AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 16

WAYPOINTS

Proficiency on every flight

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

Zero-cost way to fly safely
MY WORLD TURNED WHITE as the Bonanza descended
into the late fall clouds. At 6,000 feet we had been in
and out of the tops as the mountains of West Virginia
and western Maryland slid by below us. For the practice, I elected to hand-fly the RNAV (GPS) Runway
27 approach to Garrett County, Maryland. The AWOS
was reporting 7 miles of visibility and ceilings a couple of hundred feet above the 250-1 minimums to the
upsloping runway carved into the top of a mountain.
We were cleared to the initial fix, and from there it
was a straight shot to the runway. I kept the flight
path marker locked onto the rendering of the runway
end provided by the Garmin G500's synthetic vision.

General aviation flying can be done
safely and provides a mental escape
from the challenges of daily living.

Editor in Chief
TOM HAINES flies
with a different CFI
at least once a year
and strives to hit
the center stripe
on every landing-
sometimes even
succeeding.

16 | AOPA PILOT January 2021

With that, I had to only occasionally glance at the lateral and vertical guidance to make sure we were on
track. Minutes later my co-pilot noted some ground
contact and then called out the runway. I stayed on
the gauges a few seconds longer and then glanced up
to see the runway lights.
I never get tired of that, seeing the runway appear
out of the murk right where it is supposed to be when
finishing an instrument approach.
Forty-five minutes later, after dropping off a
couple of passengers, I was on another instrument
approach back at home base, Frederick, Maryland.
The cantankerous weather had lifted a little, and I
saw the runway several miles out and a thousand feet
above the ground.
The approaches were good practice for the next
couple of days, where a roundtrip through Tennessee
and Texas in a Citation M2 had me flying or co-piloting several more very low approaches through a
widespread low-pressure system that just wouldn't
get moving.
One of my aviation goals for 2021 is to do more
of that-maintaining a higher level of instrument
proficiency. Earlier in 2020 I had participated in
a Beechcraft Pilot Proficiency Program course
from the American Bonanza Society. The course

combines in-depth online learning and flights with
a CFI experienced in Bonanzas. In my case it was
with Ron Timmermans, who has almost as much time
instructing as I have total flight time. My flights with
Timmermans not only checked the instrument proficiency and annual flight review boxes, they also gave
me confidence in my skills. The challenges he presented me went well beyond the minimums outlined
by the FAA. Most challenging was flying an instrument approach with just ForeFlight on my iPad. The
flight path may not be lovely, but it can be done safely.
In a pandemic it would be easy to allow flying and
flight proficiency to fall to the wayside. But general
aviation flying can be done safely and provides a mental escape from the challenges to daily living caused
by the virus.
In her article " Branching Out, " Alicia Herron outlines some easy ways to set flying goals for the new year
(p. 102). The best thing about such efforts is how much
fun they can be-checking out in a new type of airplane,
getting a new rating, flying to new locations. Some such
challenges can be done for no extra cost-land on the
center stripe every time. Make every landing a precision
landing. Seek out crosswinds for landing and takeoff.
Alternate takeoffs between short-field and soft-field-
even on long strips of pavement. Maintain your initial
climb speed within two knots of VX or VY.
The AOPA Air Safety Institute's Nall Report shows
a surprisingly high number of accidents occur in the
takeoff and landing phases, and those that occur in
the takeoff phase are more likely to be fatal. There's
more to leaving the Earth than just advancing the
throttle and pulling back on the yoke or stick.
Challenging ourselves to fly more and to focus
on building proficiency with every flight will keep
us safe and, hopefully, prevent us from ending up the
subject of an NTSB investigation. In our guest editorial " Aftermath " (p. 26), NTSB Vice Chairman Bruce
Landsberg shares the sobering experience of investigating a VFR-into-IMC flight and the resulting fatal
spiral into a bean field.
Proficiency should be a state of mind, something
strived for on every flight-not just a logbook entry
after a flight with a CFI.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

@tomhaines29

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021