jesse
Touchdown! Greaser!
Yesterday I went up with a student of mine to do a "mock checkride".
I had a few goals with this flight, some I told him, some I didn't:
1.) I wanted to see him do a simulated engine failure to an airport
2.) I wanted to see him handle a big crosswind
3.) I wanted to do some hood work and unusual attitudes
4.) I wanted to get him lost and see him reaction in a stressful situation
I asked him to plan a cross country from Lincoln, NE to O'Neil, NE. The primary reason I chose O'Neil is because I knew we'd pass directly over the top of David City, NE.
I reviewed his plan and it looked pretty good. We took off from Lincoln and were soon underway. It wasn't long before we were directly over the top of David City. I took a look down at the windsock and it was pointing straight out at a direct 90 degree crosswind, I knew it was going to get a little exciting.
I waited for my student to take his hand off the throttle, which I knew he'd do, when he reset his stop watch at the checkpoint (which was the airport). The moment his hand came off the throttle I pulled it to idle and said "engine failure". We were about 3,300 AGL.
He's had some issues lately at sorting out priorities during an engine failure but this time he did pretty good. It didn't take long before he had us at best glide, chose the airport as his point of landing, and had completed all the necessary checklists. He then started to maneuver as needed and was making the appropriate radio calls. The wind was gusting to about a 18 knot crosswind. It was a lot for him at 35 hours total time but he pulled it off.
I wasn't entirely happy with his crosswind technique so we went back up and banged around the pattern for another four or five times until he really had it down. I was happy to see that at touchdown he had full aileron in.
We departed David City and I told him my airplane and handed him a hood. While he was messing around with the hood I spun his DG 90 degrees off heading. I asked him to fly a southeast heading and told him some crap about me wanting to see my friends farm in that direction. I had him do quite a bit of heading changes, unusual attitudes, and other various tasks. Finally after about 30 minutes under the hood I asked him to descend to 800 AGL, failed the 430, and told him to remove the hood.
Once he got the hood removed I asked him to fly me to Seward, NE. He looked around for a bit and suddenly realized he had no idea where we were. It didnt' help that we were so low
. He finally decided that we were flying a southeast heading most of the time so based on that, our approximate groundspeed, and the amount of time he THINKS he might have went that direction he came up with an answer as to where we were. He was off by about 30 or 40 miles. I told him what he said seemed reasonable to me.
He chose a heading that he thought would take us to Seward and after a bit we came upon a city with an airport to the south of it. He looked to his sectional and looked rather confused because it most definitely wasn't Seward. He still hadn't figured out his DG was 90 degrees off so it looked as if the airport were to the east of the city. He decided that it was Crete, NE (it wasn't..it was Utica, NE). I helped him out a touch at this point by saying: "kind of odd that it has a east west runway and the chart says north south, huh". (In reality it was a north south runway but his DG wasn't right and I wasn't going to tell him that).
For some reason he was still convinced it was Crete, NE. He was also convinced that he was west of the field flying eastbound (we were actually north flying southbound). So he decided to hang a left hand turn on course to Seward.
After a bit we came across a small town without an airport and he couldn't figure out what it'd be based on where he thought were were on his sectional. He mentioned to me that he remembers me telling him something about navigating by reading water towers. So he found the water tower, circled, and eventually read "Gressham, NE" on the side. *Finally* he was happy to know where we were. He found Gressham on his sectional and was rather confused as to why we were there..but we were..so he plotted a heading to the southeast to get us to Seward and turned on course.
We cruised on for awhile until we were approaching a larger than Seward looking city. He couldn't figure out what city it was and was super confused at that point. He still hadn't given up and had a good attitude about it. He flew around the city until he found the water tower and realized he was at York, NE.
Suddenly a lightbulb just clicked in his head. He knew damn well he was at Gressham, NE earlier and he knew he flew southeast but he ended up at York. He suddenly realized his DG was set wrong and figured out I knew where we were the entire time and that I had messed it up. He fixed the DG, plotted a CORRECT heading, and we headed towards Seward. We were no longer lost.
I've told my students that at some point later in their training I *will* make an effort to get them lost. I'll also expect them to figure out how to get back. I'll also admit my plan this entire flight was to get him lost. I just didn't think I'd be able to get him lost for a hour
After the flight we debriefed and discussed everything that happened, what went wrong, and what we could have done differently.
It's always interesting to hear what a student thinks:
1.) He should have climbed when he was lost. We've discussed that before and had he climbed at that point and simply looked around he would have saw some easy to spot landmarks and known where we were. He said he remembers talking about it in the past but it just didn't dawn on him. He also considered it possible that I had him go so low to stay under the Lincoln class C and thought climbing might have busted their airspace.
2.) He is actually pretty damn good with a VOR and could have used that to find his fix within 30 seconds or so. For some reason he was thinking that the Nav 2 VOR was dead since the 430 was dead. He knew the systems -- but just let the situation distract him from thinking and trying things
3.) Why he flew for a hour lost without ever checking his DG against his compass we'll both never know. I bet he won't ever make that mistake again.
4.) He knew he could have likely had Lincoln Approach or Minneapolis Center find him with his transponder but elected not to do that because he wanted to figure it out without them during training.
