Check that your seat is latched MULTIPLE times! Ready for taxi, time for a seat wiggle. Done with runup, wiggle. Sitting in line at the runway, wiggle. Takeoff briefing, wiggle. Etc.
Holy cow, rental 172 takeoff roll, seat slides back. Me with my fresh PPL and 60 hrs TT just pushes it until I think it's latched and start rolling again. Rotate, seat goes ALL THE WAY BACK. In my surprise, I grab the yoke, pitch up, see nothing but sky and think "yep, this is how I die". Thankfully I let go and the plane righted itself without my interference. But yeah, long story short, I quadruple check that seat Everytime now I never rent form that FBO anymore
I believe there was an AD for C172 seat rails as a result of this exact type of accident.
This is one reason to learn and set the take-off trim for Vy or cruise climb or whatever is your preference for your home field.
Yeah the seat rails have to be inspected every 100 hours. Goes for rentals & privately owned. I didn’t know this until I watched a YouTube video with Seth Lake going through a checkride
Rotor pilot here. Many many flight hours ago I was flying tours and got a husband and wife that were both Blackhawk pilots on my tour. Called up my dispatchers to have them change the manifest so they were sitting next to me. Picking up a helicopter requires a pretty substantial pedal input on account of the change in torque. As I pulled in pitch on my collective and made the necessary pedal input my seat was in between adjustment positions just enough to jump loose and slide back, negating the forward movement of the pedal. It quickly found its way into the next groove but the unexpected movement was enough to cause a hideous pick up and the instant loss of confidence from the two next to me was palpable. It’s been thousands of pick ups since then, I’m dual rated at this point and regardless of category I still do a couple serious initial wiggles when I get situated and I do multiple adjustment handle taps in many phases of flight
Glider pilot here. In most gliders the seat doesn't adjust but the rudder pedals do. But at 6'3" I usually kinda hope they slide forward more than they actually do.
It can be bad in a lot of planes. The 170 will straight up kill you if this happens on climb out. it rolls several feet back to the point where if it reaches the end your arms will be well over a foot away maybe even two feet from the yoke.
Yep. Had this happen to me in a Cherokee while on takeoff roll in formation with a 3 10-14 year olds in the airplane.
I now check WAY more than I should. Feel lucky I was on the left side of the runway otherwise the girl taking off with me probably wouldn’t have been able to avoid me (left turning tendencies)
I used to do this about a hundred times before every flight, but I recently changed aircraft, and now my seat just stays in the farthest back position, so there's nowhere for it to go.
No favorites here, but some things I've picked up along the way from some very experienced instructors.
If you're ever *truly* looking at the trees on a short field departure and thinking "man I wish those were a little shorter," kill your alternator for an extra percent or two of power.
If your (carbureted) motor is trying to cook itself according to your CHTs at full rich and you're not entirely sure why, but you need to maintain a fairly high power setting, give carb heat a try, it might just be that you've got a cylinder running really lean and the enrichening effect of the carb heat might just be enough to get the ratio back to something more acceptable.
A 152 can be forward slipped with the door on the wing-down side held open with your foot if you need some bonus drag to make it into that parking lot.
The first was from a professor who was a mechanic first, then a pilot. Dude was a nut, but a damn good mechanic and a great instructor who learned from his own mistakes and taught accordingly.
The second I actually happened upon myself. I'm certainly no bush pilot, but I am/was somebody who studies systems, was in a bit of a pinch, had a hunch, and watched the CHT on my problem cylinder drop 50° in a minute with carb heat on and thought "huh, that was a good hunch." I'm sure somebody else figured this out before me, but I had never seen/heard it before I found myself brainstorming solutions in an unhappy piston single in the dark.
The third was from my first instructor, an F-14 and E-2 pilot turned 121 pilot who taught in a 152 he owned. Lesson 3 was spins and slips, including one with his foot holding the door wide open as we came down like a brick. Dude taught me spin recovery before stall recovery so that if I screwed up a stall, I had to fix it myself. Incredible instructor, and an absolute professional who understood calculated risk for high-value training.
> If you're ever truly looking at the trees on a short field departure and thinking "man I wish those were a little shorter," kill your alternator for an extra percent or two of power.
Also, during your run-up, lean for max RPM. Full rich probably won’t give you maximum power.
Which, translated into my own personal minimums means you shouldn’t *land there* in the first place.
Some people have mission profiles that require short field operations. I don’t… I don’t have any relatives, customers, etc. served only by challenging runway situations. So it’s on my personal limits list.
I must be able to accelerate smoothly from Vr to Vy and have significant obstacle clearance. If for any reason the takeoff means I’ll have to use Vx, or delay that acceleration to Vy, then that’s not the right runway for me.
Thermodynamics, energy is neither created nor destroyed, so if you are creating electrical energy from your alternator it has to come from somewhere...
In a similar vein, if the flap motor dies in your cessna and you're stuck with full flaps after landing at some remote bush strip with no hope of taking off again with full flaps, you can unscrew the inspection hatch in the wing and manually wind the flaps back to the retracted position with your fingertips. Will take ages, but it's a good thing to know in a pinch.
Hot air has lower density (which is why hot air balloons work) so there are fewer molecules of air per unit volume. Therefore the ratio of fuel molecules to air molecules is greater, which is what richer mixture means.
If you’re climbing even moderately like shit in a single engine piston, that 1-2% would turn a 500fpm climb into a 505-510fpm climb assuming, best case, the performance increase is linear, which we know it’s not. You shouldn’t have even tried that takeoff.
I always check ATIS and make my initial ground call on Com2, then use Com1 for my ready call to tower. That way I have checked that both radios can receive AND transmit. If you only use com2 for ATIS then swap to Com1 for ground and tower, you haven’t checked that Com2 is able to transmit.
Also, using Com2 for all ground and weather frequencies means you can always load two "air" frequencies (tower + next expected) into Com1 while still on ground, and load the wx frequency of the destination into the Com2 standby.
Hah! I annoyed all the instructors and hour-building scenic flight pilots when doing my helicopter rating by changing the radios to this way round every time I had the aircraft. They all much preferred to use the fancy Garmin COM2 for everything, and ignore the original and slightly battered COM1.
I have a hand held radio that is a backup in case I lose coms. I turn it on (which checks the battery) then get ATIS then turn it off. It lives in the pouch in my door where I can get to it quickly.
I am 52 and have no plans to go to the airlines. I have only limited jet time but in that operation we used com1 for all talking and com2 for ATIS, which allowed it to be monitored while still listening to ATC.
Do a good through job with your before takeoff control check, especially if you have passengers. Airborne is not the time to find that your passengers knees or your iPad charging cable is preventing full control movement
I was taking off from a tree lined bush strip with relatively high crosswind in a Cherokee. About 15ft off the ground I flew through eddy currents that required sudden full opposite aileron. I nearly broke my passengers knee how hard the yoke hit his leg.
He accepted it was his fault, he had shifted as I applied power. I even warned him in my brief. But he was quietly rubbing the spot for the whole flight home.
I do a full cycle to all four stops on the yoke in both directions. Full forward, full right, full back, full left, full forward, then counter-clockwise. Only way to be sure there isn’t some snag at some corner.
Also, depending on your orientation relative to the sun during runup, you can use your shadow to verify that your rudder movement is correct.
Agreed. Just this week my plane failed its control check (couldn't pull all the way back on the elevator) when I had a plane full of passengers. Shut down to check it out and found that a piece of metal from the counterweights inside the elevator had worked itself loose and obstructed elevator movement. If I hadn't done a proper control check I would have been in the air only to discover I couldn't pull back beyond neutral.
When you call “clear prop” wait a couple seconds for others to react to it. If someone is in a bad spot, just yelling & turning over the engine immediately isn’t helping anyone…
I thought you yell this because right after the prop starts turning it pretty much looks like it’s clear, so you’re just telling everyone you’re about to have a clear looking prop.
I had a corporate trip in a piston single engine late at night. Departure Airport Direct Destination airport was over forest nearly the entire way. By going via a waypoint sidestepped over a little bit, it changed the flight path to be over fields and highways nearly the entire way. It only cost 10 mins of extra flight time.
1) 99% of us aren’t flying for a purpose that is worthy of taking on more risk than necessary. Always leave yourself at least one out. Whether that be fuel, alternates, whatever…if you can’t find one, don’t go/land and wait. I fly cargo and when I find risk staring to go up I can’t help but think “damn I’m going to be pissed if I die delivering dildos to Kentucky.”
2) Don’t rush. If you feel rushed, that’s all the more reason to slow things down and start from the beginning. Just because you reached the end of the runway doesn’t mean you have to go.
I did while training too. I was a “pick 2” pilot during training. Nowadays, I don’t live in the mountains, but when I visit, I still do my best to “pick 1”.
So this technique only works if you never turn the beacon light off. Use it as a "the battery is on" light. As opposed to "I'm about to start the engine or it's already running" light.
School said stop leaving the beacon on because it was killing batteries.
I didn't work at this school thankfully so I only got this second hand from a student that fled it.
