Tristar
Pattern Altitude
Flight Instructors have hammered the "IM SAFE" checklist into our systems since the day we started flight training. For those that need a refresher, "IM SAFE" stands for:
Illness
Medication
Stress
Alcohol
Fatigue
Emotion (some Instructors interchange this with Eating)
This checklist is supposed to be a common sense approach to a self examination.
Illness can mean something as simple as the common cold. If you don't feel well, don't fly!
Medication is a tricky one because not all medications have been through FAA approval. Thankfully if you are an AOPA member, they have provided a guide to some of the more common medications and their approval status. Unfortunately the FAA does not maintain an official list of approved medications. You're best bet is to call your local AME if you're unsure. http://www.faa.gov/pilots/amelocator/
Stress can be self explanatory but not always realized at the time how much it can affect you. Stress can be anything happening in your life whether its at home or office that distracts you from your duties as a pilot. Many pilots take flying as a stress reliever, I don't recommend that and I'll explain an example momentarily.
Alcohol is easily understood if you've ever taken drivers ed or even tried walking. Although going over the .04 level is easily done and can be undetected. They allow the .04 limit for small doses of cold medicine, don't take advantage of this. 8 hours bottle to throttle! Although it can take up to 24 hours for alcohol to leave your system.
Next is Fatigue. There are many ways you can become fatigued including the simple way of not getting enough rest. So if you've only slept 3 hours in a 24 hour period, this is a good indication it wouldn't be smart to fly. The type of fatigue that comes on gradually and sometimes undetected is self induced meaning flying on long trips or even short trips with stressful situations. This is one of the reasons why many operations have a two man crew.
Last but not least is Emotion. I personally think this falls under the same category as Stress. Instructors see this during flight training as well. When a student is working on a maneuver and they just can't seem to "get it" just yet, he/she becomes overwhelmed and simply enough quits learning. Thankfully many Instructors have become fine tuned for this and either ask the student to try something different, easier, or just call it a day. There will be another day to try it again.
I remind you of this because I recently came across an example with a student that went against the Stress/Emotion factors and want to keep you from making the same mistake. To put your mind at ease, no people or aircraft were hurt but a little paperwork was filed. The student was scheduled for a solo flight. The weather was beautiful, the airplane was good to go but its always up to the pilot how the flight will go. He jumped into the airplane and was instructed to taxi to runway 35. The way the airport is set up there is a run up pad about 3/4s along the taxiway to the runway. There is a hold short line for 32 then one for 35. The approach for runway 32 is over the hold short line for 35 which can be confusing if you're rarely told to hold short of it. During his runup the controller came back and told him to hold short of runway 32. He taxied past the 32 line and a KC-135 had to go around. Now where he stopped was in no hazardous path to 32 but the fact that you cross it considers you on an active runway. Because of this, he received the "please call the tower" instruction. He came back and the instructor was a little confused by what had happened because he knew better. So this was the student's story. Before coming out, the student had been having trouble with a sick family member. His mind was still on that and thought that flying could get his mind off of it, mistake number one. On taxi out he received a phone call from the doctor which he had to refuse. He debated taxiing back but decided to fly anyways. While his mind was on the phone call, tower said "hold short of runway 32" which he repeated without mentally noting the taxi instruction. Thus the taxi error. Tower had to file paperwork for a runway incursion. The FAA ended up talking to the instructor about what happened. They were very kind in explaining that as a student, most of the time nothing happens and put minds at ease. The student of course learned an important lesson. You can see though how a small chain of events turned into a not so fun solo. These kinds of things, although unwanted, are best learned as a solo student. As your ratings increase, so do the penalties of not following rules/instructions. The more involved you become in aviation, the more factors you are exposed to. The mental factors and stress levels increase with instrument flying so make sure you're on the top of your game. Lets keep flying safe by starting with ourselves!
Illness
Medication
Stress
Alcohol
Fatigue
Emotion (some Instructors interchange this with Eating)
This checklist is supposed to be a common sense approach to a self examination.
Illness can mean something as simple as the common cold. If you don't feel well, don't fly!
Medication is a tricky one because not all medications have been through FAA approval. Thankfully if you are an AOPA member, they have provided a guide to some of the more common medications and their approval status. Unfortunately the FAA does not maintain an official list of approved medications. You're best bet is to call your local AME if you're unsure. http://www.faa.gov/pilots/amelocator/
Stress can be self explanatory but not always realized at the time how much it can affect you. Stress can be anything happening in your life whether its at home or office that distracts you from your duties as a pilot. Many pilots take flying as a stress reliever, I don't recommend that and I'll explain an example momentarily.
Alcohol is easily understood if you've ever taken drivers ed or even tried walking. Although going over the .04 level is easily done and can be undetected. They allow the .04 limit for small doses of cold medicine, don't take advantage of this. 8 hours bottle to throttle! Although it can take up to 24 hours for alcohol to leave your system.
Next is Fatigue. There are many ways you can become fatigued including the simple way of not getting enough rest. So if you've only slept 3 hours in a 24 hour period, this is a good indication it wouldn't be smart to fly. The type of fatigue that comes on gradually and sometimes undetected is self induced meaning flying on long trips or even short trips with stressful situations. This is one of the reasons why many operations have a two man crew.
Last but not least is Emotion. I personally think this falls under the same category as Stress. Instructors see this during flight training as well. When a student is working on a maneuver and they just can't seem to "get it" just yet, he/she becomes overwhelmed and simply enough quits learning. Thankfully many Instructors have become fine tuned for this and either ask the student to try something different, easier, or just call it a day. There will be another day to try it again.
I remind you of this because I recently came across an example with a student that went against the Stress/Emotion factors and want to keep you from making the same mistake. To put your mind at ease, no people or aircraft were hurt but a little paperwork was filed. The student was scheduled for a solo flight. The weather was beautiful, the airplane was good to go but its always up to the pilot how the flight will go. He jumped into the airplane and was instructed to taxi to runway 35. The way the airport is set up there is a run up pad about 3/4s along the taxiway to the runway. There is a hold short line for 32 then one for 35. The approach for runway 32 is over the hold short line for 35 which can be confusing if you're rarely told to hold short of it. During his runup the controller came back and told him to hold short of runway 32. He taxied past the 32 line and a KC-135 had to go around. Now where he stopped was in no hazardous path to 32 but the fact that you cross it considers you on an active runway. Because of this, he received the "please call the tower" instruction. He came back and the instructor was a little confused by what had happened because he knew better. So this was the student's story. Before coming out, the student had been having trouble with a sick family member. His mind was still on that and thought that flying could get his mind off of it, mistake number one. On taxi out he received a phone call from the doctor which he had to refuse. He debated taxiing back but decided to fly anyways. While his mind was on the phone call, tower said "hold short of runway 32" which he repeated without mentally noting the taxi instruction. Thus the taxi error. Tower had to file paperwork for a runway incursion. The FAA ended up talking to the instructor about what happened. They were very kind in explaining that as a student, most of the time nothing happens and put minds at ease. The student of course learned an important lesson. You can see though how a small chain of events turned into a not so fun solo. These kinds of things, although unwanted, are best learned as a solo student. As your ratings increase, so do the penalties of not following rules/instructions. The more involved you become in aviation, the more factors you are exposed to. The mental factors and stress levels increase with instrument flying so make sure you're on the top of your game. Lets keep flying safe by starting with ourselves!
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