CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 9 Issue 1 - 6

A few months ago, I was doing a pre-crosscountry solo phase check with an amiable young

We spent about 90 minutes going over his
planning. Then, I asked him, "Based on our

He started searching for his nav log, finally
reaching into his bag in the back seat to retrieve

guy. I had asked him to get a complete preflight
briefing and plan a flight to San Luis Obispo, a
coastal airport about 45 minutes away. He came
with paperwork in hand and a new FAR/AIM
with pages tabbed with sticky notes.

conversation, do you feel comfortable with your
flight planning, and do you feel prepared to
make this flight without your instructor?"

it. We shot through his planned altitude of 4,500
feet and leveled at just over 5,000 feet. When I
asked him if he planned to fly all the way at that
altitude he said yes.

He did an OK job on the oral. He miscalculated
his compass heading, but only because his
handwriting was hard to read and he got some
numbers mixed up. He couldn't tell me when
the terminal aerodrome forecast (TAF) he was
using expired and used the wrong data row
in determining runway length required. We
talked about the weather along his route and
his personal minimums. The TAF suggested a
4,000-foot ceiling at his planned arrival time.
He said his personal minimum for crosscountry flight was a 5,000-foot ceiling and
didn't catch that, if the TAF was correct, he
wouldn't meet his own standard for the flight.

"Yes sir," he said. "Absolutely!"
The plan was to proceed on his planned route
for one or two checkpoints, and then divert to a
local airport. After that a little airwork, and then
return to base. The ground call went fine, but
he didn't request flight following as I had asked
him to do, and didn't have his airport diagram
on his lap.
The flight called for a left turnout, so when he
asked the tower for a straight-out departure
I wondered what he was thinking. He didn't
have his nav log out, and had not programmed
either the VOR or GPS. When we were four
miles north I asked him what his course was
to San Luis, and what his plan was to get there.

The rest of flight went fairly well. He found
his waypoints but forgot to time his legs. We
diverted to Buttonwillow Airport, a skinny
strip of pavement in the middle of nowhere. He
had trouble finding the CTAF frequency on the
chart and wasn't sure how to tell if it was left
traffic or right. Once all that got straightened
out the landing was very good. The short field
takeoff also went well, as did the airwork on
the way back. When we got back to the office,
I asked him how he thought the flight went.
"Really well," he said. "I think I'm ready to go."
We talked about the oral part of the phase
check, and how he stumbled on some important
subjects. I asked him why he didn't program

HE SAID HE HAD NEVER REALLY HAD TO USE HIS MINIMUMS BEFORE AND THAT HE GUESSED HE
SHOULD HAVE SET HIS CEILING MINIMUMS LOWER SO THEY FIT BETTER WITH THE ACTUAL CONDITIONS
THAT DAY. I ASKED HIM IF HIS LANDLORD LET HIM SET HIS OWN RENT LOWER TO FIT BETTER WITH HIS
ACTUAL INCOME, AND HE GAVE ME A BLANK STARE.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 9 Issue 1