Ounce of Prevention Part 5 of 12

Ways to avoid common pitfalls

How extensive is your flight planning? It needs to be good enough to meet FAA standards and yet practical enough to be completed on the same day that you want to fly. The FAA says the pilot shall "become familiar with all available information concerning the flight" (FAR 91.103). You must be all knowing.

The regulations

That's a tall order, but the regulation adds a few guidelines. For example, those flying IFR — and VFR pilots flying away from the vicinity of an airport — must check weather reports and forecasts, fuel requirements, alternatives available if the planned flight can't be completed, and any known traffic delays. Obviously, a call to a flight service station or a visit to the AOPA Online Flight Planning Service ( www.aopa.org/members/plan.html) can meet most of those requirements. The AOPA flight planner allows you to enter fuel consumption and performance data for a specific aircraft.

The regulation also calls for pilots to check runway lengths at airports of intended use and compute takeoff and landing distances. The computations should include aircraft performance under expected values of airport elevation, runway slope, aircraft gross weight, wind, and temperature. You'll have to do many of those calculations manually using the pilot operating handbook (POH). Few flight-planning software programs now on the market offer takeoff or landing distance calculations. (However, AOPA Online Flight Planning is linked to AOPA's Airport Directory Online and will provide runway lengths.)

How much is enough?

You could spend a long time compiling all available information. Comair Aviation Academy in Sanford, Florida, trains its future airline pilots to assemble lots of information in a short time. Instructors there hand students a detailed takeoff data card that must be filled out before every flight. Since students generally have only 20 to 30 minutes to complete the flight planning, they get very good at it, very fast.

First, they listen to the ATIS squawk box located on one side of the flight planning room and write down the information. Then they calculate pressure altitude and determine exact takeoff and landing distances, cruise performance, fuel burn, and V-speeds. All calculations are adjusted for weight and weather conditions as necessary, such as calculating maneuvering speed based on the exact weight.

Safety strategies

• Use a standard flight-planning form, such as the AOPA Air Safety Foundation Flight Planner.
• Use an Internet flight planner that incorporates forecast winds into fuel calculations, such as AOPA Online Flight Planning, and monitor winds en route.
• Use commercially available PC-based flight-planning software.

Common accident scenarios: Flight planning

• Fuel exhaustion
• Continued VFR into IMC
• Runway overrun
• Takeoff accident because of improper weight and balance
• Stall because of high density altitude

When computing takeoff and landing distances, Comair students interpolate among the pressure altitude and temperature columns in performance charts found in the POH.

Bruce Landsberg, executive director of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, suggests that the average pilot can take a shortcut. Just use the next higher takeoff or landing distance for an extra margin of safety. Don't bother interpolating.

Finally, Comair students calculate weight and balance for zero fuel weight, ramp weight, and takeoff weight after fuel is burned for taxi. They then subtract the fuel expected to be burned during the lesson and calculate the center of gravity for landing. All this is done at lightning speed, since aircraft schedules are tight.

Fuel, weather most common problems

It is unlikely that a VFR or IFR Comair student will ever be guilty of poor planning. A common trick among Comair instrument instructors is to land with an instrument student at Orlando Executive Airport and tempt the student to take off toward the city. Unless the student reads the fine print on the bottom of the terminal approach procedure, his aircraft could slam into a downtown building.

For those of you who don't fly with a Comair Flight Standards Manual under your arm, flight planning evolves as a matter of personal preference. The chances are that if you mess up, it will most likely be an error involving fuel management, says AOPA Air Safety Foundation official John Carson, who manages ASF's accident database. "Reasons for running out of fuel include lack of familiarity with the aircraft and encountering headwinds," Carson said. Again, computerized flight-planning software and AOPA Online Flight Planning can get the weather briefing for you and calculate the effect of forecast winds on fuel consumption.

Fuel exhaustion is such a common cause of accidents that ASF has developed a free seminar series titled "Fuel Awareness" that will be presented to pilot audiences around the country. The free two-hour evening seminar will premier in New York and New Jersey in late June. To get exact locations, log on to AOPA Online and click on Air Safety Foundation ( www.aopa.org/asf/seminars/) or call 800/638-3101.

Weather accidents are as common as fuel exhaustion, but often result from no flight planning, as opposed to poor planning, ASF's Carson said. Some of the pilots involved in weather-related accidents look out the living room window, decide the weather is good, and forget that the destination might not have good weather, he explained. Most pilots, however, check the weather, Carson said. It's the pilots who do no flight planning at all who are caught unaware.

Give yourself a big margin

Why calculate fuel reserves to the minimum and then worry about it during flight? Land with an hour of reserve fuel instead. Some flight-planning software allows the pilot to specify fuel reserves, and will automatically plan fuel stops to assure that the reserve is not exceeded. The one-hour suggestion means those of you flying IFR may require up to two hours of reserve fuel, since you must arrive at your destination, cruise to the alternate airport should one be necessary, and be able to remain aloft yet another 45 minutes. Yes, that reduces the range of your aircraft, forcing most of you to fly two-hour legs on a long cross-country flight, but it beats plodding about in IMC weather and worrying about fuel.

When are alternates needed?

Comair Aviation Academy has an interesting answer to that, one that amends what the regulations provide. The regulations say that IFR pilots must designate an alternate airport on the flight plan anytime the weather is forecast to be less than 2,000 feet and three miles' visibility from one hour before to one hour after the intended arrival. However, the correct answer for Comair students is, "Always."

Alternates are always needed, Comair students are taught, unless weather minimums are met. It is a slight adjustment to the pilot's thinking that improves safety. It works for VFR pilots as well.

Just because you are a VFR pilot does not mean you can't list an alternate on the flight plan. Most VFR pilots assume that no alternate is needed. But what if the winds are unfavorable at the original destination? Are you just going to hope that your skills and your aircraft can handle a 20-knot direct crosswind? It is better to land at an airport where runway alignment is more favorable. However, in-flight planning usually means a paper tornado in the cockpit. If winds are iffy at the destination, and you know checking runway alignment it before you depart, why not designate a VFR alternate on your VFR flight plan?

A flight service station briefer offers these additional VFR flight-planning tips, especially for student pilots. Don't file round-robin flight plans that list the home airport as both the departure point and the destination. File two separate plans. If something happens in the early phase of the flight, rescue workers will not be notified until the total time for the round-robin flight plan has elapsed. Additionally, call flight service if you see that you are going to be late and extend the flight plan. Many en route VORs are capable of relaying voice communication signals to flight service. Make sure that you know how to identify them on the chart and use them. Always include the name of the VOR in your call to flight service.

Products available to help

ASF markets two items through Sporty's Pilot Shop that can aid in flight planning. One is the Flight Planner Form, available in pads of 50 for $3.50. Another is The Pilot's Companion, a flight bag-sized guide to the practical test standards available for $11.95. The practical test standards describe the flight planning standards for both VFR and IFR pilots. The items may be ordered online ( www.sportys.com) or by calling 800/543-8633 (513/735-9200). Other products can speed calculations of density altitudes, headwind components, and crosswind components. Some of the Comair instructors carry Jeppesen TechStar calculators available for $77.95 from pilot supply shops. For information, visit the Web site ( www.jeppesen.com) or call 303/799-9090.

E-mail the author at alton.marsh@aopa.org .