If this happens, you may want to consider going up for an hour of dual instruction with a CFI who specializes in the area you had difficulty in—like crosswinds or short field landings.

Provided the mistake wasn’t something egregious, resulting in bent metal or broken FARs, go out and practice that particular maneuver on your own—and hold yourself accountable to assigned metrics.

Anatomy of a Proficiency Flight

A proficiency flight should always begin with a pre-brief. If you are on your own, it can be self-talk with “this is what I want to accomplish on this flight; these are the metrics I seek to achieve.” And then hold yourself accountable to those metrics, and if they are not met, determine what changes need to happen to fix the situation.

For example, “I want to land on the first third of the runway with full flaps, but I keep landing long and slightly fast. I need to pay more attention to achieving a stabilized approach. I can do this by calling out my airspeeds on each leg of the pattern as I adjust the configuration of the aircraft.”

If you are flying with a CFI, the pre-brief can be the most important part of the flight. Describe the challenge you had in detail. Saying you “had a bad landing” doesn’t really help because there are so many variables that can result in that. Were you too fast? Behind the airplane?

• READ MORE: Separation Anxiety: When Your Instructor Moves on, Your Logbook Tells the Story

Was your pattern altitude all over the place? The CFI can’t help you fix it unless we know what it is we’re fixing.

Insist the CFI verbalize the procedure to correct the problem before you get in the airplane. Airplanes are terrible classrooms, and that can add to the frustration. If it’s the pattern and landings that are the issue, for example, try diagramming the pattern on a whiteboard, paying special attention to the required airspeeds, altitude, and aircraft configuration. Using a model aircraft to fly a tabletop pattern while reciting these metrics can also be helpful.

Let the instructor know what you expect of them during the flight. If you want them to be quiet and simply be there as a safety measure just in case things start to go sideways, let them know. If you want the instructor to offer real-time suggestions, say so, and be ready to accept their input.

Are You Knowledge Proficient?

You have to remember so many things as a pilot that it is easy for your knowledge to get a little soft. When was the last time you reviewed something in the FAR/AIM or read a chapter from the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge or Airplane Flying Handbook—without it being part of a check ride or flight review?

Just as we make time to fly those takeoffs and landings in excess of the three within 90 days for currency, a good pilot should make the time to review the knowledge required to hold their certificate.

Normalization of Deviance

Pilots sometimes make excuses for soft spots that can result in greater issues known as normalization of deviance, a psychological term for deviation from proper behavior or a rule becoming culturally normalized. In aviation these can be shortcuts or avoidance that pilots rationalize—and they can come back to bite you. We’ve all read those accident reports where the pilot was significantly out of currency, and therefore proficiency, but went ahead with the technically challenging flight with disastrous results.

• READ MORE: Make Flight Reviews for CFIs Worthwhile

Rationalization is dangerous in aviation. For example, some pilots fall into a pattern of avoidance of airspace, flying elaborate zigzag routing because they don’t want to ask for a clearance through controlled airspace. They rationalize it by saying, “I don’t go into Class D airspace because I don’t want to talk to the tower” or “The tower is too busy.” The request to transition the airspace is often a less than 10-second conversation.

Another example is the pilot who avoids nontowered airports because “it is too much work to see and avoid and self-announce at the same time.” This is very limiting, because the majority of airports in the U.S. are nontowered, and that is not likely to change.

Commit to Proficiency: The CFI Perspective

One of the challenges of the normalization of deviance is trying to determine what was lost in translation: Where did the pilot pick up this bad habit? Was it from a CFI? Flying with a buddy? Something they read online? “My instructor told me…” is the aviation version of “they said” and definitely should signal the need to find another source of that information, preferably FAA-approved material such as the FAR/AIM.

When a pilot comes to a CFI seeking a proficiency flight, that doesn’t mean the instructor should look for opportunities to shred them. I say this because I’ve seen very skilled and experienced pilots walk out of a business because of the attitude of the CFI tasked with the proficiency flight. The CFI was almost hostile, as if flying with an already-certificated pilot was beneath them. Granted, the one or two hours of proficiency flying are not as lucrative as teaching an entire certificate or rating, but you’re being paid to teach, and it is adding hours to your logbook.

• READ MORE: Who Is Teaching? Low Time and Social Media Make for a Bad Combo

Listen to what the pilot seeking training wants. It can be very frustrating to the pilot needing dual instruction when paired with a CFI who has their own agenda. The pilot says, “I want to regain my multiengine currency and proficiency,” and the CFI or flight school desk person hears, “I want to get my multiengine rating.”

Study for Proficiency

Online ground schools, such as King Schools, Sporty’s, and Gold Seal to name a few, are also very helpful in maintaining knowledge proficiency. CFIs may find it useful to “test fly them” before being recommended to clients.

Have you ever heard of someone retaking a ground school for the sake of proficiency? I have and I applaud them for it. In one of the face-to-face courses I taught, there was a father who held a CFI certificate in the class because he wanted to teach his children to fly. But it had been so long since he exercised the privileges of his certificate, he wanted the refresher. He was an airline pilot and had been taking online flight instructor refresher clinics to keep his CFI active but realized that wasn’t enough to maintain his teaching proficiency.

It is incumbent on all instructors and pilots to embrace a culture that encourages proficiency training. Remember this warning: Be humble in aviation, or aviation will humble you.

This column first appeared in the May 2024/Issue 948 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post The Importance of Embracing Proficiency Culture appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“We’re about to find out.”

Have you ever had this conversation in the aircraft? It often occurs when you listen to the one-minute weather or ATIS and learn the winds are blowing at an angle to the runway rather than parallel to the direction of landing. As a result, there is the increased potential for drifting off the centerline—unless the pilot is prepared to take prompt and corrective action. As we go into the winter months, winds tend to kick up across the U.S., making it more likely for you to encounter a crosswind.

Since most airports are designed with runways aligned into prevailing winds, many pilots don’t get much practice with crosswind takeoffs and landings—and it shows. A search of accident and incident reports compiled by the National Transportation Safety Board shows pages upon pages of landing accidents and incidents where a crosswind got the better of a pilot.

In FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-13, it is noted that “generally, the smaller the airplane, the more it is affected by wind, particularly crosswind components. Crosswinds are often a contributing factor in small airplane accidents.” The FAA has devoted several pages in the Airplane Flying Handbook and the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge to giving pilots tools for landing in crosswinds.

Determining the Crosswind Component

Many POHs also have a performance chart that allows the pilot to determine the crosswind and headwind component.

The first step is to determine what direction the wind is coming from and note the velocity. Next, select the runway that gives you the smallest angle between the wind direction and the runway. For example, if the wind is reported as 300 at 15 knots and the runway options are 34/16, 34, (Runway 340) the angle difference is 40 degrees. If you select Runway 16, there’s a 140-degree angle.

Make It Visual

This is where the mechanical E6B flight computer shines. Look at the wind side of the unit, placing the runway heading under the True Index—300 is to the left. Using Runway 34 will mean a wind from the left side of the nose.

Now put 160 under the True Index—300 is now a tailwind from the right. Taking off and landing with a quartering tailwind is dangerous and should be avoided.

Demonstrated Crosswind Component

Before an airplane is type certificated by the FAA, it is flight-tested to ensure it meets certain requirements. Among these is the demonstration of being satisfactorily controllable with no exceptional degree of skill or alertness on the part of the pilot in 90-degree crosswinds up to a velocity equal to 0.2 V_SO. This means a wind speed of two-tenths of the airplane’s stalling speed with power off and in landing configuration. Often this information is placarded in the aircraft.

According to the POH for the Cessna 172S, the crosswind component chart has fine print reading “maximum demonstrated crosswind velocity is 15 knots (not a limitation).” This means 15 knots was the maximum component the manufacturer tested to, so it does not necessarily mean operations with a great crosswind are particularly dangerous or difficult. It greatly depends on the type of airplane and the experience, skill, and proficiency of the pilot. However, in Chapter 9 of the Airplane Flying Handbook, the FAA offers the warning that “it is imperative that pilots determine the maximum crosswind component of each airplane they fly and avoid operations in wind conditions that exceed the capability of the airplane.”

Crosswind Technique

Both crosswind landings and takeoffs require the pilot to put aileron deflection into the wind to maintain directional control. As control effectiveness (especially ailerons) increases with a rise in airflow over the wings, landings tend to be more difficult, because control effectiveness is reduced as the aircraft slows down.

There are two methods for the crosswind approach and landing: the crab method and sideslip method.

In the crab method, the pilot aligns the airplane’s ground track with the centerline of the runway, with the nose of the aircraft pointed into the wind. The pilot makes small adjustments, maintaining the crab angle until just before touchdown. The pilot must use rudder control to align the longitudinal axis of the airplane with the runway centerline to avoid side loading the landing gear. Ideally, the pilot will straighten out the airplane just in time for the upwind wheel to touch down a moment before the downwind wheel. This takes practice to get right. If the pilot is too early or too late, side loading can occur. Too much side load and there can be gear damage and possibly a wingtip strike.

• READ MORE: Mastering Crosswind Landings

Using the sideslip method, the pilot first uses the rudder to align the airplane on runway heading then notes the amount of drift occurring as a result of the crosswind. The pilot then adjusts the bank angle, with some calling it “leaning into the wind” to keep the airplane’s longitudinal access and ground track aligned with the runway centerline.

You need to hold that alignment through final approach, roundout, touchdown, and rollout, remembering that as the aircraft’s speed diminishes, so does flight control effectiveness. If you’re struggling, running out of rudder on final, it’s probably only going to get worse. The prudent thing to do is go around.

The roundout is made like a normal landing approach, but the application of a crosswind correction is continued as necessary to prevent drifting.

Some pilots use a combination of the two methods, using the slip into the wind and opposite rudder to keep the aircraft from turning into the wind. If there is not enough rudder to compensate for the strong turning tendency caused by the steep bank, the wind is likely too strong for a safe landing on that particular runway with those wind conditions. This is the time to find an alternate runway.