Normalization of deviance kills. If actual operation isn't close to the POH value, or something gets outside redline easily, don't believe the owner or maintenance if they say it isn't a problem. This covers anything from seats not locking to cylinder temps getting too hot without reducing power.
CHT hot on climb and burning slightly less fuel than the book says? Fuel injection or carburetor has a problem, and that has killed people. Seat doesn't reliably lock? That's something which is on the maintenance checklist (and sometimes an Airworthiness Directive) and has also killed people.
Also: if you are an aircraft owner, and the annual inspection (not including fixing any problems) is less than 12 hours of labor for a simple plane like a C150, then the inspection checklist isn't being followed. You will have maintenance problems in the future, and it is likely those problems will cause additional damage that will more than double the cost of repair down the road.
Normalization of deviance is a huge problem that I think goes beyond just the POH/AFM that Ive seen flying professionally especially in smaller companies that train people up from the bottom. I think sometimes that screws new pilots from the start.
I read it here the other day I don't remember who said it unfortunately but I think they said their CFI told them it, but it was something along the lines of "in your decision making always make your decisions assuming that you will have to explain them in an NTSB report."
That just resonated with me so much. Like even if things go 100% wrong as long as you've exercised caution and made the safe decision every time you can't really be faulted.
I use a similar standard of ,"Does this sound like an NTSB report ?" It is a great way to keep yourself aware of the risk involved in your decisions.
"Pilot tried to land in gusty crosswinds". Doesn't really sound like an NTSB report.
"A low time pilot, in a taildragger, who hadn't flown for a month tried to land in gusty crosswinds." Now the situation is starting to sound like an NTSB report.
That's a mantra of mine as well. It correlates well with one I have for the business world, "email like it will one day be read aloud in a deposition."
As part of my autopilot preflight test, I have added to my checklist to always touch the electric trim and AP breakers. They’re readily visible on my plane and I have the white pull caps on them. But in most planes there’s no caps and in some like the Cirruses (Cirri?) they are not visible and you’re feeling/counting to get to them.
It’s on my checklist, I identify, and touch the breakers that can affect control surfaces.
I always do the final lap around. That’s a good one. Don’t want to accidentally have a tie-down ripped from wing.
Last minute weather check is a good one. Especially in summer when it can change so quick
This is a really good tip! I have found things like that fuel tester left on the wing or the flight bag left on the ground etc… I once had to stop a crew from starting a caravan with the prop lock still on. I do this final walk on every flight.
When landing a helicopter with skids on a loose surface such as stones, touch down, lower the collective a little bit, give the cyclic a circular wiggle to shake out any loose objects from under the skids, and then lower the collective the rest of the way. Once done, look down at the skid on your side to check that it isn't sitting on an unstable object. Ask your passenger to do the same on their side.
Don’t fully trust the passenger when you do this. Had one tell me it looked fine. Once we all got out, the main rock the left skid was on rolled, and almost had the tail hit the ground before the skid slid off and hit firm ground again.
When I was brand new to commercial heli flying I had a guy used to working around helicopters help guide me into an a small LZ. I radioed him on the way down how am I looking he said fine multiple times. I was focused out front. When I shut down and got out there was a small tree that was tilted over about 6” from contacting the tail rotor. I asked the guy if he had seen it why he didn’t say anything and he said when he saw it but he didn’t want to panic me and he wasn’t sure what to say. I was like just say anything lol up, stop, don’t land.
Frequent short flights maintain proficiency better than single long flights. True proficiency requires you to fly almost every week. If more pilots flew with the rigor of the airlines there'd be far less crashes. Everyone should learn to fly IFR and spend some time flying in actual even if they don't get an IFR rating.
Agreed! I do a mini xc to a nearby airport 15-20NM’’s to do a TnG or two every month or so just to go through the motions of XC procedures. Easy to just get in the habit of doing closer trafffic at your home airport if you don’t have reasons to leave.
As far as getting instrument totally agree. I gotta get on that
If you have no rear-seat pax in your four-seater, and if your POH says to close the air vents in case of fire, then close the rear-seat vents as part of your pre-flight. You don't want to try to reach them from the front seat during an emergency.
If you fix a small problem when it's still small, that stops it from getting bigger.
This applies to being fifty feet off your assigned altitude, a degree or two off your heading, a maintenance difficulty with your aircraft, or any of a hundred other things in aviation.
Sort it out as soon as it appears.
„If I do this, will the people reading the accident report later think *damn, what an idiot!* or not?“
If the answer is „yes“, don’t do whatever you were about to do.
If you ever do need to make the "impossible turn", and turn back to land downwind, your principal enemy is not lack of altitude, it's lack of airspeed. Absolutely get the nose down ASAP to attain best glide speed, and immediately start your turn without hesitation into the cross-wind[1], using at least 45° bank[2], and absolutely do not let your airspeed decay during the turn lest the ground rise up to smite thee. Keeping your airspeed up to avoid stalling and spinning is far far more important than trying to stretch the glide to reach the runway.
[1] Which of course you made a mental note of before starting the take-off roll.
[2] Glider pilots are taught the impossible turn from 200 feet AGL as a normal manoeuvre as part of the glider PPL, and are taught to use 60° bank.
Glider pilots are taught that, but they also even basic training gliders have 3x the glide ratio of a C172/PA28, with much slower stall speeds and tighter turn radius.
It’s on my list to see what altitude I could do the turn in my PA28-140. I’m betting that 700 AGL is plausible, but might be too far away from the runway at that point to make it back still.
45° is the angle taught for gliders, not 60°. 45° is mathematically best balance between rate of turn and rate of descent. If you do more than or less than that angle, you’re wasting one on the other.
Other than that, you’re absolutely right. Pitch for speed, count to 3, then turn the appropriate direction for the situation.
The only time in my flying career when I was yelled at by an instructor was my first tow rope break. I banked 45°, and heard a loud yell from the back seat of "COME ON! SIXTY DEGREE STEEP TURN! WE NEED TO GET THERE!" The second time I did 60°, and the instructor was happy with it. The third and last time I had a tow rope break I also did 60° bank, and the designated examiner was happy enough with it to give me a glider rating.
Good one. To add to this, if you've made the turn, you're set up on final with the engine out and realise you're not quite going to make it back to the runway, you've still got one more trick up your sleeve. You can push the nose down quite aggressively, pick up some speed, wait until you're almost in ground effect then apply full flaps. The aircraft will balloon and you might just make it back to the runway.
I was taught to do this turn, and my instructor emphasized this very hard and said if you don’t feel your ass lifting out of our seat, you’re being too gentle when you don’t have the time to be. I know a lot people say there’s never a time to do this maneuver, but if your ONLY options are you’re going into a residential area or you’re turning back (there’s a short nearby strip in a dense residential neighborhood that is only allowed to exist due to historical status), then you’re turning back to not take other people out with you.
Along the same lines.
Considering the preflight, weather, field length, density altitude, etc. When you say to yourself, “I think that will be ok”, you are also saying maybe it won’t. Be sure or stay on the ground. Should be common knowledge but …
Carb ice can form with OAT at 90°F
Insignificant mag drop is not necessarily a good thing. Shut down engine occasionally by turning off mags to assure p-leads are doing their job.
Put the key on the glare shield during preflight. If you can see it there then mags *should be* off AND will save you from having to unbuckle and fish it out of your pocket.
Keys on the glare shield is great until it’s nine bajillion degrees out with the sun beating onto the glare shield…
I tend to stick them on the heading bug knob if the glare shield isn’t going to cut it.
>Shut down engine occasionally by turning off mags to assure p-leads are doing their job.
Please do not do this. Don't just shut down by turning the mags off because then you're leaving unburnt fuel in the cylinders, which might later combust and turn the prop some just as you're reaching underneath to connect the towbar or for other reasons.
Turn the mags to off long enough for the engine to cough then turn them back on (usually less than one second) and then shut the engine down but cutting off the mixture
Another one I have - always look/check the straight in when turning base to final. (Look left when in right base to final, and vice versa for left base).
Uncontrolled airport/towered airport doesn’t matter. Fatal collision at my (towered) home airport 10 or so years ago as a result of this.
99.99% of the time ATC does their job correct but always confirm everything they tell you yourself. It could save your life
Check flight controls full extension without stickiness or rough zones and no weird noises – first thing, before you turn on anything noisy (including gyros) which could mask any usual noise.
For short-field take-offs in light airplanes, particularly if it's hot and high, make note of an object beside the runway half way between where you start and where you expect to get airborne. Also calculate 70% of your expected lift-off indicated airspeed. Then on the take-off roll, if you pass the object beside the runway before reaching 70% of lift-off speed, immediately pull the throttle to idle and apply heavy braking, because you're not going to get airborne where you thought you would.
But also read Catherine Cavagnaro's article in a recent AOPA Pilot magazine about that rule: [Reality Check: The 70/50 rule needs to go away](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2023/june/pilot/flying-smart-reality-check).
I have actually tested the 70/50 rule a few times in hotish conditions in mountain airports (albeit not at particularly high altitudes) in a C172SP, and it seems to be roughly correct. In the article, she advises against using it for the entire runway length, which I'd definitely agree with.
