Starr Aviation

Your First Solo Flight

Adam — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:14:16 +0000

The freedom of being in the air

You love flying. The sights, sounds, smells and feelings. You love the challenging times and the study. You work hard and deserve the moments of pure bliss when the air is smooth, the view is absolutely majestic and you seem to on top of it and even a bit ahead.

Today looks like one of those days. As you have your breakfast you can see, out the window, the beautiful blue sky. With the eye of someone who has experienced the elation of flight you note there are no clouds and the trees in the yard are not being blown by any wind. It’s looking like a great day.

Your mind turns to today’s flight and you start to feel yourself focus on the tasks you need to perform. The weather needs some further definition instead of just an educated glance so you open up your electronic flight bag and get the weather for the airport. The forecast is already out and you can see it is supposed to be fine and warm with a light breeze that will increase after lunch and some possible storms late this afternoon. The storms won’t affect you though as your flight will be over in time for lunch.

There aren’t many notices to examine either. There are some local fireworks tonight, a few cranes in the local area that won’t affect you and some changes to runway lighting that also won’t bother you on this fine morning. When you check the region notices you can see there is a gliding competition happening but that is out in the training area and won’t bother you as you are staying in the circuit for this flight. You do make a mental note to remember it for other flights though. It’s going to be a good day.

Flight training in action

Now the tasks you have to perform start to invade your thoughts. The checks. The movements. The radio calls and replies. The possible curveballs that might be thrown your way. You start to visualise and ‘chair fly’ what you will need to do on this flight. Your hands and feet move in their familiar and soothing patterns. It’s quite easy to do here at home and, although you know it will be different in reality, you also know that this sort of practice helps immensely.

Again you revise airport and standard operating procedures and then you feel mostly ready so you rise from the breakfast table and go to get dressed. You pack your flight bag and make sure you have all that you may need. Sunglasses. Headset with spare batteries. Water and snacks. Kneeboard and all the other toys a pilot needs.

Time to go. You allow plenty of time. It’s not worth the added stress of being late if there’s traffic. You are usually a little early but they are used to you and it gives you extra time to relax, prepare and hydrate. It also allows a bit of time for interaction with the other like-minded individuals for some banter and Top Gear quotes as well as perfecting your dad-joke delivery.

The transition from student to solo pilot

Student and instructor now become a team to get the flight completed safely. Although technically a team it is always a little lopsided! At this stage it is up to the student to brief the instructor on all points including requirements, weather etc. The team is prepared. Now for the aircraft.

You sign out, check maintenance records and other paperwork then head out to your aircraft. The daily inspection you do is always thorough and you make sure everything is checked and double checked. The fuel truck arrives – thank goodness as you wouldn’t want to that dirty work yourself! You check and drain the fuel and it all looks good. There are no more excuses- it’s time to fly. It’s not that you ever make excuses but there is always that tiny bit of apprehension/excitement when it’s actually time to fly.

Both of you go through the familiar motions of plugging in headsets and getting yourselves ready then strapping into your trusty steed. Checks completed the engine is brought to life and the sortie is underway. It is all so familiar now. You have done this many times. The radio calls. The engine checks. The radio calls and clearances. In a seeming blur of familiar actions you now find yourself at the holding point ready to launch. The first landing is not so good. It is accurate enough and incredibly safe but there was just a little bounce at the end.

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Normalisation of Deviance and the 80% rule

Adam — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 23:49:04 +0000

Let’s start this with a little deviance. What is deviance? It is a fact or state of diverging from usual or accepted standards.

Now, why are we concerned about this in aviation? We are very procedural and safety conscious, so we love to stick to tried, true, standard and safe procedures. I am sure our passengers love us for this as well. Aviation, as with a lot of other fields, must be at the top of its game in order to prevent harm or death. We know that when we deviate it can have serious consequences but quite often, we are confronted with minor little deviances and end up flying anyway as we have learnt (either from actual lessons, mentoring or just previous experience) that this is a safe practice.

Examination, in general terms, of some well-known incidents will help highlight where we may be able to re-examine our own practices. You can also look up these examples online for further detail.

Space Shuttle Challenger

The solid rocket boosters had O-rings sealing some joints and a design goal was for no joint failures. It was known that the joint material could erode and some blow-by could result, but these were accepted as risks and waivers in the design goals were received. It was seen that if this was to eventuate then the “secondary should catch it” and thus the mission continued. On the night before launch day it was quite cold, and ice was formed on some areas. Although the engineers cautioned that these temperatures were outside the design parameters the mission was given a green light. The result after launch was blow-by that ended with an explosion of the shuttle and the deaths of all seven crew.

Space Shuttle Columbia

The insulating foam covering the external fuel tank was known to shed on occasion, but this was seen as a maintenance issue rather than a safety-of-flight issue despite observed damage and the design goal of no foam loss. Foam strikes to the orbiter were accepted risks due to the decreased likelihood of any damage being done in the unlikely instance that foam did shed, and shed in just the right direction, and cause any damage that would decrease safety. In the end, all of these did eventuate and the resultant damage to the orbiter caused it to explode on re-entry with, again, the loss of all crew.

Costa Concordia

This cruise ship had previously been ordered by the company to do a sail past salute at Isola del Giglio, Italy, due to celebrations. The captain had since done several other passes at the same location. On the day in question the ships Maitre D’hotel was on the bridge as he was from the island, as was the girlfriend of the captain. The captain turned off alarms as “he knew the area and had been there 3 or 4 times before”. This time resulted in the ship running aground and 32 lives lost.

International Space Station (ISS).

The drink bags inside space suits had been known to leak on the ISS so water was observed in space suits during Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA) – i.e. ‘spacewalks’. On this occasion (ISS EVA-23) water was again observed in the space suit but the assumption was it was just a leaking drink bag again. This time, though, it was a leaking vent loop so was much more serious and resulted in the astronaut nearly drowning.

So, what is Normalisation of Deviance?

The process of normalisation of deviance can be seen in the “Deviation Spiral” where you can see a deviation from the original normal causes a new normal which, again, can be deviated from, causing another normal. Each of these deviances need only be small but the gradual acceptance of each, and subsequent “getting away with it” teaches us that the deviance is acceptable – until an incident occurs.

