100. On cross country flight going toward area of several cloud layers. Student became very concerned about the approaching clouds. Seemed paralyzed and unable to accept that he controlled the proximity and approach speed of the clouds. Same flight with large mountain peak along our route. Student knew that at ONE point the mountain would be off our wing tip to show we were on course. Student kept the mountain on our wing tip long enough to turn 90 degrees off course. He kept expecting it to jump at him but it didn't.
101. Had student who was good in every respect except that he would not practice stalls alone. Concern was the possibility of a spin. He knew that a spin was preceded by a stall. Took student through spin and recovery series. Solo stall practice no problem afterwards.
102. Heard about the instructor who wouldn't teach go-arounds because they were too dangerous? Suggest that first landings only consist of just go-arounds. Applies to educational truism that we react in an emergency the way we were first taught. Takes a great deal of pressure off the student. Use both left and right pattern if possible. Initiate first one at 200 feet, then 100, 50, 25, at approach speed. Full throttle then carb heat. Initially reduce flaps to 20 degrees and the rest off when climb speed is reached. The go-around in the flare to touch down requires a different technique. At low speeds the aircraft must be held level. Use ground effect. The flaps must be milked off until climb speed is attained. Failure to use arm to lock the yoke with the nose level is a common fault. Surprising how many students put in carb heat before throttle.
103. Surprising how few weekend type pilots know how to correctly arrive at tower airport when the tower is closed. With the tower closed the right runway may be in use and require left traffic. The last used winds and runway may be obtained from approach control. The CTAF will be the tower frequency. If you know ahead of time of a late night arrival it pays to make a phone call for recommended procedures. Arrival consists of over flying at twice pattern altitude to determine runway and wind sock. Exit so enter on 45 to runway at pattern altitude in left traffic unless contra indicated. Use radio to advise other traffic when 10 miles out and intentions, when overhead and intentions, on 45, downwind, base, final and clear of runway.
104. Do your students ever have difficulty making the correct entry to airports. Where there may not be good visual references, the heading indicator provides the only reference needed for 45's and base arrivals. For a left 45 entry the runway heading will be at the left-rear position with the end of the runway over the nose. The runway number for the right 5 entry is to the right rear. It is well to point this out while using a visual point of entry at a known airport. With practice the technique can be easily used at any in-sight runway.
105. Do you know how to get and perform the D.F. steer. With radar becoming omnipresent the D.F. is a less common emergency procedure. If your student plans to fly in the hinterlands away from VOR and radar review the D.F. steer. The FSS personnel must practice the procedure on a regular basis if it is part of their equipment. Just avoid busy periods or days and they will be happy to oblige.
With the near universal coverage in many areas, DF steers have become obsolete.
106. Have you ever flown off the edge of a sectional? Before the days of general aviation Loran, I was on a long cross country (CCR to SLC) just for the ride. Midway on the 600 mile desert flight the pilot told me that we would be flying about 70 miles across the corner of a sectional that he did not have. As the fates would have it the next VOR was out of service. Everything running well, plenty of fuel but absolutely no way to check or confirm our location. Not really an emergency but definitely illegal and needing only one more straw to make an emergency.
107. Are you flying from an airport near the edge of the sectional. Even if you're not you might consider have your student make a plate sized sectional centered on your home field. Cut a cardboard backing and glue the sectional to it. Slip a rubber band through the center hole and fasten the ends on the back of the cardboard with a paper clip. On the circumference you could mark the magnetic courses from a VOR rose or just to and from local airports. This will not substitute legally for a current sectional but it sure is handy for the beginner. On the back side I have printed pie-shaped information as to appropriate checkpoints and arrivals to all runways.
108. The presence of clouds, the absence of a well defined horizon, wind and turbulence have a debilitating effect on the thought and performance processes. The air work that has been in the past satisfactory becomes less so. Both the student and instructor will react with frustration at this deterioration unless the proximate cause can be identified. It is not enough to just discuss this weather effect prior to the flight but it must be pointed out for every maneuver. The change of visual reference needed under low visibility with greater dependence on the cockpit instruments is a new experience. This is a golden opportunity to illustrate the advantage of having indexed the power settings, trim positions. and sounds of the aircraft.
