Page 40 - March 2016

Maintaining
of events does not happen without disciplined practice.
Behind such precise piloting is a desire to be better. To accept mediocrity is to invite atrophy of skill. If you repeatedly settle for “good enough” you will broaden the definition of that term to fit nearly all cases, and you’ll no longer improve. I am a fan of manual trim control; even though I want the convenience of an electric trim rocker switch under my thumb, I also like to roll tiny increments of pitch trim into the wheel next to my knee. I can feel the minuscule change in my seat cushion, responding to my finger strokes, in a way no stepper motor can duplicate.
Autopilots can be excellent instructors, if one observes their gentle anticipation of level-off or course capture. When it’s our turn to fly, we need to emulate the autopilot’s early, incremental application of control, so as to roll out directly aligned with the desired track. Rather than let the automation do it for us, we should attempt to fly manually in a similar manner, accepting nothing less than perfection. Practice subtle hand-flying every time the opportunity is offered.
By the same token, do not fly with the fixation of an autopilot, concentrating solely on the minutia. Our chief asset, as cognitive human beings, is to analyze the “big picture” and determine where and how to make inputs so the airplane winds up in a defined spot, properly configured and in the correct energy state. That takes a lot of decision-making and control movement, but if you can’t do it, you’re not a pilot.
Persist To The Goal
Cockpit discipline is much like the persistence of a distance runner. A runner has to analyze the route ahead, save up energy for a grade, pace himself to avoid “running out of gas” too early, and overcome fatigue and pain by settling into a stride that he can maintain. Running is as much a mental activity as a physical one. It
FLYING SKILLS
Much has been made of a recent general deterioration in manual flying skills, leading to a “dumbing down” of piloting abilities in order to fill cockpit seats. But, when faced with an in-flight crisis, it still takes a professional crew to avoid disaster, even if the aircraft only requires one pilot.
There is a danger that we’re training new pilots to be excellent system analysts and procedure adherents, to the exclusion of being able to creatively belly-flop an Airbus into a river when bird ingestion leaves the aircraft without power. Everyone agrees that automation is a useful resource, a load-shedding tool that allows pilots to concentrate on critical decision-making. What it should not be is a means of prolonging decisions, or a substitute for maintenance of basic skills. The discipline needed to avoid stagnation of ability has to begin with active participation in the pilot’s seat – not by thumbing a procedures manual or programming an FMS. Whenever possible, we need to click off the autopilot, or navigate with basic equipment, just to remember how it can be done.
I can still recall training myself for the ATP checkride, fighting to maintain the close tolerances demanded by the test standards for a precision approach. Allowing the crossed needles to stray outside the CDI’s central doughnut meant a go-around, on one engine, and perhaps a very expensive retest. At times, it didn’t seem possible that one could keep those needles centered while under pressure to accurately fly the procedure. Gradually, I learned to increase my scan rate, make early, timely corrections, and get ahead of
38 • TWIN & TURBINE
the airplane instead of chasing it. In the end, I was subconsciously willing the airplane to hold a tight course, making it an extension of my mind.
Self discipline, then, is the way to improve piloting skills. Visualizing where we want the airplane to be, and using thrust, pitch, yaw and roll to achieve that end, does not come naturally. It takes practice, initially in a procedures trainer or simulator, but eventually in the airplane. There’s no substitute for the feedback of loading and motion found in actual flight. The best of simulators is still a simulation, useful in its own right but not the real thing.
The discipline behind successful piloting starts with understanding the best technique to achieve the desired outcome, and believing that it can be done, even if it doesn’t work out on the first attempt. This methodical, disciplined approach leads to taxiing on the centerline, subconsciously, without even concentrating on steering. That desire to guide the aircraft precisely translates into a takeoff and landing roll that also adheres to the stripe.
Takeoff Discipline
In a takeoff profile, there is a target speed to be achieved in the initial climbout, usually a different one for all-engines or engine-out configurations. The airplane cannot be “driven” to this state; it has to be guided there by a disciplined pattern of raising the nose into the correct attitude, at a controlled rate, so as to make the wheels leave the ground at an airspeed slightly above minimum-unstick, accelerating toward the climbout speed with minimal pitch change. This flow
MARCH 2016