The 80% Rule is an instructional example of normalisation of deviance where a student will generally only learn 80% of what they are being taught. When an expert teaches a lesson then the student will not reach the same standard as that expert at the conclusion of that lesson. In this form of normalisation of deviance both students and instructors accept the ‘new normal’ for many reasons. You can probably recount your own examples where a subject matter expert has taught an authority/officer/senior-instructor who takes on board 80% of that teaching. They, in turn, now teach other instructors who now only learn 80% of that teaching so are at 64% of the original. When these instructors teach the students, those students now only take on 51.2% of the original teachings. If you add in another layer of either more junior instructors or social learning around the hangar then you, as the final student in the chain, may only learn 40.96% of the original instruction.

Another contributing factor to this is “Groupthink” which is “…a quick and easy way to refer to a mode of thinking that persons engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when concurrence-seeking becomes so dominant that it tends to override critical thinking or realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.” (Irving l. Janis, 1982). This leads people to want to be part of the group more than voicing individual critical thought or it can lead to a minority voicing critical thought to be overruled within the group or for them to conform to remain part of the group.

The above is all great as background learning but we need to examine the implications of this. Most of you are probably already ahead of me when I mention James Reason or the Swiss Cheese model. We have all read accident/incident reports where this has come up or have at least been taught about it in some area of your life. The model describes the chain of an accident as many little deviances that, by themselves, are small but if all those little ‘holes in the swiss cheese’ line up then the result can be disastrous. The model also shows, importantly, that if one of us just turns one slice of that swiss cheese around then the holes will not align, and a disaster can be averted.

Let me pose a few questions to get you thinking:

Have you ever departed on a flight (or drive) with the taillight not working and a “I’ll fix that when I get home” attitude?
If the required distance below cloud is 500’ (i.e. Australian Class D) and the cloud has been reported at 1300-1400’ above the ground, have you ever gone out and done some circuits at 1000’?
Have you ever been a teacher or student where the teaching was done to a budget?
Have you ever continued with an unstabilised approach?

Hopefully you can view examples such as these and others from your own experience considering the things described above. If you are able to reflect on these and correct any errors or deviances, then you will have achieved the aims of this article – avoidance of the normalisation of deviance and the critical thinking and evaluation of performance.

Critical thinking and objective evaluation of performance is a great step toward solving these problems and then avoiding any normalisation of deviance or groupthink and I urge you all to do it in any area of your lives. Once the two space shuttle disasters had been analysed NASA came up with some key recommendations which were:

Don’t use past success to redefine acceptable performance.
Require systems to be proven safe to operate to an acceptable risk level rather than the opposite.
Appoint people with opposing views or ask everyone to voice their opinion before discussion.
Keep safety programs independent from those activities they evaluate.

These were replicated in Flight Safety Australia May 2017

What I would like to see now is you self-reflecting on how any of this information will impact on your practice. If you have heard it before will you critically evaluate your use of this information as well as your performances? If the information is new to you will you develop habits to critically evaluate your own performance? Will you say no when it is needed? Will you allow a simple little item that you have known about for ages stop you from flying now?

Adam Starr is an instructor and examiner who has been teaching in adult education since the 1980s. He specialises in adult education, flight instruction and testing and particularly in instrument flight in technologically advanced aircraft. He has over 1500 hours of instrument instruction and over 2500 hours instructing in Cirrus aircraft. Adam was Australia’s first Cirrus factory certified Platinum CSIP and has been training within the Cirrus factory training network for over 10 years. You can contact him at adam@starraviation.com.au or on 0412469247.

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It’s All About the Go-Around

Adam — Thu, 25 Jul 2019 05:44:39 +0000

It feels like it been ages. You can finally start to relax. Descending on final approach you have everything configured and are nice and stable. Concentration can now turn to future things and fixing that which has been ignored. For whatever reason, now you have to go-around. It can be as simple as a dog on the runway, your approach has become unstable or someone cuts in front of you. As you power up and start to climb your brain is trying to catch up. It had already relaxed. Now it needs to recalculate everything and switch back to keeping everybody on board safe. Are we coming back around for another attempt? Do we need to go to an alternate? Do we have the fuel for that? I was supposed to be landing – is there other traffic out there that I had ignored? It is now all happening again, and fast.

I have been teaching this to my students for some time now and it applies to all phases of flight, VFR, IFR and even to general life scenarios. It’s all about the go-around. It’s about how you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and move on. You may have been coming down final in hard IMC after a long flight and didn’t get visual. You may have simply bounced a landing after that session of circuits. You may have just performed poorly on a test. It doesn’t matter.

You only have two choices – give up and walk away or move on. In some situations, just giving up can be done but with a lot of people I see their drive and passion does not make that an option. So, what then?

Back in the day I used to be an intensive care paramedic. We used to have a saying back then of “don’t just do something, stand there”. Chaos can be all around and if you just rush in to ‘just do something’, anything, then you will miss something, you will get hurt, others will get hurt or you can just be perpetuating the chaos. In the air, you can’t really just ‘stand there’ so you need to think of that as ‘get safe’. Get the aircraft flying again. Establish yourself above a safe altitude. Stabilise your flying, trim, use autopilot – whatever you need to give you time to get your brain into the game. Go and hold somewhere. Ask ATC for a vector out of the sequence. Orbit above the airfield for a while. Get safe, keep safe, and reset for the next event.

There is another favourite saying of mine of late: on the day of reckoning there are only results or reasons. If you choose to walk away for reasons of your own in life’s general dilemmas, then that is fine. Watch that partner walk away without a fight. Walk out of that exam with a fail and never go back. Give up looking for that dream job. Hand the aircraft over to the flight examiner and tell them to take you home. There is no problem in any of these scenarios as everyone has their reasons, but, if it is something that you want (what you really, really want), then you need to go-around.

Get back in the fight. It is now the results that matter.

So, how do we do this? How do we use a go-around to our benefit? There are many methods and they all depend on who you are and where you are at – physically, mentally as well as in physical and emotional maturity. It also depends on where you are on the performance/arousal curve and what capacity you have for performance. Looking at the performance/arousal curve, below, you can see that when you are bored or asleep your performance is not very good. The interesting bit is that it is the same level of performance if we start to get too stressed or anxious/panicky. This is the key – recognizing when you are on that end of the curve. This is hard but you can start to see it by objectively analyzing your performance. This can be as easy as recognizing those times where you think “I’m better than that” or “I normally do that better”. If you are slipping to the far right of that curve then you need to bring the level of arousal back down to increase your performance. So how can we do that?

