Tips

To everyone out there especially students, if you get the opportunity go to CAA Safety brief. They provide information and film of accidents which could save your life. The CAA officer will also stamp your log book to say you attended, also lots of free goodies.

S.H.I.T. List

A bit like blues, reds, greens on finals, when lining up prior to take off roll I check:

Strobes - on

Heading - check DI against compass (when stopped turning), this also confirms correct runway

Instruments - check t&p's good to go still

Transponder - on (from standby)

Birds:- only 1% of reported birdstrikes occur above 2500 ft (unless your the pilot of a jet at 37000 that struck a vulture off africa!)

When flying along the coast, be aware birds use the coastline for navigation too. Consider flying above 2500 ft when flying along coasts particulary during July and August when young birds are at their peak trying to fly!

All birdstrikes are reportable!

T's and P's ? Here's all the P's

"Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance."

J. Green

When taxiing, it's too easy to do it it on the brakes ! If I have an aircraft equipped with toe brakes ( as most Cessna & Pipers do ) I always bring my feet down, leaving my toes only pressing the bottom of the pedals to do the necessary turning.

Whenever landing on a grass runway and you get heavey rain whilst in the approach, try putting much less power in during your landing as the brakes struggle to grip with the wet grass!

If God had intended man to fly - He would have given him more money

Always check out the plane as if you were thinking of buying it

Never under estimate the extent to which talking can be a distraction. Don't focus your attention too much on a conversation in the cockpit which is not related to the operation of the flight!

The heading correction due to a cross wind can be estimated by:

degreesXwind (modulo 90) times windspeed divided by IAS.

Given a wind speed of 30 knots which is 15 degrees off track (whether from behind or from infront) and an IAS of 90 knots you get a heading correction of 5 degrees (and the computer says you need 5). For a wind 30 deg off heading you need 10 degs and you get 10. For 60 degrees need 17 but it gives 20, and then at 75 if goes 20 which is right.

It is surprisingly its close to the correct heading correction all the way round and for speeds 60-120 knots. So this might be good for calculating the heading for an alternate say. I've never seen it before but I can't believe it isn't out there

Every now and then in flight when theres nothing much going on check all the instruments along with your basic FREDA checks just to make sure that absolutely everything is ok. It might just show something.

When leaving your aircraft it is always possible to "overlook" the fact that you may have left the battery master switch in the ON position. I have seen this happen a couple of times at airfields!

As you walk past your aircraft on the way back to the clubhouse get into the habit of quickly "flicking" the stall warner vane up - If you hear the sound of the stall warner from the cockpit you know that you have left the battery master switch on. This wouldn't of course work with a Cessna 172 or similar, so instead, leave your beacon switch permanently ON. You will then have a visual clue that the master switch has been left on.

Gauge progress relative to NDBs.

Even if not tracking an NDB, they can be useful in gauging relative position whilst enroute. This requires a bit of thought and care, but is useful, I find.

Simply tune the ADF to a nearby NDB (and ident it, of course), and then watch the rate at which the needle moves. If you are aware of where the NDB is, you can gauge your progress according to the needle movement rate.

This is NOT to be used for position fixing (it is a 'non-precision' technique) - but, with practice can provide an additional useful input to your situational awareness.

If you're having trouble mastering the dark art of landing, ask your instructor to land it while you video it from the left-hand seat. (Even a digital stills camera will do if it has a video function.) Then put that on your PC or TV and watch it continually before your next lesson.

It's a fantastic way to get the 'picture' fixed in your brain, and it lets you isolate the bits that you find most difficult and focus on them. Plus it's a heck of a lot cheaper than doing it for real.

If you have two radios, call for taxi on one, mid-way through ATC's instructions switch to the other, and listen to the rest of the instructions, then do the readback on the other. You have now transmitted and listened on both boxes and know they both work or not.

When descending deadside at a new airfield have a look at where there is to go in the event of an EFATO on departure.

Tracking an NDB without touching the RBI card on the ADF:

Most instructors wil teach the old method of rotating the RBI card to find your radial on an NDB. This method can leave you for dead in an approach.

I must admit I did'nt invent this, and it'd be wrong of me to say that i did, but here goes.

Firstly some general theory. Divide the NDB into 4 imaginary sections, just like the quadrantal rule. first quater, i.e from 000-090 being + 090-180 being - 180-270 being - 270-360 being +

1. Firstly compare your position and heading relative to the

radial you want.

Lets say for argument's sake I am approaching the NDB on the 270 and I actually want the 000 radial or the 180 track to the NDB. so comparing the position to the bearing I know for sure I have to turn left. Lets assume I take up the heading of 200 (i wouldn't really, but just for simplicity).

