Visualizing Your Training
A student pilot, or any other pilot for that matter, can practice flying even while not in a plane. A situation can be visualized and simulated actions can be practiced. Flying is not only with the mind but can and should be in the mind. In your mind, plan ahead of a flight for the combinations of controls, attitudes and maneuvers required to put the aircraft where you want it. Skill is best demonstrated by the manner in which a particular maneuver follows your 'in the mind' planning.
At some point in your training the instructor may cover the airspeed indicator and have you "feel", sense and visualize the aircraft as it proceeds. With allowances for the density altitude and wind you should be able to "visualize" the aircraft around the pattern to a landing. Some flying skill will be acquired subconsciously, but in the main the student will need to rely on their physical senses to control the aircraft. Sight will always be the primary sense for your flying. In the beginning maximize your use of the external sight picture. There will be plenty of time to learn to relate the sight picture to the instrument picture. The other senses have information that is available in the noise, smell, and feel of pressure and vibration. We feel changes in vibration frequency and amplitude. The senses combine to give the pilot an over all feeling of what is both right and wrong with the aircraft. Hearing is a neglected sense. A student wants to learn the several 'constants' of engine rpm and airspeed sounds.
The sense of touch is the most neglected sense. You can only 'feel' an airplane when holding it lightly, very lightly. The sense of smell is best utilized as a danger sense. You can learn the smell of the aircraft when it is performing well. Any other smell serves as a warning. A change in your sensory perception of aircraft performance is the first alert to take precautionary action. You should never spell fuel. The last sense to get the fine-tuning required to fly well is the sense of sight. With practice of the right kind, you will begin to see the nose and horizon relationship that exists in every flight situation. It takes time.
Speed is set visually; touch and kinesthetic sensitivity sense speed changes. If you do not sense these changes you are more apt to misuse the rudder. The body can sense, and be ever more sensitive to the side pressures of a slip or a skid. Modern aircraft make it possible for a pilot to fly dangerously well without being sensitive to an uncoordinated rudder.
The ability to anticipate changes in control pressures required for a particular maneuver must be developed. Failure to anticipate the rudder movement required to move the nose as airspeed decreases is a most common flight error. The behavior of instruments such as the airspeed indicator and vertical speed indicator that lag in relation to sound and attitude changes must be expected and understood. Chasing the airspeed indicator is a common student fault. Even worse is not recognizing that the VSI takes about 12 seconds before giving accuracy indications unless the control movements are exceptionally smooth. Starting the trim from a known position and keeping track of its movements in various flight configurations makes possible rapid/correct trim pressure corrections.
You should accept every opportunity to review your basic skills by airwork and ground reference. This is not a waste of time or money. Exercises that improve your ability to make wind-drift corrections and timing will improve your airport pattern work. You need to make adjustments by anticipation. The only reason your instructor 'knows' when you are high. low, wide, too fast or slow is because of his experience in anticipation. Do whatever it takes to place your aircraft where you want it.
Do you fly around, below, above certain areas to avoid communications? Do you try to enter a certain way into an airport and to avoid others? Do you avoid crosswind-landing opportunities when they become available. Do you ignore practice in ground reference, stalls, slow flight, and night proficiency? Challenge your weaknesses until they become areas of strength.
Side Notes:
1. The Law of Firsts (Haviland's) , "The first time you do, you shouldn't have, The first time you don't, you should have."
2. Flying is a situation where the pilot is solely responsible for the welfare of the aircraft.
3. Knowledge can be maintained through reading and study. Judgment is best developed through the experiencing and management of actual flying situations.
4. Pilot skill is a product of physical and mental practice in the airplane.
5. Any flying skill acquired can only improve if exercised. Your skills will never remain static. Skills erode from lack of use; they remain relatively constant with occasional use; they improve only with clearly defined goals that have measurable criteria for performance.
6. A refresher lesson should be based upon a single maneuver. This maneuver should contain a wide set of the four basics. It should be fun but challenging.