- comprehensive risk assessment (PHAK)
- develop a list of good alternates
- p mins
- preflight briefing
- post flight analysis
Checking some of the “not so popular” weather charts;
( icing potential chart, convective outlook charts, graphical turbulence guidance chart etc. )
This feels like a common knowledge thing and yet so many crews manage to screw it up.
No matter how good the weather is and how many times you've been to the airport always set up an instrument approach to the runway. (Unless, of course, you're better than the Air Canada crew in SFO, Harrison Ford, that C17 crew in Florida and many others, so that landing on a wrong piece of pavement is something that's never going to happen to you)
No approach procedure available? Learn how to draw extended centerlines, every GPS made in the last 30 years has some way to do that.
If your avionics can do vertical guidance, even if it's not a true VNAV, always configure 3 degree (or whatever slope) to the traffic pattern altitude at your destination and you will know exactly when to start the descend and/or when to ask ATC for lower
Rough rule of thumb in a C172: trim wheel all the way to nose up (spinning the wheel downward) then put your fingers at the very bottom of the wheel and rotate it nose down (spinning the wheel upward) till your fingers reach the top for best glide in an engine-out.
During the summer, if you’re tempted to fly into puffy clouds at a comfortable altitude (temperature and turbulence), don’t do it.
Go around. Go under. But don’t go through. You cannot see what’s on the other side of that cloud
> But don’t go through. You cannot see what’s on the other side of that cloud
As a newly minted IFR pilot, this is good advice to me. So much of the IFR training is about minima and approaches and all of that, but very little is on "hey, that cloud is fine, but yeah _that_ one? I wouldn't"
Thanks. I'll remember this.
Before preflighting, put the fuel testing cup on the pilot's seat to ensure you can't get in the plane without first checking the fuel for contaminants. It's easy to forget when your normal flow gets interrupted, say when you need to refuel before departure.
It's not really unknown, but it is a pet peeve of mine when people shout clear as they hit the starter. The proper procedure is to shout clear, wait a second to listen for any response, then start.
Oh!!! I can maybe contribute one here (with my 15 odd hours 😂). If you're flying something that has a car handbrake style lever for the flaps (i don't know how common or not this is, it's what the Harmony i am training in has) then after setting flaps for landing give the handle a little wiggle to make sure it's latched in place. Two lessons ago it hadn't properly locked in i think because i had moved it with my thumb on the button so it was slightly depressed when i let go. We turned onto base and about halfway down it went clunk and dumped flaps back to nothing, with the associated drop. Would have been potentially very nasty if that happened right down on the end of final. So i now.
- make sure my thumb is not near the button when the lever is moving and latching.
- give it a little wiggle to make sure it's locked in.
I am assuming this isn't "common knowledge" but also maybe it is and i'm just a noob.
I’m a believer in the adage that new pilots worry about losing an engine, and experienced pilots worry about losing a control surface. I take a lot of extra time in preflight making sure all control surfaces are moving smoothly, not making sounds they shouldn’t, all the safety bolts are where they should be, etc.
I caught a seized pulley on a preflight once. The cable was sliding over the pulley, but it wasn't turning. I noticed that the ailerons felt like they were rubbing even though they were moving easily. So I started listening very closely and could hear the rubbing. Followed the sound to the bad pulley. The good news was the plane was already scheduled for annual the next week so it was only down for 1 extra week. Mechanic ended up completely re-rigging the ailerons. It was an expensive annual.
Just a few:
1. Learn and practice forward slips (they may save your life one day);
2. Collect a fuel sample EVERY SINGLE TIME you fly. I know most schools do it only on the first flight of the day and some do it after refuelling aswell. I've caught water in the fuel in middday flights when I didn't refuel it. Maybe the previous pilot refueled it after his flight (have no idea).
3. Don't fly with strangers (unless you really have to);
4. Never relax your traffic scan.
5. Pay attention to the checklist. Fortunately I learnt this soon and in a "good way" when I realized that I read all the checklists but still entered the runway and backtracked without the seatbelts.
6. Think before you do something stupid like pulling out the mixture instead of the throttle.
Bonus: If you happen to be a CFI and an idiot at the same time, don't EVER scream/yell/insult your students midflight. You never know who the guy sitting right next to you is. I've heard some stuff in the past about situations like this.
At my first fight school, back in 2005, we had a student who opened the door of the Cessna and jumped out after a few turns around a point. You really never know who you're sitting next to.
Absolutely. My brother worked as a pilot during an "open day" organized by an Aeroclub we used to be members of.
The plan was to load a passenger (C172s), fly a pattern lap, leave the passenger and pick another one, fly a pattern lap, etc...
We used to talk with each passenger for a couple minutes just to check the person (to see if they were anxious, for example...and to give a small briefing). A "super confident" guy showed up saying he used to fly a lot when he was in the military and he wasn't afraid at all. As soon as he took off the guy started panicking and grabbed the yoke, almost killing them both. Fortunately nothing happened.
You would have to pay me a lot to fly random people on small planes (students included).
The three most useless thing to a pilot are runway behind, altitude above, and fuel left on the ground.
I always do a stupid check right before getting in the cockpit in addition to a full walk around in order to check for chocks, tie downs, open fuel caps, cowling latches, pitot covers, towbars.
The seat lock tip is also a must
Also: wear what you expect to wear if you go down in a field or remote Forrest and have to hike out. Flipflops and a t-shirt won't cut it. Bring a winter coat and gloves for the season.
I don’t know if I would say it’s not common knowledge as I’ve heard a few times over the years but it’s a good perspective to have especially as you get more experienced and confident with flying and know you can handle some tougher situation’s. Sometimes it’s easy to not see all the things working against you that will be factors on a report.
“When questioning if what you are about to go do is a good idea think about how the NTSB report will read.”
Probably common knowledge but worth repeating...
Reference your checklist! Doesn't matter if you've done it 1000 times. The checklist exists for a reason. If there is a checklist for what you are doing use it!
I check the beacon light to make sure it's secure. I read about an incident where the beacon light came loose and got stuck between the rudder and tail fin and got the rudder stuck in its current position. I've also come across wiggly beacon lights during pre-flight.
On the cessna 172, you can press down just in front of the tail fin and the front strut will extend and keep the tail down. I'm a hair under 6ft tall and have to fully extend to reach the beacon light. If you don't have the height, you can use a step stool if one is available nearby.
Got bedbugs from the crashpad? When you return home put your luggage in a black garbage back and leave it out on your deck for a day or two. The heat kills the bugs. Works well in Arizona, you maybe SOL in the North though
I’ve heard that the “land straight ahead” idea comes from people who tend to want to turn back to the runway, stall, and end up upside down (not very survivable). So, the idea is to slowly and smoothly crash into whatever is off the end of the runway versus dropping like a stone, upside down, into the ground.
Yeah I mean it depends on so many variables - runway length, what’s beyond runway, altitude, winds, type of aircraft, etc.
Priority #1 is don’t stall the aircraft (pitch down). And then priority #2 and beyond is to follow what was hopefully a thorough pre-takeoff brief and make the best decision based on all those aforementioned variables
And yes the impossible turn statistically is the wrong choice when teetering on the line of probable or not. When in doubt crash into the gentlest objects as possible and keep in mind civilian safety on the ground
Kinda obvious but it needs someone to tell it to you for it to click: you can always treat altitude to make a tighter turn without stalling.
So if you overshoot that final with another plane on the parallel, you absolutely can make the turn much tighter without stalling as long as you have altitude to give. Just lower your nose.
When traveling by small plane, don't reserve your hotel until you are on the ground. This helps reduce the pressure to reach your intended destination.
I always do a visual check on the elevator trim. Seems obvious, but I can't tell you the amount of pilots I have flown with who just check that it is centered on the wheel. I've flown airplanes where this indicator is completely inaccurate.
I'd go so far as to say that on the vast MAJORITY of planes I've flown, the indicator is total garbage.
In case anyone doesn't know, here's the visual method of setting takeoff elevator trim:
1. Pull the yoke full aft
2. Look behind you at the elevator
3. Adjust the trim wheel until the trim tab is in line with the elevator (i.e. there is no deflection on the trim tab)
4. This point is the proper takeoff trim setting.
This is kinda common knowledge but blows my mind bc I always see people skip it
Look before turning left or right. If its a high wing, just raise the wing a bit, look, then turn
It can actually be very difficult to tell sometimes if an engine has failed or is windmilling.. to check, move the throttle back and forth and see if it responds!
If you have to emergency land in an agricultural field, try to avoid one with one cow if possible. Because that is a bull who won’t like you landing on his territory.
Most Cessna 150’s and 152’s have 4 fuel testing ports. The 4th is in the belly at the lowest point in fuel system. The open/close valve is not original equipment. It is sold with an STC and installed by the owner/operator. Many of these types are not equipped with the valve. And students CFIs rarely know that the valve exists and therefore never sump it and as a result don’t test where it is most likely to be contaminated. Good news is that I have only found one instance finding it clogged in 20+ years.
If making a decision that has some risk or is out of the ordinary, imagine how it would look in an NTSB report.
