AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2019 - 104

NEWS & NOTES

AOPA AIR SAFETY INSTITUTE

Beyond the checkride
Proficiency with purpose
BY ALICIA HERRON

ASI NEWS

|

DUAL ENGINE FLAMEOUT

THERE ARE A COUPLE OF LANDMARK

flights on the journey to a private pilot
certificate, most notably the first solo
and the checkride. After the first solo,
you're a pilot. After the checkride, you
become a certificated pilot, deemed
worthy to accept the mantle of pilot in
command with passengers on board.
Because we tend to focus on that
final goal-the checkride, the shiny new
certificate, maybe gifting yourself a
choice pair of Ray Bans-it is easy to forget the bigger "why" of training. Passing
the checkride is a goal, but it is not the
only goal.
After the checkride, don't neglect the
airmanship skills you spent hours and
a chunk of change developing, or they
might not be sharp when you need them
most. Take short-field landings-can you
really forget about that technique once the
checkride is done? You may have no intention of ever seeking out a real short field,
but that doesn't mean that the requirement to use that skill won't find you.
Consider a scenario where you
approach an airport with crossing runways. Unforecast weather is closing in,
104 | AOPA PILOT November 2019

but you're only a few miles out-you'll
be on the ground before it becomes a
problem. You plan to land on the longer
runway-or that was your plan, but you
just heard that a pilot had a gear collapse
on touchdown. The crippled airplane
won't be moved before the weather
arrives. No alternate airports are nearby.
You have to land on the crossing runway-but it's only 2,500 feet long and
there are 80-foot trees at the approach
end. If the last time you practiced your
short-field technique was before the
checkride, and if you've gotten into a
habit of always coming in fast, you might
be in for a landing more interesting than
you would like.
Don't forget why the checkride standards exist, and don't allow yourself to
fly imprecisely just because an examiner
or instructor isn't sitting in the right seat.
Aim to fly well so that you can maintain
proficiency and fly safely, especially
when encountering the unexpected.
EMAIL alicia.herron@aopa.org

airsafetyinstitute.org/safetyvideos/
TOL_series

On a routine transport flight from
Naples, Florida, to Niagara Falls,
New York, Capt. Bruce Monnier and
co-captain Gerald Downs experienced a dual engine flameout in their
Cessna Citation II. Strangely, that
wasn't the only jet in Florida-based
air ambulance service Air Trek's fleet
to experience an emergency that
day. Join us in There I Was... Episode
12 as we talk to the pilots and hear
how they worked together to land
safely, and uncover the cause of the
incident.
airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas

SO LONG, FALL!

Ice is serious business, and as winter approaches, the freezing level is
getting lower and lower. The long
days of summer may have lulled even
the most vigilant of us into warmweather habits-make sure to check
that freezing level before every flight
and include the outside air temperature gauge in your scan, especially
when flying in any form of visible
moisture. Remember, even for FIKIcapable airplanes, any amount of ice
can dramatically change your airplane's ability to create lift.
Assess what you would do if you
encountered icing in flight with ASI's
safety quiz.
airsafetyinstitute.org/
safetyquizzes/iceflight
http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/ http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/safetyvideos/
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2019
