Tips from CSIP's: Staying Proficient

Activate Vectors to Final? Nope.

John Fiscus — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:01:00 GMT

"Activate Vectors-To-Final?"

Written by Erin Oliver

You are nearing your destination on an IFR flight, and have just left the airway on an ATC vector to the final approach course. You now want to activate the approach procedure that you had previously loaded in to your Garmin GPS flight plan. You're on a vector, right? Shouldn't you just push the PROC key and select "Activate Vectors-To-Final?"

I am not a fan of the "Vectors-To-Final" method of activating the instrument approach in the Garmin GPS. Here's why:

Let's use the ILS runway 24 approach at Palomar, California (KCRQ) (see below), as an example. You are coming from Oceanside VOR, and ATC says "Fly heading 060, radar vectors to final". You synch up the HDG bug, push HDG on the autopilot, twist the bug to 060 degrees, and then you push the PROC key and activate "Vectors-To-Final" in the GPS.

At this point, the only approach waypoints that your GPS Flight Plan (FPL) will load are your Final Approach Fix (FA) at DEASY, and the Missed Approach Point (MA). You see NONE of the other waypoints that appear on your paper approach chart! (Compare this with what you will see in the Flight Plan when you load the instrument approach using any Initial Approach fix (IA), such as the nearby HOMLY instersection. Now, you will get to see ALL the approach waypoints that are on the paper chart for that transition).

So here's the potential trap: With "Vectors-To-Final" activated, and only your FA and MA showing on the Garmin, ATC now tells you, "Turn right, heading 210, cross ESCON at or above 3500 cleared for the ILS". ESCON is not the FA, and so doesn't appear in your flight plan! You now have to scramble to figure out what your position is, relative to ESCON, so you don't bust your crossing restriction. Or maybe ATC asks you to say your distance from ESCON. Same thing - it is not in your flight plan, because when you selected "Activate Vectors-To-Final", only the FA and the MA were loaded as appraoch waypoints.

To avoid this trap, here's the way I like to set up my Garmin GPS when ATC begins vectoring me to the final approach course:

I always initially LOAD (not activate) my approaches with a transition from an Initial Approach fix (IA)-- preferrably the one nearest my actual position (Homly intersection, in this example). It doesn't matter that we won't actually fly to the IA, we just want the FPL to show us all the same waypoints that we see on our paper chart, or for those of us with WAAS, on the e-chart. When ATC begins to vector us for the approach, I put the autopilot in HDG mode, and turn to the assigned heading. Then I push the FPL key, get my cursor and highlight the FA (in this example, DEASY), push MENU and choose "ACTIVATE LEG?". This will keep the GPS up with the approach while PRESERVING ALL THE FIXES ON THE APPROACH. Much, much better for situational awareness, and the autopilot can still inercept final and track it in GPSS mode, no matter how far out on final you happen to capture the course. (Remember to switch the Garmin to VLOC mode and the autopilot to APR while tracking inbound on the ILS localizer.)

In summary: For best situational awareness, load your instrument approaches into the Garmin using an Initial Approach Fix (IA), and when you get your first radar vector for final, highlight the FA, and choose "Activate Leg", not "Activate Vectors-to-Final"

Erin Oliver

Regional Manager, Los Angeles CA

www.theflightacademy.com

Thundersnow!

John Fiscus — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:17:00 GMT

Written by Luke Lysen

Today in Seattle (Kirkland actually) we had a weather phenomenon that I had
never heard of before, Thundersnow.

It is a very cool anomaly. It kind of makes you rethink thunderstorms and
what causes them. Typically we think of hot and humid weather, not cold snowy
weather.

There was thunder and lightning this morning but instead of rain there was
snow!

It is pretty rare for the Seattle area to get thunderstorms, and if they do
happen it is normally in the summer as is normal for most places. It's
also pretty rare for Seattle to get snow. It tries to snow a couple times a
year and even then it is usually a dusting that melts almost immediately.

In Seattle when it snows the world shuts down. Yesterday schools were closed
in the area because of the possibility of snow (it actually did not
snow in Seattle yesterday).

Here is a good link to the definition of Thundersnow:
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/334/

Luke Lysen

President, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

If they're right...

John Fiscus — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 16:37:00 GMT

We're in for a fun weekend here in Seattle. Have a look:

If anybody is planning on flying themselves up this way, I might suggest making an alternate plan.

Safe flying!

John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

Joy of flight

John Fiscus — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 20:29:00 GMT

I thought I might share a couple of videos taken over the last week out here in Seattle. This is a really beautiful part of the world for flying!

(Please visit the site to view this media)

John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

Icing Tips

John Fiscus — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:14:00 GMT

Over in the SR forums there's a good discussion going about icing. Plenty of stories, pictures, and advice. I thought I'd repost my response to that over here in my blog, but please do check out the thread: http://live.cirruspilots.org/forums/p/110493/421550.aspx#421550

------------------------------------------------

An excellent post about a subject matter that I find many pilots are fuzzy on, at best.

The rules of thumb Stuart posted are excellent too... you can get "stranded" when you're IFR in the mountains: can't go below the MEA to get out of the clouds (even when there's a wide valley far below you), can't climb for a number of reasons, and most pilots are unwilling to join an approach at a nearby airport to get out of the soup (though it's still a good way to bail out of the high-ish stratus layers). What with the lifting action of the terrain, a very sudden onset of serious icing is unpredictable and very possible.

I had an icing experience of my own back when I worked at the factory (circa 2001). Beautiful clear day with forecasts saying it would stay that way... and then the wind switched around and came out of the east. The 700 foot rise from Lake Superior up to DLH made for a nice lifter and the (certainly) humid air made a roughly 1,000 foot thick layer starting at about 600 or 700 feet. I was teaching a new owner (and airline pilot) when the stuff rolled in but it was near the end of the day... so we figured we'd just get a popup and ride the ILS to 27 in. The clouds looked quite benign and the temps above the clouds were above freezing by about 5 or 10 degrees.

Yes, it was a mistake. We were above the clouds the whole time until after glide slope capture... but the short form is that during the roughly 90 seconds where we were in IMC and coming down to DLH, we picked up about a half inch of ice. That's a LOT for a Cirrus to carry. We did not lower the flaps, kept the speed around 120, and didn't slow until our wheels were maybe a foot above the runway. It's a good thing we did that! The stall warning port was frozen over so it never chirped but the airplane did stall... at about 100 knots! Our touchdown was not particularly hard thanks to our close proximity to the ground before slowing... but we both knew what would have happened if we had put flaps down, slowed, or *shiver* had to go missed back into that stuff. We should have gone someplace else.

Things to remember about ice/clouds:

-The worst ice usually hangs out at the top of clouds

-Ice can form at temps above freezing

-Ice can form at temps well below freezing (I've seen it form at 5 degrees F)

-You cannot reliably predict how fast the ice will build

-Airmets and icing predictors are great, but fallible.

-MEAs might not allow you get get low enough to get out, even when the freezing level is "above" them (hint: freezing level can vary by thousands of feet, particularly in mountainous areas, over a short distance)

Things to do while flying

-Be ready to abandon whatever you're doing at any time. Always have an out and make sure you're mentally willing to execute that out.

-Minimum Vectoring Altitudes are not published but a viable last-ditch method for getting lower (even than the MEAs). I hope nobody ever has to use this trick as it can be one step away from disaster.

-NO FLAPS

-Keep the speed up to 100 knots or more

-Use no flap landing procedures. If you haven't done that in a while, get up there with a CFI and do it. Don't hit the tail.

-Your stall horn probably won't work. Make sure you're hand flying because:

1. You'll feel the buffeting

2. You'll want to feel it if the elevator is bridging with ice

3. In the event of a tail stall, you won't be confused that the autopilot did it

-TKS is NEVER a viable reason to go "check it out". I don't care how much you paid for it or the plane, it isn't worth your life or that of your friends/family.

-TKS is fallible. I have seen pilots flip the wrong switch (they turn on MAX and never turn the pump on - a separate switch), I have seen airplanes that haven't been primed take over 20 minutes to even get the wing partially covered with fluid, there's only one pump and it can fail, the reservoir might not be as full as you thought, etc etc etc. Short form: If you flip the TKS switch on, you better be on your way to getting out of the air. When you land, ask yourself about the mistakes you just made... because you did make mistakes if it came to using that system, even as a precaution.

We need to stay vigilant in the coming months. Ice is out there and will nab you if you aren't prudent in your flight planning and mental state. Call your favorite CFI if you're sitting on the ground wringing your hands over a go/no go situation. If your favorite isn't available, call me as a runner-up.

Safe flying!

John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

Online A/FD

John Fiscus — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:34:00 GMT

The FAA has now published an online A/FD (the green book).

You can find it with effective dates here: http://www.avn.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=naco/online/d_afd All information you'd normally get from that book is available for free via the FAA and updated on the same 56 day cycle.

Just bookmark the site above and you're ready to go! The site is searchable by state so you'll be able to select that and either see all entries or filter down to one specific airport (also searchable). This would be a great companion to www.airnav.com for finding all you need to know about an unfamiliar airport you're about to fly in to.

Safe flying!

John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

Flying to Canada

John Fiscus — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:05:00 GMT

International border crossing is a process like any other. Once you know the steps and have a handle on the procedure it'll be just like any other. In this post, I'll discuss some of the things that are important to know before you go, some tips on what to do and what to expect, and a general overview of what will happen when clearing Customs both in Canada and in the US.

Remember: If you're still nervous, go for a test run with a CFI who has done this kind of thing before. Just make sure you don't let the CFI do things for you, they should explain it and let you do it. As a company, The Flight Academy performs this service regularly so feel free to give us a call too.

Basics:

-Customs likes to have 2 hours advance notice at least. It is possible for you to get a shorter time if you ask nicely and they feel like being good to you.

-You get a 15 minute arrival window on either side of your ETA. If you’re en route and will be late, call FSS and ask them to help (“Please advise customs that we will be 20 minutes late, new ETA of xxxx Local, xxxx Zulu.”) If you’re going to be more than 15 minutes early, slow down and waste some time. It is not illegal to do a few leisurely turns.

-You must be on a flight plan for border crossing. Call FSS, tell them you want to file a VFR/IFR flight plan for border crossing. If you’re VFR, you must open the flight plan in the air at which time the FSS person will give you a border crossing code. Squawk this code when you’re closing in on the border. Advise ATC that you were given a squawk code of XXXX for border crossing, they’ll advise when to change to that (if you’re on flight following). If you aren’t talking to any ATC, just squawk the code.

If you’re IFR, it’s more like a traditional IFR flight. Much simpler (but still advise FSS/Customs if you’re going to be late).

-Before you leave the US, obtain the direct dial line to US customs at your airport of intended return. Google is wise in this manner (Boeing customs is 206 553-0667 for anybody who might like it). You’ll need to talk to them directly when you’re ready to come back. At satellite airports (like Boeing), you might be redirected to a larger nearby airport (like SeaTac) on the weekends. They ship customs agents back and forth as needed when it isn’t busy.

-Passports ARE NOW REQUIRED if you go by air. The Canadians don’t care, it’s the US who will give you trouble. If you do not have a passport and attempt to enter the US by air, you can be rejected and sent back to Canada or held for however long they want to make you sweat. A birth certificate and govt. ID is fine for going by car or ferry, but NOT by air. They make no exceptions. Incidentally, passports will be required by all ports and methods of transit in January ‘09.