2. Now compare the desired track to your heading.

DTK = 180

HDG=200 +

RBI= -20 in this case the RBI should read 160 to tell you that you have reached the 180 radial.

Hope this helps

When carrying out a FREDA check don't just pull carb heat and then return after 10 secs,it acheives nothing as it is not on long enough to melt any ice.

Pull carb heat at first item,

carry out Fuel,Radio,engine Ts & Ps, DI check, Altimeter check,

restore carb heat last

If you are unsure whether the road below is M-way or A road dual carriageway, simple!

M way signs are blue

A road signs are green

A very simple rule of thumb to find cross wind or drift without doing sums (can't fly and do sums at the same time) is to use the face of your watch. 15 minutes past is a quarter of an hour, 30 minutes is a half etc.

So if the wind is:

15 deg off use a quarter of it as cross wind
30 deg off is a half
45 deg off is three quarters
60 deg off use the whole.

This works for cross wind, drift (calculate the maximum drift for your TAS and apply the RoT) and for ground speed adjustment.

Once you have worked out the principle in your head, flight without formulae is yours!

When manouvreing in tight corners, when not sure whether you are clear of an obstruction don't be afraid to ask for help, or stop and check even if you have to shut down. Loss of face is better than loss of bank balance. It is too late when 2 a/c are damaged

TIPS especially in the early days

NEVER EVER let someone convince you that the fuel's ok without dipping or otherwise checking the tanks yourself. If you run out of fuel it is YOUR LIFE.

If you are unhappy with an a/c for whatever reason sort it whilst on the ground

Tip: Rate of descent for 3 degree glideslope

For a 3 degree glideslope a descent of 300ft/nm is required. However there is no instrument in the cockpit to easily measure ft/nm.

If we know the headwind we can use the VSI and here's how:

1. Calculate your ground speed (GS) on approach.

GS = IAS - headwind speed

2. Multiply this by 5 and this gives your required rate of descent.

ROD = 5 x GS (ft/min)

eg.

Headwind = 10 kts

IAS = 60 kts

GS = 60 - 10 = 50 kts

ROD = 5 x 50 = 250 ft/min

Carb Ice -- En-route and Pre-Landing checks.

I.F.R.E.D.A.I --- I = Ice ON Carb Heat to Hot, go through the remainder of the checks and last of all I = Ice OFF Carb Heat to Cold.

This gives the heater time to eliminate any ice or draw your attention to any icing which may exist, as opposed to a 'Quick' Heat 'On' and 'Off' as the first item on the check list.

Same with the Pre-landing checks--

I.B.U.M.P.F.I

At first I = Ice -- On Carb Heat to Hot -- remainder of checks carried out -- Last item I -- Ice Carb Heat Cold (if required some aircraft keep it on below certain RPM).

In my check list for the Pup it states 15 secs Carb heat applied for the carb heat ground check.

Not a quick On -Off --- 'See if it's working' type check.

Another Carb Ice / Fog warning tip.

Ambient Temperature and Due point Temperature -- close together --- Beware !!!!!

The golden rule of bush-flying:

If you are exploring a valley, always start from the top down, as many aviators have found themselves facing a valley wall that is climbing at a faster rate than their aircraft can manage. Instinct is to try and pull out of it, but this normally results in a stall followed by a spin. If you do find yourself facing a valley wall, simply fly as slowly as possible onto the area ahead of you and you stand a far better chance of survival than trying to pull out in a turn.

Sobering stuff, but it would surprise you the number of pilots, particularly in Alaska who have lost their lives without knowing this simple advice.

Airspeed, altitude or brains: two are always needed to successfully complete the flight (Aviationmaxim)

Noticed how hard it is to get a good look at your watch with heavier winter clothing on for T/0 times and ETA etc? Why not wind up that old PA28 clock on the panel, it winds clockwise, ratchets the other way. Hands are changed by pulling the knob out, adjusting, then pushing back in.

If it says "quartz" you fly much more modern planes than me, and they probably keep excellent time.

Back up with an occasional glance at your own in a quiet moment just in case just to check it's keeping time.

To get a fairly good estimate of how high you should be for your lateral distance from the landing threshold take the nautical miles displacement and multiply by 3. This will give you your required height in hundreds of feet assuming a 3° glideslope.

ie., 12 miles to run = 36 x100 = 3,600 feet AAL.

If your DI has a heading bug, set the wind direction on it. Then you can quickly find out the wind direction without bothering ATC.

