May 2005-
If you have been wondering where I have been the last few months, the answer is, “out flying.”
In the last 60 days I have logged just under 150 flight hours in a variety of aircraft, flying in a variety of weather and flight situations. Sixty-eight hours of that time was dual instruction given, mostly in a King Air. I shot 27 approaches, of which two were to actual minimums and that included a rare actual missed approach; and I made 98 landings, four of which were at night. I also logged 1.1 hours of night flight and 5.1 hours of actual instrument time.
I went to four different islands in the Bahamas, and into and out of the Jacksonville, Fla. area during the Super Bowl weekend, landing at a total of 21 different airports.
If I go back another 30 days, I logged 20 hours on Citation Jet recurrent training, mostly in a simulator, as well as a SIC check out in a Sabre 80. Flying that old Sabre was like stepping back in time. It is the DC-3 or the Beech 18 of the jet age. Designed in the late 1950s for use by the United States Air Force, the Sabre was designed from the beginning to be flown by first lieutenants right out of flight school.
Not everything I have flown in the last few months has been turbine powered. I fly my personal piston single or twin to work most days, going into and out of the grass strip I call home.
I checked out another customer in his own twin after he had an all-new Garmin 430/530 avionics suite installed. Complete with TIS and weather downlink, this very experienced pilot was clearly in awe of the buttons and dials not to mention the capabilities of the new equipment he had just installed.
I have also been giving dual instruction to a customer of mine who got her license in 1982 and had not been at the controls of an aircraft since 1983. Now in her early fifties, her interest and passion for aviation has resurfaced and she has come to me to reintroduce her to aviation.
It is almost like starting from scratch, though to my surprise within an hour and a half she was able to fly the airplane reasonably well, staying within private pilot minimums for altitude and heading. I suspect the big challenge for me will be the bookwork. Since the last time this woman commanded an aircraft, aviation has changed a great deal.
Alphabet airspace, which we take for granted at this point, hadn’t been introduced when she had stopped flying, nor had there been anything like GPS, moving maps, TCAS or TFRs. The aircraft she is training in now is equipped with a KMD 150 map, a King 94 GPS and a KAP 140 autopilot, a far cry from the single nav/com and transponder trainer from the 1980s.
The good news is that time has grown good judgment and a healthy respect for the consequences of poor judgment and she is asking really good questions. It has been a while since I have done any primary flight instruction so I found it both refreshing and rewarding. Refreshing to scrape the rust off some teaching skills I hadn’t used lately and rewarding to see the expressions on the face of an airman (airwoman?) who had rediscovered what it is to be a pilot.
One of the questions she asked was about how to get the most proficiency out of the time spent in the air. You know, the most “bang for the buck,” so to speak. The answer that came to mind went something like, “Don’t just spend time in the airplane, spend Quality Time in the airplane.”
What I meant by that was simple. I have seen many pilots that go out each week and do basically the same thing, at the same airport(s), week after week after week. Yes, they logged flight hours, but it could also be said that they logged the same hour over and over.
It’s easy to get comfortable with going to the same places. Good food, cheap fuel, or just plain familiarity with the area can bring you back to the same airport over and over, and all breed a comfort level that any pilot finds enticing.
Life is stressful enough; most of us fly to relax. If you have read my stories before, I have made the point repeatedly that there is a big difference between being current and being competent. From a competency and proficiency point of view you are going to get a lot more for your money going somewhere new, and doing something different then going somewhere you have already been.
The same might be said for flying in weather conditions that are at the limits of your personal envelope. Many of us who live up north fly little in the winter because the weather makes it such a hassle. Just digging the plane out of the snow and preheating the engine is a pain but the fact is that the equipment most of us fly is limited to no known icing. It’s just easier to wait for a nice day.
I’m not suggesting that you go out flying in icing conditions just for the experience, but I am saying that many of us would rather put our feet up in front of the TV than deal with ANY weather at all, and that too is a form of developing a comfort level. Flying in windy conditions or at night are things we are trained to do even as student pilots, but when was the last time you flew in the dark or landed is in a 90-degree crosswind?
The interesting thing about doing it is that once you have, you are much more comfortable with that set of circumstances, and it is more likely that you will go out and fly as opposed to putting your feet up in front of the TV.
If you are not comfortable going alone, take a buddy—or better yet, a trusted instructor—along with you. Most of us feel better having someone in the plane with us when launching into conditions that approach the edges of our personal comfort levels, if we believe that that person has been there or done that and may have something to contribute in the event the situation exceeds our personal capabilities.
That can be said of the 200-hour pilot or the 2,000-hour pilot. There is always someone that has more experience than you do. While there is a time and a place for the $50 dollar hamburger (or is it $100 now?), it is certainly worth the effort to go for the quality time.
Michael Leighton is a 3,400 + CFIIMEI/ATP as well as an A&P mechanic and former FAA Accident Prevention Counselor. He operates an air charter company in South Florida. You can reach him via e-mail at av8tor0414@aol.com n
