Hilton Software, makers of the WingX Pro7 electronic flight bag app, are offering the product available free of charge to certificated flight instructors. The company hopes CFIs will use the software to analyze and debrief flights, and more. Pro7 is sold on a subscription basis for $74.99 per year. By submitting a scan of a CFI certificate to Hilton, qualified individuals will receive WingX Pro7 with synthetic vision, airport diagram georeferencing, terrain, obstacles, and other features. For more information, see the website.
Useful tips from an experienced instructor
Here’s a booklet you’ll want to download
By Alton K. Marsh
Corbin Hallaran has acted as chief safety officer at Premiere Aircraft Sales in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for several years. I flew with him while researching a story on the company’s diesel Cessna 172. He has collected a series of quick tips and practical advice for the average pilot that can also be a good review for the flight review. You can download it. You’ll find “The Proficient Pilot: A Collection of Pilot Safety Articles” on the left side of the Web page. Here are some samples.
Keep your pilot skills up when the economy is down. Here’s some advice you won’t see in any training booklet. Hallaran says you can still stay current when the economy drops and you find yourself spending fewer hours in the cockpit than you would like; have a plan. Here are some things you can put in that plan.
Take online courses available at www.airsafetyinstitute.org and www.faasafety.gov. Plan on a one-hour local flight each month and do maneuvers you haven’t done in years, like turns around a point while scanning inside and outside references. Don’t remember your student pilot maneuvers? They can be found online.
Write down your limitations on a piece of paper, to include your maximum crosswind, minimum ceilings, visibility, slowest indicated airspeed you will allow, maximum bank angles you will use, and landing distances (runways) you will accept. Consider improving on those limits. If your maximum crosswind is 10 knots, why not work with a flight instructor to increase it to 15?
Performing the maneuvers, Hallaran says, can give you an indication of how you will perform in a stressful environment.
Distractions can be deadly. Discourage unnecessary talk during preflight, startup, taxi, takeoff, climbout and landing. Let your passengers know they can talk during these times if they see something that doesn’t look right, see traffic or point out birds.
Have you ever done this while taxiing to the runway; set radios, get the recorded weather information, write down and read back an IFR clearance, run up the engine while on the move? Hallaran suggests, “Don’t.” Do all that while not moving.
Dump digital distractions. Have you ever made or received a phone call while in the middle of a preflight? Have you sent text messages while approaching or leaving an airfield to say, “I just departed,” or, “I am just arriving”? Again, Hallaran advises, “Don’t.” And music in the cockpit is great…for the passengers. You need to listen for air traffic controllers.
Heading somewhere unfamiliar? There are ways to take the strangeness out of a strange new airport. You won’t have familiar landmarks you use at your home airport, so call ahead and ask what they are at your destination. The local fixed base operator or flight school either knows or can put a pilot on the phone. Call them both. Use Google Earth to scope out the airport environment, especially if the area is mountainous.
Things to note before departure, Hallaran says, are the operating hours for available airport services, obstacles, wildlife, runway closures, and varying traffic patterns.
What about density altitude? Is this going to be a hot summer day, high-altitude airport? You may want to plan for morning and evening departures when temperatures are lower.
Temporary flight restrictions can pop up not only before departure, but may become active while you are enroute, especially during election years, Hallaran notes.
In addition, Hallaran offers practical advice on getting the most out of that Garmin G1000 avionics suite, engine management, the benefit of higher altitudes for cruise, and preparing for an emergency. No one likes to think the engine might quit on takeoff, but what if it does?
As Hallaran notes in his booklet, “Ready or not, bad things happen to good pilots.” He doesn’t preach from the pulpit of a perfect pilot, noting he nearly got in trouble over fuel management, and explains how to avoid a similar problem.
The booklet is free and easily downloaded with the click of a mouse.
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