Jetwhine

Aviation buzz and bold opinion

Flight Training

Could You Pass a Checkride Based on the New Airman Certification Standards?

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acsOne of the tried and true tropes of aviation is that, in general, the successful completion of a checkride marks the peak currency and proficiency of a pilot’s knowledge and skills. For those rarely exercised after that point, it is all downhill from there. Based on personal experience, the little used knowledge goes first, and refreshing it isn’t as much fun as practicing seldom-used stick and rudder skills in preparation for an upcoming flight review.

Still, pilots who profess dedication to currency and proficiency should be able to pass a checkride to the minimum requirements of the certificates and ratings they possess. This can be an uncomfortable situation for those of us “mature” aviators who passed their checkrides “back in the day.” (For my private pilot checkride that day was in June, 1976.) A lot has changed since then, and to assess how I’d fare as an applicant for a private pilot certificate today, I dove into the FAA’s new Airman Certification Standards (ACS) , which this month replace the Practical Test Standards.

My initial examination provided a kernel of relief. In replacing the Practical Test Standards, the new ACS does not change the “skill performance metrics” or the flight portion of the checkride. The knowledge probed by the oral half of the checkride is another matter. The ACS integrates the specific elements of aeronautical knowledge, decision making, and risk management required for each area of operation or task. This does not, says the FAA, increase the oral or flight segments of the checkride, but it will surely refine the focus on its individual elements.

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Biz Av Pilots Have Eaten Enough [Training] Cake

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Publisher’s Note: Every once in awhile we receive a story that’s well enough written on a timely topic that we know we want to publish it after just the first read.

Meet Kyle and Linda Reynolds from Flight Level Group. Kyle is a business aviation pilot and his wife Linda is a teacher. Together they created a company calling for a return to learner-centered training in the business aviation world that focuses on the needs of the individual, not simply the demands of the regulator.

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Biz Av Pilots Have Eaten Enough [Training] Cake: The Coming Revolution in Aviation Training

by Kyle and Linda Reynolds

flightlevelgroupThere is a growing hunger among the brethren for flight and ground training that is meaningful, applicable and enjoyable.

And yet the response from the regulatory agencies is all too familiar, “let them eat cake!” So flight departments gorge themselves on the latest and greatest delicacies of technology, products or speakers in an attempt to appease regulators, allocate their training dollars, and impress their colleagues.

Despite these costly attempts to make the skies safer, a cloud of apathy keeps dampening the safety records. Experts say it is the human factor, the people themselves, which keeps the accident rate from further decline. Despite an ever increasing amount of training, people just don’t seem to be taking very much of it to heart. For those who are tired of eating cake, a bit of a revolution is beginning in the training industry.

Cognitive Overflow

One of the reasons training today brings lackluster results is that it focuses mainly on the cognitive domain (where training becomes understandable).

A steady diet of facts, data, processes and historical accounts is offered in order to increase knowledge.  This is good to a point. However, so much emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of knowledge, that most people have experienced cognitive overflow. This is when the amount of data received is so quick and so extensive that there is not time to actually “think” about its validity and practicality. In fact, the cognitive stream often becomes so intense that people become grossly full and actually begin to have an aversion to more knowledge.

It’s easy to see why people become apathetic. If we accept the fact that an information diet is all a pilot needs, the cravings for something more will disappear. It’s more comfortable to be apathetic than hungry. If the aviation training industry is to grow stronger and increase in professionalism, training needs to address more than the cognitive domain. The affective domain (where training becomes meaningful) and the psychomotor domain (where training becomes applicable) also need to be activated each time a training event is held.

Case in Point

One corporate pilot recently commented at the conclusion of a safety seminar, “If you listen to too much of this stuff, you’d never get in the cockpit.”

This is cognitive overload. Without concrete examples of how the safety information can be used to make his department safer, this pilot decided to reject its validity. Who wouldn’t? It seems more sensible to forgo the safety seminars and keep one’s peace and confidence than to live in fear.

