Page 29 - February 2015 Volume 19 Number 2

multiengine airplanes is recommended at VMC + 5 knots, and final approach speed is usually 15-20% above VMC. You’ll never be near “red radial” speed in flight, right?The King Air crash is a perfect illustration of the reason pilots learn to perform the VMC Demonstration. What’s missing in the way most of us were taught (and teach) the VMC Demo is to put the maneuver into context. The purpose of the VMC Demonstration is to give the pilot an engine failure survival tool if he/she thinks he/she has done everything right and the airplane still begins to depart from controlled flight. The VMC Demonstration is a checkride circus trick no more!Consider other checkride maneuvers that are often presented as if they are solely for the purpose of passing a checkride. Really think, and you’ll find a potential life-saving (or at least damage-preventing) reason for every one.The highest level of learning is called correlation: the ability to relate what you have learned under one set of circumstances with the need for action under a different set of circumstances. The FAA’s Aviation Instructor’s Handbook defines correlation as “associating what has been learned, understood and applied with previous or subsequent learning.” Most flight instruction, however, is oriented toward teaching and demonstrating application. The “license to learn” we receive with a new, temporary pilot certificate or rating is the challenge to develop the experience, and learn from the experiences of others, to rise to the level of correlation.The positive lesson from the King Air crash at Wichita is a reminder that all checkride maneuvers can be correlated to real, life-saving situations. We learn what we are required to learn for a reason. No matter what else he had done, if the pilot of the King Air had noted an inability to hold heading, he probably could have chopped both power levers, lowered the nose and landed more or less straight ahead – correlating the VMC Demonstration to an actual Engine Failure During Takeoff.Your challenge is to retain at least the level of proficiency you once demonstrated to earn your pilot certificates and ratings, and to correlate those skills with others. Tempered with judgment, this gives you a much be•tter chance of being ready if you think you’ve done everything right, but things are still going seriously wrong. T&TPreferred Airparts LLC. Half Page4/C AdAircraft Performance Modifications Half Page4/C AdFEBRUARY 2015TWIN & TURBINE • 27