I recently discovered another Pilot Proficiency Award Program form in the folder-an application for a certificate for having attended a safety seminar in October of 1999. For some reason I failed to fill out the form and mail it to the FAA Flight Standards District Office for our region. So, I didn't receive a certificate for attending the seminar.
I've been to plenty of safety seminars, but obviously I've never vigorously pursued the Pilot Proficiency Award Program, commonly called the Wings program. "Shame on me," I thought as I closed the folder and jammed it back on the shelf.
Not long afterward a mailer came with news of a Wings program being held statewide. I studied the schedule and noticed that a local instructor, Mike Gal, was the point man for the program in our area and was available to fly with candidates to meet the program's annual three-hour training requirement. I called to ask Gal some questions and told him to count me in.
Why the sudden interest in the Wings program, which has been around for years? It's not that I had been disinterested in it. The fact is, my flying has changed. In the past I was flying often, mostly long cross-country trips with regular doses of instrument meteorological conditions. I also had easy access to instructors and could take advantage of other training opportunities that kept me in touch with back-to-basics skills. And I was flying a variety of aircraft ranging from simple singles to turboprop twins. In other words, I was active, current, and proficient.
Today, I still do long cross-country trips for business purposes, but they are seasonal in nature rather than year-round. The simple reason for the change is that I own an airplane in partnership with one other person, and we trade possession of the airplane on a seasonal basis. He gets it in the summer, when the flying weather is best in the Midwest where he lives, and I have it over the winter when the weather is ideal in my home state, Florida.
So, I fly a lot during the winter months and a lot less during the summer. The result is that my proficiency wanes when my partner has the airplane.
The timing of the local Wings event was good. I had only recently taken possession of the airplane and, although I was current in it - I had flown with my partner, who is an instructor, before bringing it back to my home base - I knew I could use some intensive, back-to-basics review. When the Wings program notice arrived in the mail, I re- solved to do it.
The Wings program is described in detail in FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 61-91H, titled Pilot Proficiency Award Program. According to the AC, the program is based on the undeniable observation that, "Regular proficiency training is essential to the safety of all pilots and their passengers." In lieu of devising your own strategy for maintaining proficiency and then following through with that strategy year after year, the FAA offers its help in the form of the Wings program. The objective of the program is to "provide pilots with the opportunity to establish and participate in a personal recurrent training program."
Here's how it works: Every 12 months you devote at least three hours to flight training with an instructor and attend at least one FAA-sponsored or -sanctioned aviation safety seminar or industry-conducted recurrent training program. The flight training must follow a basic profile depending on the category of aircraft - airplanes, seaplanes and amphibians, rotorcraft, gliders, lighter-than-air, and even ultralights.
For example, my flight training had to include an hour of airwork - stalls, slow flight, steep turns, and other maneuvers designed to assess and hone basic airplane control. Because I fly a light piston twin, my air work also included simulated single-engine control maneuvers. I also had to devote an hour to takeoffs and landings, including crosswind and simulated short- and soft-field conditions. Finally, I had to spend an hour on instrument procedures.
Because of travel and unexpected maintenance on my airplane, I had to jam all of the flight training into one three-hour session if I was to complete it before the Saturday morning safety seminar that capped off our local Wings week. I was game, and so was Gal. On Friday afternoon, I topped off the tanks, met with Gal for the briefing, and we went flying.
Gal followed the program guidelines faithfully. We covered all the required maneuvers and procedures, focusing on phases of flight that are most likely to produce accidents. Without question, loss of power in one engine at low altitude is a leading cause of accidents in light piston twins. Even if we had done nothing else, the single-engine review was worth the time, effort, and expense of my Wings participation. Regular proficiency training is valuable in any form. The FAA makes it easier by wrapping it in a program that contains a sensible plan and a reward - participants get a set of lapel pins and a certificate each time they complete one of the first 10 phases, and a certificate for each of the second 10 phases.
Now that I'm a pinned and certificated participant in the Wings program, I can say that the real reward is knowing that I'm doing the right thing to stay proficient and maintain my safe flying record. You can, too.
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