Basics Are Good To Remember

[Geico266]

Yesterday, I got a kitchen pass and headed to the airport to jump in the 8 and fly to a local once a year fly in breakfast. Been there every year for 12 years. Sever clear, but strong winds aloft. It was early, and I knew I would be the first one there, or so I thought.

I took some time on the way out to change the data fields on the 496 info page, and I thought about what a nice job the privous owner had done building the plane. 5 miles out I begin to think of how lucky I am to be able to fly. To climb in a machine and leave the earth, to look around and see the seasons change. I'm now 3 miles out and make my second position call with no response except the guy on the ground saying "No reported trafic". "Great!" I say to my self as I enter the 45 to the down wind.

All of a sudden there was an Ercoup 100' in front of me and to my left. I thought to my self he is on the wrong frequency or something. My plane rocks as I hit his wake, and I do a 360 to give us some room, and follow him in to land.

I talked to him and he has no radio.

Then I calmed down and rethought the whole flight. I was behind him and above him, but did not see him........ because...... I did not even look. I wanted so bad to be mad at him, but the facts were he had done nothing wrong except not look either.

My head was just not in the damn game! I was messing with the panel, auto pilot, thinking about **** I should not have been thinking about that close to an airport, on a Sunday with a flying breakfast! duh! Double duh!

We had breakfast together and talked about what just happened. It is amazing how fast the strikes add up so slow, and things happen so fast when you aren't paying attention.

Be safe out there! Keep your head in the game!

 

[jesse]

Thanks for the reminder. It's easy to forget to look in faster planes with buttons that just always need pushing for one reason or another.

 

[Jaybird180]

Great post Geico

 

[Bill Watson]

Yeah, good one. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Alexb2000]

Pancake breakfast fly-ins are as dangerous as going out drinking on Saint Paddy's day.

 

[ScottK]

Last month, while on a short x-c, I realized that my head was not in the game because of a family issue. That had never happened to me before. Usually, flying was my escape, but not this time. I looked up to realize that I hadn't really been looking outside like I should and I missed a couple radio calls from flight following.

I turned around and went home. I haven't flown since. Realizing that I wasn't paying attention and that I allowed myself to be that distracted scared me a bit. It's dangerous and unnecessary to fly like that. The family issue should be resolved soon and I'm looking forward to getting back up there.

Glad everything turned out ok for you Geico!

 

[Geico266]

Thanks!

Don't let one bad day ruin your flying. Get back in the game!

 

[dtuuri]

"Great!" I say to my self as I enter the 45 to the down wind.

All of a sudden there was an Ercoup 100' in front of me and to my left. ... My plane rocks as I hit his wake, and I do a 360 to give us some room, and follow him in to land.

...I was behind him and above him, but did not see him........ .... I wanted so bad to be mad at him...

Cheer up, you might still be able to be mad at him. Did he cross over the airport midfield and cut in front of you?

dtuuri

 

[Old Geek]

The only overt "not in the game" moment I've ever had was cruising at 9,000 feet and realizing I had been designing a new product in my head and not focusing on the airplane. Getting down to 6,000 fixed the problem.

 

[Jaybird180]

On my student long XC I took off about 3-4 mins after the chief CFI and an instrument student. Before I knew it I was abreast of them on their right about 2 wingspans away flying in formation. I doubt they saw me and turned left. I thought I was in trouble for unauthorized formation flying.

I guess it can happen....and I knew they were out there and I was looking for them.

 

[comanchepilot]

amen brother . .. I always seem to find airplane in places like practice areas and airports . . . gotta be looking!

 

[GCA319]

Thanks for the reminder. It's easy to forget to look in faster planes with buttons that just always need pushing for one reason or another.

This. I have some time in a PA46 and constantly had to remind myself to look around in between managing everything inside.

 

[slavinger]

My head was just not in the damn game! I was messing with the panel, auto pilot, thinking about **** I should not have been thinking about that close to an airport, on a Sunday with a flying breakfast! duh! Double duh!

We had breakfast together and talked about what just happened. It is amazing how fast the strikes add up so slow, and things happen so fast when you aren't paying attention.

Great post Geico, thanks for sharing. Good observations. Most incidents/accidents are a string of lesser missteps that add up to a big problem. I'm actually very impressed with the caliber of pilots on PoA, accident stats show that more pilots should be frequenting these forums and talking about things gone right & gone wrong.

 

[slavinger]

Pancake breakfast fly-ins are as dangerous as going out drinking on Saint Paddy's day.

Yep, and loitering by VORs on a clear day.

 

[slavinger]

Last month, while on a short x-c, I realized that my head was not in the game because of a family issue. That had never happened to me before. Usually, flying was my escape, but not this time. I looked up to realize that I hadn't really been looking outside like I should and I missed a couple radio calls from flight following.

I turned around and went home. I haven't flown since. Realizing that I wasn't paying attention and that I allowed myself to be that distracted scared me a bit. It's dangerous and unnecessary to fly like that. The family issue should be resolved soon and I'm looking forward to getting back up there.

