Preflight

You can even do it vicariously

In "Learn by Doing" (p. 20), author and professional pilot Karen M. Kahn shares some of the learning situations that have helped her to develop her sense of aeronautical judgment. She observes, quite correctly, that learning the decision-making process - and by extension, how to make good decisions - "is a gradual experience that evolves slowly and steadily." Kahn reinforces the point by recalling experiences from different stages of her flying career that contributed to the body of knowledge enabling her judgment.

"The important thing is to keep learning and adding to your data bank," she advises.

That process can begin with your first flight lesson. I'm sure it did for me, although the first really significant learning experience that I recall came on my first unsupervised solo.

It was a beautiful November morning at Triple W Airpark, south of Raleigh, North Carolina. A gentle breeze favored Runway 34; my first pattern and the ensuing touch and go were uneventful. Then the fun began.

On my next approach, everything looked perfect. The runway was coming up to meet the Cessna 152, right where it was supposed to be, and I had the airspeed nailed. Even though I was alone in the airplane, I could clearly hear my instructor quietly but insistently saying "Airspeed!" any time the needle strayed more than a few knots from my target. (That was something he said to me a lot in those days; perhaps the sound had been reverberating in the Cessna's small cabin since our previous dual session.)

But as I arrested the descent and began to flare, something just wasn't right. My peripheral vision told me that the ground was passing by faster than it's supposed to. How could this be, when the airspeed was right on the money? I did just what I had been trained to do in such a situation - go around.

The same thing happened on the next approach, and the next, and maybe one more after that. Man, was I getting good at go-arounds! Then the perceived groundspeed again seemed to match the airspeed, and I actually landed. I did one more pattern, just to prove to myself that the previous landing hadn't been a fluke.

It was while I was taxiing back to the ramp that I looked at the windsock again. The wind had changed direction, going from a 5-mph headwind to a 5-mph tailwind - no wonder my groundspeed seemed faster. Since then, I've paid a lot more attention to windsocks, especially during prolonged sessions in the pattern.

"Learn from the mistakes of others," Kahn concludes. "You'll never live long enough to make them all yourself."

That's excellent advice, and it's something we can do easily through the "Learning Experiences" column in AOPA Flight Training, "Never Again" in AOPA Pilot, and the monthly Never Again Online.

NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (see Kathy Yodice's "Legal Briefing: Where the Info Goes," p. 67) also provides an opportunity for vicarious learning. The ASRS staff reviewed some 38,000 safety reports last year, summarizing its findings in its monthly Callback newsletter and expressing concerns through more than 300 safety alerts, issued directly to appropriate FAA officials, government agencies, airport managers, aviation organizations, and others. Callback - named after the phone calls for additional information that ASRS staff make to pilots and others submitting reports - is mailed to 90,000 subscribers each month, but back issues are archived on the ASRS Web site.

Articles in the newsletter tend to favor airline and large-aircraft issues, which reflects the nature of the reports ASRS receives - about 18 percent come from general aviation pilots, while 65 percent are received from airline and commuter pilots, according to Vince Mellone, the deputy program manager. But GA is not ignored; the November 2002 Callback includes a chilling account - pardon the pun - of an instructor and student who took off in a Cessna 172, hoping to climb above an area of forecast icing conditions. They landed after seeing the approach lights at 400 feet agl - almost 500 feet below minimums for the localizer approach - and found two inches of ice on the airplane. Other recent articles have addressed distractions while taxiing, crew resource management, and problems with airliner flight management systems; the newsletter should be required reading for anyone contemplating a professional piloting career.

ASRS once published a quarterly Directline report that, sadly, has fallen victim to flat program funding over the years. One edition addressed communications-related incidents in GA dual flight instruction, and although it was written more than four years ago, the content is still very relevant to active CFIs - and their students - today. It's on the ASRS Web site - read it the next time you're online, and vicariously increase your body of aeronautical knowledge.