Let’s start with “next event”. As we get more stressed or anxious our performance decreases so we can start by narrowing that right down. We need a little stress to perform but once we tip over the top of that curve we need to bring our expectations of our performance back down to a level we can handle.

In that case, keep it simple. Only think about the next event. For example – keep flying, and get safe. That’s it. Just do that. It is something you can do and have done many times before. Now, breathe in, breathe out, and repeat as necessary. Now decide on your next event again. Maybe its go around for another approach or circuit.

Next event + 1. Once you start to get back on top of that performance curve again then start thinking not only of your next event but also the one after that. If you can, go for the one after that as well. Then you can start thinking about the events in ‘chunks’ i.e. instead of ‘fly the aeroplane’ you can think ‘fly the aeroplane back into the hold’. Once you can cope with that then you just keep looking further and further out and even start making the chunks larger then break them down when they are in front of you. For example, you can think you are going to descend to the holding pattern, hold, then conduct the approach. Then just start with the first chunk – descent – calculate when you will need it, decide on a configuration, calculate how long it will take, decide if you need clearance etc. Then once your descent is in hand go and start breaking down the next chunk – holding – decide on sector entry, decide on configuration etc.

That gives you some basics into “going around” both mentally and physically so now let’s take a step back even further and look into prevention. Firstly, and the main reason for this article, is for you to be aware of how your level of arousal/stress impacts your performance. Once you keep that in mind you will be more conscious of where you are on the curve at any moment (even if you have to make yourself think about it).

Once you are heading toward the right of that curve immediately intervene to bring the levels of stress back down again.

You can delay things – do an orbit or holding pattern, divert a bit to give yourself a few extra miles to think about descent. You can palm off some workload to someone else – ask ATC for a vector to delay you, ask a passenger/copilot to help lookout or check figures. Use a checklist or two – ensure everything in the previous checklist has been completed and that you are at the right stage of the current checklist (this will give you back some confidence that you are doing the right thing too).

You can also minimise your workload by using standardised procedures such as stabilised approaches. Recognise how human factors such as fatigue will play a part and plan accordingly. All of these are worth discussing but will take too much time here so will be the subject of separate articles.

In essence,make that go-around work for you – be it in life or a flight test. Pick yourself up, breathe in (and out, more than once) and relax. Are you safe? If not, make it so. Don’t worry about what comes after that until you are safe and have started to bring your stress levels back down. Don’t let the added stress of historical decisions degrade your performance now.

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You can save the day

Adam — Tue, 11 Jun 2019 01:59:54 +0000

Picture this. It’s a beautiful day and you are sitting in the passenger seat of a Cirrus. Your partner is happily flying you 8000 feet above the landscape and everything looks like a picture book. You weren’t sure whether you were going to be able to make this flight as your partner had been a little under the weather during the last week but the morning had proved irresistible and you were both soon out under the blue sky. You are remembering an amusing conversation with a friend and chuckle to yourself. Your laughter triggers the microphone on your headset and you realise that your partner will be wondering what you have found amusing. You turn to tell them and realise that their head is lolling back and they are not conscious. 8000 feet above the ground at 170 knots (about 314 km per hour) you are the only person available to control that aircraft.

The Cirrus is designed to let you be the hero of this story.

I do not know how to fly, but I do know how to save the day should my husband decide to check out early on a flight. Here is the mantra you need to learn;

BLUE RED RED RED

Get it in your head.

BLUE RED RED RED

Oh, that is what I said.

BLUE RED RED RED

Blue is not for the vacant eyes of your unconscious partner, it’s the LEVEL button on the centre panel where the coffee cups should sit. Just next to your left thigh. It’s a happy little blue button with LVL written on it. Push that thing! You will activate the autopilot and level the plane out, no matter what was happening before your inconsiderate partner jumped ship.\

That’s BLUE

If you have the presence of mind you can check to see which way the plane is pointing. You can look out the window or look at the map in the centre of the dashboard. Should you be pointing towards blue stuff, there is a good chance you are heading towards water. You may not want to land in that, but if you do, you will be ok. If you would rather not get your shoes wet, you can also use a little knob and button near LVL that says HDG (Heading) underneath and has the words Push Sync. Once you have pushed the HDG knob, then push the HDG button, then use the knob to turn the plane to a more pointing-towards-green attitude.

Ok, so you are now being taken care of by the autopilot. We should give her a name. She’s a go-getter, a fix-it kinda girl. She’s making it all better for you. I know, let’s call her Kirra. That means ‘to live’ in the Murri dialect in southern Queensland. Kirra is going to help you to live.

BLUE RED RED RED

Get it in your head.

Kirra is heading you towards your landing spot. If you would like to talk to someone at this point, and let’s face it, you may have a fair bit to say since your partner parked their presence on the other side of dream town, you can always use the radio. There is a little black button on your control column, the joy stick in front of you near the window. You know, that thing you were desperately trying not to bump when your MIA partner was actually flying the plane. Don’t push that little red one, it will turn Kirra off and you will have to do waaaaay more work than you need (i.e. start again with BLUE). Once you push that little black button at the top you will be able to talk to the wide, friendly community of pilots and the control centre. I suggest you say something like:

“Excuse me, I really need some help”
or, if you want to get technical,
“Mayday”.

I can guarantee that if you use “Excuse me, I really need some help” the whole sky community will shut up and listen. They will want to know where you are and how not to run into you. Don’t forget to use your plane’s call sign. It is printed in large, friendly letters just near the keys to the ignition in front of your vacant space of a partner. If you tell them your call sign they will know exactly where you are and can co-ordinate the rescue once you are on the ground. Don’t worry, they can see where you are. Kirra is taking care of you.

Now for RED

Look back the centre console where the coffee cup holders should be. Or the wine. At this point you might really be craving a wine. Or something stronger and about 18 years old. There are 2 red things you need to move. The first is the MIXTURE. You need to pull this little red control all the way back towards you to the word CUTOFF.

