VFR-on-top leaving Austin this morning, but IFR was required to get to it. But AUS-SFO is IFR anyway since passenger planes use Class A airspace for long trips.
A preview for our Thanksgiving trip.
Crossing the bay to land at SFO on the airliner. See how easy it would be to get lost out here?
Today I started my intensive 2+ days of training with Jason Miller. Not my Jason Miller, the other Jason Miller, of The Finer Points of Flying and CFII out of San Carlos, CA, who helps students like me develop skills and understanding to stay well ahead of the airplane and create a wide margin of safety even in the lowest of conditions.
I've been watching some of his videos alongside the base IFR training videos (from the <chuckle> Kings, Cleared for Approach). We went over a lot of that material today and some new stuff. Seeing things in the educational/information-delivery King format, the practical flight lesson King videos, and the safety/ritual perspective in Jason's videos was great, and talking through stuff today will help it all to get glued into place.
The biggest concept that applies to all phases of a flight is to know and be on top of what you're doing now, and know what's next. If you have the ability to think ahead another step, even better. Staying ahead means fewer surprises and fewer corrections.
Here are some of the topics we covered:
- Redundancy
Redundancy is hard to argue as a safety feature, yet hard to create in the cockpit, especially when you're flying solo. Anytime there's a commercial incident, ALL of the commercial companies analyze it, learn from it, and implement redundant operations to ensure it will never happen again. For a single pilot in a small aircraft, redundancy can be a straight-forward as doing a checklist from memory (by a standard flow) and then following up by reading down the actual checklist to ensure nothing was missed.
- Flow
While we're on the topic, Jason introduced me to a new acronym, because you know aviation needs just one more. ;) This one I think will actually be extremely beneficial to me, since one of my areas that is the least redundant (read: always done line-by-line from the checklist) is the pre-takeoff checklist and run-up. The mnemonic is CIGARS: Controls, Instruments, Gas (pump/selector/shutoff/quantity), Annunciators/Autopilot/Attitude trim, Radios/run-up, Seats/Seatbelts/Security. Pair that with the last step of Lights, Camera, Action, or integrate the two, and I'd say it's covered. Lights could be included either in "Instruments (and switches)" or as switches in the S section, kinda like the S in GUMPS for pre-landing check. Camera is avionics which would go with instruments. Action is the gas portion.
- Pre-takeoff briefing
When was the last time you thought about aborting a takeoff? Before the situation? Do you consider it every time? I don't. I think about it now and then when I start to get uptight about not having refreshed myself on emergency procedures lately. This is a "learn from others' mistakes" opportunity. Brief it every time, as a ritual, and it will always be fresh. Takeoff is all action so there's no time to grope for a checklist.
- Before taking off, identify again that you're on the correct runway.
- Check the winds one last time.
- Determine what 1000' above the field is (it's roughly 1500' at home, but here on the coast it's 1000').
- Understand the abort plan -- if you haven't hit 70% of the rotation speed by the halfway point on the runway, abort (and know the actions). In the Cessnas I fly, that's a whopping 38kts, which basically means the airspeed indicator hasn't even come alive! What if the oil pressure isn't in the green? Consider your other reasons to abort.
- Review the emergency procedures, for both before and after rotation.
Oh man, we talked about so much stuff. I didn't take notes on all of it. We spent a good bit of time talking about holding patterns and performing holds at intersections. It turns out that my difficulty came in the nomenclature, and using a VOR as the hold fix makes it clear why it was unclear. The holding course is the inbound course on an outbound radial, so you use the reciprocal heading. The outbound course is parallel to the outbound radial on the outbound heading. But all of that aside, remember only these two things:
- Holding courses are always given in the clearance as INBOUND TO THE FIX.
- ALWAYS dial the OBS TO the fix.
We did a few exercises for how to visualize a hold on the DG and choose the appropriate of the three entry methods (straight-in, teardrop, or parallel), then double-checked with the thumb/sector tool for redundancy.
We talked about DME arcs, which I understand (on paper, at least).
We talked about the scan methods. Radial for cruise and inverted V for turns. For a radial scan (which is what I have been working on with Mark), Jason recommends the cadence of a certain well-known 70s song. I try moving my eyes that way here just sitting in the hotel room and it hurts and I can't keep up. It'll take time to get a scan going that fast that can actually meaningfully interpret what is shown on each instrument. The inverted V uses the turn coordinator (electric), the attitude indicator (vacuum), and the VSI (static). It inherently includes a chance to recognize early symptoms of failure on any of those systems.
So much we talked about. I have homework tonight, too. There's an Air Safety Institute video about a particular fatal accident because of running out of fuel from not being able to land at an airport or several alternates. I will review a lesson from a "classic" AIM publication covering climbs and descents of certain characteristics.
We'll meet up at the airport at 7 am, file and fly a specific flight out to Stockton, then do the Oscar pattern (a rectangle with 3 minute sides, where the middle two minutes are standard rate 500 fpm climbing or descending turns to the left or right. The Oscar pattern is an exercise that evolves as the pilot's capabilities expand: required use of flow+checklists on every change, starting headings that make corners harder to calculate, shorter lead-in/out legs, and additional workload layered on top.
Phew. I'm tired, but no where near as tired as I'll be this time tomorrow!
