Flight Training - April 2011 - 17

of aircraft equipment will make you a capable and confident pilot. The answer is: The avionics equipment in the airplane has no effect whatsoever on how capable and confident you’ll become as a pilot. Learning to fly an airplane is not about operating avionics, it’s about learning to fly an airplane. If you don’t learn how to use advanced avionics equipment during primary training, you can always learn how to use it later. If that weren’t the case, then no military pilots (who typically start training in single-engine, piston-powered, analoggauged airplanes) would ever be capable of moving up to advanced jet aircraft. So my advice is to first fly the airplane you can afford. Then fly the airplane that aesthetically pleases you. If you can only afford to train in a Cessna 150 or Piper Cub, then do so. With a good instructor, and whatever additional post-privatepilot training you need, you’ll be as confident and capable as any pilot who learned in a technically advanced aircraft. That’s a fact. Dear Rod: I was giving a flight review and simulated an engine failure by retarding the throttle to flight idle. This student was set up to land at a nontowered airport when he added power then reduced it back to flight idle. He did this several times, each time insisting that he was clearing the engine. I’ve never heard of this and actually thought he might be cheating by adding power to make the runway. Is this a normal procedure? K.V. Greetings K.V.: No, your student wasn’t cheating. He was using a very good procedure to ensure that the engine was still operational after running at flight idle for a given amount of time. The intent here is to increase power sufficiently to determine that the engine is operating normally and hasn’t quit because of carbon or lead fouling of the spark plugs, or suffered asphyxiation from carburetor ice. Normally, that means running the engine up to some moderate power setting then quickly retarding

the throttle back to flight idle. I like to do this at least every 1,000 feet of descent. Doing so allows you to feel confident that your engine is still operating properly. Of course, clearing the engine every 10 seconds should be cause for suspicion, especially when it appears that the air-

plane is clearly beyond gliding distance from the chosen field.
Rod Machado is a flight instructor, author, educator, and speaker. Machado has been a pilot since 1970 and a CFI since 1973. rodmachado.com). Visit his blog (www.

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Flight Training - April 2011

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