Simple yet effective: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate

To quickly work out a "turn to new heading" estimate, check where you are now in relation to a Northerly orientated map (ie: turn it the right way up) and then look at where you need to be. Visualise this as the time on a clock face, multiply by 3, then add a zero.

eg: Fly from Manchester to Birmingham - your current position is overhead Stafford, Your flight is diverted to East Midlands. What heading do you take up?

Turn map right way up - East Midlands is in the 3 O'clock position so, 3 X 3 =9 New heading = 090

Diverted to Liverpool - Liverpool lies about 11 O'clock so, 11 X 3 = 33 new heading 330 deg

.. needing wind direction in remote places when you have very little reference, it helps to note that if there is cattle in the field near your chosen put down they will have their butts to the wind. So you'll want to be looking in their eyes when step out...you can Ripley that if you dare.

Always check the fuel tanks yourself (visually!) - This is not just for student pilots, but I had a case 4 yrs ago, it was just a few weeks after i passed by Skill test and embarked on a short trip with my father-in law from Cranfield to Peterborough. On take -off, noticed both gauges reading erm...pretty empty.. waited until i levelled off and started to panic. Made a precautionary landing at Little Staughton and yes, you guessed it, almost empty. No way would I have reached Peterborough.

Turned out that when i booked the aircraft out, i was told "It's had an hour out of full tanks" - It turns out the aircraft had been out twice after that and not recorded in the log book - So, DONT take anybody's word for it. Always CHECK.

Some useful ballpark methods when flying common trainers:

Max wind drift = 2/3 of wind speed, then eyeball the cross-wind components by projecting on the map track.
(e.g. wind 30kts -> max correction angle is 20deg)

Minutes to waypoint = 2/3 of nm (e.g. 40nm -> 27min)

Both rules are calibrated for 90kts and are still good around this value. The latter in particular, needs to be adjusted for ground speed if far from this figure. I use a simple linear rule: if speed is 10% above 90 then decrease time and angle by 10%. For slower I increase time angle in the same way.

Wind forecasts are not that accurate so there's little point in being too accurate in your calculations. However keep in mind that these rules become less accurate as wind speed or distance increases or speed decreases.

Primarily for Students, but equally applicable for licensed pilots.

Check out the AIS AIC updates regularly as they do change, this is especially relevant to students who are about to take their exams, for example in the latest (2002) edition of Thoms the following have already changed.

AIC 12/1997(Pink 134) is now 39/2002 (Pink 30)
AIC 15/1999 (Pink 186) is now 87/2002 (Pink 39)
AIC 104/1998 (Pink 176) is now 93/2002 (Pink 8)
AIC 12/1996 (Pink 120) is now 67/2002 (Pink 36)

so make sure you revise the correct information.

This is just an example of the changes in the Pink section, which is one of five sections.

To estimate the cloudbase the following day, take the maximum daytime temperature from the tv forecast and subtract it from the overnight minimum temperature and multiply by 400. E.g. 20 - 12 = 8 degrees, 8 times 400 = a cloudbase of 3200 feet. You will find it pretty accurate!

(most relevant for Student Pilots)

Don't ever let the plane get somewhere that your mind didn't get to 5 minutes earlier!

10° of difference between Runway direction and wind = 1/6th
20° of difference between Runway direction and wind = 1/3rd
30° of difference between Runway direction and wind = 1/2
40° of difference between Runway direction and wind = 2/3rd
50° of difference between Runway direction and wind = 5/6th
60° of difference between Runway direction and wind = 6/6th

The fractions are what amount of the wind is a cross wind....so, if it is a 20kt wind, with 20° of difference, it is 2/6th = 1/3, which is a bit under 7kts......

One top tip for travelling abroad.... If you stop at the larger airfields, always ask at the information desk which hotels are classed as "Crew Stopover" hotels, as they usually will extend the crew discount to GA pilots. This can be as much as 40% in places like Porto, Gerona, Jerez etc.

To assess the wind vector from a isobar weather chart read off the difference in pressure over a distance of 150nm then multiply this by 5 to estimate the speed. The wind will blow in a direction parallel to the isobar lines with the low pressure on the left of the air flow.

This method can be used to assess the afternoon wind speed and direction from the predictive isobar chart on the top right of the mornings Met Form 215

To estimate the daytime 2000' wind from the surface wind add 30° to the direction and multiply the speed by 2 and subtract 10%

e.g. surface wind = 270°/12kts gives 2000' wind of 300°/23kts (approx)

When considering you Fly/No-Fly decision remember.....

"It is better to be down on the ground wishing you were up in the air, than it is to be up in the air wishing you were down on the ground!"

When you have aligned the Direction Indicator (DI) with the magnetic compass release the pressure on the adjuster and turn the knurled end clockwise then anti-clockwise. This checks that the DI has not become stuck during the adjustment and can move freely.

