GAARMS Report: November 2016 
Fred Gibbs
Thankfully there have been no new fatal accidents since the last newsletter, thus there is not much to report. We currently stand at 6 fatal accidents so far, with 9 fatalities, all pilots, including 2 CFII’s. We only have two more months to go, and let’s hope there continues to be nothing to report.
So there I was, level at 10,500 feet outbound on the procedure turn, with an indicated airspeed of 140kts with the GPS ground speed readout at 182kts. WOW, OK…so I ask the pilot-flying, “How long do we stay on the outbound heading on the procedure turn outbound leg?” He answered the stock answer “One minute.” So I let him do that, and when we turned around on the inbound leg, I politely pointed out our ground speed – 95kts! And then we started to sink out of 10,500 feet, so he trimmed up to compensate. And we slowed down to 85kts ground speed! But we kept sinking, so he powered up, added some more trim and our indicated airspeed DROPPED to Vy – 80kts. Our ground speed was now all the way down to about 55kts! We were still on the inbound leg of the procedure turn, clawing our way to try to join the localizer, just barely holding altitude. We were, for all intents and purposes, in the grip of Mother Nature.
So, you ask, where in the world were we to encounter such conditions? Surprise, surprise, we were right here at Flagstaff! The weather was clear as a bell, unlimited visibility with surface winds 220 degrees at 18kts gusting to 28kts on takeoff. We were doing practice ILS approaches to runway 21. The approach is on the lee side of 13,000 foot Mount Humphreys. The winds aloft at 9000ft were forecasted to be 240 at 32kts and at 12,000ft to be 240 at 38kts. But they were, obviously, much stronger here on the lee (the downhill side) of the mountain. And yes, we were encountering moderate turbulence. Was I worried? Nah! The pilot flying was NOT a student, but a retired airline captain, with thousands of hours under his belt, flying his personal airplane, a 300HP Piper Saratoga. A cool, calm, seasoned stick. But had this been a student, well, we would never have been out there in the first place on this particular day. A good weather briefing would have (hopefully) shown the student the potential situation. With the surface winds already gusting to 30kts, and taking onto account the winds aloft for 9000 and 12,000ft, it would have been a great teaching moment. FYI, away from the mountain, the ride was actually pretty smooth, all things considered.
So, the moral of the story is that when mountains are part of the equation, winds aloft and the placement of the mountain verses the location of the approach path can create some very interesting dynamics. This is one of those times where it was prudent to turn off the auto-pilot and hand fly, especially when you are down to Vy, with full power to just hold altitude, riding out the turbulence and trying to maintain situational awareness on the approach. This would/could be the perfect scenario for an auto-pilot induced stall!!! OH, the fun of flight instructing…..
By the time you get this newsletter, it will be close to the date of my next safety program up here in Flagstaff at Wiseman Aviation, Nov 19 at 9:30am. It is on the thrills and giggles of flying up here in the north country during the winter. I know most of the membership of APA lives down there in warm country where the “white stuff” just doesn’t exist, but it sure does up here, and it makes flying, well, interesting. So every year I put on my “Winter Wonderland” presentation, reminding those in attendance of the hazards, perils, demands, joy and wonder of flying all winter long. Oh yeah, it also gets downright cold up here, so I also include cold starts, engine heaters, priming, possible backfires and/or carb fires which just add to the, ummm, joy of winter! If you do decide to come north, please check weather very carefully; it can be VFR in Sedona, only 18 NM south, but IFR here in Flag! And remember to dress warm – Flag is NOT Phoenix in the wintertime!
This past month I decided to obtain my Remote Operators License – my drone pilot’s license – and, as always, learning or reviewing “stuff” is always a good thing. It was an online FAA course, and, for me as an instructor, was also an enabler to remind me of the qualifications and process to help other folks obtain their drone operators certificate. (PS – I got 100% on the test.) And yes, you have to apply through the IACRA system and have the application reviewed and signed by a flight instructor. If you want to really learn something, teach it, because by the time you get done trying to really explain things, you have to keep learning more and more. Students can ask the most, interesting questions to something you THINK you know, but explaining takes experience and depth of knowledge – NOT just the canned answer! And then there is teaching judgment… We talk about:
Learning Judgment
Anti-authority: the thought process of “Don’t tell me what I can or cannot do” – the propensity to not follow rules, don’t need no “stinkin” checklists, radio etiquette and proper phraseology is stupid, etc…
Impulsivity: just do something, even if it is wrong (or stupid) – a really bad thing when flying. Things like when I mention “check altitude”, the first thing students do is pull up, because they think “I must be low” cause Fred is telling me my altitude is off. If I point out the CDI needle is not centered, they immediately make a turn towards the needle, regardless of their current heading. Impulsivity MUST be tempered by analyzing the situation first, determining a corrective action, THEN taking that corrective action, observing that the corrective action is actually resulting in the correction you want, and then starting the process all over again.
Invulnerability: the old “It can’t happen to me” syndrome. When I was young (OK, no smart a** comments please), I flew A LOT of IMC back east. I was a young bold pilot who took great pride in my flying skills. Heck, 200 and a ½ mile ILS approaches down to minimums were routine, and both I and the “Speed Monster” relished the challenge, both day and night, in all kinds of weather. I WAS INVINCIBLE!!! Now that I am older (again, no smart a** comments please), I do not believe I am anywhere close to invincible, and flying up here in the challenging environment of northern Arizona keeps me honest and careful. And I try to apply that philosophy to all of my students.
Macho-ism: a lot like invincibility. No sweat, I can do this, or “Here, hold my beer and watch this!” A real danger is not knowing what you don’t know. There is more to this flying thing than just pushing the throttle forward and pulling back! I don’t need a checklist to preflight; I don’t need to follow a standardized process throughout the landing; I don’t need a preflight briefing – the weather looks good enough out the window; I can stretch my personal minimums this time ‘cause I got to be at this meeting, etc. All things leading you down the primrose path. And pleading ignorance gets you nowhere with the FAA.
Resignation: the old “What’s the use” or “I can’t do anything about it” is just plain old giving up, and I ain’t going down without a fight. I am NOT helpless – I can learn new and/or better ways to help myself, study more, expand my horizons, fly different airplanes, get a high-performance checkout, learn how to fly retractable gear airplanes, really learn flying and energy management by getting a glider rating, etc… There are all kinds of ways to combat this thought process – it just requires you to get off the couch and take action, but beware when you do this, don’t let impulsivity overtake your common sense!
SAFETY PROGRAMS:
Check out FAA SAFETY.GOV for upcoming safety programs across the state. By the time you read this, Copperstate Fly-In will be over, but hopefully you attended at least one of the many seminars presented there. For November, there is an iPad (Foreflight, WingX, FlyQ, etc) program out in Glendale on 11/12, a weather program at Buckeye on the same date, and the Winter Flying program up in Flagstaff on November 19th. Maybe I will see you at one of them…