And RED again

Next to that slightly un-nerving word, CUTOFF there is another switch that turns off the FUEL. You will need to lift up the centre button on the switch and then turn that switch either left or right all the way to OFF. The engine will stop. Do not panic, Kirra wants to fly more than fall so you will not drop out of the sky like a brick. She will begin to slow her speed because now there is no engine pushing her at 170 knots through the sky. Now for the fun bit.

And RED one more time for luck

Above your head there is a handle for the parachute. The instructions for everything have been printed on the placard velcroedover the parachute handle. Take it and have a quick read. You have time. Kirra needs to slow down to the speed on your placard before you can deploy the parachute. The speed is a little different for each type of Cirrus so have a good look at the number. Kirra’s speed can be seen on the screen directly in front of your no-good, unconscious, completely irresponsible-just-wait-til-we-get-home partner. It is the column of numbers on the left hand side of the screen. When it drops to the appropriate speed get ready to use your muscles. The red handle above your head needs to be pulled down smoothly and as if you are trying to do a chin up on it. It will break away from the bracket holding it and dangle down just like your partner’s useless bloody head at the moment. Pull until you hear a loud noise as the rocket deploys the chute. The plane will head nose first towards the ground for a bit. It will be noisy. Try not to mess yourself as it will level out in a moment and you will float to the ground. You will not die.

The moment you deployed the parachute, an emergency beacon was set off by lovely Kirra. Everyone knows where you are and can see where you land. The sky community will be co-ordinating your rescue from here on. There is one last thing to do so that you walk away more easily and look good in any press photos. Assume the brace position. Please don’t place your head on the dashboard or between your knees. This is a little different to a commercial aeroplane. Shift your hips all the way back into your seat with your seatbelt adjusted low and tight. Take hold of one wrist with the other and press your fists into the top of your thighs. This will stop them flapping about and getting in the way of the airbags set in the front of your seatbelt. When those babies go off you want your hands out of the way. The Cirrus seats will take care of your undercarriage. Your partner’s airbags will go off and they will have to take their chances that their useless appendages don’t get in the way of a comfortable landing.

Once you are on the ground, you can turn off all the switches in the dashboard in front of your partner and turn the ignition key to off. Now exit the plane and wait for the ground rescuers to find you. Maybe take some selfies. Hopefully your partner will one day be able to hear your story and thank you in an appropriately generous way for getting them home in one piece. Should the rest of their story be slightly more terminal, they can probably thank their lucky stars that they went peacefully in their sleep and didn’t have to face you afterwards.

BLUE RED RED RED

If none of the other details sink into your head, just do the bare minimum. Use the autopilot to level out the plane (BLUE), pull the mixture handle back to CUTOFF (RED), turn the fuel off (RED), wait until the appropriate airspeed and pull the chute (RED). You can do this, you can be the hero of the story. You can live.

If you want to know more about being the hero, you can always book a partner’s course with www.cirrustraining.com.au. Maybe you will take that to the next level and learn how to pilot the Cirrus yourself. There’s nothing to stop you proving you can take control of any Cirrus situation! Don’t let that unconscious twonk in the pilot’s seat have all the fun.

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Children of the Magenta revisited

Adam — Tue, 21 May 2019 03:28:03 +0000

There has been a resurgence recently in people talking about ‘Children of the Magenta Line’ which was an airline safety talk from last century concentrating on the burgeoning GPS/FMS and automation driven cockpits.

Many people seem to be quoting from this to explain some recent airline accidents as there was a perceived link in causality where automation vs hand-flying is concerned.

https://vimeo.com/159496346

I would like to examine the themes and discuss them in light of what we have found over the past 20 years or so, what I am still seeing as current practice as well as how we need to progress.

Automation Dependency

Automation dependency is still an issue as mentioned in the video. I still see pilots letting an aircraft get far closer to the edge of its envelope while on autopilot than they would if they were hand-flying. Generally, I have seen this come from one of three processes: concentration on other tasks while autopilot is on; a general lack of awareness/thought (where the autopilot and brain appear to be mutually exclusive); or an attitude that the autopilot knows better than the pilot so is let go too long. All of these can have dire consequences.

The pilot cannot relax when the autopilot is on as they are still in command of their aircraft and, as is said in the video, must remain tactilely connected to the plane and mentally flying it.

It is also mentioned that this is more the case at low levels, (i.e. below 10,000’) where there is less room for error which is where we, in our Cirrus, spend the majority of our time. We need to be acutely aware that the autopilot has limitations and is fallible.

I also see the literal definition of automation dependency on quite a few occasions. The video mentions that crews are turning on the autopilot in an attempt to resolve a deteriorating situation. I see this and I also see pilots put the autopilot on to compensate for a lack of flying ability. They can often be scared of hand flying or can see the errors their hand flying produces and put the autopilot on to fix that. None of these are acceptable.

Task Saturation

Task saturation is the other major theme from the video and it is still prevalent in the pilot community. It can result from too high a level of automation such as coming into a terminal area where commands need to be followed immediately. An autopilot does not know the word “now” so there is always a delay as we program it, get it to do what we want and for it to achieve the result.

The workload in achieving that detracts from our situational awareness. Some (e.g. COPA), and I agree, promote a step between a loss of situational awareness and a loss of control which is called a ‘loss of command’. It is a logical step. Many pilots realise they are losing situational awareness but few seem to realise when they have dropped further down and have now lost command.

They become unaware of the state of the aircraft. Sadly, a loss of command is often a precursor to a loss of control.

Levels of Automation

When flying an automated cockpit there is quite an additional workload in just managing the systems. Even some simple inputs need to be cross-checked and verified as the system will quite happily perform the way it is programmed whether that is correct and safe or not. Instead of fully automating it may be appropriate to drop back a level or two of automation (i.e. from fully automated to basic HDG/ALT mode or even further to hand-flying) while you get back in command and program the system properly.

Once you are back on top of things then you can increase the levels of automation as appropriate. You must pick the correct level of automation for the task at hand while also realizing that increased automation will require you to take more time away from flying and commanding the aircraft to manage the system/s.

