You are looking at one very excited family!  My good friend, Mark Weissman of Grand Island, NY, with his wife, Lynn and twin children Brandon and Brianna, is receiving the keys to his new (new to him) 1989 A-36 Beech Bonanza.

Mark is stepping up to the Bo from a Piper Archer that he sold about 8 years ago.  For him, the challenge is not only to regain his pilot currency, but to also become proficient with this high performance, six place aircraft.

New fun . . . added responsibilities!

Mark is a physician (Ob-Gyn).  Does that tell you something?  You bet!  Doctors are inherently self-confident, high achieving individuals.  Doctors also have nasty reputations for bringing their self-confidence into the cockpit where this trait brings no special piloting skills.  An over abundance of self-confidence is, in fact, the greatest enemy of safe flight.

Mark is keenly aware of this fact.  He is an inherently good pilot, and he has secured the best recurrent training possible. Others in this category, however, may not be as prepared.  The A-36 Bonanza, like any high performance single or twin, is not a basic, two or four place trainer.  It is designed to go fast and carry more weight.  Its safe operating envelope is narrower and its design margins for error are smaller.  Its systems are more complex and there are more of them.

Becoming proficient in high performance airplanes is only one small part of the process. Maintaining one's proficiency is another story altogether. 

10 to 12 hours per month!

Despite Mark's enormously busy medical practice and the time demands it places on him, he and Lynn are both well aware of the fact that he must fly a minimum of 10 to 12 hours a month to realistically maintain his proficiency in the Bonanza.  Adding instrument proficiency to the mix requires even more time in the air each month! 

It's easy to log 10 to 12 hours a month if you take weekend trips.  If you don't, then commit yourself to a regular two hour in-flight workout at least once a week.  And if you cannot accomplish this, then maintain a relationship with a skilled CFI who can provide challenging workouts at least once monthly.

High performance airplanes are fun . . . but they require an added recurrent training requirement.  Mark will do well with his Bonanza because he understands the risks and trains hard to mitigate those risks.  We need to follow his example!

One of the most important attributes of a proficient pilot is knowing the different cloud types and their various characteristics.  Being able to "read the clouds" goes a long way in predicting weather conditions along your planned route of flight.

Cloud Types

Towering cumulus clouds indicate areas of instability in the atmosphere, and the air around and inside them is turbulent. These types of clouds often develop into cumulonimbus clouds or thunderstorms.

Cumulonimbus clouds contain large amounts of moisture and unstable air, and usually produce hazardous weather phenomena such as lightning, hail, tornadoes, gusty winds, and wind shear. 

These extensive vertical clouds can be obscured by other cloud formations and are not always visible from the ground or while in flight.  When this happens, these clouds are said to be embedded, hence the term, embedded thunderstorms.

Proficient weather pilots read clouds like they read the newspaper.  Each form or type of cloud is predictive of the ride ahead. 

Most clouds are safe to pass through.  Others are sleeping bears capable of dismembering even the largest aircraft.  Be sure you know the difference!

I was standing on the ramp at a local airport recently observing a flight student and instructor boarding an aircraft.  Both the CFI and the student positioned their headphones squarely over their ears BEFORE starting the engine.

The engine started and idled for a couple of seconds.  After that, either the student or the CFI advanced the throttle on this still cold engine to high RPM and began what appeared to be a mag check.

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?

Sure you do.  First, with headphones on, particularly those with active noise attenuation, the pilot(s) may not hear the quirky little sounds that worn gyros make when spooling up, or the squeaking sound of an oil-starved engine bearing, or the many other subtle warning sounds that originate under the cowl on engine start up.

Then there was the racing of a cold engine.  I wondered if the flight school owner knew the damage his CFI was doing to his aircraft.

Many of the bad and oftentimes risky habits we observe in GA pilots were planted by inexperienced CFIs demonstrating bad practices.  "Primacy of learning," which suggests that those items learned first make lasting impression, is the underlying culprit.   Those first few actions of the CFI often carry through the entire flying life of his or her students. 

Worse, some of those badly infected students go on to become bad CFIs who perpetuate the problem.

You can fix the problem by speaking up!

Every so often a student pilot will proclaim to me that we cannot fly today because the winds aloft are blowing at 40 or 50 knots.   "Why not," I reply?

"Well . . . it's too windy up there.  We'll get tossed around too much," comes their hapless reply.

The effect of upper level winds

Apart from storms and associated turbulence, winds aloft have only two effects on airplanes in flight.  One is ground speed and the other is course to steer.  

There is nothing inherent in high winds aloft that threaten even the lightest, least powerful airplane!

The illustration to the right shows how ground speed is influenced by winds aloft.  Note that the illustrated airplane continues to travel through the air at 120 knots regardless of the air flow speed around it.

When does wind become a factor?

Wind becomes a factor to aircraft in flight when:

1. Taking off and Landing:  The direction of the wind relative to the runway has a significant effect on airplanes in flight.

2. Heading to Fly: If there were no winds aloft, we could simply point the airplane to our destination and wait out the required time to traverse the course.  Obviously, this is seldom the case.  There are nearly always some winds aloft.

