knots (in the Cessna). B = Best place to land. As you're pitching for 68 knots, look out your left window (since you're sitting on the left) for a suitable place to safely land the plane. An open field, long stretch of empty gravel road (thankfully plentiful in rural Colorado) or similar flat place. If there's not one to your left, look ahead, then look right. Then run your checklists to figure out what may have caused your engine to fail. "Door to floor." The ignition switch is first, since it's closest to the door. Make sure it's on. Then progress to the right across the bottom edge of the controls. Make sure your master switch didn't get bumped. Turn on your fuel pump. Make sure your throttle and mixture are in all the way. Look down the center console to see if the fuel selector valve and shut-off valve are where they need to be. All of these steps (A, B, and C) need to happen very quickly, like within 30 seconds or less. In fact, once you've identified your landing spot, start flying the plane to it while running your checklists. If your landing spot is beside you, the longer you wait to turn towards it, the further behind you it gets and you may not make it back there. 

Once you've done all that, you can then look to see if you can get the engine started again, then contact the tower to let them know you're declaring an emergency. Set your squawk to 7700 (squawk is what ATC uses to identify you) to let them know you're in an emergency. If the engine won't start, just concentrate on setting the plane down safely at that point. Planes want to fly, even without power. A dead engine is certainly cause for concern and concentration, but not panic. At that point, your checklist runs "floor to door." If the engine won't start, shut off the fuel, pull the mixture to idle cutoff, turn off the electronics, kill the ignition, and unlatch the door. It won't open because you're flying at 68 knots and the wind will keep it closed, but unlatching greatly reduces the chances of it getting jammed when you land. If you've chosen your landing spot well, you should be able to glide to it. Landing speed on the Cessna is 65 knots, so if you're pitched for 68 knots, then (theoretically) landing with no engine will be similar to landing with the engine at idle anyway. You basically fly a power-less plane every time you touch down. You just have the advantage of power leading up to the point when you're finally over the runway. 

We talk about what to do in the event of an engine failure in our run-up briefing. We talk about it because it's that crucial. But talking about it is only part of the equation. Actually doing it has to be as routine as taking about it in your run-up briefing. Maybe my emergency procedure briefing needs to be improved to describe the specific steps I'm going to take, not just the generic "land the plane." How are you going to land the plane? Remember your ABCs. 

With that, we started back to the airport. Again ATC wasn't allowing touch-and-goes, so we just requested a full-stop landing. I flew the approach and landing, feeling rather comfortable every step of the way. I took us from 8800' down to 6800' (pattern altitude) as we flew towards the airport. Once in the pattern and the traffic in front of us had passed off my right wing, reduce power to 1700RPM and since I was already below 110 knots, drop 10 degrees of flaps. I continued my descent as we turned to the base leg, then turned onto the final leg, dropping 20 degrees of flaps and lining up with the runway. Since the winds were calm, there wasn't much pushing me left or right of the runway, so I could concentrate more on airspeed and altitude control on the landing. I flared a little to early, so I set us down on the runway with a bit of a "thud." Gotta work on that. It's just something you have to get used to. The tendency is to see the ground approaching and want to pull back. It's human nature. You're in a plane and the ground is approaching quickly. It's instinct, like putting your foot to the floor of a car when the person driving doesn't slow down as soon as you would. In a plane, if you pull back too quickly, then you float and land hard. If you do it too late, you land on the nose gear. It's just feel and timing. And that takes getting used to.

Lesson 22 - Pick Any Two

With the Wings over the Rockies Museum's 2nd exhibit space located across the ramp from where we tie down at Centennial, you never know what you're going to see sitting out there...

 There are three critical things to be in control of during a landing. 1) Airspeed, 2) Altitude, 3) Alignment. When it came to my landings today, it seemed like it was "pick any two." Either I was in control of airspeed and altitude, but not lined up with the centerline, or I was lined up with centerline, controlling my altitude, but blowing through at 100 knots, or on centerline, at a good airspeed, but 1000' above the friggin' runway. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go back a bit. First, I wasn't expecting to fly today. My original plane had been grounded for maintenance early last week, so the school bumped me to the simulator. My instructor isn't a big fan of the sim for early pilot training, so he kept an eye out in case a plane became available last minute. One did, so he booked that one instead. That reservation didn't last long as that plane  also got sidelined for maintenance. So, no plane, no fly. My instructor said he'd keep his eyes open in case something came available last minute, but wasn't holding his breath. I pretty much wrote the lesson off, and didn't do any kind of mental pre-work that I usually do (chair fly, etc.) 