Aviation training must give pilots a wide variety of creative solutions to safety concerns. Pilots must be encouraged to modify these solutions and personalize them to the needs of their department. Without meaning and application, the knowledge instilled will pass through the recipient without bringing any lasting change. With meaning and application, safety reports and statistics can become a challenge to a creative means of sharpening skills, practices and procedures. [Read more…] about Biz Av Pilots Have Eaten Enough [Training] Cake

Airmanship and the Fundamentals of Flight

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Sporty’s debut of its Cessna 172LITE Project has rightfully attracted the attention of a cannonball launched from the high dive at the deep end of the aviation pool. While most are paying attention to the splash made by the airplane’s rental affordability, what seemed most important to me were the words of general aviation’s patron saint, Hal Shevers, who said that the airplane will better enable new pilots to “learn fundamental airmanship.” There’s no denying that modern avionics technology can overwhelm new pilots, but for those born after the baby boom it also is a seductive distraction that contributes to an incomplete aviation education. Learning which button to push and what knob to turn is easier to learn—and teach—than the knowledge, awareness, and coordination that embody this thing called airmanship. In removing these distractions, the 172LITE is the perfect airmanship classroom…with the right teacher of flight. Like most professional pilots, flight instructors grew up with avionics technology and are addicted to it. They are not immune to the atrophy of airmanship abilities the FAA outlined in its cockpit automation report. Like all teachers regardless the subject, they teach what they know best. When it comes to stick and rudder education, once the student has a safe grasp of the four fundamentals, climbs, turns, straight-and-level, and descents—they move on to the the next subject in the curriculum. Plainly put, regardless the flying classroom, to teach airmanship teachers must first embody it. [Read more…] about Airmanship and the Fundamentals of Flight

Flying a Seaplane

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@jetwhine discovers seaplane flying
The classroom was a 150 hp PA-12 Super Cruiser on floats

How many times during an airline pre-takeoff briefing have you heard the flight attendant say, “In the event of a water landing …”

Trust me, there ain’t no such thing as a water landing in an airplane with traditional landing gear.

 

An airplane touching down on the water is a crash plain and simple … EXCEPT, when you’re learning to fly a seaplane like I did last week. My instructor, Tom Brady at Traverse Air near KTVC, probably thought there were a few times when my efforts were a bit crash like, but luckily I improved enough to pass the checkride a few days after we started. Not bad for an old guy.

@jetwhine discovers seaplane flying
Not much need to look at the panel very often

I first became fascinated with the idea of these aircraft after visiting a seaplane mecca a few years ago in Vancouver where I spent the afternoon watching floatplanes of all sizes come and go. Then a local Jetwhine reader here in Chicago, Dave Montgomery, offered up some encouraging nudges until I knew I needed to make room for this in my schedule. Last week I did with my friend Matt Desch. We arrived in TVC for five hours of training in this PA-12 Super Cruiser. For a guy who’s become pretty comfortable with a glass cockpit, this was a pretty simple airplane to work with. A stick, a throttle and a couple of basic instruments. We never did turn on the radio.

Before the first lesson, CFI Tom Brady mentioned that Matt and I would never again look at water the same way. That turned out to be true. The preflight alone was different … especially for a guy like me who can’t swim.

We learned there’s a difference between glassy water and the surface when there’s even just a minor wind. Who would have thought taking off and landing on glassy water was actually more challenging than when there’s a breeze? Plow taxiing now makes sense, as does realizing when the airplane’s on the step. We learned how to take off from a confined space … seaplane talk for a short field. Water rudders? I thought those were a bit like water wings at first, but I learned when to use them and when to make sure I retracted them. Finally, there came the realization that when the engine quits on a seaplane, those floats add more drag than even I was prepared for at first. This is all the book learning part of course.

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Flight Training, a GA Pilot and a Goose

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Taking a Bite Out of Those GA Accident Statistics

Whenever a flight instructor finishes up a training session with a GApilot — new or old — they always hope that pilot really understood the lesson before they head out on their own. An instructor knows that when an emergency arrives one day, there won’t be time for a last minute review. Just one more reason for all pilots to take some kind of regular flight training.

With GA accident numbers that never seem to decline, it’s nice to write about a pilot who did everything right … despite significant odds against him.

Baird Windscreen from inside cockpitI spent some time chatting with private pilot Keith Baird the other day. He bases his 1968 Cessna 210 at Chicagoland’s Brookeridge Airpark, also known as LL22 southwest of the city. On December 28th, Baird decided to take a friend for an after-Christmas flight in some nice weather. But climbing through 400 feet or so on departure, Baird’s airplane collided with a 15-pound Canada goose, about the same size as the ones that downed a US Airways flight shortly after departure from LaGuardia five years back.

If you haven’t yet watched the short video shot from inside the airplane that day, it’s worth a few minutes of any pilot’s time. I’d never seen a video of a bird and a plane colliding through a windshield. Trust me it’s eye opening. Baird Bird Strike video. But come back for the rest of the story … [Read more…] about Flight Training, a GA Pilot and a Goose