GETTING GOING


MET INSIGHT


not just you you’re putting at risk but others as well.


Like me, you can help yourself get over the hurdle of returning to flying after a long break – How? By being properly prepared — and don’t be embarrassed about seeking a word or two of advice from an instructor or, even better, arrange to have one or more flights with him/her first.


Ever wondered what others get wrong even without the complications of lockdowns? As instructors we’ve seen a whole range of errors while carrying out currency check flights to get pilots safely back up to speed, whether pre- or post- COVID-19 and believe me, we’ve seen it all.


Rushing checks even when using a checklist items get missed, resulting in taxying out with the flaps still down for example; not checking the airfield map first to see where to go so taxying the wrong way and almost entering an active runway if the instructor hadn’t intervened.


majority, this means there hasn’t been a lot of flying over the last 12-plus months. If you were lucky enough to start getting back into the air last autumn, further breaks will have probably put you back to square one and possibly even deepened the layer of rust which, unless you look in the mirror and ask the following questions, you might not recognise or even realise.


• Is the level of my airmanship and awareness up to a safe standard?


• When did I actually last fly, when did this aircraft last fly?


• Have I thought through the whole flight properly?


• What are the gotchas? (airspace changes, weather, Notam, nav warnings)?


• What am I going to say over the radio, what is the correct phraseology?


• Have you considered all the possible threats and how you are going to manage them, in other words are you properly prepared to get back in the air again or are you just going to ‘kick the tyres and jump in and go’ and potentially end up a statistic? It’s


At the holding point pilots have missed power checks and gone straight to the vital actions; on take-off we’ve seen incorrect use of controls; yes keep it straight with the rudder, but what about using the ailerons to account for the crosswind?; not checking engine instruments during the take-off roll (what is the minimum RPM required?); are you mentally prepared to abandon the take-off?


After take-off head down chasing the airspeed on climb-out by watching the instruments instead of adopting the correct attitude and making small attitude corrections as necessary. This, of course, leads to poor lookout; on one occasion by the time the pilot eventually looked out, we were almost at 1000ft and the after take-off checks had been missed out completely.


Missing ATC radio calls because pilots were too busy concentrating on flying the aircraft, leading to the pilot having to be prompted to ask ATC to ‘say again’.


Lookout is almost always a weakness of those returning to flying, particularly forgetting to look before turning and not keeping track of where they are; not seeing other aircraft, especially in the circuit resulting in cutting inside them, getting too close on final so having to go-around (do you remember how to do one?).


If you feel the need, take a flight with an instructor


Don't rush the checks


Forgetting to use carburettor heat (I charge a Vodka & Tonic for every time someone forgets – it works, they stop forgetting!).


Speed control is a common issue, particularly in the circuit on base leg, final approach and, especially, not allowing for the wind drift in the turn from base leg onto final, tightening the turn because you are turning too late and not lowering the nose to keep the speed. Quite wrongly there’s a tendency to want to apply back pressure during the turn leading to the potentially dangerous situation of low airspeed at a low height that could have fatal consequences, all because of poor attitude control.


So before taking to the air again take some time to reacquaint yourself with all the things you need to remember to go through.


Firstly, plan your flight, decide what you SPRING 2021 CLUED UP 5


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