My phone chimes at 6:30 in the morning with a text message, "got a plane, meet me at 11." Okay, then. I guess I am flying today. There was part of me which thought "I'm not mentally prepared for this, I should scrub." But I didn't. Got the kids to school, got myself ready, and headed to the airport. Arrived, chatted about the flight and a few questions about my medical exam which I'm working on getting everything prepped for, and we headed to the plane. Preflight went well, taxi, run-up, etc., all went smoothly. Still, in retrospect, I think my mind was still only 90% focused. Something was distracting me. Cleared for 35R initially, then ATC moved me over to 35L and had me switch to the secondary tower frequency. No problem. Cross 35R, then position to take off on 35L. Cleared, apply throttle, and pull back. That was the first real indication that today was going to be a bit rougher than usual. My climb out was not clean, to the point where my instructor turned to me and said "are you sure you've done this before?" Truth be told, I can't really tell you what was going through my mind. It was just brain fog; distraction. 

Because we took off on 35L, we would be flying a left pattern. All my previous landing exercises have been right pattern. This was going to be new. I liked the idea since in theory I'm on the left side of the plane, so I'd be able to see better, as opposed to having to look across my instructor in the right turns. This was going to be a lot easier. For some reason, I totally blanked the landmark for the downwind leg. I'm flying the same pattern as I do for 17R, just the opposite direction. The landmarks are the same. But did I remember that? Nooo. I turned my crosswind leg, leveled the wings, and kept flying straight wondering to myself what the downwind landmark was. Duh, it's I-25, idiot. The big road with lots of cars that you're just about to fly over. This was not starting well. 

It turns out that my thinking that left turning patterns would be easier was a bit off the mark today, too. Why? Because my brain decided today that since I don't have to look out across my instructor to make turns, I can make them by looking out the left window at the ground below instead. Did you know that doesn't really work? (But Wal-Mart has their logo on the top of their building, so you know what it is as you're flying over.) If you're looking out the left window towards the ground, you're not watching your pitch attitude, which is kind of important when you're landing. If you pitch up too much in a left turn 500' above the ground, it very well may be the last thing you do on this earth. It's that important to keep it under control. I only made my instructor scream in horror once, but once was too much. Look. Out. The. Front. Window. I don't know how Lindbergh did it with only side windows, but I also ain't Charles Lindbergh.

Suffice to say my landings today were not smooth. We had two go-arounds out of necessity, not just because my instructor decided to call one as a drill. (Even those weren't without hiccups. Build airspeed then climb.) As I wrote above, I was concentrating on two of the three aspects of landing, and letting the third (whichever of the three it was) take a back seat, suffering the consequences as a result. It became a question of "which piece of the puzzle am I neglecting this time around?" 

The advantage (if it can be called that) of today's lesson is that I learned to recognize how the landing is affected by whichever aspect I was neglecting. Though it did take a bit for my brain to clear whatever fog it was in, eventually it cleared and I was able to start analyzing what I was doing while I was doing it. If I was concentrating on keeping centerline and altitude under control, my airspeed was all over the place, often way too high. If my airspeed was under control, I was up and down on altitude like a kid in a bouncy house, or off centerline like a drunk sailor. But that's part of putting it all together. If there's one takeaway from today's lesson, it's that for the first time, I felt comfortable in my ability to control the plane in each of the three critical aspects of landing. I know how to control pitch to control airspeed. I know how to control power to control altitude. I know how to control aileron and rudder to stay on centerline. I made the control inputs and saw/felt the tangible changes in the plane's path. What I wasn't doing was all three at the same time. That comes with practice. And more practice, and more practice. 

Still, I wonder if today's other lesson was "if you're really not feeling it, don't go." How much risk factor did I add to the equation today because I wasn't 100% focused? My instructor took the controls more today than he has in a long time, either because he wasn't comfortable with the flight attitude or because he felt I needed a few seconds to regroup. I can't help but wonder if I was in reality too distracted to be safe. Pilot attitude and emotion is one of the preflight checklist items. (PAVE - Pilot, Aircraft, enVironment, External pressures.) Was today a case where I pushed the Pilot aspect more than I should have?