How to combat these

One of the bigger reactions I have heard is that it is a problem with hand-flying skills no longer concentrated on and thus the skills are perishable. It is seen that systems management is taking precedent over the more manual and perishable skills. I agree that we are pilots first and systems managers second and we need to continue to be proficient (not just competent) with the good old ‘stick-and-rudder’. To that end, we should continue to develop these skills whenever we can and turn the automation off to practice them. Cirrus promotes “learn to fly, fly to learn” where we first learn to fly and then we must continually fly to keep learning and keep skills fresh. This is a great way to think about it.

We also need to keep in command of, and connected to, our aircraft. We can start that with some simple tasks.

When putting the autopilot on, select a lateral mode first, then select a vertical mode. This should put the flight director on and you can check the ‘scoreboard’ to ensure you have the correct inputs. You should then fly the aircraft to the flight director and, only when stabilised and trimmed there, turn the autopilot on. That way you are ahead of the aircraft and it is stable before adding a layer of automation.

You can also treat the autopilot as you would an instructor with proper ‘handing over, taking over’ drills. By that I mean you should never let go of the controls until you are sure the other ‘person’ has capable control. Before turning off the autopilot, grasp the controls firmly so there are no surprises when you ‘take over’.

Always move your bugs before the aircraft moves. Setting your heading and altitude bugs before the aircraft moves forces you to think about what is happening before it happens. Think of it this way, if you are in NAV mode on autopilot and coming up to a turn, move the heading bug first to the appropriate heading for the next leg, do a lookout (even if its into cloud keep the habit/discipline), and then confirm the system turns correctly.

This is also an added safety feature as you should be setting bugs when you have time to think about them and then, to keep yourself safe, just discipline yourself to never fly through the bugs.

They are all simple little things that can help keep you safe but I think there is a more endemic problem – a lack of teaching about automation and systems. I am aware that there will be some disparaging comments immediately but hear me out. I reiterate, its been more than 20 years since that video. We should, by now, be producing pilots who are trained and proficient in both stick-and-rudder AND systems management. This should be a foregone conclusion as we have had ample time to sort that out and instructors/organisations who do not do this should be considered lacking.

What we need to do now is look to that middle ground. I believe what is starting to cause issues now is the recognition of what the automation is doing and just when to step in. This requires a greater understanding of the systems and a greater use of them in training so possible problem scenarios are encountered in safety with an instructor rather than seeing them for the first time in an aircraft with passengers aboard.

We need to teach that recognition of where we need to drop levels of automation before it becomes an issue rather than waiting for the issue to develop before taking over.

I also believe that more needs to be made of systems and electronics in training to develop our information filtering. I teach students to fly with complex systems and EFBs by treating them just like their mobile devices. When interacting with devices these days you don’t automatically respond to each news article or chime, you scan for what you need and ignore the rest. We need to use that same information filtering in modern cockpits. Unfortunately we are often not exposed to that until we are actually using it as such useis often frowned upon in training.

We are pilots. We should be able to fly our aircraft. If we fly a complex airframe we should be able to manage its complexities. If we fly with automation we should be able to manage those systems. These tenets should already be in place. I believe we need to maintain these and then add a recognition of when command may be lost as well as appropriate use of information filtering in order to make well rounded and proficient pilots in the modern aircraft we fly. As always, if this is not something you are comfortable learning by yourself in flight or with passengers then just grab an instructor who can guide you though it and be a crutch for your safety. Learn to fly, fly to learn.

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I have always loved the sensation of flying

Adam — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 02:51:51 +0000

The excitement

The anticipation of a change of scenery, being gently pushed back into the seat as the plane lifts you into the sky. And then there’s the view of the world from above, a soaring sense of the beauty of where I live. I don’t know how to fly, but my other half, Adam, does. He’s quite good at it. In fact, he’s even good at teaching other people how to do it. That’s where he sits on a different plane to many pilots (see what I did there?).

Sure, you’re going to know he’s in the room, but he’s a little more understated about it. He’s quite the perfectionist when it comes to flying and flight training. His choice of aircraft is the Cirrus. After years of time in and around them, he has developed a sharply defined sense of how to best teach people to fly them and how to truly make the most of owning one.

He believes in these aircraft passionately and he believes pilots should rise to the challenge of flying them with a sense of mastery. I admire his determination.

I’m a teacher of music

There is a level of perfectionism that I should have been able to maintain throughout my studies. Instead, I chose to be the B student. I wanted to get through the work, enjoy the process and not wage psychological warfare on myself. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments of great success and I know what it feels like to be proud of my achievement, but to maintain that level of intensity has never been my thing. This is not how one should fly an aircraft. Should I bugger up a phrase, forget a sharp or miss an entry, the only thing hurt will be my ego.

However, when it comes to climbing into an aircraft with someone and trusting them to get me from A to B, I will expect every flight to be worthy of a standing ovation. At least make sure I’m not sick and we land safely.

So far, he hasn’t disappointed me.

I spend much of my time standing in front of primary school children teaching them the fine art of singing. Every half an hour about 25 kids appear at my door and hustle their way in to further develop their brains through the fascinating power of rhythm, melody and harmony. This sounds idyllic but, I can assure you, it can be as mundane as the next job. In fact, there are many days when I desperately want to find a quiet corner, curl up in a small ball, tell the authorities my days as music room warden are over and rock myself to sleep with a very large martini.

On one of those particular days, I was working with a class of 7 year olds as they sprawled across the floor of my classroom trying to transcribe a melody we had been learning into little dots on five music lines. It was hot outside and the air-conditioner had been working since early in the morning when the first rehearsals had begun. I had been in the room since 7:30am and it was now just after 11:30am.

Now, I don’t know if you have ever experienced a classroom soon after a lunch break. Small children have the power to transform a teacher’s workspace into the stuff of nightmares when they are digesting whatever it was they ate for lunch. I was reminding them to be accurate when plotting their notes on the musical staff and that it was just like reading a map. It was at this point that someone in the class rendered my voice mute. A cloud of toxic gas had appeared in the room. Invisible and untraceable, I tried to move away from the stench. It followed me. I choked back tears. I could taste it. I’ve learnt not to call attention to the regular outflow from students’ nether regions as they are quick to react to each other and reduce the class to chaos. Rather than deal with the usual ‘You smelt it, you dealt it’ and ‘You denied it, you supplied it’ arguments, I made a quick detour to my office muttering something about hearing the phone ring. Anything to get away from the stifling pong.

