January AOPA Pilot - Never Again

Flying at night around big rocks. Ick. You can have it. I don't even fly at night over the rocks of WV. Can't see them, can't avoid them. Instructor doesn't sound like she'll last long. Letting the student turn into the wrong canyon with terrain ahead. How did she know the student would work it out in time to make the climb or turn?
 
I've seen this published before (or maybe heard it on a podcast). Anyone else remember it?
 
I remember my PPSEL instructor letting me dig a hole, climb in it, and proceed to bury myself a couple times, all while sitting there waiting and watching to see if I would catch it. I hope this instructor in the story was keeping an eye on situational awareness in this case. The NTSB database has quite a few entries similar to this with instructors who did not.
 
I'll bet the CFI was totally clueless. No way could she tell how far away was the rising terrain.
 
steingar said:
I'll bet the CFI was totally clueless. No way could she tell how far away was the rising terrain.
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That was my first reaction. Then I thought - can a CFI really be that bad.......? Maybe so but I'd like to think not.
 
steingar said:
I'll bet the CFI was totally clueless. No way could she tell how far away was the rising terrain.
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Again, if there was Terrain page set up on the MFD, the CFI would know exactly where rising terrain was.

I'm not sure the student knew because the student never mentions the terrain feature on the "GPS"
 
If this was just a training exercise by the CFI, why did it end up in Never Again? Sounds like they both messed up.
 
steingar said:
I'll bet the CFI was totally clueless. No way could she tell how far away was the rising terrain.
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A GPS and a sectional would tell you that. It's also quite possible the instructor knew the area.

The author says he couldn't tell how much he cleared the terrain by. A quick glance at the altimeter would tell that.

This really seems like the instructor letting the student dig a hole and climb back out.
 
A hole with invisible rocks?! The CFI either has a double-digit IQ or a limited love for life. I suspect the former, as I was never allowed a GPS in any of my training flights, nor was anyone I know. Rather defeats the purpose of pilotage training.
 
This was interesting:

".....I noticed there were light clouds hugging the peaks, although the weather briefing I had called for 30 minutes earlier reported that mostly clear skies were expected....."

Ummm....isn't that what "mostly clear" means? That it isn't fully clear, there are some clouds?


And I'm not a CFI, but... aren't you supposed to know how all the equipment works in a particular plane BEFORE you start trying to train students to fly it?

One would hope that the CFI would know how to operate the GPS, and could easily show the student how to fuss with the brightness.

If you can't figure out how the damned thing works, SHUT IT OFF. You are carrying charts and a flashlight, yes?
 
I can't believe the lesson learned wasn't "When something is bright and distracting and not necessary for flight, turning it off is a better option than being distracted."
 
Unregistered said:
If this were a lesson what as the objective?
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And deal with distractions while prioritizing critical flight items.

Instructors still occasionally pop open doors and drop keys or other items to intentionally distract and excite students, to see their reaction and teach them to deal with it in flight. I know my initial instructor would NOT have helped me with the too-bright GPS screen until it became a hazard-to-flight issue - his attitude would have been that it would be a much more valuable lesson to me if it scared me, rather than if he showed me how to do fix it immediately. After all, it would really be MY fault that I went flying with a GPS that I didn't know how to operate. It's possible (a bit of a stretch, but still possible) the whole flight was monitored and allowed to proceed as it did by the instructor, as a "teaching tool" for situational awareness and instrument familiarization.
 
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I promise, if a CFI ever tries that on me at might in rising invisible terrain, that CFI will no longer be employed by me or anyone I know. Those lessons can easily be taught without endangering the aircraft or its occupants. Such lessons rarely make it into "Never Again".
 
steingar said:
I promise, if a CFI ever tries that on me at might in rising invisible terrain, that CFI will no longer be employed by me or anyone I know. Those lessons can easily be taught without endangering the aircraft or its occupants. Such lessons rarely make it into "Never Again".
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You are assuming that they were below the 'rising terrain'. Nowhere in the article does the student indicate the height of the pass, or their altitude.
 
I'd bet things were not as dramatic as the author portrayed them to be. It also sounds like she learned a lesson about night flying and flying in general.
I've always taken "Never Again" to be lessons in flight not survival though many rise to that. Hopefully we all learn a little something from them.
 
Steve Foley said:
You are assuming that they were below the 'rising terrain'. Nowhere in the article does the student indicate the height of the pass, or their altitude.
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They weren't in a "pass" they were in a blind canyon flying towards rising terrain. The ridge they needed to pass over at the end of the canyon tops out around 10,000 MSL, doable in a 172 but not something I'd want to try in the dark. I've flown a bit in that area including the I-80 route and wouldn't think of trying that in the dark without being well above all nearby terrain. The sides of the canyons can be pretty dark and nearly impossible to see in the dark. I'm also thinking that the idea of blindly following a magenta line off airway and/or below IFR altitudes at night is just asking for trouble, even if you do know how do dim the display. Seems to me the writer didn't really learn all the lessons presented.
 
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