Waypoints

Put the airplane where you want it, every time

With the swampy Florida countryside filling the Cessna Skyhawk’s windshield, I wondered what would happen were I performing this emergency descent for real with an electrical fire, at night and/or in instrument conditions. Could I maintain situational awareness enough to land safely? Or, would I succumb to a loss of control, and join others who end up victims to general aviation’s number-one killer?

A similar thought occurred a few weeks later when flying a Cessna Citation CJ3 at 45,000 feet at night over the Appalachian Mountains. I knew the procedure for an emergency descent—as performed in a simulator. But in the event of an explosive depressurization, how likely was it that I could respond in the confusion and pain of such a situation to don the oxygen mask and, using an emergency descent, get the airplane to a breathable altitude without losing control?

In January, the NTSB announced that loss-of-control accidents would remain on its Most Wanted list of safety concerns for GA for the second year. Meanwhile, the FAA and safety experts have declared war on loss-of-control accidents. And rightfully so. Some 40 percent of fatal accidents can be traced to a loss of control, according to two Loss of Control Working Groups in their 2014 report to the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee. The groups studied a decade’s worth of accidents and developed 29 safety enhancements that can help to reduce those types of accidents. AOPA staff co-chaired the working groups and the association co-chairs the committee.

In support of that, the FAA also in January issued an advisory circular providing new guidance to flight instructors for conducting instrument proficiency checks and flight reviews, emphasizing—among other things—traffic pattern operations, approaches to landing, and instrument conditions, all of which are leading causes of loss-of-control accidents. As part of its national Fly Safe campaign, the FAA is urging pilots to practice all types of descents—emergency and otherwise—to learn how to get as much time or distance as possible out of a descent and how to maintain situational awareness from the start of the maneuver all the way to the landing, whether (if you’re lucky) at an airport or otherwise into the treetops. The reason is that if you maintain control of the airplane all the way to the ground, your chances of survival are much higher, regardless of where the airplane ends up.

As pilots, we’re trained to be forever looking for places to land. Sometimes the options are few and far between. Particularly when I’m over hostile terrain, I keep at the front of my mind the great quote attributed to famed test pilot and airshow pilot Bob Hoover: “If you’re faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.”

As part of this all-encompassing effort to reduce loss-of-control accidents, everything is being considered. AOPA Air Safety Institute Senior Vice President George Perry is working with other safety experts to analyze whether curved landing patterns, rather than square ones, might reduce accidents in the pattern. The military, which has an enviable accident rate, has used curved patterns forever, yet general aviation has trained generations of pilots to square off the corners. Look for more on that in coming months.

Meanwhile, perhaps focus some of your training attention on your ability to land consistently on a selected spot on the runway—on the centerline and under control. With a safety pilot who can monitor airspeed, angle of attack, and level of coordination, pull the power off at various points in the pattern and see whether you can safely make it to a chosen spot every time.

At a safe altitude, practice slow flight in various configurations, perfecting coordinated flight straight and level, in turns, and in climbs and descents. Your pilot’s operating handbook includes a best glide speed as determined by the manufacturer at maximum gross weight. If you fly at lighter weights most of the time, your actual best glide speed will be lower. On a calm day at a typical cruising altitude, determine the best glide speed for your most common mission weights. With power off, fly various speeds until you find the one that results in the lowest rate of descent. If you want the most time in the air, rather than to travel the farthest distance, determine your minimum sink speed, which is typically a little slower than best glide speed.

One way or another, remember that when in the cockpit, it’s OK to be a control freak.

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Understanding aerodynamics can help you fly under control. For a brush-up, see the AOPA Air Safety Institute’s online course Essential Aerodynamics.

AOPA Editor in Chief Tom Haines has flown more than 100 models of airplanes in three decades of writing about general aviation.