Getting in to Canada is ridiculously easy; here’s how:

Procedures to Canada:

Prior to Departure for Canada

Call 888 CAN PASS

*Plan this process to take 10+ minutes with hold time*

Tell the person who answers that you’d like to arrange customs for a small aircraft at X airport in X province. They’ll transfer you to the local office.

Tell the person who answers at the local office you’d like to arrange customs for a small aircraft arriving into X airport today (or tomorrow, etc).

They will want to know the full names and birthdates of all people on board. They will also want to know the nationality and ETA.

That’s it!

Arriving in Canada

Upon landing, tell ground that you need to taxi to the customs area. Some airports do not have a customs “box” while others do. Boxes will vary in color and shape so you might have to play this one by ear but it isn’t tough. Coloring for the box outline is often blue.

Shut down and call 888 CAN PASS on your cell phone. Keep an eye out for the customs agent who might be coming over (but likely is not). If your cell doesn’t work and you simply can’t reach anyone, look around for a payphone nearby and use that. Keep a pen and paper handy.

Tell the CANPASS operator that you’d like to report down for customs clearance. They will ask you where you are, your tail number, and any pertinent questions. They will then give you a code which starts with the year and follows with seven digits. This is your proof that you cleared customs.

-All done!-

Alternately, you might get to see a customs agent. They’re normally pretty nice and will ask what you’re in for, how long you’ll be, did you bring anything sketchy (guns, drugs, massive amounts of cash, fruit etc), and anything else they feel like. Answer their questions in as few words as you can but BE POLITE. A good mood helps, even when your customs agent is a little grumpy.

It is HIGHLY unlikely that you’ll get attitude but it can happen. I got yelled at once for keeping my sunglasses on… no idea, I guess it made me look shifty. Anyway, just be professional and polite and don’t lose your cool. They might be trying to destabilize you and make you nervous but remember: you didn’t do anything wrong and thus ultimately you’ll be left alone. In my case, sweet revenge came from the Canadian standing nearby who heard my grilling and then came over as the customs dude was walking away to say (loudly), “On behalf of all Canadians, I’d like to apologize for that representation of our country. We’re normally quite nice.”

Procedures for departing to the US:

Prior to departure:

-Fill out form 178 completely (attached). If you don’t have a customs sticker yet, that’s fine. You can buy one when you get to the US.

-Aircraft owner/lessee is whatever/whoever owns the aircraft. As most of us have an LLC owning the plane, that's what goes here.

-Call customs at your airport of arrival. Get their fax number and then fax them the form. Alternately, have somebody standing by in the US to fill in the form and then fax it for you (communicate with them on the phone to fill in boxes).

-VERIFY THE FAX! This is important. Make sure your fax made it through by calling customs about 5 minutes after you send it.

-File a flight plan with NavCanada 866 WXBRIEF You can find direct dial lines to their various FSS here if you want: http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=EN&Content=ContentDefinitionFiles%5CcontactUs%5CDefault.xml

Put ADCUS in the remarks section.

Arriving in the US:

-Depart as normal and make sure you’ve activated your flight plan if VFR. Many towers will do this for you (they normally don't in the US) or you can call an FSS.

-Make contact with US ATC or get Flight Following with Canadian ATC to make it easy. They’ll advise you of a good frequency if you can’t find one otherwise (the nearest group on the Garmin, ARTCC page is handy in this instance). In any case, make sure you’re talking with ATC as you pass the border.

-Again, advise customs if you’re going to be late. Do this through FSS.

-Upon landing, taxi to the customs area. Ground control can give you a progressive. Taxi into the area for customs and shut down. You can open the doors but DO NOT leave the vicinity of your aircraft. If you can’t touch the plane, you’re too far away from it. I normally just hang out in the plane and wait or just stand at the wing root and stretch.

-Wait for a customs agent to come over. If you don’t see anybody after about 5 minutes, call the number for that customs office and check in with them to see if they just want you to come inside. This is rare but it has happened to me a couple of times. Most often they do not want you leaving your aircraft for any reason.