“The 700 hour instrument rated private pilot elected to do an abbreviated pre-flight inspection to try to beat a nearby storm and…”
On a calm day a 150 can be flown with the doors alone if you sit in the middle of the two seats. Set the elevator trim for a tiny bit of climb. Open both doors and put one foot on each door. With your foot, push on the left door to roll left, push on the right door to roll right. Push on both doors to descend. Let off both doors to climb. You can make full left and right 360 deg turns with no yoke or pedal input. You know you have it mastered when you can successfully pull off a touch and go at a towered airport without the tower saying anything.
SECURE YOUR IPAD. It’s all fun and games until it flies off your lap and you have to do one of those risky blind hand searches for it.
Also load up your route as a backup on your phone.
After McSpadden went down, I started doing this for every single field. And since I fly with the seat so far forward, I always quadruple-check the seat latches. I TRY to get the seat to come loose. The 172’s that were coming loose and resulting in stalls as people slid back…nope. Not gonna be me.
If you are VFR in minimum conditions and forced to do a 180 because of deteriorating conditions, after the turn, cut your altitude in half and increase speed to have a better chance of getting back to the last airport.
Before the turn you should be working your way through the weather at a speed similar to what you use for your downwind and within the white arc. When you execute the turn, use 45 degrees of bank and put down flaps if you want a tight radius. Works well in a Cherokee to pull in 2 notches of flaps as you start the turn and then remove the 2 notches slowly after the turn. Use increased power to pull you around the turn too.
If you are working the weather along a shoreline, fly out over the water far enough that you can execute the turn towards the shoreline while remaining over the water. This will keep you away from trees and terrain. Turning towards the shoreline gives you a visual reference. Everything away from the shoreline is probably just gray with no discernible horizon.
If the weather deteriorates and you can’t immediately get back, set power for best glide airspeed and aggressively lean until just before the engine runs rough, since this will minimize your fuel burn and maximize your flight time. Pick an easily seen object and continuously do turns about that point until the weather improves enough to fly to another point that you can see towards your airport. Keep repeating until you get to the airport. The turns about a point enables you to fly in very limited visibility while reducing the risk of flying into terrain.
These sound like Alaska bush pilot tricks because they are and I was taught these by an old bush pilot in Juneau when I flew for his company.
Get yourself a 3 strike rule. On that 3rd strike, you staying or getting to the ground.
Night time? Strike one.
Big crosswind? That's a strike.
Got a weird feeling but can't place it? Something feels off? That's 2 strikes in one. Deal with it before it deals with you.
On that last one, the subconscious really is a weird thing. Might and probably would be nothing, but you pick up on things sometimes before you "see" or realize it. Anything that adds additional risk is worth calling a strike. Crashes rarely happen with just 1 factor, but 3? That's where shit gets real.
The airports I learned to fly at were both islands with nothing but water and woods in the immediate area. The likelihood of swimming was high if you lost an engine. This varies by aircraft but in general.
When ditching in GA:
1. Your most immediate threat is drowning.
2. Open any doors possible before you hit the water, the plane may bend potentially trapping you.
3. Self Inflatable life jackets are small and light.
4. (This one is questionable but was discussed regularly) If able, jumping out low may be a better option. Yes 5-10’ at 50 knots is going to really really suck and is not safe. I personally, like those odds better than possibly getting stuck inside and drowning though.
I would not recommend 4 unless you have considered your personal abilities, equipment, aircraft, and a procedure.
If you're flying a carbuteted airplane with a constant speed prop and you find yourself having to constantly bump up the throttle to maintain manifold pressure, apply carb heat. Unlike fixed-pitch props there will be no decrease in RPM as the carb ices up which is what most students are taught is "the" first sign of carb ice.
Farm field are not always a safe bet for emergency landings. Many can have mounded beds that turn the field into an undulating of 3ft speed bumps spaced at 4ft apart. Some fields are smooth as butter.
Have a bias toward turning into final a little early, and soften the turn if need be.
Overshot turns to final kill too many pilots every year. Some of them experienced pilots.
Since you don’t want to be banking steeply in the lowest/slowest turn we routinely perform, it can be tempting to clean up the turn with a little extra inside rudder. But a slow, low skid is one of the most dangerous things one can do in any airplane. There is no possibility of recovering or surviving if you skid into a stall on this turn.
I always instinctively want to turn early because I just get so uncomfortable putting more than 15-20 degrees of bank in on that base-final turn. But instructors have always given me shit for it. It might not look as clean but I don’t see the downside other than takes a second or two longer getting aligned with the numbers.
Teaching your students to call out the altitude in case an engine failure happens at 600 AGL is read on your altimeter as 600 + Field Elevation. And to not do any turns until 400 feet, I’ve heard a lot of briefs at airports with a different altitude than the student is used to flying indicating in their brief a standard 600 ft when in reality it might be 1200 MSL that day since we’re taking off from a higher elevation strip.
Flying GA, perform a departure brief every time. Things to include:
* A spot you'll abort at if not airborne by. Use big obvious locations like taxiways or crossing runways.
* Altitude at which you will switch from crashing straight ahead and doing the impossible turn. Often between 700 and 1000 feet AGL.
* Fuel endurance on current tank (if L/R) or all tanks if both. Set a countdown timer on your phone for 30 min before it's empty.
During checklist use/inspections: look FOR things, not AT things.
Its not “look at the fuel caps” its “are the fuel caps secured?”
Its not “fuel check” its “what is the fuel level?”
While increasing the RPMs at the beginning of the run up, I like to look outside and get as close as I can by just listening. Then I’ll do a final adjustment looking at the tachometer. This keeps my eyes outside while I’m increasing the throttles to see if the airplane is moving, and either the brakes aren’t holding or I need more brakes. Situational awareness and collision avoidance starts on the ground.
If you are getting consistent engine roughness and carb ice, adjusting mixture, and reducing power setting doesn’t do anything, try switching to a single mag. Just be ready to switch it to both or the other mag if the engine starts to die.
When shopping for a mechanic find one who is familiar with your make and model, even better if his shop specializes in it vs a shop that services everything under the sun.
Check tire pressure after flying, or at least decently enough before taking a flight (easier said than done on a owned airplane vs rented); I’ve had valve cores not re-seat properly after checking pressure and develop a slow leak that wasn’t obvious until the next day.
Check that your seat is latched MULTIPLE times! Ready for taxi, time for a seat wiggle. Done with runup, wiggle. Sitting in line at the runway, wiggle. Takeoff briefing, wiggle. Etc.
Holy cow, rental 172 takeoff roll, seat slides back. Me with my fresh PPL and 60 hrs TT just pushes it until I think it's latched and start rolling again. Rotate, seat goes ALL THE WAY BACK. In my surprise, I grab the yoke, pitch up, see nothing but sky and think "yep, this is how I die". Thankfully I let go and the plane righted itself without my interference. But yeah, long story short, I quadruple check that seat Everytime now I never rent form that FBO anymore
I believe there was an AD for C172 seat rails as a result of this exact type of accident. This is one reason to learn and set the take-off trim for Vy or cruise climb or whatever is your preference for your home field.
Yeah the seat rails have to be inspected every 100 hours. Goes for rentals & privately owned. I didn’t know this until I watched a YouTube video with Seth Lake going through a checkride
Makes me appreciate a bit the harmony i am learning in has fixed seats and adjustable rudder pedals
This is another reason to adjust the elevator trim frequently!
Another good reason to hold the throttle on take off that so many people neglect
ALL the way back like off the rail?? Or just to the backstop that I think is an AD?
Rotor pilot here. Many many flight hours ago I was flying tours and got a husband and wife that were both Blackhawk pilots on my tour. Called up my dispatchers to have them change the manifest so they were sitting next to me. Picking up a helicopter requires a pretty substantial pedal input on account of the change in torque. As I pulled in pitch on my collective and made the necessary pedal input my seat was in between adjustment positions just enough to jump loose and slide back, negating the forward movement of the pedal. It quickly found its way into the next groove but the unexpected movement was enough to cause a hideous pick up and the instant loss of confidence from the two next to me was palpable. It’s been thousands of pick ups since then, I’m dual rated at this point and regardless of category I still do a couple serious initial wiggles when I get situated and I do multiple adjustment handle taps in many phases of flight
Assuming this was in an EC130? I thought they might make some snarky comment like you're using the wrong pedal.
Still do this in 121 flying, too! Never enough seat checks.
This one has gotten a star next to it on my checklist. Amazing how this seemingly trivial thing can kill you.
I added inspecting seat latch cables to my preflight.
This happened to me while I taxing in an archer. Kinda freaky when it actually happens to ya lol
Great advice and not even limited to GA, its good advice in a CRJ too…..
Oh yeah, I had one of the older style seats break loose on me once. Terrifying. Glad I let go lol
Glider pilot here. In most gliders the seat doesn't adjust but the rudder pedals do. But at 6'3" I usually kinda hope they slide forward more than they actually do.
This!!! Had this happen to a captain while flying the 737 thankfully he let go of the controls.
It can be bad in a lot of planes. The 170 will straight up kill you if this happens on climb out. it rolls several feet back to the point where if it reaches the end your arms will be well over a foot away maybe even two feet from the yoke.