Inside my office I was able to take a cleansing breath and noticed that my mobile phone was cheerfully blinking at me.

A message.

A moment away from the cloud of death was required so I checked it. It was my beloved Cirrus pilot-and-instructor husband, Adam. He had sent me a message, perhaps a note of undying affection? Perhaps he had won lotto and I wouldn’t have to ask for a gas mask for Christmas? The message was short and filled with the unbridled joy he was obviously feeling as he typed it for me:

‘Afternoon cancelled so went to get lunch’ followed by a collection of smiley emojis and a love heart.

Seconds later a photo appeared. It was a picture of the beach at Ballina, New South Wales. The photo had been taken from the deck of a restaurant and showed the clean, blue waters with the delicate curl of white waves. The expanse of the golden beach sand contrasted against the dark green growing on the dunes. The caramel colour of the wet, tidal sand made me think of standing on the edge of the sea as a child and wriggling my feet until the beach swallowed me to my ankles. The sky was clear except for the sweep of a few mare’s tails and I swear I could smell the salt in the air.

Then a giggle from the classroom and the lift of 25 voices as they realised I was out of sight for a moment vacuumed me back into my reality. I thought for a moment of photographing my classroom for him, but even if I was allowed to photograph my students it would never capture the utter ordinariness of my previous, putrid moments. I typed a sardonic message back:

‘Go away.’

A second message almost immediately appeared from his co-pilot, a photograph of my husband sitting in front of a plate of fish and chips, with a wide smile. I sighed and returned to my work.

This was just one of many times I have been sent taunting visual reminders of how lovely his workspace can be. The reason these images tug at me during the mundane moments is because sometimes I get to go with him. Our adventures have seen us flying across the Victoria Desert, over Lake Eyre, into the middle of Australia’s beautiful heart to stay at one of my favourite places, the mighty Uluru. A sacred place that always makes me feel the spirit of my Grandmother. We have flown over the Great Barrier Reef, finding the heart shaped coral reef. We have stayed on islands and experienced the wonderful hospitality for which Australia is renowned.

I have a love of finding open spaces, the more uninhabited, the better. Land me somewhere like Longreach and I will revel in the quiet surrounding the airport. My ears will ring as they strain to hear the traffic to which they are so accustomed. Let me hear the breeze and a few birds and surround me with wonderful Australian space and my heart will sing better than it ever does in the classroom. Let me feel the distance between where I am and where I was. It’s the best way to appreciate this vast, lovely continent.

A flight to Hervey Bay for lunch always makes me reminisce about holidays spent with family. Flying out over Moreton Bay has me hunting for whales and sharks in the waters below.Trips to Canberra to spend time with friends, or Sydney to see family have always been worth the time and experience. Anniversaries, birthdays, joy-flights with friends, the Cirrus provides a happy space to celebrate life. A winter flight will find me snoozing in the sunshine above the clouds, happily zoning out to the radio chatter as Adam guides us somewhere new.

From the moment Adam said he wanted to fly Cirrus I encouraged it. Here was an aircraft that would always get us home. The Cirrus will allow me to save the day if the need should arise. When he is teaching in a Cirrus, I never have a second thought about his safety, I know he will come home. The few times I have found myself tracking him online is when he was in a different aircraft.

The Cirrus is designed to allow people like me to simply relax and enjoy the ride.

And after days spent in classrooms with small, singing nuclear waste factories, I do believe I deserve just that. Now where is that martini…

If you would like to experience the freedom of piloting your own life, enquire now and learn to fly a Cirrus.

LEARN TO FLY

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Why I teach flying lessons in Cirrus

Adam — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 03:35:45 +0000

Why do I choose to teach flight training in Cirrus aircraft? They are safe. The are comfortable. They have a good teaching philosophy.

Safety has been a major goal with Cirrus since its inception.

They have incorporated a huge range of items into the design to make the type as safe as it can be. Even simple little changes like high-backed seats with headrests – these have been proven to be safer than low backed seats for some time now. Remember when it was standard for car seats to have low backs or maybe even a bench seat?

Did you ever ask yourself why cars are not made like that anymore?

CAPS – Cirrus Airframe Parachute System

This is the big item that there is a lot of discussion about. It will allow the entire aircraft to float to the ground under a parachute, keeping all occupants safe and is there as a last resort for when there are no other safe options. Every Cirrus has one and to date (Jan 2019) there have been 83 Cirrus’ saved by CAPS which resulted in 169 people returned home safely to loved ones. Regardless of the many online discussions about CAPS the simple fact remains that, after other types have run out of options, the Cirrus still has one more trick up its sleeve to get you home safely. When I consider this in a training context it is even more pertinent as, due to the nature of the job, you know the person beside you cannot fly (that’s why they are training) so if something happens to me, the instructor, that student can remain safe and return home that night.

Many other items have been in the Cirrus for more than 10 years including glass cockpits for greater situational awareness, on-board weather, terrain awareness, autopilot, airbag seatbelts, solid state avionics and traffic warnings. These are things that the vast majority of other training aircraft don’t have and I constantly wonder why. The very nature of flight training makes it high workload and it is quite often conducted where there are other aircraft training as well so why not add as much extra safety equipment as you can? I am in no way suggesting we rely entirely on these devices and, for example, a good old pilot look-out is the best defense against crashing into another aircraft but it still amazes me the amount of times the traffic warning system alerts me to aircraft that are outside visual range. I can then give that area a wide berth or have ample time to plan to avoid the other aircraft or even climb/descend away from their reported level.

Since then, many more items have been added like second ADC or AHRS computers, auto-descent is hypoxia is detected, electronic stability protection, coupled go-a-rounds, under speed protection, ADSB for enhanced surveillance, better lights so other can see you and an angle-of-attack. There are many more small items like digital 3D audio that lets you easily listen to more than one radio and even small additions like this are brilliant for me as students can more easily learn the radio calls as it is not a complete garbled mess of sound coming at them. Other safety items like the electronic stability protection and under speed protection will resist the pilot input to stop them putting the aircraft into unusual or dangerous manoeuvres. It is easy enough for me to temporarily pause that to teach the students proper handling but then I know when I send that student out solo that protection is there to help them if they get into trouble.

