Continuing Ed

Sharpen your flying skills

Practice may be a primary reason to fly for pilots who do not have a specific need for an airplane other than for sightseeing jaunts, breakfast runs, taking friends up, and the occasional cross-country trip. Practicing provides a reason to go to the airport each week. Pattern circuits, playing the GPS keys, and--for the instrument-rated--shooting approaches provide a good hour of stimulating and refreshing flying.

Like the Carnegie Hall-bound musician, a pilot may spend more time practicing for a performance--a mission-specific flight such as a business or vacation trip--than in the actual performance.

Nothing wrong with that. Practice flying is flying, after all--the forces of lift, gravity, thrust, and drag exert the same influence on an airplane that is used for practice takeoffs and landings as on one being flown on a business trip. Besides, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Or does it? Do we use our practice time wisely, or do we tend to follow the same informal script every time we go on a refresher mission? Can we honestly say that our practice time digs deeply into our bag of skills to uncover the things that truly need polishing, or do we make it easy on ourselves and grab the first thing that comes to hand--takeoffs and landings and playing with the GPS?

Using practice time wisely means making the most efficient use of expensive flight time. It also means working at becoming all-around proficient, skilled at handling normal and abnormal conditions, and not just good at making smooth landings. So, what exactly should we be doing when we go out to the airport with the objective of practicing? Just what is the ideal practice flight?

It depends--on you, the type of flying that you do, and the airplane that you fly. You won't find one-size-fits-all "Practice Maneuvers" scripted on a handy plastic card that you can pull out of a side pocket and refer to in flight. The fact is, no one practice drill fits every pilot and every airplane. A bush pilot flying a de Havilland Beaver on straight floats has different practice needs than someone who operates a fixed-gear light single at an urban airport. Likewise, a pilot who flies regularly on business probably will benefit from a practice scenario that is different than one more suited to the occasional recreational flyer.

The one theme that should be common to all practice drills is to focus on things not normally encountered in your typical flying. This is the philosophy followed in professional-pilot training. A business jet pilot goes to recurrent training in a full-motion simulator not to do takeoffs and landings and practice cruise flight, but to confront and react to abnormal situations such as wind shear and a broad range of emergency procedures.

We don't have access to motion simulators for light airplanes, so we have to practice emergency procedures in the airplane. We learn during training to respond to a total loss of power by quickly configuring for best glide speed, but when was the last time you practiced it? How would you respond to a sudden loss of power, especially if a windshield covered with oil reduced forward visibility? It's worth simulating from time to time.

Some emergency procedures prompted by systems failures can be practiced in flight--emergency landing gear extension in some retractables, for example. For the most part, however, it's best to sit in the airplane on the ramp and use the checklist to practice proper response to systems problems such as a popped circuit breaker, failed alternator or vacuum pump, or a leaking hydraulic line.

Valuable practice time should be treated as back-to-basics time, an opportunity to revisit fundamental stick-and-rudder issues. Nothing's more important than maintaining positive control of the airplane, no matter the situation, and a back-to-basics approach to practice sessions will instill confidence in your stick-and-rudder skills.

I asked a respected friend and flight instructor, Doug Turner, what he recommends for a practice drill. Doug's aviation experience ranges from aircraft owner to business jet pilot, and he spent a career at the FAA in air traffic control. Here's what Doug says:

"I recommend flight at minimum controllable airspeed. Head out to the practice area, clear the area, and maintain a constant heading (090 degrees, for example) and altitude (about 3000 feet agl, but a cardinal altitude--some multiple of 1,000--that is easily remembered), and configure and fly at minimum controllable airspeed (V_MC). Look for the stall warning horn to come on and off throughout this drill, which should last six to 10 minutes.

"Precision at holding V_MC, altitude, and heading are the goals. Once achieved when straight and level, make shallow turns left to a heading of 360 degrees, then right to 180 degrees, then left back to 090 degrees while nailing the altitude with the stall horn bleeping. Before you fly, review what a spin looks like and how to recover--stop the rotation with the rudder, relax back-pressure on the yoke, and don't pull out too quick. If that makes you want to get a CFI to ride along, all the better.

"The next thing that will really sharpen the skills is four landings. One is a short-field landing, the second is soft-field, and the third is landing after an engine fails (simulated using idle power) on downwind abeam the numbers. What will it take in terms of attitude, airspeed, flap settings, and maneuvering to make the runway safely?

"The fourth is a landing on the mains only (in a tricycle-gear airplane). Hold that nose off and never let it touch the runway. With the mains rolling on the runway, slowly add power--don't let that nosewheel touch--and keep adding power to fly it off. The entire touch and go should be done without the nosewheel ever touching the runway. Hint: Select a long runway!

"If you are flying a taildragger, the fourth landing is a wheel landing to a touch and go, but the tail must start to settle before gradually adding power.

"A final practice procedure that is pretty enlightening is simulating an engine failure on takeoff. Practice this one at 2,000 feet agl. Start at 1,800 feet or so, and climb as if you are taking off. Assume the 2,000-foot mark is the runway elevation as you climb through it. At 2,200 feet pull the throttle all the way back to idle, quickly.

"Notice how fast the nose must be lowered to keep flying speed and avoid a stall. Notice the rate of descent and how quickly you are back on the surface (remember it's at 2,000 feet agl). If you are taking off and have a total engine failure at 200 feet above the runway, would you be able to push over hard to keep flying speed, and would you be able to maintain enough speed to hold a reserve for the flare? Practicing it at a safe altitude will better prepare you if it ever happens, regardless of altitude."

Back-to-basics practice will provide a great appreciation for operating at slow speeds with high angles of attack. It will sharpen your aircraft handling skills. Simply put, it will make you a better pilot.

Mark Twombly is a writer and editor who has been flying since 1968. He is a commercial pilot with instrument and multiengine ratings and co-owner of a Piper Aztec.