Flight Training - August 2022 - 24

PREFLIGHT ACCIDENT ANALYSIS
BY IAN J. TWOMBLY
WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?
RISKS OF ADVANCED INSTRUCTION
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STUDENTS CAREENING FOR THE SIDE OF
the runway, slamming down so hard the
airplane needed a maintenance check,
and barely stopping at a fence after
coming in hot and landing long. These
are some of the hair-raising moments
that happen in primary instruction, but
they pale in comparison to what some
instructors see in advanced instruction.
If the instructor is on the ball and
the school has the right culture, safety
is drilled into the primary training
course from the first day. That's both
to make sure each flight is safe, and
also to give the student a foundation of
good decision making and risk management.
Maybe because it's assumed the
pilot already has these skills, but most
approach with rising terrain on the far
side of the runway. I only have myself to
blame as I was landing long and made
the decision to go around.
My experiences aren't unusual. No one
knows for sure how much primary training
is flown versus advanced, but it's a safe bet
that we do a lot more of the former than
the later. Yet two-thirds of all fatal training
accidents occur during advanced training.
And 94 percent of those are with an
instructor on board. It speaks to the largely
unacknowledged and potentially risky
environment of advanced instruction.
An accident in July 2019 in Florida is
a perfect example. A commercial-rated
pilot was flying from the right seat
receiving training for his flight instructor
TWO-THIRDS OF ALL FATAL TRAINING ACCIDENTS OCCUR
DURING ADVANCED TRAINING. AND 94 PERCENT OF THOSE
ARE WITH AN INSTRUCTOR ON BOARD.
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advanced training completely ignores
these concepts. Although it's fair to say
that instrument training has a decent
focus on risk management, the commercial
course, multiengine training,
and especially aircraft checkouts and
flight reviews barely touch on it. Twice
I've said little prayers after ill-advised
go-arounds during advanced training.
The first was when the instructor called
for a single-engine go-around in a multiengine
training airplane that barely
has the guts to climb on one engine, and
that assumes perfect technique. The
second was during an aircraft checkout
when the mentor (not an instructor)
had me perform a downwind emergency
24 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2022
certificate. The instructor in the left seat
demonstrated an emergency descent and
approach, and then asked the student in
the right seat to try it. At about 200 feet
and while approaching a field the student
noticed they were too fast and took action
to slow down the airplane. According to
the instructor he corrected too much and
got too slow, at which point the instructor
told the student to recover. According
to the instructor's statement he told the
student to recover two more times, and
nothing happened. The instructor said
he took control of the airplane at 100 feet,
but it was too late, and they were too slow
and couldn't arrest the sink rate enough to
avoid an accident.
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Flight Training - August 2022

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