Another day in the life of a part-time flight instructor
I had a few goals with this flight, some I told him, some I didn't:
1.) I wanted to see him do a simulated engine failure to an airport
2.) I wanted to see him handle a big crosswind
3.) I wanted to do some hood work and unusual attitudes
4.) I wanted to get him lost and see him reaction in a stressful situation
I asked him to plan a cross country from Lincoln, NE to O'Neil, NE. The primary reason I chose O'Neil is because I knew we'd pass directly over the top of David City, NE.
I reviewed his plan and it looked pretty good. We took off from Lincoln and were soon underway. It wasn't long before we were directly over the top of David City. I took a look down at the windsock and it was pointing straight out at a direct 90 degree crosswind, I knew it was going to get a little exciting.
I waited for my student to take his hand off the throttle, which I knew he'd do, when he reset his stop watch at the checkpoint (which was the airport). The moment his hand came off the throttle I pulled it to idle and said "engine failure". We were about 3,300 AGL.
He's had some issues lately at sorting out priorities during an engine failure but this time he did pretty good. It didn't take long before he had us at best glide, chose the airport as his point of landing, and had completed all the necessary checklists. He then started to maneuver as needed and was making the appropriate radio calls. The wind was gusting to about a 18 knot crosswind. It was a lot for him at 35 hours total time but he pulled it off.
I wasn't entirely happy with his crosswind technique so we went back up and banged around the pattern for another four or five times until he really had it down. I was happy to see that at touchdown he had full aileron in.
We departed David City and I told him my airplane and handed him a hood. While he was messing around with the hood I spun his DG 90 degrees off heading. I asked him to fly a southeast heading and told him some crap about me wanting to see my friends farm in that direction. I had him do quite a bit of heading changes, unusual attitudes, and other various tasks. Finally after about 30 minutes under the hood I asked him to descend to 800 AGL, failed the 430, and told him to remove the hood.
Once he got the hood removed I asked him to fly me to Seward, NE. He looked around for a bit and suddenly realized he had no idea where we were. It didnt' help that we were so low
. He finally decided that we were flying a southeast heading most of the time so based on that, our approximate groundspeed, and the amount of time he THINKS he might have went that direction he came up with an answer as to where we were. He was off by about 30 or 40 miles. I told him what he said seemed reasonable to me.He chose a heading that he thought would take us to Seward and after a bit we came upon a city with an airport to the south of it. He looked to his sectional and looked rather confused because it most definitely wasn't Seward. He still hadn't figured out his DG was 90 degrees off so it looked as if the airport were to the east of the city. He decided that it was Crete, NE (it wasn't..it was Utica, NE). I helped him out a touch at this point by saying: "kind of odd that it has a east west runway and the chart says north south, huh". (In reality it was a north south runway but his DG wasn't right and I wasn't going to tell him that).
For some reason he was still convinced it was Crete, NE. He was also convinced that he was west of the field flying eastbound (we were actually north flying southbound). So he decided to hang a left hand turn on course to Seward.
After a bit we came across a small town without an airport and he couldn't figure out what it'd be based on where he thought were were on his sectional. He mentioned to me that he remembers me telling him something about navigating by reading water towers. So he found the water tower, circled, and eventually read "Gressham, NE" on the side. *Finally* he was happy to know where we were. He found Gressham on his sectional and was rather confused as to why we were there..but we were..so he plotted a heading to the southeast to get us to Seward and turned on course.
We cruised on for awhile until we were approaching a larger than Seward looking city. He couldn't figure out what city it was and was super confused at that point. He still hadn't given up and had a good attitude about it. He flew around the city until he found the water tower and realized he was at York, NE.
Suddenly a lightbulb just clicked in his head. He knew damn well he was at Gressham, NE earlier and he knew he flew southeast but he ended up at York. He suddenly realized his DG was set wrong and figured out I knew where we were the entire time and that I had messed it up. He fixed the DG, plotted a CORRECT heading, and we headed towards Seward. We were no longer lost.
I've told my students that at some point later in their training I *will* make an effort to get them lost. I'll also expect them to figure out how to get back. I'll also admit my plan this entire flight was to get him lost. I just didn't think I'd be able to get him lost for a hour
After the flight we debriefed and discussed everything that happened, what went wrong, and what we could have done differently.
It's always interesting to hear what a student thinks:
1.) He should have climbed when he was lost. We've discussed that before and had he climbed at that point and simply looked around he would have saw some easy to spot landmarks and known where we were. He said he remembers talking about it in the past but it just didn't dawn on him. He also considered it possible that I had him go so low to stay under the Lincoln class C and thought climbing might have busted their airspace.
2.) He is actually pretty damn good with a VOR and could have used that to find his fix within 30 seconds or so. For some reason he was thinking that the Nav 2 VOR was dead since the 430 was dead. He knew the systems -- but just let the situation distract him from thinking and trying things
3.) Why he flew for a hour lost without ever checking his DG against his compass we'll both never know. I bet he won't ever make that mistake again.
4.) He knew he could have likely had Lincoln Approach or Minneapolis Center find him with his transponder but elected not to do that because he wanted to figure it out without them during training.
Another day in the life of a part-time flight instructor
Last edited:
