Dear Rod:
I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about crop dusting. The gist of the article seemed to revolve around the stick-and-rudder capabilities of aspiring crop-dusting pilots. Some of the fellows in the article who did not make the grade were CFIs with a good number of hours. The instructor/owner of the crop service said many pilots just do not have the stick-and-rudder skills to be good at the job.
How would one go about finding an instructor who could really drill into one’s skull good stick-and- rudder skills? I don’t want to be a crop duster, but I think developing the skills of one would be invaluable.
Thank you.
G-man
The answer to this question is easy. Find an aerobatic instructor who teaches in taildraggers. That’s the person most likely to be able to help you. Besides, with your nickname, I’m guessing that you’re already used to G-forces.
Traffic behind me—now what?
Dear Rod:
I had an interesting incident happen on my return from a cross-country flight to Northern California. After departure and under flight following, as I was crossing the coastline eastbound just north of Oxnard, I was alerted by ATC that I had traffic at six o’clock at my altitude (5,500 feet) and overtaking me. Then I heard ATC inform the Bonanza of my position and the Bonanza replied that he had me in sight. I was unsure of how to respond for a moment, and then replied by saying, “Are you clearing me to descend to 5,000 to avoid traffic?” ATC did not answer, but I spotted the Bonanza off my right wing about 1,000 feet away after about 30 seconds. Was my response correct? What am I suppose to do with traffic at six o’clock?
Regards,
S.L.
Greetings S.L.:
Here are several points for you to consider. First, if you have traffic at six o’clock and are worried about its altitude, speed, and proximity, ask ATC for an avoidance vector. When receiving VFR radar advisory service, you can’t count on ATC to provide vectors away from known traffic unless you specifically ask for that service. ATC will often turn you to the left of the trailing airplane since that airplane should pass to your right. In fact, as a general rule when receiving traffic advisories, any time ATC calls traffic for you and you can’t see it but feel uncomfortable with its proximity, ask ATC for an avoidance vector.
Second, ATC was not clearing you to modify your altitude at all when you received that traffic call. ATC was only alerting you to known traffic. Unless you were instructed to maintain a specific altitude, you may change altitude at your discretion, but you should inform ATC of that altitude change.
Logging high-performance hours
Dear Rod:
I am a private pilot who recently purchased a Mooney M20E, which has a Lycoming IO-360 powerplant (200 horsepower). I realize the FAA designation of high performance is greater than 200 horsepower, and thus I have been logging time only as complex; but a CFI recently told me that I should definitely be logging the time as high-performance time too. My own more senior CFI says no. If I log it, and then if I eventually am looking at a commercial job with this high-performance time, would that be frowned upon?
Thanks.
John
Your senior CFI is right. If it’s not more than 200 horsepower, then it’s not considered high-performance flight time. Personally, I don’t think any employer will care that you have a lot of complex time and very little high-performance time. In fact, it seems to me that complex time is much more valuable than high-performance time if you’re planning on instructing or flying airplanes with retractable gear.
Building confidence
Dear Rod:
I’m a new flight instructor who’s preparing to give his first flight review. While I have a good idea of what to cover, I was wondering if you have any suggestions about specific maneuvers that I can use to build my student’s confidence. I thought of doing instrument training, emergency landings, and so on, but just don’t want to miss an opportunity for making a good impression. Any advice you can offer would be welcome.
Sincerely,
Ronan
Greetings Ronan:
Yes, there are several things you can do that will really help your student’s confidence, but you have to be confident enough to do these yourself. One maneuver I really like is covering the airspeed indicator in the pattern and having the student do a series of touch-and-go landings, estimating airspeed solely by a sense of feel. Every pilot should be confident enough to do this, but many aren’t. Here’s how to set it up.
On the downwind leg, you can completely cover the airspeed indicator with a No-Peekie or a Post-It. If you’re not comfortable letting the student fly under these conditions, then you can bend the paper in such a way that you can see the airspeed indicator while the student can’t. You may need to consult an origami master to find the proper way to bend the paper, too. If you do, you’ll get a good instrument cover that may also look like a pigeon.
Next, inform the student that his airspeed indicator has just failed and he or she must now land using information from other than the airspeed indicator (which all pilots should be able to do, in my opinion). He can use the airplane’s attitude, power, control feel, sound, and kinematic sense of motion to sense how fast the airplane’s moving. You’ll carefully observe his behavior, never allowing the airplane to become critically slow or unacceptably fast on final approach. Usually, within two or three landings the student becomes comfortable taking off and landing. This is an excellent maneuver to develop a pilot’s confidence.
Another great maneuver for developing a pilot’s confidence is doing takeoffs and landings in a strong crosswind. Of course, most runways are aligned so that they face into the prevailing wind as averaged over a long period of time. So you have to be a bit clever here. I suggest you find a nearby controlled airport with crisscrossing runways. When traffic conditions permit, ask the tower controller if you can do touch and goes on the crosswind runway. Sometimes they’ll only let you do it once, and then send you off to play in the pattern like everyone else, but invite you back when traffic permits.
There’s nothing quite like handling a good crosswind landing to convince a pilot that he or she is the master of the airplane.
Rod Machado is a flight instructor, author, educator, and speaker. A pilot since 1970 and a CFI since 1973, he has flown more than 8,000 hours and is part owner of a Cessna P210. Visit his Web site.
