Continuing Ed

Adjusting to a two-pilot cockpit

I've had my eyes opened plenty of times over the past five months, and not just by the coffee. I've spent about 60 hours flying with an old pro. Bill is a veteran of light-plane check and charter flying around the weather-beaten northeastern United States. He has hauled cargo in heavy military jets, and he has carried passengers in Boeing 767s for a charter airline.

These days he is chief pilot of what to him is a little airplane: a Cessna Citation II business jet. I do part-time duty as second-in-command.

I've spent most of my aviation life as a crew of one, flying my family and myself around in my own or rented airplanes. Moving into a two-pilot cockpit is way different than the single-pilot stuff I'd grown used to. It didn't take long-the first flight with Bill, in fact-to see that I would be as much hindrance as help until I became familiar with the airplane and the chief pilot.

So, that was lesson number one: To function smoothly and effectively as a member of a professional crew requires specific training and, just as important, practical experience. You don't just slide into a part-time seat and perform like the pro who has been doing it for years.

Lesson number two was learning what being a pro means, other than getting paid to fly. How does a pro perform compared to my former self, an amateur (does not fly for hire) general aviation pilot?

Performance is rooted in knowledge and skills, and pros should possess a considerable amount of each. After all, they've had to demonstrate the knowledge and ability needed to obtain the necessary professional jet pilot credentials-a commercial pilot certificate with instrument, mutiengine, and jet type ratings, at minimum. All of that means a professional pilot is expected to fly more precisely than someone with a private certificate, and the true pro does just that.

For example, the pro treats the level-off altitude as if it is an impenetrable ceiling. If the controller says climb to 10,000 feet, then level off at precisely 10,000. Not 9,050, not 10,100.

Pro pilots have a lot of help with altitude management because turbine-powered aircraft are equipped with excellent autopilots, most featuring altitude preselect. The autopilot will level the airplane at precisely the climb or descent altitude the pilot has programmed into the unit.

At lower altitudes, however, we do a fair amount of hand-flying, and on occasion I have allowed the airplane to climb just above or descend just below the clearance altitude. I did so because we were being buffeted by turbulence, and I wanted to give the passengers as smooth a ride as possible. So, instead of fighting the updrafts and downdrafts to remain level, I let the airplane more or less ride them, just as I've done many times before in light airplanes.

Each time I strayed, it was answered with some vigorous finger-pointing from Bill in the direction we needed to go to get back on exact altitude. Bill may have been worried that the controller would notice the deviation and make an issue of it, but that was not the point. Turbulence or not, we needed to be on altitude. It's the only place a pro should be.

I've also learned the difference between regular and pro-style navigating. In these GPS-driven times, laziness can sneak up and consume you before you know it. It's just too easy to dial in a destination on the GPS or, at most, enter a flight plan with several waypoints, then let the box take you there, no questions asked. That convenience can lull a pilot into a state of complacency that could change to near-panic if the GPS navigation goes away for whatever reason.

The Citation is equipped with a navigation package that includes an IFR approach-approved GPS, two VORs with ILS receivers, and an ADF. It's not up to the dual-GPS standard found in many light aircraft cockpits, but it's never failed to guide us to our destination.

The difference between the well-equipped light aircraft and our modestly outfitted jet is that we use the radios-all of them, all of the time. The GPS is the primary navigator, but we back it up on every flight with the VORs and, when possible, the ADF. In cruise flight we typically have one radio tuned to a VOR behind us, the other to one ahead.

Using the VORs to supplement the GPS gives us a better picture of exactly where we are on the flight plan route. It also gives us a Plan B navigation source in the event the GPS checks out.

We've had to resort to VOR navigation on several occasions, but not because the GPS failed. VORs come in handy when air traffic control issues routing changes that require extensive editing of the GPS flight plan. This is especially true in busy terminal areas where there is lots to do in the cockpit and lots to watch for outside.

One reason to have two people in the cockpit is for redundancy. If one pilot misses something, the second crewmember is there to catch the mistake. The same is true with GPS and VORs. You have both, why not use them both? Every pilot who uses a GPS knows that it should be backed up with another navigation source. The pro makes sure each flight is conducted on that basis.

Other things-some subtle, some not-mark the pro pilot. Bill carefully plans each flight using a sophisticated computer program, and then prints the complete flight plan. The printout serves as the guide for entering and confirming the waypoints in a GPS flight plan, and each waypoint is checked against the paper en route charts.

Finally, the clearance issued by ATC is checked against the flight plan and the charts, and any changes made before takeoff. We follow this multistep confirmation process for the 1,000-mile trips and the 100-mile trips. It doesn't completely eliminate routing errors, but it reduces them to a minimum.

When ATC issues a published instrument arrival or departure procedure, we check to see what navigation source it is based on-the anchor, as Bill calls it. Usually that will be a VOR. Along with entering the departure routing in the GPS flight plan, we set it up using the VORs, just in case.

Prior to arriving at our destination airport, we check for the existence and location of visual approach aids such as VASI or PAPI on the landing runway. We also pinpoint the location of the FBO and the taxi route to the FBO, and we usually call the FBO on the communications transceiver to alert them of our impending appearance at their doorstep (FBO frequencies can be found in AOPA's Airport Directory Online. All of this saves confusion and needless radio chatter on the ground.

None of this is rocket science known only to card-carrying professionals. All are just good, solid practices based on knowledge, some experience, and-most important-a commitment to a pro-style mindset. You don't need to be getting a check in the mail to fly like a pro.

Mark Twombly is a writer and editor who has been flying for 35 years. He is a commercial pilot with instrument and multiengine ratings and co-owner of a Piper Twin Comanche.