110. Recently went on a cross-country with just rated private pilot. Found that the pilot had been trained to slow aircraft down to low cruise on nearing the airport. His basics instructor felt that this arrival gave student better intellectual and emotional control over the landing procedure. I do not accept this rationale. Training aircraft are slow enough to permit a cruise arrival. This slow arrival then will carry over into high performance aircraft and result in very inefficient flight practices. I choose to teach in trainer aircraft techniques and skills which will transfer directly into higher performance aircraft. I urge instructors to teach arrivals at speeds commensurate with the aircraft performance. Flying is expensive enough as it is.
110a. Student referred to me one week after having failed private pilot checkride. Met student at airport. First question was to point to North. Unable. Student could not point correctly to any major city or airport. 75 hours of flight instruction. Spent flight time teaching student how to look outside aircraft and identify significant geographical points in area. Flying O.K. Worked on how to use heading indicator and checkpoints to make airport arrival. Initially student would first make referral to sectional before looking outside aircraft. How were prior instructors teaching pilotage? You cannot conduct proper radio procedures without knowing where you are. There does not seem to be an adequate FAA system to eliminate incompetent instructors.
111. Approach control indicated that our course would take us across the instrument approach corridor and proceeded to vector us across the airport to clear. We were then told to resume own navigation. Numerous small towns and novice pilot proceeded to misidentify them through failure to use supporting checkpoint factors such as bodies of water and railroads. Improved weather allowed climb to seek foothill airport. Airport easily visible at 20 miles because of surrounding GREEN terrain. In the California summer when everything turns to brown the same airport would be difficult to locate. In summer many airports must be located by means of identifiable reference points such as dams, roads, or hill configuration. Departed on course that would take us through Alert Area. Contacted approach and gave pertinent information. Ceiling restricted ability to climb above Alert Area. Novice pilot happy as a clam under radar control and proceeding unaware of potential hazard. I suggested that he inquire as to potential problem. Controller immediately asked for 70 degree heading change for next ten miles before proceeding to destination. Observed two very heavy military aircraft that could have been in direct conflict.
112. Departed small airport toward 3-4000 foot hills with cloud cover. Very windy. Pilot having difficulty making choice of over/under clouds. Turbulence vs. aircraft performance. Decision to climb resulted in slower but smooth flight. Pilot expressed concern about hemispheric rule for flight. Rule does not apply while climbing or descending. Found sucker hole on other side of hills. Slowed aircraft and applied full flaps. Tight spiral through hole and dumped flaps at base of clouds.
113. Proceeded toward Class C airspace, established contact with approach but stayed clear or Class C airspace. Advised to remain clear of Class D airspace along route. Cloud bases and hills provided marginal route around Class C footprint. Suggested to pilot that crossing hill line into next valley be tried. Pilot declined suggestion and for next ten miles sighted numerous aircraft skirting hills and clouds. Other valley would have been better. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
114. Spent few minutes reviewing first x-country with student who had just flown with relatively new instructor. Student had no idea of what lesson was to be until arrival at airport. Student's major area of difficulty is the radio. New instructor did radio work with both towers and approach control. Did touch and go at distant airport and departed straight-out. Student's tape recorder did not work. Lessons: Student should have asked for and/or instructor should have given full review of radio procedures and expected student to handle radio after practicing prior to call-ups. Landing should have been a full stop with taxi back or at least some familiarization with the taxiways. The student had very little recollection of what the radio procedures were and without the tape recording the lesson lost most of its value.
115. While working on my commercial rating the instructor took me out to practice 60 degree steep turns of 720 degrees. We did steep turns for two solid hours. He would demonstrate about every fifth turn but my efforts did not show much improvement. The next day I had hemroids. First and only time of my life. Teachers fail more often than students.
