Thanks in advance,
Bryan
Greetings Bryan,
Personal minimums are just that - personal. Given your present level of experience, it's best to work with your flight instructor to define these minimums. Without much aviation experience, it is difficult to properly set these limits for yourself; thus the need to consult with your instructor in establishing these potentially lifesaving boundaries.
Personal minimums help you in two ways. First, they can keep you from stumbling into situations that exceed your skill level. Second, they can minimize the chance that you'll give in to temptations like get-home-itis, impress-the-passenger-itis, etc.
Many people think of personal minimums as weather minimums, but personal minimums can and should be far more. For instance, I had one student who decided that he shouldn't fly for at least two hours after consuming a big meal. The type of food he liked to eat made him tired, causing him to act as though he'd eaten a Thanksgiving turkey stuffed with Thorazine. Other students choose to avoid flying when the direct crosswind component is greater than five knots, while some stay ground-bound when winds are gusting above 15 kt. I've known a few who always fill their tanks to the maximum amount of allowable fuel before every flight - provided that doesn't put them over gross weight. The list goes on and on. The important thing is that personal minimums are your minimums, tailored to your personality, strengths, and weaknesses as well as your level of experience. Some requirements may remain on your list forever, while others may change or be eliminated as your skill level grows. Personal minimums aren't just for beginners. Every pilot should have personal minimums and enforce them.
Eyes Outside
Dear Rod,
Can you offer any suggestions that may help me learn to keep my eyes outside the airplane? My instructor is always bugging me to look outside more. I don't do it enough to please him. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Sue
Greetings Sue,
Instead of rehashing all the standard techniques, here's one that's a little different but works very well. It requires a small cassette tape recorder and a 10- to 20-minute endless-loop cassette tape. (This is a tape that continues to play without having to be flipped over in the cassette recorder.)
Do a test to determine how much the tape counter moves for each min-ute of tape playback. Let's say that the counter moved a value of 30 for each minute of tape play. Have your instructor record the words "Look for traffic" (and variations of that statement) once for every minute of tape play. Do this by advancing the tape by a value of 30 on the counter, then record another statement from your instructor. Repeat this process until the tape has made a complete cycle.
During solo flight, put the recorder in the seat next to you and set it to play with the volume appropriately adjusted. I've even had a student who rigged the playback into the airplane's intercom, while another wore a small earpiece under his headset.
Here's the payoff. Minute after minute you'll hear your instructor's voice reminding you to check for traffic; keep your eyes outside of the cockpit; look right, left, up, and down. After a few hours of playing this tape, you'll find that your traffic scan will greatly improve. At five-minute tape intervals, the instructor can even say more right rudder! After all, you can never hear this phrase enough, right? Finally, even though this recommendation is for VFR flight, make sure that the use of a tape recorder doesn't interfere with any of the airplane's equipment or with any radio transmissions.
Keeping The Inbound Course
Dear Mr. Machado,
I'm an instrument student who recently flew with a different instructor when my regular CFII was out of town for a week. On one approach, just after intercepting the localizer, I reached over to reset the directional gyro (DG) since it was off by about 10 degrees. The instructor reached over and rotated the DG to a value many degrees different from that of the inbound localizer direction. She said that once I'm established inbound on the localizer, I should be able to fly it by bracketing, regardless of the heading shown on the DG. Is this technique common among flight instructors?
Dan
Greetings Dan,
Actually, it's a great technique, and I only wish more instructors would use it. Once you're established inbound on the localizer, it shouldn't matter if the DG is off by a few degrees. In fact, it shouldn't matter if the DG is off by 90 degrees, from a training perspective. Why? Because if you use a technique called bracketing, you could fly the localizer even if the DG had only lines and no numbers.
For instance, when you were inbound on the localizer and the instructor rotated the DG, all you had to do was hold that heading and watch the needle's movement. If the needle moved to the right, you knew that you would need to turn to the right.
After turning toward the needle for an intercept, the needle will eventually center. When it does, you can apply a wind-correction angle by flying a few degrees to the right of your original heading. The point here is that once you're established inbound, your CFII can rotate the DG to any value and you should be able to fly the approach.
One of my early instructors used the same technique on me. Unfortunately, when he twisted the DG's knob, I thought he was setting it to the correct heading, so I promptly turned 60 degrees toward the heading I had been flying instead of bracketing using the existing heading. Suddenly, I felt the ailerons turn by themselves and thought, "Oh no, the autopilot has taken over," which came as a surprise because we didn't have an autopilot. What I felt was my instructor turning us back to the localizer. Yes, it's a good training technique for instructors to use.
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