Practicing Precision
1. Fly within 20 feet

2. Fly within 1/2 mile

3. Heading within 5 degrees

An Old Pilots Survival Kit
1. You and the Lemoore Naval Air Station. Has to do with getting local NOTAMS during air show season

2. Made a low approach lately? Don't make low pass at uncontrolled airports…FAA may be watching.

3. Acknowledging an ATC 'point-out' may be the wrong thing to do. You are then forever responsible for avoidance…Just say "looking".

4. Leaving the mixture lean during runup and unintended consequences. May be no mag drop if aggressively leaned.

5. Modesto Flight Watch dead-spot doesn't exist at 135.7. Find out the high altitude Flight Watch frequency for your area

6. Left is best for clearing turns. Following traffic will be passing to your right.

7. Talking beyond ATC…Give altitude when talking to ATC since it warns other aircraft.

8. Altitude avoidance…Fly at 2300, 2800, etc. Avoid 3000, 2500, etc.

9. Popular checkpoint avoidance…Report one north (south, east, west) instead of over flying

10. Checkpoint selection are too large, rivers too long

11. Surviving loss of ALL gyros and compass…Use the course/track numbers of the GPS to keep wings level

12. Safer CCR departures with mini-flight plan. Never straight out, downwind, etc. Always on course (airport).

13. Advection fog escape plan…Know the highest airport in the area.

14. Radiation fog escape plan…Descents can be made from overhead.

15. GCA exists…Navy still has this oral ILS available during emergencies.

16. Radar Surveillance Approach …Ask for one from nearest Air Force facility.

17. Call 689-2077 at CCR…This is local AWOS number. By phoning you can get density altitude.

18. AWOS via FSS… FSS will phone long distance to get you AWOS info before arrival.

19. NORDO procedures… At towered field use non-tower arrival procedure. Watch for lights.

20. NORDO practice…Take off student's headset and have him make NORDO arrival. while you monitor.

21. Changing into a survival mode…Be willing to change radio procedures and flying techniques for safety.

22. http://… Two million on the way…

23. Radio exercise…By prior arrangement have tower give you all that can happen in the pattern.

24. Rio Vista over flights…Know where and at what altitude to expect military aircraft. at 2000'

25. Six ways to Vegas…Two IFR routes at altitude. Four low level.

26. IFR Bay Tour…Not as inefficient as you might think.

27. Clearing the approach course and base…Turn your airplane when holding short of runways or taking off.

28. Is saving your life once enough?

Is the Pilot 'Good'?
While the basics of flying are the same as from "Stick and Rudder" days, aircraft have changed. Flaps are an integral part of the landing procedure. Slips have been relegated to a minor or at best infrequent role. A marginally adequate rudder inadequately used has replaced the massive rudder of yore. Control forces are often light enough so as not to require trim. Moderate misuse of the controls goes unnoticed. The nose high, three point landing attitude is a rarity.

Before you have reached the runup area an examiner can tell your chances of passing a flight test. The skilled pilot operates with finesse. Changes and corrections are smooth with velvet fingers. Use of brakes and power are equally gentle and in expectation not in reaction. Any use of controls contrary to the foregoing is the instructor's fault. Being rough with controls can compound the effects of turbulence. Three bumps where one would be sufficient. It often surprises a student to find that a light non-reactive touch seems to stop the bumps.

A pilot is more than a skillful 'driver'. A pilot exercises considered judgment developed from a planned series instructional mistakes of non-fatal result. The instructor expanding the experience opportunities can overcome weakness in judgment. Weakness in a pilot's sense of responsibility tends to be a character trait that exists in both automotive and aircraft accidents. Can responsibility be instilled? I'm still trying to find out.

Every flight begins, continues, and ends with a range of requirements, which are coped with in varying degrees by the capabilities of the pilot. All too often when I ask a student about how his flight went he is very pleased and self complementary. All too often, I have been airborne at the same time and have been made aware of deficiencies and problems by what I have seen and heard. I have even had these same pilots indicate to me that they never make mistakes or have problems until I get in the plane.

If for any reason you, the pilot, have a reason to believe that the flight may not go well, cancel. You can't face an in flight emergency if you don't depart. Don't let yourself be hurried. Allow plenty of 'delay' time in your flying. Most importantly, don't fly if you are not 100%. Patience is a quality and virtue of every 'good' pilot.

The 'good' pilot has a highly developed sense of what is 'right' when flying. All aspects of a given situation are being scanned by the senses so that anticipation is preceding events. Once a given anticipation is used another replaces it. The smoothness of a given flight maneuver is caused by anticipation not by reaction. Good piloting is more a matter of what you do with what you know than with just 'knowing'. Being smooth means that your adjustments are almost imperceptible be they of power, trim or control.

The smoothness of a 'good' pilot is often thought to be intuitive. Rather it is a matter of being organized. There is a plan for each maneuver and every situation. It may be a written checklist or mental but it allows the pilot to proceed methodically with prior knowledge of what comes next. Even when what is supposed to come next doesn't arrive or happen there is an appropriate fork in the organization to accommodate the problem just as though it was expected. There is an appropriate, no compromise with safety, decision for every situation. The greatest challenge of the student pilot, or for that matter any pilot, is learning to be the pilot in command. The ultimate end of all flight instruction is to create a pilot in command. You make decisions upon decisions upon decisions in every flight. The wrong decisions require corrective decisions. Right decisions are followed by right decisions. The pilot in command takes charge of the situation and accepts responsibility for the outcome. More than just learning to fly is your goal of becoming the pilot in command. You are assertive on the radio, smooth on the controls, and anticipate what's coming

Self-evaluation is very problematic because it requires setting criteria for both judgment and flying. Judgment is the difficult element. One way to evaluate is to have another uninvolved pilot to set up problems to challenge both judgment and flying. Flying tolerances can be set for altitude, headings, needles, smoothness and airspeed. Judgment begins with an estimate of 'attitude' of the pilot and his use of checklists, division of attention, knowledge of local checkpoints and terrain altitudes. Aircraft knowledge is an essential all the numbers related to size, performance, speeds, engine operation, weight, balance and minimums performance numbers at lower weights.

A good pilot never flies to a place his brain has not arrived to previously. The proficient pilot should accept the safety requirement of using a 5% safety margin for all performance for every month out of practice. If such a margin is not allowed it is just possible that the ego is writing checks on an account with insufficient funds. Even the less than proficient pilot must demonstrate a judgment level consistent with his safe application of flying skills. Cancellation or diversion is always the option available to the pilot and more likely to be chosen by the pilot with good judgment regardless of flying skills.

Every pilot can expect to be disappointed by unexpected occurrences or situations. A good pilot is not opposed to putting himself into a hazardous situation. Every takeoff, landing or IMC flight constitutes such a situation. Flying has inherent risks that must be faced to justify the utility standards of knowing not to fly. Assessing the risks of flying and deciding whether to accept or refuse such risks is called risk management.

The imagination of the inexperienced pilot greatly magnifies apparent dangers. Risks of night flying are no greater for flying at night as in daylight, except that your choices when things go wrong are much more limited. The experienced pilot has climbed a mountain of many risk plateaus. Once attained the next risk plateau beckons. The hazards of the past insulate our concerns so we accept the risk. Our past success experience has given us confidence to take this new step.

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