3. Fuel Considerations:  Anybody who has faced a 60 knot headwind understands the effect of winds aloft on time to destination.  And time aloft translates to the amount of fuel required to make a given trip.

4. Emergency Glide Distance:  Have you ever crossed a wide body of open water without considering the winds?  Of course not.   You know precisely which direction to fly should the engine quit, right?

Wind awareness at any stage of flight, whether taxiing or cruising aloft, is a sure sign of pilot proficiency.  He or she knows precisely what the winds are doing to the airplane at any point in time.

A proficient pilot understands winds, why they happen, and where they are coming from!  He or she also knows, however, that apart from turbulence or thunderstorms, winds aloft have little bearing on the safety of flight.

The Western New York flight training community lost one of its finest talents this past month.  Tracy Dart, age 36, was providing primary flight instruction to a 17 year old student in a Taylorcraft at Dart Field near Mayville, NY.   A suspected engine failure on takeoff caused the tail wheel aircraft to descend and strike power lines and trees.  She died at the scene.  Her student survived with serious head and chest injuries.

One has to wonder what was going through the minds of the FAA when it formulated the Practical Test Standards (PTS) to qualify for an instrument rating.  No night IFR training is specified in the PTS!

Night IFR is one of the most challenging of all flight environments.  Aside from the fact that cockpit lighting is notoriously poor, night illusions can trick even the most weather-beaten, jaded instrument jock.

Yet there is no requirement in the instrument PTS for night IFR training.  Flight schools and independent CFIs are free to sign off instrument students with no night training at all.

And we all know that nearly all instrument check rides are given during daylight hours.  So how do we know that we are proficient at night IFR flight?  Trial and error?

Night illusions are everywhere!

Become IFR night proficient . . .

The differences between day/night VFR flight versus day/night IFR flight are profound.  Dim cockpit lighting makes charts and plates difficult to read, weather is more difficult to avoid, and the ever-present night illusions make night IFR flight a bigger challenge than most pilots believe.

Like all such challenges, they are best addressed head by aggressive initial and recurrent training.  Contact your favorite CFII and go out and fly IFR at night until you become absolutely proficient!

Weight and balance is the one thing many GA pilots take for granted.  We believe that if we can fit it in the airplane, we can fly.  This particularly true with legendary haulers like my Cessna T-210. 

Every student pilot eventually learns the principles of weight and balance before he or she takes the checkride.  After the cherished certificate is received, W&B take a literal backseat in the minds of most pilots.

Vowing never to take off over-gross, a situation comes along where the limits of the loading envelope get pushed out a bit.  The hapless pilot instantly becomes a test pilot and, whether he knows it or not, his insurance company may be off the hook for any resultant damages. (Remember, aircraft insurance operates differently than automobile insurance.  To remain covered, we pilots are restricted to operating our a/c within prescribed limits of performance!)

Be Prepared - Always compute a weight and balance

Anybody with a Palm Pilot, iPac, or similar handheld computing device can quickly and easily compute a weight and balance on the fly.  Simply create a mini-Excel spreadsheet.  Then plug in the variable numbers, press "compute" and you instantly have your total weight and moment!

Remember WAM!  [Weight x Arm = Moment]

With the total weight and moment, refer to the loading graph.  Plot the weight on the vertical (Y) axis and the moment on the horizontal (X) axis and, bingo, you're good to go. 

If your computed plot takes outside of the envelope, don't fly.  Instead, adjust your load (fuel/passengers/baggage) accordingly.

There is no question that, given enough runway, an airplane loaded 20 to 30 percent, or even 50 percent overweight will fly, leastwise in ground effect.  It may actually climb to cruise altitude.  But what are the risks of overweight operation?

The first risk is . . . . will it climb out of ground effect?  What will happen once the overweight airplane reaches the end of the runway.  Will it climb out of ground effect and clear any obstacles?

The second and more insidious risk is the effect of excess weight on the structural integrity of the airplane.   We know, for example, that the G loading on an airplane equals 1 in level, unaccelerated flight.  This means a fully loaded 2,500 pound airplane weights 2,500 pounds in level flight.

The problem of excess weight occurs when we add G forces to the airplane.  We know, for example, that the G forces doubles when in a 60 degree bank.  In this flight attitude, our 2,500 pound airplane now weights 5,000 pounds.  Roll over into a 70 degree bank and the airplane suddenly weighs 7,500 pounds.

Aircraft designers, of course, are well aware of the load forces placed on an airplane.  They design the structural strength accordingly.

What about the overweight aircraft?

Let's take our 2,500 pound gross weight airplane and overload it by 200 pounds.  In a 70 degree bank, those 200 pounds now weight 600 pounds.  This added load could be enough to cause structural damage and possibly an airframe component failure in flight.

Reference to the VG diagram below illustrates how G loading is affected by airspeed.  Note that aircraft certified in the normal category at maximum gross weight must be able to withstand a positive 3.8gs and a negative 1.52gs.  Adding even one pound of excess weight takes the airplane out of its certification range!