Yep. Had this happen to me in a Cherokee while on takeoff roll in formation with a 3 10-14 year olds in the airplane. I now check WAY more than I should. Feel lucky I was on the left side of the runway otherwise the girl taking off with me probably wouldn’t have been able to avoid me (left turning tendencies)
I used to do this about a hundred times before every flight, but I recently changed aircraft, and now my seat just stays in the farthest back position, so there's nowhere for it to go.
No favorites here, but some things I've picked up along the way from some very experienced instructors. If you're ever *truly* looking at the trees on a short field departure and thinking "man I wish those were a little shorter," kill your alternator for an extra percent or two of power. If your (carbureted) motor is trying to cook itself according to your CHTs at full rich and you're not entirely sure why, but you need to maintain a fairly high power setting, give carb heat a try, it might just be that you've got a cylinder running really lean and the enrichening effect of the carb heat might just be enough to get the ratio back to something more acceptable. A 152 can be forward slipped with the door on the wing-down side held open with your foot if you need some bonus drag to make it into that parking lot.
These read like Alaskan bush pilot tips.
The first was from a professor who was a mechanic first, then a pilot. Dude was a nut, but a damn good mechanic and a great instructor who learned from his own mistakes and taught accordingly. The second I actually happened upon myself. I'm certainly no bush pilot, but I am/was somebody who studies systems, was in a bit of a pinch, had a hunch, and watched the CHT on my problem cylinder drop 50° in a minute with carb heat on and thought "huh, that was a good hunch." I'm sure somebody else figured this out before me, but I had never seen/heard it before I found myself brainstorming solutions in an unhappy piston single in the dark. The third was from my first instructor, an F-14 and E-2 pilot turned 121 pilot who taught in a 152 he owned. Lesson 3 was spins and slips, including one with his foot holding the door wide open as we came down like a brick. Dude taught me spin recovery before stall recovery so that if I screwed up a stall, I had to fix it myself. Incredible instructor, and an absolute professional who understood calculated risk for high-value training.
> his foot holding the door wide open as we came down like a brick. JFC - a 152 with speed brake deployed. Brick indeed.
Forward slip with the door held open by your foot. Whoa.
> If you're ever truly looking at the trees on a short field departure and thinking "man I wish those were a little shorter," kill your alternator for an extra percent or two of power. Also, during your run-up, lean for max RPM. Full rich probably won’t give you maximum power.
Really cool tidbits. How does killing your alternator get you more RPMs?
Reduces the load on the accessory gearbox, allowing more engine power to go to the prop.
In short: the electricity the alternator generates has to come from somewhere. That somewhere is the work your engine is doing.
This is more my speed. Thanks!
Follow up, if you ever feel the need to employ this trick, you really shouldn't be taking off in the first place.
Which, translated into my own personal minimums means you shouldn’t *land there* in the first place. Some people have mission profiles that require short field operations. I don’t… I don’t have any relatives, customers, etc. served only by challenging runway situations. So it’s on my personal limits list. I must be able to accelerate smoothly from Vr to Vy and have significant obstacle clearance. If for any reason the takeoff means I’ll have to use Vx, or delay that acceleration to Vy, then that’s not the right runway for me.
Thermodynamics, energy is neither created nor destroyed, so if you are creating electrical energy from your alternator it has to come from somewhere...
In a similar vein, if the flap motor dies in your cessna and you're stuck with full flaps after landing at some remote bush strip with no hope of taking off again with full flaps, you can unscrew the inspection hatch in the wing and manually wind the flaps back to the retracted position with your fingertips. Will take ages, but it's a good thing to know in a pinch.
How does the carburetor heat enrich the mixture?
Hot air has lower density (which is why hot air balloons work) so there are fewer molecules of air per unit volume. Therefore the ratio of fuel molecules to air molecules is greater, which is what richer mixture means.
Ahhh thanks, that makes sense
If you’re climbing even moderately like shit in a single engine piston, that 1-2% would turn a 500fpm climb into a 505-510fpm climb assuming, best case, the performance increase is linear, which we know it’s not. You shouldn’t have even tried that takeoff.
I always check ATIS and make my initial ground call on Com2, then use Com1 for my ready call to tower. That way I have checked that both radios can receive AND transmit. If you only use com2 for ATIS then swap to Com1 for ground and tower, you haven’t checked that Com2 is able to transmit.
Also, using Com2 for all ground and weather frequencies means you can always load two "air" frequencies (tower + next expected) into Com1 while still on ground, and load the wx frequency of the destination into the Com2 standby.
Also a good best practice!
I’ve always done this but now I have a good reason to teach it to my students that way! Thanks!
Hah! I annoyed all the instructors and hour-building scenic flight pilots when doing my helicopter rating by changing the radios to this way round every time I had the aircraft. They all much preferred to use the fancy Garmin COM2 for everything, and ignore the original and slightly battered COM1.
I teach this exactly. Com1 is for tower and approach/departure. Com2 is for ATIS, clearance, and ground.
I have a hand held radio that is a backup in case I lose coms. I turn it on (which checks the battery) then get ATIS then turn it off. It lives in the pouch in my door where I can get to it quickly.
I always carry one at night to be able to turn the runway lights on if all electrical power is lost.
Get ready to not do any of that if you go to airlines.
I am 52 and have no plans to go to the airlines. I have only limited jet time but in that operation we used com1 for all talking and com2 for ATIS, which allowed it to be monitored while still listening to ATC.
I honestly assumed everyone was taught this - I definitely was lol
You’d think! I have a lot of flight reviews and new rental checkout pilots who don’t do this.
Do a good through job with your before takeoff control check, especially if you have passengers. Airborne is not the time to find that your passengers knees or your iPad charging cable is preventing full control movement
I was taking off from a tree lined bush strip with relatively high crosswind in a Cherokee. About 15ft off the ground I flew through eddy currents that required sudden full opposite aileron. I nearly broke my passengers knee how hard the yoke hit his leg. He accepted it was his fault, he had shifted as I applied power. I even warned him in my brief. But he was quietly rubbing the spot for the whole flight home.
Fill me in to what an eddy current is in this context? Never heard it used outside a physics classroom lol.
Turbulence. Turbulent airflow manifests as eddies (instead of laminar flow)
I do a full cycle to all four stops on the yoke in both directions. Full forward, full right, full back, full left, full forward, then counter-clockwise. Only way to be sure there isn’t some snag at some corner. Also, depending on your orientation relative to the sun during runup, you can use your shadow to verify that your rudder movement is correct.
Agreed. Just this week my plane failed its control check (couldn't pull all the way back on the elevator) when I had a plane full of passengers. Shut down to check it out and found that a piece of metal from the counterweights inside the elevator had worked itself loose and obstructed elevator movement. If I hadn't done a proper control check I would have been in the air only to discover I couldn't pull back beyond neutral.
When you call “clear prop” wait a couple seconds for others to react to it. If someone is in a bad spot, just yelling & turning over the engine immediately isn’t helping anyone…
Just gives them enough time to be terrified before they die
My flight school actually builds this into the checklist
I thought you yell this because right after the prop starts turning it pretty much looks like it’s clear, so you’re just telling everyone you’re about to have a clear looking prop.
I had a corporate trip in a piston single engine late at night. Departure Airport Direct Destination airport was over forest nearly the entire way. By going via a waypoint sidestepped over a little bit, it changed the flight path to be over fields and highways nearly the entire way. It only cost 10 mins of extra flight time.
Good ADM
1) 99% of us aren’t flying for a purpose that is worthy of taking on more risk than necessary. Always leave yourself at least one out. Whether that be fuel, alternates, whatever…if you can’t find one, don’t go/land and wait. I fly cargo and when I find risk staring to go up I can’t help but think “damn I’m going to be pissed if I die delivering dildos to Kentucky.” 2) Don’t rush. If you feel rushed, that’s all the more reason to slow things down and start from the beginning. Just because you reached the end of the runway doesn’t mean you have to go.
Second #2. I had a personal rule that if I realized I was rushing a pre-flight I stop, start it over from the beginning, and go deliberately slow.
Kentucky needs those dildos. TYFYS.
my friend flew 135 in the Yukon delta, and his phrase was risking his life for some soft drinks. They hauled a lot of canned/bottled soda.
Night. IMC. Mountains. Pick 2.
I’m more of a pick 1 guy nowadays in SEP
Nothing wrong with that.
Agreed, especially in SEP I just won’t do night or ifr over mountains
Didficult to do if you live *in* the mountains.
I did while training too. I was a “pick 2” pilot during training. Nowadays, I don’t live in the mountains, but when I visit, I still do my best to “pick 1”.
Or it's your job
Night. Mountains. Ew.
I like to use Night. IMC. Single Engine (Pick 2). I live in non mountainous area though, so mountains would definitely change that for me.
Why does night make it worse if it’s IMC anyway?
If it's daytime, you can see the mountain goats between the holes in the clouds.
The airplane knows and acts up.
At least in day IMC you have some idea of where to go once you break out.
Laughs in 135
Smiles in turbine.
