Finally, there?s the need to balance what to teach in a lesson against the cost and time required to teach it. If flight instructors tried to impart everything they know about flying, learning to fly would cost a fortune and nobody would ever finish. Should we keep lessons brief to save our customers money? Or extend them until we?ve covered every conceivable issue?
Most CFIs are pretty good at covering the ?important stuff? when preparing a pilot for a certificate or rating because student and teacher have numerous sessions together, and, in any case, the practical test standards tend to keep everyone focused. Forgetting or skipping important items seems more common in less structured cases such as aircraft checkouts, especially when a different CFI educated the pilot.
Every now and then some ?caution light? causes me to ponder what really constitutes ?thoroughness? in the duties of a flight instructor. Here?s one that appeared recently in my e-mail box.
?While flying my Piper Warrior the other day I came across an unfamiliar event. At about 4,200 feet, temp about 70 degrees, 1.3 hours into flight, fuel and oil in the green, straight and level flight? a horn started beeping. Upon checking the instruments and panel I discovered the ?O? light flashing in time with the horn beeps. I went through the restart checks and began to descend and the beeping stopped. This O light is on the radio panel, second in the series of an A, O, and M. Please tell me what this is, what caused it, and what to do to prevent and/or react to this situation.?
Right now, some of you are probably chuckling, as I first did. The flashing light and beeping horn are indications of a properly working marker-beacon receiver, and this pilot was apparently flying over the outer marker at an ILS-equipped airport.
But this pilot?s message offers a bit of a roller-coaster ride. How did you feel upon reading the first few sentences? Flying along, straight and level, when a horn starts beeping and a light starts flashing ? raises every pilot?s blood pressure, doesn?t it?
I?ll bet that, once past that part, many readers were treated to a chuckle of relief when they learned the alarm was only the marker beacon receiver. But I?ll bet plenty of them didn?t know what this pilot?s problem was until I explained it. And non-instrument-rated pilots reading this still might not know whether this pilot had anything to worry about. (He didn?t.)
Imagine how you?d feel if this horn and light went off, and you were the one who didn?t know what they meant. Ever had an in-flight emergency? That?s where this pilot was, and when you view this story in that light there?s nothing funny about it. Plenty of accidents have been triggered by lesser distractions than these.
I later learned the pilot carried a companion on this flight who was also alarmed by the experience, and who could perhaps be afraid to fly in light aircraft in the future. All this from a routine marker beacon reply.
Is this pilot a dummy? Let?s revisit his story for a moment.
?At about 4200 feet, temp about 70 degrees, 1.3 hours into flight, fuel and oil in the green, straight and level flight? a horn started beeping. Upon checking the instruments and panel I discovered the ?O? light flashing in succession with the horn beeps. I went through the restart checks and began to descend and the beeping stopped.?
Our friend really kept his cool here. He worked through the problem in every way he knew how ? even did a restart check to see if he?d missed anything ? then began a descent in case changing the aircraft?s attitude or environment would solve the problem. Seems like the sort of pilot I?d like to be riding with if a less benign emergency occurred.
If the pilot had properly read the airplane?s pilot operating handbook, this incident would never have occurred, right? Assuming the pilot is not instrument rated and, until now, has flown only VFR-equipped aircraft, the marker-beacon description in his pilot?s-operating-manual supplement wouldn?t have meant much to him.
This examination is getting more painful by the moment. It seems like someone needed to better explain the systems of this aircraft to this pilot, and that ?someone? is looking more and more like a flight instructor. Granted, it?s a pilot?s responsibility to know the equipment in his or her aircraft, and prudence dictates that he hire an instructor if necessary to familiarize him with the details. Theoretically, the pilot should have asked specifically about any equipment he didn?t understand.
But the odds are that at some point, somewhere, at least one CFI flew with this pilot in his first IFR-equipped airplane and failed to explain the nuances of an IFR radio stack. Maybe that instructor didn?t want to burden the pilot with another few minutes of instructional charges. Or perhaps the CFI assumed this pilot already knew about the radios. But did he ask the question, ?Do you know what these lights are??
What else in that radio stack does this pilot not know how to operate? Will he one day lose communications in a busy traffic pattern after bumping a switch on the audio panel? Will he become lost in deteriorating weather when basic knowledge of his ADF receiver could lead him to safety?
Obviously, familiarizing pilots with an aircraft new to them is a big responsibility, and one where we instructors can sometimes do a better job. More than flying is involved. However basic it may seem, you should review the use of the radio equipment before setting your pilot loose. Show your students how to use those flip-flop frequencies on digital radios. Make sure they?re familiar with installed navigational equipment like RNAV, loran, GPS, and yes, even ADF.
Aircraft and airport checkouts are often a private pilot?s only introduction to different systems and situations. I?m always astonished at how many pilots have never been taught how to lean the mixture properly using an exhaust gas temperature gauge (EGT). This knowledge could save their hides and the airplanes? engines. ?Ever flown in the mountains before??
Depending on where and when your students learned to fly, do they know how to start an engine in below-zero temperatures, while avoiding carburetor fires in the process? Ever heard of pre-heats? Do they know how to start an aircraft with a low battery via the ground power receptacle? For that matter, what must one watch after starting an airplane with a low battery?
For example, ?Whatever you do, Bruce, after starting an airplane from a low battery situation be sure the ammeter shows the proper charging trend before taking off. Otherwise you may find yourself with a dead battery in flight, which is even worse than ?no juice? on the ground! Here?s what to look for??
Due diligence means showing pilots where to check the hydraulic-fluid reservoir in retractable-gear aircraft, and how to hot-start fuel-injected engines. It?s not just sophisticated stuff we need to cover, either. How many pilots can barely get out of a Cessna 182 because they don?t know about the seat safety latch?
We CFIs are human, so we?ll sometimes forget things despite our best efforts ? that?s why it?s valuable to prepare a check-out checklist for aircraft we teach. But so far as possible we CFIs owe it to our customers to teach them everything ? maybe not everything in the aviation universe, but everything relevant to the mission at hand.
After we?ve covered the important stuff we may even have time to share nice-to-know tricks that can allow your student to experience the joy of operating the airplane like a pro.
?Ever notice how the aircraft sometimes shakes dramatically when the engine stops turning? Well, go ahead and set the engine at 1000 rpm before shutdown like the checklist says, but just as the engine quits pull the throttle to idle. Voila! No shaking! Once you?ve got the timing mastered it works every time.?
A special CFI in my life ? my dad ? taught me that trick shortly after I earned my private certificate years ago, and it?s been one of those little delights I?ve shared with my own students ever since. When you think about it, transferring precious nuggets of knowledge is exactly what makes instructing so delicious ? it?s knowing we?ve given OUR students important insights that lesser CFIs might have forgotten.
Now that he knows what it means, I?ll bet our Warrior pilot friend can?t wait to fly over another outer marker, so he can wow his passengers by explaining what that little light and horn are all about. What a kick ? for him and for his flight instructor!
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