-Give the agent your 178 Form and have all passports ready. They might ask a couple of questions but most of the time are quite pleasant. They might wand the aircraft with a Geiger counter, they might ask you to take your stuff out so they can have a look… but this is rather rare. KEEP COOL. They are just doing their jobs at the moment but if you give them any reason to be jerks, they’ll oblige to the tune of a 2 hour inspection. I’ve never had this happen to me but I know of several distinct instances where it did.

-Done!-

Welcome back to the US!

Safe flying everybody,

John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

Winter's coming!

John Fiscus — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 23:32:00 GMT

It's time to sharpen your skills for the winter flying coming up!

Winter always brings with it the unique challenges of blustery days, slick runways, icing, lower IFR weather, and higher winds at lower altitudes. Physiological concerns are also present - remember the survival gear! As the summer flying season winds down and we settle into fall, I would challenge all pilots to remember to do some brushing up on their winter flying tactics and techniques. This is the time of year where having a strategy with multiple conservative outs is going to pay off the most. It's also the time of year when most pilots, including myself, cancel more flights than in the warmer months.

Decision making processes might also be affected by the colder weather. How many of us have taken a few minutes less on the preflight walkaround, had to make a call about icing we weren't comfortable with, or been uncertain in the face of some kind of weather phenomena? You might even find your personal minimums changing as the weather gets colder and the insidious side of weather moves in. Icing has a tendency to sneak up on pilots and many don't remeber what to do when they have contaminated wings. Here's a hint: your flaps could kill you!

A couple of reminders:

-Do not extend flaps with ice on the wings. The change of airflow could cause a main wing stall or (possibly worse?) a tail stall. If you've never seen a tail stall, I'd recommend doing it in the simulator. It really grabs your attention and you have all of about 6 seconds to respond before the parachute isn't even a plausible option anymore.

-Never take off with any kind of frost on your wings. You could be giving up a potential 30% of your lift before you even leave the ground!

-If you push a plane into a heated hangar to melt the ice off, be VERY careful to dry it off before taking it out. I remember numerous times in Duluth where we'd melt the ice, push the plane out, and find that the liquid water had run into the hinges and re-frozen in just a few minutes. Fortunately, this was in Duluth where it was so cold that the water froze before we could take off. Imagine what would happen if we'd had the time to leave the ground?

-Turbo operators should use more gentle engine operating techniques to help ensure the temperature change of their engines doesn't happen too quickly (and result in unnecessary wear and tear). I use a max power reduction of 5 inches to start (assuming cruise), and then 1" MAP per minute thereafter. 360 degrees on the CHT is the magic number to watch for: above that temp the metal parts of the engine are significantly weaker.

-The answer to "What do you do if you get ice?" depends largely on the situation... and thus the knowledge of the world around your flight is paramount. The order of procedures is 1) Try to melt the ice and get to warmer air 2) Get out of visible moisture 3) Get to an area that is so cold that the ice will no longer form. That last option is almost always a hard one to pin down since ice can form at some pretty low temperatures. Knowing what you have for MEAs along the route, where the nearest clear air is, where the cloud tops are (remember where the worst ice hangs out?), and an awareness of the freezing level will go a long way towards making the call here.

-Just because you have TKS, you do not have a license to fly into areas where you think ice is plausible. People hate me for saying this and I get all kinds of guff about it, but that's ok: It isn't safe! Don't do it.

If you want to practice some scenarios where you find yourself in ice, some decision making processes that might prevent you from getting there in the first place, what to do in a mountain wave, see what a tail stall looks like, or learn a few things about how to predict icing before you ever leave the ground, give us a call. As we have full motion simulators in Las Vegas NV and Indianapolis IN, I can recommend those resources to safely practice some things I hope you'll never have to encounter afterwords.

COPA members should tell us about reading this post when they call to reserve their training slot and we'll give a 10% discount off the sim rate!

Safe flying everybody,

-John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

CDM course - Missoula

John Fiscus — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:36:00 GMT

Thanks to everybody who came to the CDM course organized by Steve Powell last weekend! I had a good time meeting everybody, talking with you, and presenting the information we had. The discussion was excellent and even the food was top notch!

For those who have never attended or heard of a CDM, I'd recommend it. These courses are put on all over the country and are listed on the front page of COPA. They're FREE, you get lunch, and more often than not there's a sales person there with a brand new airplane to show off. Bring your spouses, boyfriends, girlfriends, kids or anybody else who flies with you regularly as we talk to them about how they can be helpful too.

The course essentially covers what we do as pilots and how we can use a few simple tools to make ourselves safer. We can all use that! We go over some statistics which might surprise you, some methods that are often new to many, and even do a tiny bit of playacting (and special thanks to my helpers in that regard last Saturday). It's a good time and only a few hours long, so fly in and attend one near you! If you don't see one nearby anytime soon, email us and we'll put the gears in motion to make it happen.

Safe flying everybody!

John Fiscus

Chief Pilot, The Flight Academy

www.theflightacademy.com

Common Weak Areas

John Fiscus — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:43:00 GMT

I have had the pleasure of sitting in on a panel of CFIs who teach in technologically advanced aircraft. We fielded many questions from the crowd but one of them in particular struck me as quite useful so I thought I would share it here. The question was to find out what we as CFIs regularly see as weak areas in our clients who fly these technological wonders. Here for the rest of you is the summary of what the panel said:

-Button push verification: People push a button and don't look to see that it did what they thought it would. This goes for the autopilot and the Garmin systems.

-Being able to fly a published missed approach: Most folks never do them and that skill atrophies fast. Most of us have literally had people say "I don't know what to do now" after they get the power up.

-Letting ATC push you around: If you don't like what they ask you to do or you aren't confident you can do it, tell them. Even better is to offer an alternative that you know you can do.

-Understanding the care of the aircraft: What regular maintenance needs to be done, what must be on board for legal reasons, etc

-Hand flying: especially IFR

-Willingness to strive for improvement: Some pilots look at where they are and just accept it as "good enough". Though we were preaching to the choir at this event, every pilot should always work for improvement. Temper that with looking back every now and again to see how far you've come.

-IFR proficiency: Other than a vector to final ILS, many pilots' IFR skills are somewhat lacking. Procedure turns, DME arcs, holds, etc. are common weak areas.

-VOR use: Most pilots look at us crosseyed when we ask them to fly heading 290 to intercept the 260 radial off XYZ VOR and track it outbound.

-SRM skills: know your airplane, use your autopilot, use your Garmin's features to your advantage (VNAV, insert waypoints, OBS functionality, etc)

-Control/Performance techniques: A certain pitch angle plus a certain amount of manifold pressure in a certain configuration will give consistent performance. Many pilots find themselves constantly adding and removing power when their speeds aren't just right. Knowing what your plane will do at X power setting reduces a great deal of work both VFR and IFR.

-Know when the autopilot is on: Look at the annunciations. Your flight director might be on but the AP isn't necessarily. Back to the earlier point of pushing buttons and not looking to see what happened.

-Emergency memory items: One of my favorites. Reference my post from about 2 months ago about which emergency items should be memorized. Spring load your brain to just do them because when the real deal hits, you won't be able to think clearly.

-Set reasonable minimums: The autopilot's skill level is not that of most pilots. Taking your aircraft into any situation you wouldn't be comfortable flying it in by hand (or even partial panel?) could lead to disaster (and has on quite a few occasions in just the last few years).

-Know there is a need for more than the usual amount of training: Your aircraft is capable of so much more than most and therefore you have to do more training than most to stay current. The airlines use a thorough check out every 6 months. Most airline pilots I fly with tell me these avionics are more complex than those in their 737. These two facts together make for a recommendation that we all spend some time every 6 months or so going over the things we haven't done in a while.

Safe flying everybody!

-John Fiscus

Chief Pilot of The Flight Academy www.theflightacademy.com

The Latest Eureka

John Fiscus — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:18:00 GMT

Something that instructors are particularly fond of, part of the job that keeps us going, is when our clients finally “get” something. Austin describes his latest and offers a few observations that even veteran pilots would do well to remember. - John

My Latest Eureka Moment

by: Austin Kemink

The last time that I had a light bulb click on for a student was in Las Vegas, I was working with a student pilot on landings. This particular student had pretty solid stick and rudder skills and after the time we had put in he was doing well at maintaining all of his airspeeds, altitudes, and pattern legs.

His biggest problem was in the flare; the approach would look good all the way up to about five feet above the ground and then the position of the nose would falter... and thus the centerline would wander, the airplane moved sideways, and the landing turned out to be a bit jarring. We tried a variety of different solutions from aim points to ground effect approaches, and while the pattern and approach were improving the flare was not. At one point during his landing I watched his body language and his eyes; it was this that helped me to find out what had been causing the trouble.

His eyes had a good balance of outside and inside scanning and he looked comfortable throughout the approach… that is, right up until the flare. Once we reached the flare he would push back in his seat and his eyes wouldn't move from his aim point until we were on the ground or going around. This was it! His eyes weren't at the end of the runway, and when your eyes aren't at the end of the runway it is near impossible to stay centered, much less flare at the correct time. This is because there is no use of peripheral vision and which causes a "ground rush" type of sensation. Little wonder that a pilot would have trouble flaring when he sees the ground rushing up to smite him.

Without a proper focus point (the far end of the runway), pilots will flare too early and lose centerline, ground track, coordination, and any sense of how close the ground really is (or isn’t). I asked my client why he didn't have his eyes at the end of the runway as I had instructed him. He told me it was because early in his training, before his time with me, he had experienced severe porpoising that led to a prop strike and ever since that time he was very concerned with letting the prop hit the ground. Naturally, he watched the ground all the way to the flare to compensate. I informed him that it is our peripheral vision that allows us to flare at the correct time and staring down can actually make matters worse… even lead to the condition he feared!

Outfitted with this new knowledge, we worked exclusively on the flare and where the eyes were focused. While it wasn't an easy habit to break, he did eventually get it and discovered how much better the view is when looking at the end of the runway as opposed to straight down in front of the airplane. This is especially important to a Cirrus pilot because of what can be done to the airplane if it is landed incorrectly.

For low-time Cirrus pilots, or just lucky ones: if you've never been in a porpoising plane it can be quite the scary experience… one that you may not be ready for. The bottom line is to go around at ANY time you feel uncomfortable, particularly if there’s a bounce involved, and work on your landing visuals.

Final note: Austin’s observation, while in the context of flying with a student pilot working on his Private license, is valid for all manner of Cirrus pilot types. I have seen many “veteran” pilots over the years who have made this same mistake in knowing where to look. Even airline pilots have to work on it from time to time! - John

www.theflightacademy.com

Handling Emergencies

John Fiscus — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:19:00 GMT

After reading about Neil's harrowing experience http://live.cirruspilots.org/forums/p/25493/83937.aspx#83937 , the idea struck me to pass around a basic list of which emergency checklists pilots ought to have memorized. We send the attached list to many of our clients as an aid for wading through the "red section" of the checklist. I also want to comment for a second on what I commonly see happen during training so as to give folks a cross section of what's going on out there, skill-wise.

As most of the instructors reading here will probably agree, emergency procedures are often found to be quite weak during currency training. We normally try to give plenty of time and room for our clients to remember what to do in each scenario but more often than not (and I'd say a good 70% of the time) find that folks have to pull out a checklist and read through it to find out what they should have had memorized. Certainly it is a good idea to pull a checklist if you don't know what to do, but think of all the precious time/altitude lost during that frantic search. More on that in a bit.

Let's put a spotlight on Neil for a moment and use his experience as an example of what happens to a pilot when things get serious. I do this knowing he has an impervious internet ego and also because I think he did an awesome job. I don't have to tell regular readers that Neil is both a pilot of considerable experience and one who trains very regularly (ie: well above and beyond annual currency). This is important to consider when comparing ourselves to how we would have handled this situation.

In reply to:

It took me longer than I would have liked to admit this was a real problem. after that I trimmed for best glide and had a descent rate of roughly 1000 fpm. I found it difficult to keep it right at best glide. I declared an emergency and ATC said Santa Maria was available for the ILS, but was at minimums. I said sure, vector me there. By now I was 5,500, about 2 miles from Santa Maria, and about 4000' above the fog bank.

Neil thought and acted fast here but his point is still a good one: It took about 2500 feet (~2.5 minutes) to get this process done and that's a long time. I've found that when I ask people beforehand, many drastically underestimate how long it would take them to complete emergency checklists in a given situation.

In reply to:

My plan was to do my emergency checklist (now that I was pointed in the right direction and at best glide) while being vectored. If I got power back I would shoot the ILS. If I didn't, well then I would have a choice. From past calculations I knew that if you hit the FAF at double the GS intercept altitude you can glide to the field. I decided I would set-up and if I had ANY doubt I would pull the chute. I knew from experience that fog changes quickly in these parts, so I would check as I got closer. But, no power and a field at minimums would be a chute pull. I figured landing in the ILS approach path was not a horrible idea -- perhaps a better chance of finding open ground.

I wonder if I would think so clearly were I in a similar situation. The truth of the matter is partially that Neil didn't *have* to think about everything he mentions, much of it had been decided long before while he was sitting on the ground. He knew what kind of descent rate best glide gives him, he knew (roughly) how high he'd have to be to follow a glideslope down, he also had preconceived standards about pulling the chute.

The point: Chair flying, thinking critically about scenarios, and having enough familiarity with what the airplane actually does during a situation is what makes better decisions possible.

Finally, the reality of an emergency is something a lot of people can (and should) imagine how they would handle but normally have very little experience with. It is very common for people to lock up, to fixate, or to do the wrong thing as a knee-jerk reaction. I see it in the simulator on a regular basis, and those folks are EXPECTING something to go wrong. Now imagine the confusion of knowing something is wrong, trying to diagnose that, trying hard to remember what you're supposed to do, and trying to make intelligent decisions that include more factors than a 5 page COPA post could cover. Now do all that with your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/children on board (who may well be quite vocal). Also imagine your hands are shaking and it's difficult to thumb through a checklist.

My point with the previous section is this: Getting those emergency procedures spring-loaded into your subconscious will free up a lot of mental bandwidth. Also, the act of rehearsing will lend a great deal of confidence during the real thing... and confidence brings clarity of thought.

Recommendations:
As I mentioned above, study the emergency procedures. A technique that many CFIs teach is to go over 1 emergency memory item each time you climb into the airplane. Pull the checklist and review it while touching each of the items mentioned. This 30 second exercise will keep you quite sharp.

Evaluate your normal flying and consider what is a CAPS pull for you. It's extremely unlikely you'll be able to critically analyze the situation with all the distractions an emergency brings so get the analysis done on the ground; program it into yourself.

Set up personal minimums to help preclude emergencies that would necessitate very short response times. Follow those minimums, don't bend, alter or otherwise reduce them on the go.

Come to Vegas or Indianapolis and have us torture you in one of our sims for a while. We have a lot of practice with setting folks up with scenarios that are both realistic and challenging: http://www.theflightacademy.com/simulator/emergency.html

As I mentioned above, I've attached a copy of our minimum emergencies list. It is meant to be used as a non-exhaustive guide to what should be memorized at the very least.

Safe flying everybody. Let's make this the safest Cirrus year yet.

-John

Chief Pilot of The Flight Academy www.theflightacademy.com