Training Tip: Mind the stripe
A pilot has completed pre-takeoff checks and is taxiing onto the runway for takeoff. Rushing after a late start, and preoccupied with announcing the departure on the common traffic advisory frequency, he never quite positions the aircraft over the runway centerline before advancing the throttle.
Inattentive footwork that fails to correct the single-engine trainer’s tendency to veer left from the addition of power now makes a bad situation worse.
Add to this sloppy scenario a failure to correct for a crosswind from the right after liftoff, and a controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) accident seems likely in short order.
Don’t think that this tenuous type of takeoff is uncommon. Pilots who as trainees didn’t develop the habit of rigorously steering the airplane along the centerline stripe have been known to disregard the idea until someone, or something, reminds them to “taxi into the takeoff position and align the airplane on the runway centerline/takeoff path,” and “maintain directional control and proper wind drift correction throughout the takeoff and climb” as mandated by the airman certification standards for a private pilot certificate.
With any luck it is an instructor’s critique, not a CFIT mishap, that provides the reminder. Even pilots who always try to adhere to those standards are at risk of becoming sloppy if they fly mostly from long, paved runways unencumbered by obstructions.
Pilots’ destinations, however, won’t be so forgiving. Many localities pilots like to explore present challenges that only a precise, error-free arrival and departure can safely meet. This requires you to divide your attention between directional control, a maximum-performance landing or takeoff, and yes, crosswinds.
For example, consider arriving and departing from North Fox Island Airstrip, a recreational airfield on an island in Lake Michigan. Note the cautions—displaced thresholds, trees, wind—contained in this airport-specific safety briefing offered for general reference by backcountry flying specialists.
The day a pilot heads out to such a place is the wrong time to get refocused on making precisely executed takeoffs. However, a pilot who practices to airman certification standards on every takeoff from every runway, long or short, wide or narrow, is armed with the best insurance policy you can buy: skill.
Dan Namowitz