Comfort is also something that is largely overlooked in training aircraft

Many people concentrate on the ‘important bits’ like wings and engine and completely forget about the pilot. Instead of building an aeroplane (and then putting a basic seat in somewhere for a pilot), Cirrus has designed the aeroplane around the pilot and looked at comfort as well as ergonomics. They even have air-conditioning which makes a huge difference when I am teaching circuits on those hot Australian days.

The reduction in fatigue that results from all these comfort items is astounding. A student can actually concentrate on a full lesson without fatigue setting in which maximises their chance of learning and increases retention rate. They are also able to continue with subsequent lessons as required without the lagging effects of fatigue and dehydration degrading the effectiveness of the lesson.

This is most noticeable to me during the early lessons where concentration is needed and the aircraft is flown close to the ground.

Consider some recent days where I train where it has been 34 degrees C and 70% humidity or more. I see instructors and students of other aircraft coming back from a session of circuits completely fatigued. The student is usually done for the day by then and they may not have even taken in the full lesson resulting in inefficiencies in their training. Training the same lessons in a Cirrus, however, has much greater results as the student is kept cool and hydrated and they are able to get maximum benefit from their lesson, their time and their money.

The flight instructor also needs to be considered in this equation as they should not be expected to completely fatigue themselves lesson after lesson and still remain safe. In the comfort of the Cirrus it is possible to remain at peak performance and have fatigue greatly reduced resulting in safer flying lessons. It also means that as the day goes on the afternoon students still get the best performance from their instructor and the associated efficiencies in training are again recognized.

When flight training turns to the navigation phase that is where the Cirrus comes into its own

With the reduced fatigue and added speed you can range further than the normal half-dozen airfields that a student gets used to from habit. This greatly increases the training benefit as well as having greater choice to avoid weather or other traffic.

Occasionally this added speed and the additional safety items are mentioned when some say the Cirrus is not good for initial training as it is too fast or complex. I find this odd as the Cirrus will, when configured for the circuit, be doing about 100kts or less which is not that much more then the average stalwarts of training. Even at 80 kts, or even 60 kts for that matter, you are still exceeding the maximum average speeds that people are used to doing on the roads. Students will have to get used to thinking and acting faster no matter what training aircraft they use so they may as well do it in something with all the benefits I describe above. Radios, avionics and everything else are also completely new to a student. They will have to learn their systems regardless so why not learn a modern and capable system. The other training argument I have heard is to start slow and then move up to greater speed and complexity. When a student does that then they are so used to less technology and speed that the move up can take some time and effort. Training already completed in a Cirrus basically negates this step up as those skills are already in place.

Cirrus approach to flight training

I have been teaching people for more than 30 years now and agree with how Cirrus has approached training. This is a lifelong endeavor. It is not something you do without commitment and still stay safe. Initially you will ‘learn to fly’ and then Cirrus encourages you to ‘fly to learn’ – keep flying, keep going. Never do just the bare minimums to stay legal. You will not be proficient at that level and only marginally safe, if that.

Cirrus has a full syllabus suite that is tailored to their aircraft as well as Pilot Operating Handbooks and Flight Operations Manuals that provide you with standardised ways of handling the aircraft. No other manufacturer does this. These resources describe everything you need but that is not where it stops. Cirrus also has comprehensive online training as well as a YouTube channel and great videos called Flight Fix. These are all excellent resources and examples of how it should be done. On top of that the factory standardizes and certifies some instructors and you will also find a few with quite a bit of experience who the factory awards the “Platinum” status to.

It has been a long road but with over 2000 hours instructing in Cirrus and over 3300 generally in Cirrus I am proud of my Platinum instructor status and pride myself on the quality and professionalism of the training I provide.

Cirrus training is also tailored to the individual. Although the way the programs are taught are standardised for safety and consistency it is still an individual that is being taught as opposed to a course being delivered. I have come to find that this is highly valued by my clients as they have all gained experience elsewhere in their lives and the delivery of a non-tailored course will not suit them. With all the training materials Cirrus puts out it also caters for all learning styles as well as a full range of lifestyles. If you only have 5 minutes just watch a Flight Fix episode. Have an hour after tea one night? Then do an online training module. Half a day free? Pop in and do some recurrent training with your Platinum certified instructor or get them to teach you something new. Even just have them settle your nerves and both fly somewhere for a bit of fun.

The CirrusTraining.com.au community is a great one in which to get involved. It is a great aircraft, a safe aircraft and the flight training is second to none.

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Test Anxiety

Adam — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 04:58:59 +0000

Adam is a Grade 1 Flight Instructor and Flight Examiner based at Archerfield. He is a Cirrus Standardised Instructor Pilot and IFR and glass cockpit specialist.

Testitis

Anxiety. Dread. Fear of Failure. This is not a gender specific complaint (regardless of however many genders there are nowadays). It occurs at test time and can be quite crippling just when you need to perform to a standard whilst being judged. It is a complaint that affects pilots, due to the nature of their profession (if you make mistakes, people may possibly die) and can also be found in other fieldswith potentially catastrophic consequences such as Air Traffic Control and medicine. I have worked, trained, taught and examined in allthese fields and there are definite similarities.

Unlike those other fields however, pilots can’t stop, handover to someone else, step back to take a breath or anything of the like (at least not for very long) as we are directly involved in the ongoing safe operation of our aircraft and the lives on board. Those lives also include our own which is different to the other fields where, if they stuff up it is usually someone else who may be at risk of injury or death. We are well aware that if we stuff up not only may others die but also ourselves. That just adds to the subconscious, self-induced stress of being a pilot.

Another interesting trait of the above-mentioned fields is that they attract a certain personality type. As a cohort we all want to succeed and we all want to be the best at what we do (just ask any pilot how good they are….!). This, in turn, adds even more self-induced stress to our operation. All of this happens any time we fly, before we even contemplate being tested! At test time all of the above stresses and concerns come into play as well as the added stress of flying with a stranger (often the case for a testing scenario) who is there to assess you, someone who may fail you and stop you flying, someone who will assess and make judgement about something you are so passionate/dedicated/professional about and someone who can absolutely demolish your ego and/or confidence.

