Flight Training - June 2024 - 5

LETTERS
RATINGS BINGO
ALWAYS LEARNING BY SARAH DEENER
Editor SARAH DEENER is
taking recommendations for
her next flying challenge.
sarah.deener@aopa.org
me to go beyond " Direct To " with the
avionics in the airplanes I fly. Earning
my commercial certificate sent me deep
into the pilot's operating handbook of my
training aircraft and taught me to think
more deeply about why airplanes behave
the way they do. And although I don't
plan to fly for hire, practicing commercial
maneuvers helped me gain confidence and
feel in command.
After completing the training, ratings
give us a new standard for maintaining
proficiency. Once they earn new flying
privileges, pilots often either use them all
the time or let the skills lapse. Spend much
time in between, and the scales will tip
toward skills fade unless we act. Because
instrument flying is particularly sensitive
to skill decay (see " Ready or Not, IFR is
IFR, " November/December 2023 Flight
Training), the rating has its own currency
requirements. If you're not flying on
instruments regularly, a pending lapse of
instrument currency is an incentive to get
back out with a safety pilot or instructor
and fly to a level of precision that day-VFR
hamburger runs don't demand.
The FAA offers enough certificates,
RATINGS BINGO
Some pilots are on a mission. They progress through certificates
and ratings with the efficiency of a checklist: everything in
sequence, each item by the book. These pilots have calculated
hour requirements and hiring minimums, track their progress
against a mental timeline, and map out their training to achieve
a final goal (see Dave Hirschman's " Another Beginning, " p. 34).
For those of us with no future paycheck at stake, however, the
calculus is different.
The same mission mindset may apply for pilots with a specific goal in mind: A pilot
planning to use an aircraft in support of business would likely prioritize an instrument
rating, and one perusing online listings for a tailwheel or multiengine airplane would
pursue the requisite training. But for many pilots, this avocation doesn't require
anything beyond an initial pilot certificate. Why earn additional certificates, ratings,
and endorsements if you don't plan to use them?
Some pilots collect ratings like bingo players filling up their card, checking off
challenges for the fun of it. A weekend seaplane course can be a rewarding getaway,
and a high-performance endorsement is an excuse to fly something new and exciting.
As a bonus, these pilots walk away with new skills and a fresh perspective on their
day-to-day flying, even if there are no lakes within 100 miles of where they live, and
their regular ride is a Piper J-3 Cub.
Others of us dip our toes into a new rating every few years or so to build confidence
or add variety to our flying. Earning an instrument rating gave me a bigger-picture
understanding of the airspace system we all fly in, and flying on instruments has forced
6
FLIGHT TRAINING MARCH/APRIL 2024
ratings, and endorsements to keep us
busy for a lifetime. But advanced ratings
aren't required to be a proficient pilot.
Specialized training is expensive, and
plenty of pilots pour their flying money
into the kind of flying they actually do.
These pilots might spend decades as a
private pilot before they see the need
for an instrument rating, if ever. They
gain valuable real-world flying insight
by gradually expanding their comfort
zone, exploring their world from the
airport out. Here, too, seeking out new
experiences is key.
When each flight looks like the last,
our flying world is small. Monotony
can lead to complacency, skill decay,
or flagging motivation. New flying
experiences may come in the form of
a rating, a first overnight trip, or even
a flight as a passenger in a seaplane or
under IFR. Each new experience widens
our field of view to the world of aviation
and gives us more to enjoy. Whether I'm
actively pursuing a rating or enjoying
the ones I have, I'm at my happiest flying
when I fly regularly and seek out new
experiences and challenges. In the wide
world of aviation, I've only experienced
one tiny corner, and there's so much left
to explore. FT
I just received my March issue of Flight Training. Sarah
Deener's editorial about seeking additional aviation
accomplishments ( " Ratings Bingo " ) is right on target.
The great majority of my students were learning to
fly to fulfill a dream of flight, not for a career. There's
absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying the basic
private license.
2403_04f_AlwaysLearning.indd 6
1/5/24 2:37 PM
That said, to encourage new pilots to explore
other options, I wrote a book some 40 years ago
to explain and encourage the many options beyond
the private license, now in its fourth edition.
Beyond Flight Training is available at ASA or perhaps Amazon if you
care to check it out.
LeRoy Cook
Butler, Missouri
FLY LIKE AN AUTOPILOT
ADVANCED PILOT ADVANCED TRAINING
IN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO LAND
this new-to-me aircraft, I turned to a
knowledgeable but untalkative source: a
flight simulator.
Inside the realistic sim at FlightSafety
International in Tampa, Florida, I loaded
and activated a precision approach, then
sat back and watched the automation do its
magic. With the airplane's landing gear and
flaps down and the pre-landing checklist
complete, the autopilot tracked the localizer
and glideslope with uncanny precision.
A close look at the robotically stable
approach showed the airplane in a level
pitch attitude, on its approach speed, at 64
percent power, a descent rate of 700 feet
per minute, and the flightpath marker (the
green dot on the Garmin G3000 primary
flight display) bisecting the syntheticvision-derived
runway threshold.
The only things left for the pilot to do
before landing were to click the autopilot
off, bring the power levers to idle, and
flare-acts that are second nature to pilots.
Now, when I hand-fly the actual
airplane, I shamelessly copy what I
saw in the sim-and it usually gets me
close to preset aircraft performance
targets. In the bad old days, aeronautical
engineers tried-and usually failed-to
make autopilots fly like skilled pilots.
