Whether you’re an active flight instructor or simply interested in reading what CFIs are saying, take a look at CFI to CFI—the Air Safety Institute’s quarterly digital newsletter for certificated flight instructors and others interested in flight training topics.
In the latest issue (Volume 6, Issue 3), find simple rules of thumb to help manage general aviation pilot and passenger expectations and learn why airplane owners and CFIs need to be vigilant during flight reviews. Enjoy a compilation of flight instructors’ favorite techniques for teaching a procedure, delve into an accident case study that underscores the importance of visually clearing the final approach path, and read about Lockheed Martin Flight Service’s new Web portal to get the briefing you need. Subscribe and add the free newsletter to your flight bag. You can also find the entire series online.
Know when it's time to reach out
Check out ASI’s ‘Real Pilot Story’
Imagine yourself as a non-current instrument-rated pilot dealing with an unexpected IFR descent—then add the problem of a fuel exhaustion-induced engine failure. You’re about to lose critical instrumentation that you depend on for spatial orientation in the clouds. How would you cope? To whom would you look for help?
Enter Real Pilot Story: Trapped on Top. The story begins on a beautiful morning at Afton, Wyoming, when Ken Lawson sets out in his Mooney to deliver Christmas gifts to his son and family in North Bend, Washington. But as the flight progresses, low-lying clouds move in, trapping Lawson and his airplane on top, and forcing him to fly past his destination and beyond his alternate—while slowly depleting the fuel tanks in search of a break in the overcast. When he finally reaches out to air traffic control it’s almost too late for help.
Like Lawson, some pilots are hesitant to admit to ATC that they’re in trouble, so they resolve to work on the problem by themselves. But that decision can be dangerous, as you will see in this video re-creation of the incident (www.airsafetyinstitute.org/trappedrps). Luckily a team of ATC specialists mounted an effort to get him on the ground safely.
The three controllers involved received the 2012 Archie League Medal of Safety Award recognizing the most outstanding flight assist of the year.
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