7. In flying there is only one person responsible for the actual flying of an aircraft and that person is also responsible for the safety of that flight.
8. Having a functional checklist that fits your method of operation is more important than having a one checklist fits all available. Have the checklist, use it at the same place and time; every time.
9. The more unusual your flying situation the more important it is that you slow down the airplane and use the appropriate checklist.
10. You will avoid one potential ATC 'deal' if you take upon yourself the responsibility to clear the final approach course prior to crossing the runway hold bars.
11. As a student or VFR pilot you should know the terms and positions used by IFR pilots flying at airports where you fly. At unfamiliar fields you should query ATC as to IFR reports to your planned route. The lower the visibility the farther away from IFR routes you should stay.
12. One way to detect maintenance oversights is to make regular changes of maintenance facilities.
13. The ability to fly an airplane through all the airspeeds and maneuvers of its envelope is a skill foundation that is
transferable from aircraft to aircraft.
On Checklists
1. Flying an airplane requires that a series of relatively complex procedures. A checklist is most viable if a long series is broken into several functionally related sectors.
2. Any error of a checklist should be studied to determine if the error was one of commission or omission.
3. Procedures can become rituals without the mental alertness to confirm what is being done. This ritual checklist leads to the error of expectation. It is not enough to pretend to use a checklist as a ritual. Such a checklist is often very complete, interesting, and pretty, but without use it is a potential danger.
4. There is more to making checklists than just the making. The usefulness of a checklist is proof that the things on the list are worth doing.
5. Many aircraft have pasted checklists on the panel or commercial lists that are 'universal' for the type but ill suited for the model year. These checklists are technically correct only if they contain everything in the POH checklist. They usually do not cover even the POH requirements nor do they cover all the radio procedures and frequencies.
6. Using a checklist that is not of your own making and practice even for the preflight is VERY poor procedure. Some excellent checklist makers are not very good users.
7. Go to Aircraft folder for sample checklists.
Mad as Hell and Taking It
In flying we react in an emergency as we first learned to react. When we show anger we react as we first learned to react. Just as understanding an aircraft emergency will enable us to cope with it, so will a better understanding of anger help to defuse it. Almost any situation or delay can become an invitation for you to become angry. You are not required to accept the invitation. You may accept the invitation and become angry or you chose to ignore it. It didn't happen. You can intellectually reduce the 'sting' by assuming that you were not the target of the invitation in the first place. Skill in flying will improve most anyone's emotional stability.
Medical Certification
You do not need a medical certificate until you fly by yourself. It is suggested that you get your medical before you go to any major expense of time, money or effort. Once a pilot, your concern is not the checkrides. Rather, it is the continuation of your medical that will allow you to become an old pilot.
The medical is used to determine if there is any condition that could impair your ability to fly. There are three classes of medical certification. First Class is good for six-months as for airline transport pilots. Second Class is for one-year as for pilots who fly for hire such as sightseeing flights. Third Class is for 24 months and covers all other pilots. Another Third Class medical includes a yellow student pilot certificate. Glider pilots do not need a medical. These parameters may change in 1995. As of 1995 changes have occurred mainly based on how often a medical renewal is required. Age is the dividing line.
The medical standards are in FAR Part 67. FAA Form 8500-8 is the "Application for a Medical Certificate." All of the information on this application must be answered truthfully and completely. Any change in this information that would affect your ability to fly or pass the medical requires that you ground yourself.
Every medical certificate can have waivers of such things as limited vision, hearing, or color blindness. A certificate may have limitations such as wearing glasses or no night flight. A Special Issue Medical Certificate can be issued if the pilot can prove that it will not unpredictably affect his flying performance. Any medical condition can be certified if it is not a risk to safe flight. One eyed, deaf, one armed, and wheelchair bound pilots have become successful pilots. Some conditions of diabetes and heart disease can be made worse in the flying environment and preclude any certificate.
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