Weathervaning, when the aircraft makes an uncommanded turn into the wind, is possible with strong crosswinds, especially in a tailwheel aircraft because of greater side area behind the main landing gear, which acts as a pivot point. The greater the crosswind component, the more difficult it is to prevent weathervaning.

Challenge to Find Crosswind Runways

Our aviation infrastructure is designed to mitigate crosswinds, as you will note runway orientation is usually into the prevailing winds. You show me an area with runways aligned 17/35, 18/36, or 1/19, and I’ll show you an area where the winds blow north-south. You may be lucky and fly out of an airport that was built in the 1940s when the runways were arranged in a triangle shape to accommodate the propeller-driven airplanes.

No matter how strong the winds, one of those runways had to work. Over the decades, most of these airports lost one if not two of the runways because the FAA determined they were not being used frequently, and the agency or airport sponsor did not want to pay for their upkeep. Some were turned into ramp space or taxiways—ensuring good crosswind technique is required.

This column first appeared in the November 2023/Issue 943 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Practice Crosswind Landings Whenever You Can appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Last week the FAA announced an update to the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, also known as the PHAK, or FAA-H-8083.

“This handbook supersedes FAA-H-8083-25B, Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, dated 2016; the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge Addendum A, dated February 2021; the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge Addendum B, dated January 2022; and the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge Addendum C, dated March 2023,” the FAA said.

In English, that means FAA-H-8083-25C is now in effect. The agency calls this a minor update to the PHAK, adding that a new version of it is slated to be released in June 2024. Mark your calendars now.

The PHAK and the companion book, the Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-3C), are the backbone of many private pilot ground schools. Both publications are available as paperbacks or downloadable as a PDF from the FAA.

If you need to know it to be a safe pilot, you’ll find it in the PHAK. Expect to learn about aeronautical decision-making, aircraft construction, principles and aerodynamics of flight, flight controls and aircraft systems, weight and balance, aircraft performance, weather theory and weather services, airport operations, navigation, airspace, and aeromedical factors.

The Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH) covers the how-to of flying an airplane, beginning with ground operations, basic flight maneuvers, energy management, altitude and airspeed control, upset prevention and recovery, takeoffs and departure climbs, ground reference maneuvers, airport traffic patterns, approaches and landings, performance maneuvers, night operations, and emergency maneuvers.

The AFH also features several chapters to help a pilot transition to another type of aircraft—, for example, complex airplanes, multiengine, tailwheel, turboprops, and light sport.

Do Not Fear the FAR/AIM

Ready for more literary aviation acronyms? You will want to have a current copy of the FAR/AIM, the Federal Aviation Regulations and Aeronautical Information Manual, at your fingertips. 

In paperback, it is a big, thick book that can intimidate wannabe pilots. You do not—I repeat do not—have to memorize the information in the book, but you do need to know how to look up things in it. Even searching the PDF format isn’t exactly intuitive, so in your first time through the book in either electronic or paper form, you will want to have certified flight instructor (CFI) with you to help you determine what needs to be tabbed for quick reference.

If you decide on the paper version, there are companies that sell it pre-tabbed. You can go that route, but if you are a kinetic learner, you will likely get more out of tabbing it yourself. Grab some note cards and start writing and taping them in the right places—again under the guidance of your CFI.

Full disclosure: I still use a paper FAR/AIM. When the new version is released (around the first of the year), I spend an hour or so transferring the tabs from my old one or making new tabs as necessary. It’s a good review for me and a chance to see what has changed. I find this physical action helps most learners as well. For the private pilot candidate, we make a ground session of it, beginning with Part 61.1, applicability and definitions. This is where you find category and class with respect to both aircraft and airmen. These definitions are found on pretty much every knowledge test.

Part 61 covers the experience and knowledge required for the certificate or rating you seek. For the private pilot certificate, begin with FAR 61.81-61.95 that covers student pilots. Yes, the FAR/AIM still uses the word “students.” Pay special attention to FAR 61.87, solo requirements for student pilots. It lists the 15 things that must be taught before the learner can be signed off for solo flight.

This is the first FAR I have CFI candidates tab because “What do I need to teach them before I solo them?” is a frequently asked question.

For the learner pilots, going over FAR 61.87 line by line helps them understand what each lesson is about, and when paired with a syllabus, provides a plan of attack. FAR 61.89 student pilot limitations is another important one to review and tab, as pretty much every instructor can tell a story about a learner who violated one of the limitations because they didn’t know they existed.

Part 91 contains general operating and flight rules. It is often said that Part 61 walks you through the experience and knowledge you need to acquire the certificate or rating, and Part 91 contains the rules that, if broken, could cost you that certificate or rating. In this section you will find information on airspace, required equipment, and flight rules.

Putting it all Together

Most aviators, either by necessity or temperament, are lifelong learners. It starts with preparation for flight reviews and goes all the way up to type ratings. Get used to it.

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