Remember what you learned
It had been two years since I obtained my private pilot certificate. During this time, I slowly became more competent and confident in my own flying abilities. Then it came time for my first flight review.
At first, the flight review seemed intimidating. I had been flying safely for two years without incident, but I was a bit rusty on the finer points of the basic maneuvers. I was especially out of practice on emergency procedures, which I had not actually performed since I passed the private pilot checkride.
On my first landing attempt the instructor added an additional, unexpected element to see how I would respond. As I approached the threshold and was preparing to pull the throttle to idle, she said, "Deer on the runway. Go around." Although the runway was perfectly clear of any hazards, I followed her instruction to perform a go-around. At this point, remember that I am configured for landing: slow speed, low altitude, and full flaps. Per the checklist, I advanced full throttle, leveled off, turned the carburetor heat off, and retracted just one notch of flaps. I had to really push on the yoke to keep the nose from rising since I still had 20 degrees of flaps down. I flew straight down the runway to gain more airspeed before reaching the trees off the far end of the runway.
It was then that I perceived visually (and sensed in my gut) that we were sinking. The simulated go-around had suddenly become a full-blown real emergency! I rapidly scanned the controls to see that everything was configured correctly. The carburetor heat knob was full in (Off), so that was not stifling power. The mixture and throttle knobs were both full in, so I was getting every ounce of power I could out of the engine. So why were we sinking? Then I glanced at the flap indicator. To my surprise I found that the flaps were fully retracting. We were losing lift.
I quickly put the flaps back to 20 degrees. As the flaps extended the airspeed slowly started to increase, but the trees were rapidly filling the windscreen. I gritted my teeth and consciously held the nose down to get the airspeed to best rate of climb (VY). As soon as I had 68 knots indicated airspeed, I raised the nose just the tiniest bit. We slowly began to climb and skimmed over the tree tops by mere feet. After gaining a bit more airspeed, I retracted the remaining flaps one notch at a time and carefully climbed back up to pattern altitude.
I asked the flight instructor if she had touched the flap handle. She replied that she had discretely tapped it a notch since I had forgotten to take out some flaps at the start of the go around.
She was not aware that the notches on this aircraft's flap handle were worn and the handle did not always stop at each notch. That is why I always look at the indicator and handle when setting the flaps. When she simply tapped the flap handle, it had passed the next notch and went all the way to the end. The result was that she had unknowingly removed all of the flaps while we were still low and slow.
When we landed, I was approached by a good friend who had been watching from the FBO. He asked me if I was scared during the emergency. Truthfully, I was not scared while we were sinking. Instead, I behaved just as my flight instructor told me I would. Instinctively I fell back on the checklist and my training to methodically analyze the situation and take the necessary corrective action. I think it was then that the reality of the situation hit me and my knees shook for a while-but that was later, after the incident was over and I was on the ground.
There is one thing I do now that I did not do before this incident. Every now and then I sit in a chair with the pilot's operating handbook. I read through the emergency procedures, step by step, pretending to activate each knob, switch, and control. I do this not because my training was deficient, but because I am getting older. This exercise keeps the synapses firing along the right paths in my long-term memory.
I now fly with great confidence in myself because I know that I will not panic in a crisis. Instead, I will fall back on my training. You do not need to experience an in-flight emergency to have confidence in how you will respond. Your training will adequately prepare you to handle in-flight emergencies. I hope you never experience an in-flight emergency, but if you do, be confident that you will recall the proper action to take.
"Learning Experiences" is presented to enhance safety by providing a forum for students and pilots to learn from the experiences of others. It is intended to provoke thought and discussion, acknowledging that actions taken by the authors were not necessarily the best choices under the circumstances. We encourage you to discuss any questions you have about a particular scenario with your flight instructor. E-mail submissions to [email protected].
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