IFR skills for VFR pilots
Remember the uncomfortable feeling you had under the hood when you were a student pilot? You climbed or descended when you meant to stay level. The aircraft seemed to turn on its own when you wanted to maintain a heading. Sometimes you thought the airplane was turning, but it really wasn't. Fortunately, the instructor would usually end the session in 10 or 15 minutes, and any discomfort disappeared quickly. But it wasn't really scary. You had the advantage of knowing that an instructor was there and that the weather wasn't really bad.
Then one day, years later when your instrument skills are only a pleasant memory, the forecast for VFR weather goes wrong and you're in the soup. Now, consider tuning the radios, talking to air traffic controllers, reading a chart, and determining VOR radials, while keeping the airplane under control. The instructor won't be there, and your instrument skills will be taxed well beyond any remaining from student pilot training. You need not only to be good on instruments, but to be so good that there is brain power left over for navigation and communication.
Hopefully, you will recognize weather problems early and will make a decent, if not perfect, 180-degree turn before having to prove that your skills are still sharp. Statistics tell a different story, however. Attempting to continue VFR flight in deteriorating weather, especially at night, remains a leading cause of accidents. Here are some tips for countering the problem.
The panic factor
What is the worst thing about all that instrument practice you had as a student? You knew that it was only practice and that it was in a low-threat environment. Your emergency, should you decide to fly in poor VFR conditions, will occur in a high-threat environment. "Pilots find it difficult to compel themselves to act in an actual emergency," aviation author and humorist Rod Machado said. That is why he presents students with one or two simulated emergencies while they are practicing under the hood. The technique is based on a concept known as state-dependent learning, Machado said, and refers to the emotional state of the student. Train them in a high-pressure environment and students will be more likely to take action than to freeze and waste valuable minutes when the emergency is real.
Dangerous situations
It isn't just bad weather that can require instrument skills, as you will see next month in the night flying portion of this series. Lift off at night from an isolated airport over an expanse of forest and essentially you are flying on instruments.
What about daylight flight visibilities reported as 5 miles in haze? The horizon will be gone, but you will still have ground references below. Difficult and unpleasant, but not impossible. Now, conduct that VFR flight over an expanse of water 5 or more miles wide, and what happens? The water and sky blend into one sheet of gray, and essentially you will need IFR skills to be comfortable, even in broad daylight. What if we throw in another risk factor — night — and drop the visibility to 3 miles? In that case, you will be lucky to find your home airport even when overhead. The experience should make you a believer in refresher instrument training.
Common mistake
Flight on instruments for the non-instrument pilot is primarily an emergency maneuver. The main purpose is to make a 180-degree turn to get back to VFR weather. A common mistake is to begin a standard-rate, level turn, and forget what the new heading was going to be, Machado said. The solution is to look at the number on the bottom of the heading indicator before starting the turn and memorize it or write it down.
Likely reaction
We all imagine ourselves doing the right thing. We read safety articles about VFR flight into IFR weather and say, "If I had been there, I would have turned around." But your actual reaction is likely to be refusal to believe that the weather is too poor to continue. And on you'll fly — probably without going on instruments. One newly minted private pilot's experience during a scud run is typical. During periods of a few seconds when visibility was reduced to IFR levels, his piercing gaze never left the scene outside the windscreen, as though his laser eyes could burn away the fog. What he needed to do, even during those few seconds, was to admit that the situation had deteriorated and go on instruments immediately. The long slide into IFR weather is very subtle and gradual.
What to do
Get an instrument rating. That is your best opportunity for handling the aircraft safely in instrument conditions. Failing that, you need a method that will work years from now when that weather emergency finally occurs. Machado teaches students to label their flight instruments by placing sticky notes beneath them. "Start" goes below the attitude indicator. Other instruments are labeled as follows: altimeter, "level"; airspeed indicator, "climb/descent"; turn coordinator, "turn"; heading indicator, "straight"; vertical speed indicator, "rate."
Then he tells the student to, "Make a level turn." The student's eyes go to "start" to establish the turn attitude. Step two is to go to the altimeter labeled "level" to assure that the aircraft is not climbing or descending. Finally, look at the turn coordinator labeled "turn" and adjust the bank angle until a standard rate turn is indicated. As long as the student remembers the reciprocal heading, a level 180-degree turn can be easily made to accomplish the primary goal of getting out of bad weather. By labeling instruments, Machado eliminates the need to remember which are primary and which are secondary.
Worst fear
Losing control. It is any pilot's worst fear when flying on instruments. During training, the instructor taught you two unusual attitudes primarily. One is a steeply banked descending turn with airspeed increasing rapidly, while the other is a steeply banked, extremely nose-high attitude with airspeed decreasing rapidly. In either case, the answer is to return to straight-and-level flight. The question is, how do you get there?
For the nose-low spiral attitude, the procedure is: (1) reduce power; (2) level the wings; and (3) raise the nose, as it says in the FAA's Flight Training Handbook. Obviously, pulling the nose up briskly with the wings steeply banked describes the method for entering an accelerated stall.
If the airspeed is decreasing rapidly and altitude is increasing, use the attitude indicator to bring the nose back to the horizon. Simultaneously level the wings and increase power to prevent a stall.
The key goal is to prevent a stall that, if aggravated by improper rudder usage, can lead to a spin.
Reading about the proper recovery procedures will do little good, however, since you may forget them in the panic of a real loss of control. Save money by practicing normal instrument flying at home with a computer-based flight simulator to reduce chances of ever entering a spin — or combine unusual-attitude training with any checkout in a new rental aircraft or other proficiency ride, such as a flight review.
If all else fails
What if nothing seems to work? You've made the 180-degree turn and the weather still seems bad. Have patience. What if the weather behind, in front, and on all sides is bad? Now what?
Call someone — anyone. If you don't feel up to reading frequencies off a chart while flying the airplane, call on emergency frequency 121.5 MHz and try to mention a point along the route or your approximate location so that the closest station can respond. Otherwise, every station that hears you will answer. Your objective should be to contact a facility with radar service and ask for vectors to airports reporting VFR weather. Air traffic control facilities monitoring 121.5 will be able to provide those frequencies. Flight service can do the same thing, and will have weather reports indicating which airports in your area are VFR. When flying in a remote area, you may be able to contact a flight service station over the VOR station used for navigation. Frequencies will be listed on the chart.
Refresher training
The biggest obstacle to keeping current is your memory of the last time you flew on instruments. Chances are, you remember doing well. That memory lingers on, but all the while those instrument skills are ebbing away. Why should you practice something that you think you do well? Besides, practice is expensive, and not fun. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation suggests a solution: practice with Microsoft Flight Simulator or a similar computer-based simulator program. Or purchase one of the more expensive IFR trainer computer programs — it will be fun (a yoke and rudder pedals will add realism). While such training lacks the pressure created by an actual emergency, it at least makes you think about the proper procedures and provides valuable practice in scanning the instruments.
Additional information
See the Air Safety Foundation's Safety Advisor: Single Pilot IFR on the AOPA Web site ( www.aopa.org/asf/publications/sa05.pdf). For a printed copy send a stamped, self-addressed 9 x 12 envelope with 55 cents postage to AOPA Air Safety Foundation, 421 Aviation Way, Frederick, Maryland 21701. Request item SA05.
Aviation Supplies and Academics has just published IFR for VFR Pilots by Richard Taylor. It costs $19.95. To order, call 800/ASA-2FLY, or 425/235-1500. Learn more on the ASA Web site ( www.asa2fly.com/asa/).
E-mail the author at [email protected].
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