December 21, 2008
The clairvoyant pilot.
Humans have a finite amount to mental processing power, it's a fact. Think about how many mental calcualtions you perform when you're simply driving your car. Your brain is processing the pressure you place on the wheel, the distance of the car in front of you, the pressure you place on the gas pedal, what the car in front of you is doing and countless more that we don't even realize. I'm no neurosergeon , although one of my former students is one so I'll verify my theory for you all, but I have a feeling that, pilot's have threefold the mental calculations to perform. Not only do we have to fly the plane with finesse in a 3 dimension environment, but we also have to remain situationally aware. Situational awareness, for those unfamiliar with the term, means knowing the factors that might affect the safety of the flight. These factors might include, terrain awareness, weather, radio communications, traffic avoidance etc, etc. However, situational awareness can also relate to what the airplane is doing, or what it might do if you change xyz factor. For example, a good keen sense of situational awareness can relate to applying full power when you are recovering from a simulated engine failure. Most people will trim the aircraft to fly at best glide so they can focus on looking for the field, or running through the engine restart peocedure. What many don't know, is that when the instructor tells them to recover, the aircraft will have a tendency to rapidly pitch up, because the trim is set to a nose high power setting, and the elevator, now awash in air accelerated from the propeller, will have a tendency to go to a nose up pitch. The danger of this is two fold. One the aircraft is a best glide, which is somewhat close to the stalling speed in the clean configuration (Vso). There is not much room for error when the aircraft is that close to stalling speed. Two, we are 500 AGL or lower, if a stall or spin were to occur, this would not leave us much room to recover, if any. This is a classic distraction/stall/spin scenario.
It is crucial to not be impulsive in an airplane. Don't throw or chop power, toss in flaps, or play with the gear or trim until you think through what the airplane is going to do first. Knowing what the airplane is going to do, when you change something, be it power, flaps, gear, or trim is a portion of what makes a good flyer, and that takes a little bit of foresight from the PIC.
4400 Glenn Curtiss Dr.
Addison Airport
Addison, TX 75002
214-315-6629
andy@learntoflydallas.com
This page was last updated: December 24, 2008