116. Instructor taught me to level plane by using bottom of wingtip and horizon and then swinging eyes to lock nose and horizon. Good and quick method for beginners. Same Instructor taught me to recognize straight nose during crosswind landing approach by keeping parallel nose rivet line and runway center line. Works!
117. Very early morning x-country. Dark. Preflight with flashlight. Note flag of pitot cover on cockpit floor. Takeoff and rotate at 60 knots. Airspeed never gets above 60 knots. Flashlight shows hood of pitot cover is still on pitot. Make uneventful landing and remove pitot cover for next departure. Lesson: "From the lack of a nail..." Also, it helps to know your aircraft well enough to fly without an airspeed indicator.
117a. The way you are first taught will set habits for the rest of your flying career, # 101. Watched pilot with two years experience preflight C-150. Noted pilot did not roll aircraft to check tires. Discussed necessity of checking tires as part of preflight. Did not discuss how rolling helps insure that aircraft is unchained prior to taxi. Pilot claimed that no previous instructor had ever had him roll aircraft as part of preflight. Couple of weeks later pilot has preflight interrupted and fails to roll aircraft. Taxis off and pulls tiedown out of wing. $50 lesson learned. Behind every little technique I teach, suggest, recommend etc. there are reasons and reasons.
118. Flying across Nevada desert and heading toward Restricted area. Will require either accurate pilotage to follow VFR corridor or radar contact and clearance. Due to passenger discomfort, choose to climb over clouds to avoid turbulence. Last good checkpoint behind about 15 minutes. ETA to Restricted area about 20 minutes. Initiate contact with Approach and told to stand by. On top now with solid under-cast. Wait a while and call Approach. Told again to standby. Controller quite busy but after 10 minutes feel that he may have forgotten me and my ETA is giving me the VV's (Violation Vibrations) Controller makes contact just before I start doing 360's. Gives squawk. I give estimate of position and lack of navigational reference. I am told to hold present heading. Within a couple of minutes major corridor reference point shows through hole in clouds. Advise Approach and am told, belatedly, that we are going to be vectored through Restricted Area. Lessons: 1. Sometimes the discomfort of turbulence is the better choice. 2. Dead reckoning works if you combine it with luck. 3. Make your radio contacts early-on to allow for delays.
119. Murder She Wrote II: Solve before reading entire paragraph. Had occasion to fly to neighboring uncontrolled airport to pick up C-150 which had oil change and encoder installed. During preflight found one tank less than half full but other tank was full. Clue # 1 Checked oil and pulled fuel strainer. Clue # 2. Got into aircraft and fired up with immediate roll to run up area about 100 feet away. Engine died just as I reached run up area. Clue # 3. Restarted engine only to have it die again. Last clue. Momentary mental attack on mechanics who can't fix airplanes. Find fuel selector in OFF position. Restart and depart no problem. Lesson: first clue is discrepancy in fuel tank levels, second element is pulling strainer without looking for fuel flow under aircraft. No fuel flow with fuel selector OFF. (I have often used this technique to check students.) Aircraft was parked on slight slope so mechanics had used fuel valve to prevent fuel loss through overflow tube.
120. Student referred just after having failed private check ride. Four previous instructors. Next checkride to occur in 7 days. Met student at aircraft and initiated what I think should be the very first preflight instruction, Student had 75 hours instruction in local area. Asked student to point to North. Unable. Student had just driven to airport from Oakland. Asked to point to Oakland. Unable. In 75 hours of instruction student had been taught no pilotage by reference to just outside the aircraft. All pilotage was done with Sectional and then outside reference. Ask the student were he was; he would first refer to the sectional. Commenced to teach flying by outside visual references. Student's other flight skills superior. It is almost impossible to arrive at an airport without the ability to position the aircraft near a particular point and at an altitude for which you have prepared a specific radio communication. This one weakness, although not detected by the examiner, so negated his other flying skills that the initial failure was a blessing in disguise. After four instructional flights which emphasized recognition of landmarks student was able to pass flight test without difficulty.
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