Checkride

How An Examiner Views Ground Reference Maneuvers

Even before early aviators concerned themselves with speed, maneuvering near the ground while using features on the surface as references reigned supreme among pilot concerns. Nearly a century later we tend to fly higher above the ground and our airplanes handle much more predictably, but skill in ground reference maneuvers remains vital. Student pilots wrestle with rectangular courses, skid through S-turns, and tremble through turns around a point until their flight instructors declare them "prepared." Then student trepidation begins anew on the checkride. Ground reference maneuvers pose little difficulty, but they often reveal shallow preparation. On your checkride, you will demonstrate ground reference maneuvers because the practical test standards (PTS) demand it.

Most of us must understand the "whys" surrounding the tasks we face. Consequently, most examiners fill their testing repertoire with questions or scenarios that ask "why" without ever using the word. Pilots seldom perform ground reference maneuvers in their normal, day-to-day flying-a fact many students explain to their flight instructors when they are frustrated. Still, some examiners ask applicants why they perform ground reference maneuvers. Hopefully these applicants know that the elements and principles of ground reference maneuvers do, in fact, apply to customary pilot operations. The traffic pattern is the most obvious application of a ground reference maneuver, but it is by no means the only one. Although still distant for student pilots, the day will come for most when, as instrument-rated pilots, they must conduct a circle-to-land procedure from an instrument approach so tightly at minimums that the runway's just-visible touchdown zone is the difference between landing or going elsewhere. When that day comes for you, you will be thankful that you learned to use ground references to sharpen your ability to divide your attention, maneuver close to the ground, and correct for contrary winds.

Examiners can most closely analyze an applicant's analysis of the wind's effect on their airplane during this part of the flight test. Ground reference maneuvers broadcast those effects like flowers announcing spring. Your examiner will judge your ground reference maneuvers not only on the published limitations of plus or minus 100 feet of altitude and plus or minus 10 knots of airspeed, but he or she also will note your control touch, smoothness, and coordination. And one thing more: Your examiner will pay particular attention to your division of attention inside and outside the airplane. Too frequently, examiners watch applicants circling their chosen surface feature, their eyes forsaking all existence for that reference point, their heads never turning in quest of potential conflicting traffic. When concentration is so focused upon one element of the maneuver, the others become as random as a card game. To your examiner, the stakes are too high for this to be allowed.

In its Area of Operation VI, the PTS references Advisory Circular 61-21, the old Flight Training Handbook. In 1999 the FAA replaced this publication with the Airplane Flying Handbook and assigned it number FAA-H-8083-3. Even though much of the information is identical to the older manual, you should base your training on the latest, most current version, even if it is not specifically referenced in the PTS. The Airplane Flying Handbook devotes most of its discussion of ground reference maneuvers to drift and ground track control. You need to be familiar with this discussion because it forms the basis for many of your examiner's questions.

The PTS charges your examiner with determining that you meet the acceptable standards of knowledge and skill regarding each task. The days are gone when examiners selected only one task from an area of operation, but elements may be combined for efficiency. For example, your examiner may have you demonstrate a complete rectangular course in the practice area - or not. Pilot examiners often blend the rectangular course with work in the traffic pattern, but they don't have to. Some examiners never combine the two because the rectangular course relies on a rectangular pattern visible on the surface and requires the aircraft to track a consistent distance from each of the legs of that visible pattern. Traffic patterns, although they are rectangular, have only the runway to use as a ground reference. In fact, misapplying too many of the rectangular course's elements to the traffic pattern can become a hazardous practice. Students who plan their base legs in relation to fixed ground objects rely on distance for turning onto final. In strong winds or on calm days, the result may be a faulty glide path.

Altitude selection is a key element of performing ground reference maneuvers; your examiner will most likely leave it to you to select your own altitude. You should be aware that the PTS and the Airplane Flying Handbook agree that altitudes between 600 feet and 1,000 feet above ground level are appropriate. Conveniently, this altitude range mirrors the range of traffic pattern altitudes most common in the United States. Again, the PTS tolerance for performing the maneuver is plus or minus 100 feet, but you must be careful. Some examiners consider the 600-foot lower limit as a floor and the 1,000-foot upper limit as a ceiling. Should you select either as the altitude at which you begin your ground reference maneuver, your altitude tolerance window is cut in half. You might discuss this with your examiner before you fly.

Altitude selection must take into account local terrain features and obstacles, including towers. Your clearance from obstructions must adhere to federal aviation regulations. Plenty of pilot examiners can recount tales of applicants performing commendable ground reference maneuvers only to turn in an aircraft-endangering direction, charging Don Quixote-like at a nearby radio tower or other obstruction. Ground reference maneuvers are a prime opportunity for you to fly or fail based on the quality of your aeronautical decision making.

The PTS is adamant that checkrides must have an ongoing oral portion, and in flight is a devious time for examiners to ask, "How do you correct for drift while in a turn?" Too many applicants reply that you can correct for wind only while flying straight and level; that answer is wrong. The Airplane Flying Handbook discusses the effects on an airplane of winds during a turn. You need not explain as deeply or scientifically as the Handbook does. Most examiners are satisfied with the simple answer, "By varying bank." For all the discussion and underlying principle, that is the heart of the answer.

Turns around a point and S-turns are also maneuvers by which you translate your correct answer into performance. As in the rectangular course, the PTS asks you to enter in a turn to the left. Sound aeronautical decision making, again, is your key to success. Your examiner may be quietly interested in how you position your airplane to begin the maneuver, especially if it is vital that you remain within a defined practice area. Even though neither the PTS nor the FARs specifically mention the practice area, your examiner most likely knows about local considerations that might demand that you be diligent. Local property owners dislike the annoyance of airplanes disturbing their peace; some have actually begun compiling videotapes of aircraft whose behavior they consider offensive. These tapes often find their way to the flight standards district office, which must investigate citizen complaints. Your examiner wants no part of that.

If you get the impression that ground reference maneuvers entail far more looking outside and analysis on the pilot's part than most other maneuvers, you're right. Each ground reference maneuver demands a sense of timing, coordination, and understanding that form the basis of an airman's skills. They are the foundation for the more complex maneuvers required of a commercial pilot, and they are a proven core of expertise for private pilots.