I have seen examiners absolutely ‘carpet bomb’ the confidence of applicants to the point of, literally, no return. This is not the way it should be. Examiners who are unreasonable need to be pulled into line but to do that you need evidence of them actually being unfair rather than just having a different view of your capabilities. Applicants, however, should also be more prepared for tests. The thrust of this article is to help you understand better what an examiner should be expecting from a pilot being tested, while also letting you in on the standards that examiners should abide by.

How do I know what’s expected of me?

The first step to knowing what your examiner expects of you in a testis to understand the various competencies you will be tested on how they are officially regulated. I highly recommend that you become familiar with the CASA Part 61 Manual Of Standards (MOS) for flight crew licensing. It can be downloaded here:https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018C00657

It can be a little difficult to digest as one massive document so why don’t you just download it and break it up into its parts/schedules. An introduction that breaks Part 61 down for you is provided at: https://www.casa.gov.au/standard-page/part-61-manual-standards

Basically, there is an introduction and some abbreviations and then the schedules:

Schedule 1 = Directory of units
Schedule 2 = Flight competency standards
Schedule 5 = Flight Test standards
Schedule 6 = Proficiency Check standards
Schedule 7 = Flight Review standards
Schedule 8 = Tolerances

Know your required competencies

You need to find what is actually required of you and therefore what you will be tested on. A lot of the anxiety builds because there is not a clear picture of the requirements. Don’t rely on hearsay – go to the source and know exactly what you will need to do. This holds true regardless if its RPL, PPL, IPC, ATPL – whatever. These are all in the MOS sections above so lets break it down.

The Directory of Units will tell you exactly which units are required for each qualification. To make it easy, lets just use the example of an Instrument Rating test. Firstly we need to go to Schedule 1 to define which units we need, and we go to the Instrument Rating section. Here we see that the Knowledge Standards needed are IREX and GNSS. Then below that (taking the example of a single engine aeroplane) we see that the Practical Flight Standards needed are NTS1, NTS2, IFF, IFL, CIR, NVR1, NVR2, and IAP2. Great – we have a list of topics to study!

Now we need to know what is included in those topics and that means using the other MOS Schedules. In this case we will need Schedule 2 (for flight competencies), Schedule 3 (for Theory Knowledge), Schedule 5 (for the actual test standards) and Schedule 8 (for the tolerances we must perform within). Go to Schedule 2 and 3 first and look up all the codes for all the topics you need (e.g. IREX, GNSS, NTS1, NTS2 … and so on, as seen above) and I would even suggest printing them out. Then read through them and tick off each item within them that you are confident with. Anything you are not confident with then just go and study, practise or grab and instructor to help you. This is basically the syllabus for your test. Once you are happy that you can answer/perform all parts of all of those topics then it is time to look at the test.

The test will reference MOS Schedule 5 and Schedule 8. Have a read of the parts for your test and you will see what the examiner must abide by. For a bit more detail also find the CASA test (just Google it – e.g. CASA Instrument Rating test form) and the Flight Examiner Handbook ()(again, just google CAS flight examiner handbook). With a combination of all of this knowledge you should know exactly what is going to happen and what your required competencies are. Finally, Schedule 8 will tell you the tolerances you have to perform within.

So how do I prepare for a test?

Know your own competency

Objectively and realistically. Every now and then go to the MOS and see what you haven’t done for a while and go and practise it. If you want to keep on top of things make a list of required competencies and tick them off after a flight. That way you can see things that you may not have done for a while. Maybe you have done RNAV approach after RNAV approach but haven’t done a hold or a VOR approach in a while. Maybe you haven’t done limited panel or unusual attitudes since your last IPC. Get someone else to provide an opinion (realistically and objectively). Find a friend/instructor/safety-pilot and go for a practice. Take charge of the mission – know which competencies you want to practise and go and do so.

Know your allowed tolerances

Whenever you fly, judge yourself against the tolerances of Schedule 8. Be realistic in this. If you are allowed +/- 100’ then making a pretty sine-wave while you bounce between the + and – limits may be in tolerance but may show that you are performance chasing not attitude flying. Try taking a friend/instructor to judge for you. Ask them to be harsh. Don’t accept “good enough” – the vast majority of pilots I know do not fall into this category and some can be too self-critical. Find a balance where you may be able to say “that was within tolerance but maybe I could do a bit better with some more practice”.

Take responsibility for your own training

As alluded to above, know what competencies you need to have achieved and revise that list periodically. If some things haven’t been practised for a while, then take a list of those and go have a fun flight with an instructor. Even use the list in your own flying, add something in to your next flight instead of just going A-B. It may only cost you a few minutes flight time as opposed to doing a whole training flight. Remember to be safe! Don’t get passengers to simulate engine failures or things of the like – take an instructor for that sort of thing (turn up with a list of competencies you need and they will be happy they don’t have to plan your lesson!).

Know how the day will progress

Have a look at the FEH. Download it from the CASA website and find the test page that applies to you. It will tell you exactly what to expect on the day. Nobody likes the unexpected. Many people have complained about how harsh or unrealistic an examiner is. If you find you are being harshly treated and it is outside the scope of the FEH/MOS then say something. Don’t just sit there with the blood pressure on a rapid rise, that won’t help your performance at all. The examiner may not realise that what they see as an informal discussion they are having with you is being seen as pass/fail testing.

Work a 90 day cycle

Every 90 days critically evaluate what you have done, where you were to standard and where you were not. Keep on to of it every 90 days and nothing will be a surprise. Not only that, you will be able to keep competent but you will also keep current.

Relax

Seriously! What is going to happen if you fail? By test stage you should be fairly confident that you can getfrom takeoff to landing alive. You should know what you can do well and what you may just need to snag on test day. Don’t use “I have done that better” to judge yourself, use “that was still within tolerance”. If you do perform out of tolerance, so what? Come back and do it again another day. No one is going to take your birthdays away from you if you can’t perform a perfect steep turn.

GrabTestitis by the MOS!

Own it and know how the test will turn out before you even turn up. If you use the informationabove there should be no surprises with either what is going to happen nor your level of competency. The test day should just be a demonstration of what you know you can already do with someone you may even get along with and/or learn something extra from for free.

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