Aero-Tips!
A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard
this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer
statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of
"there are no old, bold pilots.")
Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner,
master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us
-- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you
may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be
something we might never have considered before, or something that
didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized
it for the practical test.
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Aero-Tips 07.29.06
My first flying job was as an instructor at a one-man FBO in
central Missouri. We had three airplanes: two Cessna 152s and
a Cessna 172 instrument trainer. The Skyhawk as always in demand
for weekend rentals; most of our students checked out in the 172
shortly after earning their private certificate-moving up to what
we (at the time) honestly considered "the big plane".
Between instrument students (that earned their private with
someone else), rental checkouts, and Flight Reviews in the 172 and
students' own airplanes I saw a big percentage of the area's
pilots-and I learned at least as much from them as they probably
picked up from me. One of my most eye-opening lessons from those
early days instructing is that there is a difference between
procedure and technique.
Reduce power, lower flaps, flare and land. Do your run-up,
configure for takeoff, add power, accelerate, lift off. Sometimes a
situation calls for a precise, regimented response... but not
often. A procedure is a series of actions that must be performed to
achieve desired results. The specific order may vary from airplane
type to type, from pilot to pilot, or even for the same pilot vary
based on requirements of that particular flight.
A technique, by contrast, is a means of accomplishing the broad
requirements of a procedure. Here's where flying remains an art
form. One pilot may add flaps on the downwind leg, while another
waits until turning final. Pilot A may hold the brakes until
achieving full power on takeoff, while Pilot B lets the airplane
roll form the beginning of power application. One pilot-in-command
might use the #1 comm radio exclusively, leaving Comm 2 as a
backup, while another switches from one to the other in flight. Is
any one method wrong? Usually not. There may be good reasons to do
things in one order versus another, but if the flight is safe and
everything gets done, who's to say one way is "better" than the
other?
Note: In rare occasion it is important to
perform checklist steps in a specific order. An example is the
engine fire checklist-turn off battery and alternator, ventilate
the cabin, turn off all electrical equipment, then turn on minimum
equipment and land. In this case it takes practice and drill to do
things right. But these examples are by far in the
minority.
Aero-tip of the day: Learn what you can from
the techniques of others to make procedures work out for you. But
don't insist that your way is the only way.