Flying Lessons - 101216

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FLYING LESSONSFLYING LESSONS for December 16, 2010

suggested by this week’s aircraft mishap reports FLYING LESSONS uses the past week’s mishap reports to consider what might have contributed to accidents, so you can make better decisions if you face similar circumstances. In almost all cases design characteristics of a specific make and model airplane have little direct bearing on the possible causes of aircraft accidents, so apply these FLYING LESSONS to any airplane you fly. Verify all technical information before applying it to your aircraft or operation, with manufacturers’ data and recommendations taking precedence. You are pilot in command, and are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make.

If you wish to receive the free, expanded FLYING LESSONS report each week, email “subscribe” to mastery.flight.training@cox.net.

FLYING LESSONS is an independent product of MASTERY FLIGHT TRAINING, INC. www.mastery-flight.training.com This week’s lessons:

I didn’t get to fly much with my dad. A father of five, he worked two jobs to make ends meet, and high blood pressure caused him to lose his medical before I was six years old (perhaps all three facts were related?). But I do remember him taking my older brother and me up to “warm up the oil” in what was almost certainly a Cessna 172, most likely before an oil change at his second job as an A&P mechanic at Ann Arbor Aero in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I do have Dad’s logbook and it lists a number of pre- and post-annual test hops in customer airplanes (he didn’t take passengers up except before routine oil changes). It was part of the service then—when you had your airplane inspected, maintained or repaired, you could be assured the mechanic or some other FBO Commercial pilot would take it up for an operational check before returning the airplane to service, and to its owner.

It’s very rare now for the shop to fly your airplane after service. Time and insurance requirements usually get in the way. Instead, you get a call that the plane’s ready, you pay the bill and pick up the keys and the logbook endorsement at the FBO, and off you go. Many pilots and owners may not think of it as such, but you’re a test pilot when you make the first flight after inspection, maintenance or repair.

How do you safely fly this test flight? Most of us don’t have formal training in flight test procedures, but with a little forethought you can fulfill this responsibility:

When are you a test pilot? You’re the test pilot any time this is the first flight after:

In this experience-based test flying, you don’t need to make a short test hop first, but approach the flight very cautiously:

Take this life-saving responsibility seriously. For more about returning to service after inspection, maintenance or repair, see my articles “The Post-Maintenance Test Flight,” parts 1 and 2.

See: www.ipilot.com/learn/article.aspx?ArticleID=144, www.ipilot.com/learn/article.aspx?ArticleID=150 Comments? Questions? Tell us what you think at mastery.flight.training@cox.net.

Debrief: Readers write about recent FLYING LESSONS:

Reader Bob Siegfried writes about last week’s LESSONS on “taking a look” when weather conditions are poor:

One of your best! Nothing wrong with any of those situations as long as you have a plan. May I add a comment on the Take A Look?

On any instrument approach I always plan to miss. If the weather is good enough to continue past the DA [Decision Altitude] or MAP [Missed Approach Point] it will hit me in the face and I can always give up my planned miss in favor of the visual approach and landing.

A piece of cake on any precision approach. However, it can get a bit more complicated on a circling approach. It is important that we have a plan to get out of Dodge at any time during the circling maneuver. As I have always maintained, the easiest approach of all is two hundred and a half straight in. The one that takes the most planning and involves the most decisions is the circling approach. One more small comment on the circling approach. We must remember that the circling approach that has a high MDA [Minimum Descent Altitude] does so because there could be an obstacle in the visual segment that we only clear by three hundred feet.

The higher the MDA, the greater chance of there being a significant obstacle.

Thanks, Bob, I always appreciate your input. Reader Lorne Sheren adds a comment about “intentional busts” in the event you’re cornered and need to bust airspace or weather to save a life:

I thought it particularly relevant that you noted that in an emergency situation one should do whatever is necessary to accomplish a safe ending and deal with any regulatory consequences later. A couple of years ago a baseball player and his CFI flew into a building in Manhattan rather than bust Class B. Bad decision. It was pointed out to me once that regulations are enforced from time to time but the rules of physics are enforced 100% of the time.