Glad everything turned out ok for you Geico!

I've also had situations when I really thought it might help to go out and fly, but then I thought my head is just not in the game right now. Good risk management (eventually), although you probably shouldn't have taken off, glad you did the right thing by recognizing the little things starting to add up. Hope you get back up there soon!

 

[GCA319]

Yep, and loitering by VORs on a clear day.

Meh..With most people going GPS direct these days, that's not as much of an issue as it was before.

 

[slavinger]

Meh..With most people going GPS direct these days, that's not as much of an issue as it was before.

Well, not so much here. We've had a bunch of VORs decommed so CFIs are taking their students to the few that are left, and the rest of us use it for 30-day VOR checks.

 

[Geico266]

Well, not so much here. We've had a bunch of VORs decommed so CFIs are taking their students to the few that are left, and the rest of us use it for 30-day VOR checks.

This is what I just done get. Why would CFIs make students learn an outdated and slowly dying navigation system. They should shut them all off. The money they save in a year could buy every pilot in the US a nice hand held GPS.

We had a local CFI that made a friend of mine install a VOR in his plane because he said it was required for the check ride. I knew better, but the plane owner didn't want to rock the boat. A complete waste of money, and time. After his check ride he took it out of the plane and sold it.

I've flown in every state, closing in on 3000 hours flying. I have never used VOR or NDB for navigation. I usually travel with no less than 3 GPSs for redundancy. Never had a GPS failure.

 

[slavinger]

This is what I just done get. Why would CFIs make students learn an outdated and slowly dying navigation system. They should shut them all off. The money they save in a year could buy every pilot in the US a nice hand held GPS.

We had a local CFI that made a friend of mine install a VOR in his plane because he said it was required for the check ride. I knew better, but the plane owner didn't want to rock the boat. A complete waste of money, and time. After his check ride he took it out of the plane and sold it.

I've flown in every state, closing in on 3000 hours flying. I have never used VOR or NDB for navigation. I usually travel with no less than 3 GPSs for redundancy. Never had a GPS failure.

Well IMHO you're still putting all your eggs in one basket even with 3 GPS'es. This whole civilian GPS craze took place during peacetime, during a solar low, and fat gov't budgets. Risk 1: solar activity. Risk 2: Chinese or Russians, or both, deciding to lob a few at our GPS satellites. IMO it's foolish to expose a cornerstone domestic navigation system to international risk (at least the FAA plan is to keep a limited VOR backbone in place). Risk 3: (transitional) funding. I read the USAF daily online brief, and they're having trouble finding money to keep the constellation serviced with reserves in place. Maybe with VOR decommissioning the gov't will save money but these two systems are maintained out of two completely separate buckets. I'm sure the FAA won't just hand this money over to the Air Force to use for satellites.

From purely training perspective, I'm glad I learned with NDBs and VORs. It was hard & awkward but it forced me to think spatially and keep a mental map of where I was in relation to a fix. I think that mental map is helpful with navigation in general. Just my personal opinion.

 

[dtuuri]

Why would CFIs make students learn an outdated and slowly dying navigation system.

Probably it's because of the "slowly dying" part. The GPS system is a round peg, the ATC system is a square hole, although radar has rounded off the corners a bit.

dtuuri

 

[jesse]

Why would CFIs make students learn an outdated and slowly dying navigation system.:

If it's in the airplane then the instructor has to teach the student how to use it and ensure they're proficient. Anything in the airplane is fair game for the examiner so an instructor has no choice but to teach it.

In the rental fleet, which most private pilots will never get out of, believe it or not..there are still MANY rental aircraft with no GPS systems and functional VORs. It's kind of a disservice to not teach people how to use them.

Once you get to instrument training, the VOR(s), start to become a lot more relevant.

 

[vdehart]

Well IMHO you're still putting all your eggs in one basket even with 3 GPS'es. This whole civilian GPS craze took place during peacetime, during a solar low, and fat gov't budgets. Risk 1: solar activity. Risk 2: Chinese or Russians, or both, deciding to lob a few at our GPS satellites. IMO it's foolish to expose a cornerstone domestic navigation system to international risk (at least the FAA plan is to keep a limited VOR backbone in place). Risk 3: (transitional) funding. I read the USAF daily online brief, and they're having trouble finding money to keep the constellation serviced with reserves in place. Maybe with VOR decommissioning the gov't will save money but these two systems are maintained out of two completely separate buckets. I'm sure the FAA won't just hand this money over to the Air Force to use for satellites.

From purely training perspective, I'm glad I learned with NDBs and VORs. It was hard & awkward but it forced me to think spatially and keep a mental map of where I was in relation to a fix. I think that mental map is helpful with navigation in general. Just my personal opinion.

I'm pretty sure the FAA is going to do whatever is necessary to maintain the integrity of the civilian GPS systems considering by 2020 its primary ATC system is gearing up to be GPS-dependent.