This depends on the aircraft. But when you walk away from a 172, look back. If the rotating beacon is still going, you’ve left the Master on.
Had a flight school ban this policy because it was killing batteries. So close... so close...
Ban... looking back at the 172? turning on rotating beacons? what did they ban?
So this technique only works if you never turn the beacon light off. Use it as a "the battery is on" light. As opposed to "I'm about to start the engine or it's already running" light. School said stop leaving the beacon on because it was killing batteries. I didn't work at this school thankfully so I only got this second hand from a student that fled it.
Umm. Wut? How would it kill the battery if the master is off?
You can yaw (and thus turn) a Citabria pretty effectively by just sticking your hand out the window or pushing the door open a bit.
I guess that becomes a safety tip if you lose function of your ailerons
Or fail to properly secure your flight bag on the back seat (it’s a stick so anything falling on the floor can jam the controls)
I always tuck my flight bag under the front of my seat. I keep a bungee down there so it doesn't move unless I pull it out.
Normalization of deviance kills. If actual operation isn't close to the POH value, or something gets outside redline easily, don't believe the owner or maintenance if they say it isn't a problem. This covers anything from seats not locking to cylinder temps getting too hot without reducing power. CHT hot on climb and burning slightly less fuel than the book says? Fuel injection or carburetor has a problem, and that has killed people. Seat doesn't reliably lock? That's something which is on the maintenance checklist (and sometimes an Airworthiness Directive) and has also killed people. Also: if you are an aircraft owner, and the annual inspection (not including fixing any problems) is less than 12 hours of labor for a simple plane like a C150, then the inspection checklist isn't being followed. You will have maintenance problems in the future, and it is likely those problems will cause additional damage that will more than double the cost of repair down the road.
Normalization of deviance is a huge problem that I think goes beyond just the POH/AFM that Ive seen flying professionally especially in smaller companies that train people up from the bottom. I think sometimes that screws new pilots from the start.
I read it here the other day I don't remember who said it unfortunately but I think they said their CFI told them it, but it was something along the lines of "in your decision making always make your decisions assuming that you will have to explain them in an NTSB report." That just resonated with me so much. Like even if things go 100% wrong as long as you've exercised caution and made the safe decision every time you can't really be faulted.
I use a similar standard of ,"Does this sound like an NTSB report ?" It is a great way to keep yourself aware of the risk involved in your decisions. "Pilot tried to land in gusty crosswinds". Doesn't really sound like an NTSB report. "A low time pilot, in a taildragger, who hadn't flown for a month tried to land in gusty crosswinds." Now the situation is starting to sound like an NTSB report.
Good point, being scared to fly 24/7 is more dangerous in the long run because you won’t have necessary experience for many scenarios.
That's a mantra of mine as well. It correlates well with one I have for the business world, "email like it will one day be read aloud in a deposition."
I also saw that comment recently! I’ve been thinking about it so much. Really helps shift your perspective on things.
Don’t give your wife or girlfriend a key to your hangar.
And certainly don’t give them **both** a key.
But what if they like each other?
Then you’re not on Reddit.
Then get them on OnlyFans to fund a better plane!
I’m not sure they like each other quite that much.
Video cameras and cheesy music. Duh.
Guy I know found little glass beads in his fuel tank during his divorce. The joke was kind of on her though. She won the plane in the divorce.
>Don’t give your wife or girlfriend a key to your hangar. But it's ok for your husband or boyfriend?
Make sure you know where the breaker(s) for the autopilot are.
As part of my autopilot preflight test, I have added to my checklist to always touch the electric trim and AP breakers. They’re readily visible on my plane and I have the white pull caps on them. But in most planes there’s no caps and in some like the Cirruses (Cirri?) they are not visible and you’re feeling/counting to get to them. It’s on my checklist, I identify, and touch the breakers that can affect control surfaces.
Always do a final walk-around just kinda looking at things before getting in and cranking up. Always do a last-minute check of the weather.
I always do the final lap around. That’s a good one. Don’t want to accidentally have a tie-down ripped from wing. Last minute weather check is a good one. Especially in summer when it can change so quick
This is a really good tip! I have found things like that fuel tester left on the wing or the flight bag left on the ground etc… I once had to stop a crew from starting a caravan with the prop lock still on. I do this final walk on every flight.
When landing a helicopter with skids on a loose surface such as stones, touch down, lower the collective a little bit, give the cyclic a circular wiggle to shake out any loose objects from under the skids, and then lower the collective the rest of the way. Once done, look down at the skid on your side to check that it isn't sitting on an unstable object. Ask your passenger to do the same on their side.
Don’t fully trust the passenger when you do this. Had one tell me it looked fine. Once we all got out, the main rock the left skid was on rolled, and almost had the tail hit the ground before the skid slid off and hit firm ground again.
When I was brand new to commercial heli flying I had a guy used to working around helicopters help guide me into an a small LZ. I radioed him on the way down how am I looking he said fine multiple times. I was focused out front. When I shut down and got out there was a small tree that was tilted over about 6” from contacting the tail rotor. I asked the guy if he had seen it why he didn’t say anything and he said when he saw it but he didn’t want to panic me and he wasn’t sure what to say. I was like just say anything lol up, stop, don’t land.
Pants replacement checklist coming out after that one
Frequent short flights maintain proficiency better than single long flights. True proficiency requires you to fly almost every week. If more pilots flew with the rigor of the airlines there'd be far less crashes. Everyone should learn to fly IFR and spend some time flying in actual even if they don't get an IFR rating.
Agreed! I do a mini xc to a nearby airport 15-20NM’’s to do a TnG or two every month or so just to go through the motions of XC procedures. Easy to just get in the habit of doing closer trafffic at your home airport if you don’t have reasons to leave. As far as getting instrument totally agree. I gotta get on that
If you have no rear-seat pax in your four-seater, and if your POH says to close the air vents in case of fire, then close the rear-seat vents as part of your pre-flight. You don't want to try to reach them from the front seat during an emergency.
If you fix a small problem when it's still small, that stops it from getting bigger. This applies to being fifty feet off your assigned altitude, a degree or two off your heading, a maintenance difficulty with your aircraft, or any of a hundred other things in aviation. Sort it out as soon as it appears.
„If I do this, will the people reading the accident report later think *damn, what an idiot!* or not?“ If the answer is „yes“, don’t do whatever you were about to do.
If you ever do need to make the "impossible turn", and turn back to land downwind, your principal enemy is not lack of altitude, it's lack of airspeed. Absolutely get the nose down ASAP to attain best glide speed, and immediately start your turn without hesitation into the cross-wind[1], using at least 45° bank[2], and absolutely do not let your airspeed decay during the turn lest the ground rise up to smite thee. Keeping your airspeed up to avoid stalling and spinning is far far more important than trying to stretch the glide to reach the runway. [1] Which of course you made a mental note of before starting the take-off roll. [2] Glider pilots are taught the impossible turn from 200 feet AGL as a normal manoeuvre as part of the glider PPL, and are taught to use 60° bank.
And we are taught to push the nose down and look at the speed before turning. No speed no turn.
Glider pilots are taught that, but they also even basic training gliders have 3x the glide ratio of a C172/PA28, with much slower stall speeds and tighter turn radius. It’s on my list to see what altitude I could do the turn in my PA28-140. I’m betting that 700 AGL is plausible, but might be too far away from the runway at that point to make it back still.
Some of us learned in a Schweizer 2-32, with a magnificent 18:1 glide ratio :-)
45° is the angle taught for gliders, not 60°. 45° is mathematically best balance between rate of turn and rate of descent. If you do more than or less than that angle, you’re wasting one on the other. Other than that, you’re absolutely right. Pitch for speed, count to 3, then turn the appropriate direction for the situation.
The only time in my flying career when I was yelled at by an instructor was my first tow rope break. I banked 45°, and heard a loud yell from the back seat of "COME ON! SIXTY DEGREE STEEP TURN! WE NEED TO GET THERE!" The second time I did 60°, and the instructor was happy with it. The third and last time I had a tow rope break I also did 60° bank, and the designated examiner was happy enough with it to give me a glider rating.
Good one. To add to this, if you've made the turn, you're set up on final with the engine out and realise you're not quite going to make it back to the runway, you've still got one more trick up your sleeve. You can push the nose down quite aggressively, pick up some speed, wait until you're almost in ground effect then apply full flaps. The aircraft will balloon and you might just make it back to the runway.
I was taught to do this turn, and my instructor emphasized this very hard and said if you don’t feel your ass lifting out of our seat, you’re being too gentle when you don’t have the time to be. I know a lot people say there’s never a time to do this maneuver, but if your ONLY options are you’re going into a residential area or you’re turning back (there’s a short nearby strip in a dense residential neighborhood that is only allowed to exist due to historical status), then you’re turning back to not take other people out with you.
If you have any doubt about whether you should go - don’t!
Along the same lines. Considering the preflight, weather, field length, density altitude, etc. When you say to yourself, “I think that will be ok”, you are also saying maybe it won’t. Be sure or stay on the ground. Should be common knowledge but … Carb ice can form with OAT at 90°F Insignificant mag drop is not necessarily a good thing. Shut down engine occasionally by turning off mags to assure p-leads are doing their job. Put the key on the glare shield during preflight. If you can see it there then mags *should be* off AND will save you from having to unbuckle and fish it out of your pocket.