During internal pre-start checks set the altimeter to read the altitude of the airfield above sea level by adjusting the sub-scale. Now check the sub-scale reading against the known QNH. This gives an extra check that the altimeter is working correctly.

A packet of dry-air cools at a standard rate of approximately 3 degrees per 1000’; this is called the Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DARL)

The dew-point temperature decreases with increasing height at approximately 0.5° per 1000’

These two decreasing temperatures converge at a rate of approximately 2.5° per 1000’

Divide the difference between the dry temperature and dew-point temperature by 2.5 and multiply the result by 1000 and this will give an approximate height above ground level (AGL) at which to expect the cloud base that day.

e.g. Dry/Dew-point of 15°/10° = 5° / 2.5 x 1000' = 2000’

Reporting your altitude when below the transition altitude to an ATSU or when giving blind calls - avoid using terms like "…on the QNH" but instead include your actual altimeter pressure sub-scale reading, so that any error from different altitude reports due to different pressure settings may be more easily spotted and possible confliction avoided.

e.g.

"G-ABCD is at 2500ft on 998mb"

As your altitude increases so does the difference between indicated & true airspeed due to the decreasing density of the air. The relationship may be calculated from the following ready-reckoner:

At 5000' TAS = IAS + 9% (3 squared) %
At 10,000' TAS = IAS + 16% (4 squared) %
At 15,000' TAS = IAS + 25% (5 squared) %
At 20,000' TAS = IAS + 36% (6 squared) %
At 25,000' TAS = IAS + 49% (7 squared) %
At 30,000' TAS = IAS + 64% (8 Squared) %

Avoid any un-neccesary excursions off-track ! Remember the 'D' in FREDA is DI & Compass checks !

Happy Landings !

Also relevant for trainee pilots approaching circuits; ensure you realign your DI and compass as part of your rejoin checks - Ed

To work out a head/tail wind & groundspeed on a diversion. Work out the wind angle off the beam from your heading (e.g. if your heading is 070deg the beam is 70deg + 90deg (beam)= 160deg).

Now if the wind is 120/15, use the clock face to assess the proportion of head/tail wind using the angle off beam i.e. 160(beam) - 120(wind) = 40 deg = 2/3 the clock face so 2/3 x 15kts = 10kts. The headwind is 10kts.

Groundspeed

If your TAS in the cruise is 100 kts then the groundspeed will be TAS - headwind = 90kts. From this figure timings on the diversion leg may be accurately calculated.

When you do a mag check do the far one (right) first, this helps minimise the risk of taking off on only one mag as the last thing you check is one click to the right on to both. The check is;
both - right mag (two clicks left)
both - (two clicks right)
left mag - both (one click right)

Tip provided by Sandy Torrance

To calculate a wind drift heading correction to maintain a required track

Max Drift (kts)=Wind Speed (kts) x 60/TAS

e.g. for 100kts cruise Max drift = Windspeed x 0.6

Then use the clockface method to assess the required heading correction

e.g. if the required track is 250deg and the wind is 280/20 max drift = 0.6 x 20 = 12kts and 280deg - 250 deg = 30 deg or half way round the clock face so you need to turn into wind by half of 12 or 6deg therefore 250 + 6 = 256deg heading should be steered for a 250deg track

To calculate the crosswind on final approach, take the difference between the runway QDM and the wind direction, and then use a clock face to work out the proportion of wind speed which is blowing across the runway.

e.g. 240/15 landing on R26 gives 20° difference. The 20 minute point on a watch face is a third of the way round the hour, so the cross wind blowing is one third of 15kts = 5kts crosswind

e.g. 215/12 landing on R26 gives 45° difference. The 45 minute point on a watch face is three quarters of the way round the hour, so the cross wind blowing is three quarters of 12kts = 9kts crosswind.

Avoid embarrassment among your tailwheel-flying mates by calling any ground loops you do "lateral excursions". Easy!

Before rolling on take off, apply carb heat for 10 secs. Will reduce the risk of carb ice build up from ground running at low powers whilst starting up/doing checks and taxiing.

On the approach to most airfields that have a 3 degree glideslope a good rule of thumb is to multiply your groundspeed by 5.

Eg, groundspeed is 70 knots on the approach. 70 x 5 = 350

Rate of descent required to maintain 3 degrees of descent is 350 feet per minute.

Maximum-rate descents are useful for getting down quickly if you have an in-flight emergency. If you're not current with the procedure, you should be. Find out about the practice for maximum rate descents in your aircraft. Bear in mind that it's quite a stressful maneouvre for the plane.