Thanks, Lorne. I did a podcast (apparently now removed from the internet) on the event you mention about two days afterward, speculating that the flight was a Manhattan equivalent of flying up a blind canyon. Other commentators later made the same observation. A little assertion, and lives would have been saved.

Reader Mike Busch also chimed in on the “take a look” saga with this “savvy” advice:

[Regarding ] “Taking off should always include a plan to land right away. Any number of situations— weather, airplane systems, an open door or window, the need to return for something forgotten on the ground—can cause you to at least consider returning to the departure airport, or recovering at another airport nearby.” That goes at least double on the first flight after any maintenance! You’re absolutely right, Mike. Thanks. Your comment, and some operational experience in recent weeks, prompted this week’s FLYING LESSONS, above.

See www.savvyaviator.com

Share safer skies. Forward FLYING LESSONS to a friend.

Five-Year Safety Plan

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has published its Five-Year Safety Plan for Aviation, which includes several objectives for the general aviation pilots that make up the biggest part of FLYING LESSONS readers. The Plan lists seven goals:

1. Reduce the commercial airline fatal accident rate.

2. Reduce the number of fatal accidents in general aviation.

3. Reduce accidents in Alaska

4. Reduce the risk of runway incursions.

5. Measure the safety of the U.S. civil aviation industry with a composite index.

7. Enhance the safety of FAA's air traffic systems.

The report stresses the now-long-heard call for reducing runway incursions. It also covers pilot education programs, and emphasizes the need for improvement in the fatal accident record especially in amateur-built (“experimental”) airplanes.

I’ve already been contacted by some industry leaders to discuss this report, and hope to help in some small way to turn these objectives into concrete improvements. You’re already helping yourself by doing things like reading FLYING LESSONS to become less likely to have a mishap. But if you’d like to do more (at least those of you in the U.S.), contact your local FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) representative or FAA Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) to see if you can be a part of spreading the lessons of the FAA’s Five-Year Safety Plan.

See www.faa.gov/about/plans_reports/media/AVS%20Final%20FY11%20BP%2010-11-08.pdf Don’t try to fly too fast A popular aviation advertising tag line is: “life is short, fly fast.” Try to fly faster than your ability to keep up mentally, however, is a sign your need for speed is in demand of a plan (ok, that’s close to a rhyme). Read “Haste Makes Waste” by Dr. Bill Rhodes (yes, a FLYING LESSONS reader) in the Fall 2010 issue of AVEMCO Insurance’s On Approach newsletter, page 6. Bill uses mishap reports to illustrate why “being in a hurry around airplanes is a bad idea.” Consider reading this your FLYING LESSONS homework for the week.

See:

www.avemco.com/Articles/OnApproachFall2010.pdf www.loprestiaviation.com/

Dark adaptation 2008 National Flight Instructor of the Year (and long-time FLYING LESSONS reader) Max Trescott turns his Trends Aloft column this week to an issue of flying safety relevant to us all, but especially those of us in the Northern Hemisphere this time of year. Read “Night Flying Safety:

What Your CFI Didn’t Teach You” on Max’s award-winning website. Excerpt: “An ex-Navy pilot told me...after we finished a night IFR training flight that flying IFR at night seemed to him at least 50% harder than flying in the day.” Reading this is your FLYING LESSONS “extra credit” opportunity for the week.

See www.maxtrescott.com/max_trescott_on_general_a/2010/12/night-flying-safetywhat-your-cfi-didnt-teach-you.html#more Fly safe, and have fun!

Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety, MCFI

2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year

2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year

FLYING LESSONS is ©2010 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. Copyright holder provides permission for FLYING LESSONS to be posted on FAASafety.gov. For more information see www.mastery-flight-training.com, or contact mastery.flight.training@cox.net or your FAASTeam representative.