Insights

It's Not A Car!

All pilots should know where to look when they are operating an airplane. Every month, however, I fly with one or two who are flying blind. They don't look at the proper visual references, and needless to say, their performance suffers.

When taxiing toward the runup area, the "blind" pilot never looks to the side, beyond the wingtip, to determine his taxi speed. He looks straight ahead over the nose - the normal head position for driving a car - and his taxi speed appears quite slow. If he looked to the side, he would realize that his taxi speed is excessive if not downright dangerous.

I explain that he is operating a tricycle, which at high taxi speed can quickly become a teeter-totter. A subsequent error occurs if he applies the brakes before selecting idle power. Using brakes and power simultaneously is not recommended for basic taxiing maneuvers.

My home-base airport illustrates an exception to normal taxi speeds. This busy airport has a continual mix of air carrier and general aviation traffic. To avoid gridlock, the ground controllers will occasionally ask general aviation airplanes to "expedite taxi" on the main taxiway, which is very wide and well clear of obstructions.

To do this, I teach students to hold the yoke full aft and then increase power until the pitch attitude increases slightly. I tell them to taxi no faster. They hold the yoke full aft until the airplane clears the conflict area and then decelerates to normal taxi speed. This maneuver should never be performed when other aircraft are nearby (this taxiway accommodates two-way traffic for small airplanes) or if the wind mandates specific positioning of the flight controls.

Stalls are next. Approaching a turning stall, the blind pilot is either staring at the flight instruments or staring straight ahead at nothing but blue sky. Consequently, the airplane quickly rolls into a steep bank, and the pilot often becomes alarmed.

To avoid this situation, I make students look outside the cockpit, to the left or right of the nose cowl, in order to keep a portion of the earth's surface in view at all times. With this reference in sight, the student can easily maintain the desired bank angle and turn rate and make the correct control inputs for stall recovery.

This visual reference should also be used during the landing flare - another maneuver that is inconsistent if the pilot has not learned to look to the side of the nose cowl instead of over it.

When landing, I concentrate on my planned touchdown spot until I know I have it made. I then raise my line of sight until I can perceive my sink rate and altitude. An observer would say that I'm now looking at the far end of the runway, and while my eyes are pointed in that direction, I'm actually concentrating on the clearly defined visual field that lies ahead of the airplane and extends beyond both sides of the runway. If I look too close to the airplane, this area is blurred and does not provide satisfactory references for altitude, sink rate, drift, and yaw evaluation. Likewise, the far end of the runway is not important, and it's seldom visible when landing in instrument meteorological conditions.

When starting the flare, I shift my sight picture to the side of the engine cowl and look at the clearly defined visual field that exists at and beyond the left side of the runway. As speed decreases, this area moves closer to the airplane, allowing me to continue evaluating the critical factors and establish the correct, nose-high attitude.

Automobile drivers look straight ahead in order to keep their cars in the proper lane while moving forward. They do not look to the side of the left fender. This is one of several habit patterns that flight instructors must change when they start training a new student pilot. Fly smart, leave your driving habits on the ground, and look at the proper reference points. What you see will pay handsome dividends.