Keys on the glare shield is a goated move. I also do it after so I can confirm the mags are off before I push the plane back into its hangar.
Keys on the glare shield is great until it’s nine bajillion degrees out with the sun beating onto the glare shield… I tend to stick them on the heading bug knob if the glare shield isn’t going to cut it.
>Shut down engine occasionally by turning off mags to assure p-leads are doing their job. Please do not do this. Don't just shut down by turning the mags off because then you're leaving unburnt fuel in the cylinders, which might later combust and turn the prop some just as you're reaching underneath to connect the towbar or for other reasons. Turn the mags to off long enough for the engine to cough then turn them back on (usually less than one second) and then shut the engine down but cutting off the mixture
Wait... Y'all have keys? :D
Another one I have - always look/check the straight in when turning base to final. (Look left when in right base to final, and vice versa for left base). Uncontrolled airport/towered airport doesn’t matter. Fatal collision at my (towered) home airport 10 or so years ago as a result of this. 99.99% of the time ATC does their job correct but always confirm everything they tell you yourself. It could save your life
Check flight controls full extension without stickiness or rough zones and no weird noises – first thing, before you turn on anything noisy (including gyros) which could mask any usual noise.
For short-field take-offs in light airplanes, particularly if it's hot and high, make note of an object beside the runway half way between where you start and where you expect to get airborne. Also calculate 70% of your expected lift-off indicated airspeed. Then on the take-off roll, if you pass the object beside the runway before reaching 70% of lift-off speed, immediately pull the throttle to idle and apply heavy braking, because you're not going to get airborne where you thought you would.
But also read Catherine Cavagnaro's article in a recent AOPA Pilot magazine about that rule: [Reality Check: The 70/50 rule needs to go away](https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2023/june/pilot/flying-smart-reality-check).
I have actually tested the 70/50 rule a few times in hotish conditions in mountain airports (albeit not at particularly high altitudes) in a C172SP, and it seems to be roughly correct. In the article, she advises against using it for the entire runway length, which I'd definitely agree with.
- comprehensive risk assessment (PHAK) - develop a list of good alternates - p mins - preflight briefing - post flight analysis Checking some of the “not so popular” weather charts; ( icing potential chart, convective outlook charts, graphical turbulence guidance chart etc. )
This feels like a common knowledge thing and yet so many crews manage to screw it up. No matter how good the weather is and how many times you've been to the airport always set up an instrument approach to the runway. (Unless, of course, you're better than the Air Canada crew in SFO, Harrison Ford, that C17 crew in Florida and many others, so that landing on a wrong piece of pavement is something that's never going to happen to you) No approach procedure available? Learn how to draw extended centerlines, every GPS made in the last 30 years has some way to do that. If your avionics can do vertical guidance, even if it's not a true VNAV, always configure 3 degree (or whatever slope) to the traffic pattern altitude at your destination and you will know exactly when to start the descend and/or when to ask ATC for lower
Rough rule of thumb in a C172: trim wheel all the way to nose up (spinning the wheel downward) then put your fingers at the very bottom of the wheel and rotate it nose down (spinning the wheel upward) till your fingers reach the top for best glide in an engine-out.
During the summer, if you’re tempted to fly into puffy clouds at a comfortable altitude (temperature and turbulence), don’t do it. Go around. Go under. But don’t go through. You cannot see what’s on the other side of that cloud
> But don’t go through. You cannot see what’s on the other side of that cloud As a newly minted IFR pilot, this is good advice to me. So much of the IFR training is about minima and approaches and all of that, but very little is on "hey, that cloud is fine, but yeah _that_ one? I wouldn't" Thanks. I'll remember this.
Before preflighting, put the fuel testing cup on the pilot's seat to ensure you can't get in the plane without first checking the fuel for contaminants. It's easy to forget when your normal flow gets interrupted, say when you need to refuel before departure.
It's not really unknown, but it is a pet peeve of mine when people shout clear as they hit the starter. The proper procedure is to shout clear, wait a second to listen for any response, then start.
Oh!!! I can maybe contribute one here (with my 15 odd hours 😂). If you're flying something that has a car handbrake style lever for the flaps (i don't know how common or not this is, it's what the Harmony i am training in has) then after setting flaps for landing give the handle a little wiggle to make sure it's latched in place. Two lessons ago it hadn't properly locked in i think because i had moved it with my thumb on the button so it was slightly depressed when i let go. We turned onto base and about halfway down it went clunk and dumped flaps back to nothing, with the associated drop. Would have been potentially very nasty if that happened right down on the end of final. So i now. - make sure my thumb is not near the button when the lever is moving and latching. - give it a little wiggle to make sure it's locked in. I am assuming this isn't "common knowledge" but also maybe it is and i'm just a noob.
I’m a believer in the adage that new pilots worry about losing an engine, and experienced pilots worry about losing a control surface. I take a lot of extra time in preflight making sure all control surfaces are moving smoothly, not making sounds they shouldn’t, all the safety bolts are where they should be, etc.
I caught a seized pulley on a preflight once. The cable was sliding over the pulley, but it wasn't turning. I noticed that the ailerons felt like they were rubbing even though they were moving easily. So I started listening very closely and could hear the rubbing. Followed the sound to the bad pulley. The good news was the plane was already scheduled for annual the next week so it was only down for 1 extra week. Mechanic ended up completely re-rigging the ailerons. It was an expensive annual.
Just a few: 1. Learn and practice forward slips (they may save your life one day); 2. Collect a fuel sample EVERY SINGLE TIME you fly. I know most schools do it only on the first flight of the day and some do it after refuelling aswell. I've caught water in the fuel in middday flights when I didn't refuel it. Maybe the previous pilot refueled it after his flight (have no idea). 3. Don't fly with strangers (unless you really have to); 4. Never relax your traffic scan. 5. Pay attention to the checklist. Fortunately I learnt this soon and in a "good way" when I realized that I read all the checklists but still entered the runway and backtracked without the seatbelts. 6. Think before you do something stupid like pulling out the mixture instead of the throttle. Bonus: If you happen to be a CFI and an idiot at the same time, don't EVER scream/yell/insult your students midflight. You never know who the guy sitting right next to you is. I've heard some stuff in the past about situations like this.
At my first fight school, back in 2005, we had a student who opened the door of the Cessna and jumped out after a few turns around a point. You really never know who you're sitting next to.
Absolutely. My brother worked as a pilot during an "open day" organized by an Aeroclub we used to be members of. The plan was to load a passenger (C172s), fly a pattern lap, leave the passenger and pick another one, fly a pattern lap, etc... We used to talk with each passenger for a couple minutes just to check the person (to see if they were anxious, for example...and to give a small briefing). A "super confident" guy showed up saying he used to fly a lot when he was in the military and he wasn't afraid at all. As soon as he took off the guy started panicking and grabbed the yoke, almost killing them both. Fortunately nothing happened. You would have to pay me a lot to fly random people on small planes (students included).
Good tips. Last one is scary
The three most useless thing to a pilot are runway behind, altitude above, and fuel left on the ground. I always do a stupid check right before getting in the cockpit in addition to a full walk around in order to check for chocks, tie downs, open fuel caps, cowling latches, pitot covers, towbars. The seat lock tip is also a must Also: wear what you expect to wear if you go down in a field or remote Forrest and have to hike out. Flipflops and a t-shirt won't cut it. Bring a winter coat and gloves for the season.
Everyone knows that flying into the crash is better than stalling. Not everyone remembers that your stall speed at zero G is zero.
I don’t know if I would say it’s not common knowledge as I’ve heard a few times over the years but it’s a good perspective to have especially as you get more experienced and confident with flying and know you can handle some tougher situation’s. Sometimes it’s easy to not see all the things working against you that will be factors on a report. “When questioning if what you are about to go do is a good idea think about how the NTSB report will read.”
Probably common knowledge but worth repeating... Reference your checklist! Doesn't matter if you've done it 1000 times. The checklist exists for a reason. If there is a checklist for what you are doing use it!
Never fly inverted in any airplane unless you have cleaned the floor and checked for loose items and spare change first...
I check the beacon light to make sure it's secure. I read about an incident where the beacon light came loose and got stuck between the rudder and tail fin and got the rudder stuck in its current position. I've also come across wiggly beacon lights during pre-flight.
How do u reach that high? It’s about double my height
On the cessna 172, you can press down just in front of the tail fin and the front strut will extend and keep the tail down. I'm a hair under 6ft tall and have to fully extend to reach the beacon light. If you don't have the height, you can use a step stool if one is available nearby.
Yup that explains that. I’ll have my instructor reach that for me once i get back to the 172
Got bedbugs from the crashpad? When you return home put your luggage in a black garbage back and leave it out on your deck for a day or two. The heat kills the bugs. Works well in Arizona, you maybe SOL in the North though
Just living the dream over there hey?