On autopilot, headings wandered, turns
came too early or too late, and pitch was
a sine wave. If autopilots were judged by
the same standards as pilots, they would
have failed their checkrides.
Now, however, the worm has turned.
FLY LIKE AN AUTOPILOT
HELPFUL HINTS FROM AUTOMATION
BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN
52 FLIGHT TRAINING JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
Autopilots have had their John Henry
moment where technology surpasses
human capacity. Modern, digital autopilots
are so good that the best a hand-flying
human can do is try to mimic them.
It's impossible to outdo them, of course,
since modern digital autopilots update five
times a second or more-way quicker than
any pilot can recognize and adjust to new
information. But we humans can learn
from the automation, and it doesn't require
a fancy simulator, or even a simulator at all.
Take slow flight, for example. That's an
exercise every student pilot learns by rote
early in training (see " Slow Going, " p. 42).
Yet an autopilot can show us how to cut to
the chase.
In a Cessna 172 Skyhawk at a safe
altitude with the autopilot engaged in
altitude hold, reduce the throttle to idle
and wait for the airplane to decelerate
to your target speed, say 65 knots. Then
add enough engine power to keep it
there. Stabilize for a minute or two and
note the results. It'll probably be something
like a 3-degree nose-up attitude
and 2,100 rpm.
Whenever you're in a Skyhawk and
want to fly slow, you'll know the shortcut.
The approximate pitch and power required
are known values, so you can go right to
them. Getting it just right requires fine
tuning based on aircraft weight, density
altitude, and other factors, but these autopilot-aided
numbers provide a baseline.
AUTOPILOTS NEVER
GET TIRED, CRANKY, OR
IMPATIENT.
Modern autopilots provide even more
information to instrument pilots.
Bruce Williams, an aviation writer
and flight instructor living in Seattle,
Washington, suggests using the cameras in
our smartphones to create " panel selfies "
to set metrics.
" We've all snapped photos of the
scenery and our happy faces as we fly, "
Williams said. " Why not a panel selfie?
It's quicker than scribbling figures in
flight and far easier to read the next day. "
Williams suggests pilots record panel/
engine monitor photos when:
* Flying straight and level in high-speed
and economy cruise.
* In cruise climb.
* In cruise descent.
* Being vectored for an approach.
* On final while the autopilot tracks
lateral and vertical guidance.
In the 1989 Beechcraft Bonanza A36
Williams flies, he typically tracks the ILS
I liked Dave Hirschman's article in the January/
February 2024 Flight Training magazine, " Fly
Like an Autopilot. " However, I beg to differ on
the point of his statement, " No human pilot can
reliably pull off that trick, " of rolling out " exactly
on course. " I started my flying career in 1971 in the
Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training program
and after graduating was a T-38 Talon Instructor
Pilot for nearly three years.
In the T-38 there was no automation that flew
the plane for us. We had to think well ahead of
the aircraft flying anywhere from 4 to 5 nautical
glideslope at about 110 knots at a power
setting of 17 to 18 inches of manifold
pressure, approach flaps, and landing gear
down. If he's on autopilot and controllers
ask him to speed up, he simply adds
power, and his airplane accelerates while
still following the glideslope.
Similarly, internal logic built into the
autopilot shows the optimum intercept
angles, and how to make heading
corrections.
If the localizer is offset to the right,
for example, the autopilot momentarily
banks right, levels the wings, and collects
the localizer needle. Then a modest heading
change to the left holds the corrected
heading.
" I teach my instrument students to try
to do what the autopilot does so well, " he
said. " Make a slight turn, level the wings,
then correct again before the localizer
needle is completely centered-and stay
coordinated throughout the process. "
Sophisticated autopilots can automatically
perform feats that no sane
pilot would even attempt. How about
a 90-degree intercept of an ILS at 220
knots just outside the final approach fix?
No human pilot can reliably pull off that
trick, yet autopilots do it reliably-and
they roll out of the turn exactly on course
no matter the wind.
Autopilots never get tired, or cranky,
or impatient. They break from time to
time, so they must be closely monitored
(and correctly programmed).
Modern versions are designed by
some of the brightest engineers in the
aerospace industry, and those people have
made a science out of replicating the best
practices of human pilots over time.
It's long been a stinging insult to
say that a pilot flies " mechanically. " But
today, there's certainly no shame in flying
like any other modern, digital autopilot.
In fact, it would mean we fly smoothly,
predictably, and decisively, and that we
seldom make mistakes and absolutely
never fuss or complain.
Now that's something to aspire to. FT
dave.hirschman@aopa.org
FLIGHT TRAINING JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024
53
miles per minute for instrument arrivals. We, therefore, had to think well
ahead of the aircraft to anticipate turns. En route, we flew 7 to 9 nautical
miles per minute so we had to mentally compute lead points even further
in advance. I believe those skills are pretty much lost. Automation is not
necessarily a pilot's friend.
If we know the fundamentals of flying and apply those rules, we can
make those 90-degree turns to final and roll out very close to, if not exactly,
on course. Perhaps not exactly every time but with practice very close all
the time.
Thanks for the article. It is a good insight to the benefits of the autopilot.
Peter G. Graf
Missoula, Montana
We welcome your comments. Please email flighttraining@aopa.org. Comments will be
edited for style and space.
FLIGHT TRAINING JUNE 2024
5
MIKE FIZER
http://www.aircraftspruce.com
Flight Training - June 2024

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