May 31, 2015
Today my regular CFI Steve was out with a medical condition (and actually won’t be back until the end of the summer), so instead I had another CFI, also named Stephen, with whom I flew for the first time. We went through many of the regular exercises such as slow flight
, stall recovery, steep turns, turns-around-a-point, and S-turns. Stephen also introduced me to a new exercise that he called “Unusual Attitudes.” In this exercise, the student closes his eyes while the instructor puts the plane into an “unusual attitude,” meaning a steep bank, exaggerated pitch, or both. The student then opens his eyes, and has to return the airplane to straight and level flight. The objective is to coordinate the yoke, throttle, and rudder in order to stabilize the airplane — at the same time making sure the plane doesn’t stall or over-speed.
We did the exercise twice, each time with the plane at a different attitude. The first time, after banking the plane left and right several times to confuse me, Stephen put the plane nose up and into a left bank; airspeed was low and falling. Upon opening my eyes and looking at my instruments and the horizon, I dropped the nose, corrected the bank angle, and pushed the throttle to maximum power to recover from the near-stall. The second time, Stephen put the plane in a nose-down position with the engine at almost 2100rpm (this is high when in a descent), banked to the right. This time, after opening my eyes, I realized the plane was gaining speed and losing altitude quickly — it was very natural to pull the nose up, correct to zero bank angle, and wait for the airspeed to stabilize.
The value in having flying experience is in knowing what to do in unusual situations. With a CFI there to keep them safe, students can practice recognizing different unusual situations and learn how to recover from them. A VFR pilot who is used to flying only in good weather can quickly find himself in a bad situation. If he stops paying attention for just a few seconds, the plane can quickly drift into an awkward position without him even noticing it. This can be particularly dangerous at low altitude, in fog or rain or a cloud, or at dusk – or some combination of these conditions – as there may be very little time to recover. Many things in flying can only be learned through experience – knowing what to do in a tight situation is completely different from being able to actually do it after a lot of practice.
In the history of aviation, many accidents have been caused by pilot error. Here are some links to just a few videos and articles that I found interesting:
Air France 447 – Stalled at 38,000 Feet
Air France 447 Crash – Wikipedia
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Mayday Air Crash Investigation Video
John F. Kennedy Jr. – Spatial Disorientation
John F. Kennedy Jr. Crash – Wikipedia
Mayday Air Crash Investigation Video
Colgan Air 3407 – Low Altitude Stall
Great job, Garrett. Sounds like you knew just hat to do!