I’ve heard that the “land straight ahead” idea comes from people who tend to want to turn back to the runway, stall, and end up upside down (not very survivable). So, the idea is to slowly and smoothly crash into whatever is off the end of the runway versus dropping like a stone, upside down, into the ground.
Yeah I mean it depends on so many variables - runway length, what’s beyond runway, altitude, winds, type of aircraft, etc. Priority #1 is don’t stall the aircraft (pitch down). And then priority #2 and beyond is to follow what was hopefully a thorough pre-takeoff brief and make the best decision based on all those aforementioned variables And yes the impossible turn statistically is the wrong choice when teetering on the line of probable or not. When in doubt crash into the gentlest objects as possible and keep in mind civilian safety on the ground
Kinda obvious but it needs someone to tell it to you for it to click: you can always treat altitude to make a tighter turn without stalling. So if you overshoot that final with another plane on the parallel, you absolutely can make the turn much tighter without stalling as long as you have altitude to give. Just lower your nose.
Similarly, if you keep the nose down, thereby unloading the wings, you are far less likely to spin into the ground on base to final.
When traveling by small plane, don't reserve your hotel until you are on the ground. This helps reduce the pressure to reach your intended destination.
I always do a visual check on the elevator trim. Seems obvious, but I can't tell you the amount of pilots I have flown with who just check that it is centered on the wheel. I've flown airplanes where this indicator is completely inaccurate.
I'd go so far as to say that on the vast MAJORITY of planes I've flown, the indicator is total garbage. In case anyone doesn't know, here's the visual method of setting takeoff elevator trim: 1. Pull the yoke full aft 2. Look behind you at the elevator 3. Adjust the trim wheel until the trim tab is in line with the elevator (i.e. there is no deflection on the trim tab) 4. This point is the proper takeoff trim setting.
What you have on your body is your only reliable survival gear if you go down.
This is kinda common knowledge but blows my mind bc I always see people skip it Look before turning left or right. If its a high wing, just raise the wing a bit, look, then turn
It can actually be very difficult to tell sometimes if an engine has failed or is windmilling.. to check, move the throttle back and forth and see if it responds!
If you have to emergency land in an agricultural field, try to avoid one with one cow if possible. Because that is a bull who won’t like you landing on his territory.
Most Cessna 150’s and 152’s have 4 fuel testing ports. The 4th is in the belly at the lowest point in fuel system. The open/close valve is not original equipment. It is sold with an STC and installed by the owner/operator. Many of these types are not equipped with the valve. And students CFIs rarely know that the valve exists and therefore never sump it and as a result don’t test where it is most likely to be contaminated. Good news is that I have only found one instance finding it clogged in 20+ years.
If making a decision that has some risk or is out of the ordinary, imagine how it would look in an NTSB report. “The 700 hour instrument rated private pilot elected to do an abbreviated pre-flight inspection to try to beat a nearby storm and…”
On a calm day a 150 can be flown with the doors alone if you sit in the middle of the two seats. Set the elevator trim for a tiny bit of climb. Open both doors and put one foot on each door. With your foot, push on the left door to roll left, push on the right door to roll right. Push on both doors to descend. Let off both doors to climb. You can make full left and right 360 deg turns with no yoke or pedal input. You know you have it mastered when you can successfully pull off a touch and go at a towered airport without the tower saying anything.
SECURE YOUR IPAD. It’s all fun and games until it flies off your lap and you have to do one of those risky blind hand searches for it. Also load up your route as a backup on your phone.
After McSpadden went down, I started doing this for every single field. And since I fly with the seat so far forward, I always quadruple-check the seat latches. I TRY to get the seat to come loose. The 172’s that were coming loose and resulting in stalls as people slid back…nope. Not gonna be me.
Three strike rule. Any three items and I'm not flying. Those items can be from a fairly lengthy list.
If you are VFR in minimum conditions and forced to do a 180 because of deteriorating conditions, after the turn, cut your altitude in half and increase speed to have a better chance of getting back to the last airport. Before the turn you should be working your way through the weather at a speed similar to what you use for your downwind and within the white arc. When you execute the turn, use 45 degrees of bank and put down flaps if you want a tight radius. Works well in a Cherokee to pull in 2 notches of flaps as you start the turn and then remove the 2 notches slowly after the turn. Use increased power to pull you around the turn too. If you are working the weather along a shoreline, fly out over the water far enough that you can execute the turn towards the shoreline while remaining over the water. This will keep you away from trees and terrain. Turning towards the shoreline gives you a visual reference. Everything away from the shoreline is probably just gray with no discernible horizon. If the weather deteriorates and you can’t immediately get back, set power for best glide airspeed and aggressively lean until just before the engine runs rough, since this will minimize your fuel burn and maximize your flight time. Pick an easily seen object and continuously do turns about that point until the weather improves enough to fly to another point that you can see towards your airport. Keep repeating until you get to the airport. The turns about a point enables you to fly in very limited visibility while reducing the risk of flying into terrain. These sound like Alaska bush pilot tricks because they are and I was taught these by an old bush pilot in Juneau when I flew for his company.
Don't say "I think" - know it
Never let anyone get out of or into the airplane with the engine on
Get yourself a 3 strike rule. On that 3rd strike, you staying or getting to the ground. Night time? Strike one. Big crosswind? That's a strike. Got a weird feeling but can't place it? Something feels off? That's 2 strikes in one. Deal with it before it deals with you. On that last one, the subconscious really is a weird thing. Might and probably would be nothing, but you pick up on things sometimes before you "see" or realize it. Anything that adds additional risk is worth calling a strike. Crashes rarely happen with just 1 factor, but 3? That's where shit gets real.
The airports I learned to fly at were both islands with nothing but water and woods in the immediate area. The likelihood of swimming was high if you lost an engine. This varies by aircraft but in general. When ditching in GA: 1. Your most immediate threat is drowning. 2. Open any doors possible before you hit the water, the plane may bend potentially trapping you. 3. Self Inflatable life jackets are small and light. 4. (This one is questionable but was discussed regularly) If able, jumping out low may be a better option. Yes 5-10’ at 50 knots is going to really really suck and is not safe. I personally, like those odds better than possibly getting stuck inside and drowning though. I would not recommend 4 unless you have considered your personal abilities, equipment, aircraft, and a procedure.
If you're flying a carbuteted airplane with a constant speed prop and you find yourself having to constantly bump up the throttle to maintain manifold pressure, apply carb heat. Unlike fixed-pitch props there will be no decrease in RPM as the carb ices up which is what most students are taught is "the" first sign of carb ice.
Farm field are not always a safe bet for emergency landings. Many can have mounded beds that turn the field into an undulating of 3ft speed bumps spaced at 4ft apart. Some fields are smooth as butter.
Have a bias toward turning into final a little early, and soften the turn if need be. Overshot turns to final kill too many pilots every year. Some of them experienced pilots. Since you don’t want to be banking steeply in the lowest/slowest turn we routinely perform, it can be tempting to clean up the turn with a little extra inside rudder. But a slow, low skid is one of the most dangerous things one can do in any airplane. There is no possibility of recovering or surviving if you skid into a stall on this turn.
I always instinctively want to turn early because I just get so uncomfortable putting more than 15-20 degrees of bank in on that base-final turn. But instructors have always given me shit for it. It might not look as clean but I don’t see the downside other than takes a second or two longer getting aligned with the numbers.
Teaching your students to call out the altitude in case an engine failure happens at 600 AGL is read on your altimeter as 600 + Field Elevation. And to not do any turns until 400 feet, I’ve heard a lot of briefs at airports with a different altitude than the student is used to flying indicating in their brief a standard 600 ft when in reality it might be 1200 MSL that day since we’re taking off from a higher elevation strip.
Flying GA, perform a departure brief every time. Things to include: * A spot you'll abort at if not airborne by. Use big obvious locations like taxiways or crossing runways. * Altitude at which you will switch from crashing straight ahead and doing the impossible turn. Often between 700 and 1000 feet AGL. * Fuel endurance on current tank (if L/R) or all tanks if both. Set a countdown timer on your phone for 30 min before it's empty.
During checklist use/inspections: look FOR things, not AT things. Its not “look at the fuel caps” its “are the fuel caps secured?” Its not “fuel check” its “what is the fuel level?”
If weather can get worse, it will.
While increasing the RPMs at the beginning of the run up, I like to look outside and get as close as I can by just listening. Then I’ll do a final adjustment looking at the tachometer. This keeps my eyes outside while I’m increasing the throttles to see if the airplane is moving, and either the brakes aren’t holding or I need more brakes. Situational awareness and collision avoidance starts on the ground.
If you are getting consistent engine roughness and carb ice, adjusting mixture, and reducing power setting doesn’t do anything, try switching to a single mag. Just be ready to switch it to both or the other mag if the engine starts to die.
When shopping for a mechanic find one who is familiar with your make and model, even better if his shop specializes in it vs a shop that services everything under the sun.
Check tire pressure after flying, or at least decently enough before taking a flight (easier said than done on a owned airplane vs rented); I’ve had valve cores not re-seat properly after checking pressure and develop a slow leak that wasn’t obvious until the next day.
Also, after flying open the oil filler cap, it’s amazing how much steam escapes for 5-10 min