Retired airline captain Barry Schiff has logged more than 26,000 hours in 275 types of aircraft.
Many designated pilot examiners say they usually can determine within the first 10 or 15 minutes of a flight whether an applicant will pass or fail a practical test. An examiner that I know goes one step further and claims he can make the same determination while the applicant is taxiing for takeoff.
He told me that a pilot who does not keep his nosewheel on the taxiway centerline, for example, is probably just as sloppy about maintaining a given altitude or airspeed. A harsh observation, I thought, but there might be some merit to his contention.
I have discovered that many pilots of aircraft with side-by-side seating do not compensate for being on the left side of the airplane. Instead of rolling their nosewheel along the taxiway centerline, they take a bead on the line from the left seat, which places the nosewheel right of centerline.
An interesting way to practice compensating for being offset from the aircraft centerline is to try rolling the nosewheel over the recessed lights used to designate the taxiway centerline at night. And keep score. The best I've seen is a pilot who bumped and thumped his nosewheel over 19 of 24 lights on a straightaway taxiway at our home airport.
If you think this is a challenge, imagine what it is like to do the same in much larger aircraft with higher, wider cockpits. The larger the airplane, of course, the more important it is to maintain the centerline, which is provided to maximize clearance from sideline obstacles.
(When making 90-degree turns from one taxiway to another, the pilots of some wide-body jetliners have to delay initiating a turn onto the perpendicular taxiway until they actually pass and are looking back at it. This is because the nosewheel is so far behind the cockpit. A premature turn can result in dragging main-gear tires through the mud.)
You should ignore the centerline, of course, when passing opposite-direction aircraft on the same taxiway. Taxi very slowly at such times and if uncertain that your aircraft will clear the other, stop, and if necessary, shut down. Wingtip shadows often can be used to determine if the aircraft will remain separated. If the shadows don't touch, neither will the airplanes.
The adage stating that a pilot should never taxi faster than a person can walk should be taken with a grain of salt. Such advice originated when pilots sat in the rear of open-cockpit taildraggers and had to make S-turns to see where they were going. Taxiing slowly was mandatory. Although this advice applies to all aircraft when taxiing in tight quarters, it is impractical when taxiing in the open. Otherwise, it would take an hour to taxi from the terminal at Honolulu to three-mile-distant Runway 8R. One should taxi a bit faster than a man can walk unless he wants to attract the ire of those taxiing impatiently and in line behind him. On the other hand, don't taxi so fast that someone is tempted to yell, "Rotate!" over the radio.
Examiners do not like to observe pilots doing anything other than taxiing while moving on the ground, and yet there are those who try to accomplish everything on the before-takeoff checklist prior to arriving at the runup area. During flight reviews and instructional flights, I often see pilots checking their flight controls or operating other systems while taxiing.
Such checks are distracting and lead to hundreds if not thousands of metal-bending accidents every year. The exact number is not known because most are never reported. At the other extreme are accidents that result in totaled airframes and serious injuries (such as when a pilot taxis into a ditch or a fuel truck).
If a pilot does not have the discipline to avoid distractions while taxiing, he may be equally susceptible to them when airborne, the results of which can be fatal.
The only items that should be checked while taxiing are the brakes (the effectiveness of which should be determined before taxiing much farther than the length of your aircraft) and the indications of three instruments that can only be checked while the aircraft is in motion. Verify that the turn coordinator (including the slip-skid ball) and the heading indicator move properly during taxiing turns, and that the attitude indicator does not move at all during such maneuvering. (Slight pitching indications are detectable and desirable while braking.) These function checks are particularly important in preparation for an instrument flight, actual or simulated.
If you want to impress an examiner or anyone else on board the airplane, practice braking to a stop in a way that cannot be felt and without cocking the nosewheel. Instead of stopping abruptly and jerking your passenger against his shoulder harness, gradually release some brake pressure just as you are about to stop. Your passengers will appreciate the consideration. It is a technique that can be practiced in your automobile.
A technique used by many airline pilots and appreciated by passengers during stop-and-go taxiing is to let up entirely on one of the two brake pedals just as the airplane is about to stop. This helps to avoid a jerky stop. That brake is reapplied, of course, as soon as the aircraft comes to rest.
If you're going to do something, you should do it right and as well as you can. This includes something as seemingly mundane as taxiing.
Visit the author's Web site ( www.barryschiff.com).
Related Articles