 

[Geico266]

I'm pretty sure the FAA is going to do whatever is necessary to maintain the integrity of the civilian GPS systems considering by 2020 its primary ATC system is gearing up to be GPS-dependent.

Exactly.

To cling to VOR & NDB navigation systems is the equivalent of requiring buggy whips on all cars. GPS is not going away, its not a fad, and its time pilots and the FAA rrecognizethat fact. Teaching tool? Only because the instructors are too lazy to learn how to fully use and apply GPS technology to flying.

My next crusade is to use GPS for altitude and get rid of pressure sensitive altimeters. They are almost as worthless as VORs. GPS is much more accurate and barometric pressure has zero effect on it. No more guessing.

 

[jesse]

Exactly.

To cling to VOR & NDB navigation systems is the equivalent of requiring buggy whips on all cars. GPS is not going away, its not a fad, and its time pilots and the FAA rrecognizethat fact. Teaching tool? Only because the instructors are too lazy to learn how to fully use and apply GPS technology to flying.

My next crusade is to use GPS for altitude and get rid of pressure sensitive altimeters. They are almost as worthless as VORs. GPS is much more accurate and barometric pressure has zero effect on it. No more guessing.

It's really not fair to say that an instructor teaching vors to a student is being lazy. If it's in the airplane it's required per the PTS, period. An instructor that wouldn't teach it will have students that fail checkrides.

VORs are still crucial for instrument flying in 2014. One must understand them and be proficient with them to be a good instrument pilot.

I agree pressure altimeters are full of error, but as it stands right now, ATC depends on everyone operating with roughly the same equivalent level of error. Regulations aside, If you do away with a pressure altimeter, in 2014, there is no way to provide atc the information they need to properly separate traffic.

I flew three hours, with almost all of that in solid imc, a few hours ago, ended with an ILS approach down to 700 ft at 5:30 am in LNK. My IFR flight plan did include a VOR for various reasons, but I navigated to and from that VOR with an IFR enroute GPS. There is no way in hell I would do that flight with all my eggs in the GPS basket. Especially without a pressure altimeter (which is required anyways). Knowing you have multiple ways to determine your altitude and pitch with some dependent on no external systems is rather comforting when you see nothing out the window for hours.

You could have shut down the entire gps constellation in the middle of that flight and I could still get the airplane, easily, to LNK and guide it down to 200 agl without a problem. That's how it should be. Until there is a viable alternative to GPS, I can't imagine supporting shutting down the remaining VORs and instrument approaches. Too bad the government shut LORAN down which was indeed a viable alternative.

Just my opinion

 

[Ted]

And I agree with your opinion fully, Jesse.

If you're flying VFR only, then it's a different matter. If you're flying IFR (or squawking 1200 in the clouds), it's another matter.

 

[azure]

And I agree with your opinion fully, Jesse.

If you're flying VFR only, then it's a different matter. If you're flying IFR (or squawking 1200 in the clouds), it's another matter.

Hopefully no one here does that (at least, more than once)!

Although hmm... what do you squawk if you're legally IFR in Class G without a clearance?

 

[Clark1961]

Although hmm... what do you squawk if you're legally IFR in Class G without a clearance?

We've (POA) stumbled on that question before. Lot's of G has gone away lately so it's not so much of an issue.

 

[Ted]

Hopefully no one here does that (at least, more than once)!

Although hmm... what do you squawk if you're legally IFR in Class G without a clearance?

There are more people that do it than I wish did. Of course, I wish the number was 0. I've even seen people do it in turboprops, but it's mostly people who don't want to take a check ride.

 

[azure]

There are more people that do it than I wish did. Of course, I wish the number was 0. I've even seen people do it in turboprops, but it's mostly people who don't want to take a check ride.

Yeah I know. But if they're just a checkride short, then they should fake it and file and get the clearance anyway if they "have to be" in the clouds. Take your chances with the FAA, don't put the rest of us in danger.

 

[Ted]

Yeah I know. But if they're just a checkride short, then they should fake it and file and get the clearance anyway if they "have to be" in the clouds. Take your chances with the FAA, don't put the rest of us in danger.

There are people who do that, too. One was a student pilot who owned and flew a King Air 100, crashed it a year or two ago.

 

[GCA319]

This is what I just done get. Why would CFIs make students learn an outdated and slowly dying navigation system. They should shut them all off. The money they save in a year could buy every pilot in the US a nice hand held GPS.

We had a local CFI that made a friend of mine install a VOR in his plane because he said it was required for the check ride. I knew better, but the plane owner didn't want to rock the boat. A complete waste of money, and time. After his check ride he took it out of the plane and sold it.

I've flown in every state, closing in on 3000 hours flying. I have never used VOR or NDB for navigation. I usually travel with no less than 3 GPSs for redundancy. Never had a GPS failure.

Because GPS is too fragile a system for us to rely on 100%. Ground based nav systems still play a role In the national airspace system and if installed in the airplane, it should still be taught at the primary level;however, your friend's CFI is an idiot for making him install a nav radio...