While and overweight airplane is problematic for the reasons noted above, equally serious consequences can occur if the center of gravity (CG) is outside the published loading envelope . . . even if the total weight is within prescribed limits.

An aft-loaded (meaning the CG is behind the loading envelope) may be difficult to control.  Worse, it may not be able to recover from a stall. 

All things considered, operating an airplane outside of its W&B limits not only bad practice, it is also illegal.  Remember, you are fair game for an FAA inspector to walk up and request a copy of your weight and balance computations.  You better be prepared!

What does a working mom with three teens at home do with her spare time?  She learns to fly! 

That's just what Liz King of East Aurora, NY did this past winter.  Standing with me last week on the day she received her private pilot certificate, she is one very proud lady.

She should be.  Liz, like so many other flight students, suffered through several flight instructors before she found one who would stick it out with her. 

Credit EAA Chapter 46

Air traffic controllers do not make mistakes very often, but when they do . . . watch out! 

Such was the case on a routine instrument training mission this past week.  My student and I were on an IFR flight plan enroute to the Bradford, PA (KBFD) airport located in northwest Pennsylvania.  It was a beautiful day.  My student was under the hood.

We called Cleveland Center and requested the ILS Runway 32 approach.  The controller descended us to 4,000 feet and issued the first vector enroute to the final approach course.

I used this time to implore my student to ALWAYS be aware of his position relative to the plan view on the instrument approach plate.  The timing of this lesson could not have been better!

We were about six miles from making our final turn to the inbound course when the controller called us and said, "Nxxxx, I have lost radar contact with you.  Squawk VFR and fly the approach visually."

Huh . . . . I looked at my student and said "She can't do that.  We're on an IFR flight plan!"

I queried the controller.  "Ah, Cleveland Center, we'll fly the approach as published.  Request direct to the Bradford VOR."

"I said I have lost radar contact with you.  I cannot clear you for the approach.  Squawk VFR and fly it visually," she retorted.

Rather than debate the issue with the controller on the radio, I simply complied with her instructions and asked for her telephone number.  

Upon landing, I telephoned Cleveland Center and discussed the incident with the supervisor.  He quickly acknowledged the fact that ATC cannot cancel a pilot's instrument flight plan (except upon landing at a tower controlled airport).  He further affirmed that the controller's actions were incorrect and apologized for any inconvenience caused by this incident.

Okay, we'll chalk this one up to a rookie controller making a mistake.  All of us do this from time to time.  The important point for us pilots to remember is to ALWAYS be aware of our position.  

Equally important, we must never surrender our PIC authority to ATC.  We're in charge here.  Sure, we have a responsibility to comply with ATC issued instructions, but ONLY when they make sense to us!  If these instructions do not make sense to us, request a clarification or simply say, "Unable."

In the incident described above, had we been in IFR conditions without knowing our position, the outcome might have been tragic.  The controller would have likely been de-certified and things could have gone a lot worse for us! 

For OTA readers in the northern hemisphere, we are entering the hottest weeks of the summer.  Correcting pressure altitude (weight of the atmosphere) for non-standard temperature can exact a very big performance price from your airplane.

Remember the steps in determining density altitude

1. Determine the pressure altitude for your airport by dialing 29.92 in the Kollsman window in your altimeter and read the displayed altitude.

2. Locate the pressure altitude diagonal line on the chart to the left.

3. Slide up or down this line to a point atop the outside temperature shown on the horizontal (X) axis on the bottom.

4.  Read the corresponding density altitude on the vertical (Y) axis.

In summary, as the temperature climbs, so does density altitude.  This will have a direct effect on ground roll distance and climb rate.

Be sure to check your aircraft's performance tables in your POH before operating on a hot day!

One would expect that a 7,300 hour CFI with ATP working for the Beechcraft Pilot Proficiency Program (BPPP) would have sufficient experience and skill to preclude a fatal stall/spin in a training exercise.  Such was not the case several years back in Jackson, Ohio.

The training exercise that led to the death of both the instructor and the pilot/owner of a Beech A-36 Bonanza was a simulated engine failure after takeoff and an emergency return to the airport.

Given enough altitude, there is nothing inherently hazardous about initiating a 180 degree turn back to the airport in the event of engine failure on takeoff.  But two immutable conditions must be met.

The first condition is, the airplane's pitch attitude must be kept below the critical angle of attack to preclude a stall.  Remember, stall speed increases with bank angle.   The other requirement is to insure that the turn back to the airport is coordinated, e.g., centered ball in the slip/skid indicator.

Each of these requirements are easily achievable.  The stall is prevented by keeping close attention to the airspeed indicator (which is always primary for climb).  The bottom of the green arch on the airspeed indicator displays the stall speed.  Again, remember that stall speed increases dramatically with bank angle.

Similarly, the spin is prevented by keeping a close eye on the slip/skid indicator.

While an airplane can be made to stall at any airspeed, operating anywhere near the bottom of the green arch on the airspeed indicator places the airplane at substantial stall risk.  Simply put, don't go there.  Instead, lower the nose to instantly increase airspeed which, of course, reduces the angle of attack below the critical angle.