Book Excerpts from Flying On The Gages

It is very easy for any instrument pilot to get in the habit of staring at the attitude indicator and becoming overly dependent upon it. Often instructors fail to pick up the fault because the student’s flying tends to improve initially. But he or she will eventually reach a plateau beyond which it will be hard to progress. That is because the minute changes in attitude required to maintain a trimmed condition cannot be done by relying on the attitude indicator. They are the result of feedback from the aircraft’s controls, or how the pilot feels the airplane, and the very slight changes in the altimeter for pitch and the directional gyro or turn and bank indicator (turn coordinator) for roll. We will skip yaw for the moment.

So, a pilot who fixates on one instrument to the exclusion of the others is neglecting some very important detail. The altimeter and airspeed indicator will show you before any other instrument that your pitch attitude is changing. That is because the resolution of the attitude indicator is not good enough to show minute changes that lead to slow changes in altitude. If the pilot focuses solely on the attitude indicator he or she will not see any altitude discrepancy until the next time the altimeter is scanned.

Once the approach controller starts vectoring you to the final, your true position becomes more important. Like the old saying about landings, "a good landing is the result of a good approach," it extends into the realm of instrument flying. If your speed is high, you don’t catch the glide slope, or you let the localizer wander, chances are your landing - should you be lucky enough to find the runway - will be just as poor as the trip from the outer marker. So knowing your exact relationship to the location of the airport is the only way you can plan for a satisfactory approach.

Good positional awareness is required when you are working with a control tower that doesn’t have a radar repeater scope. The controller may ask you several times during your approach for a position report so he or she can plan to space your arrival with other approaching aircraft. Some may be VFR, if the weather is appropriate, and others IFR. You should be aware that if you break out of the clouds close to the airport there could be VFR airplanes in the pattern. The only thing the controller has to go on is your position reporting to separate your flight from others in the traffic pattern, so be certain you make the reports he or she asks for and that they are correct.

None of us sets out to cause an accident and kill ourselves or our passengers, but many of the accidents we read about are caused by circumstances that can be avoided. For example, at what point is building time toward a better job more important than taking every precaution possible to fly safely? The constant badgering of the boss to get him where he wants to go on time has to be put on the back burner if the weather is not suitable. If you get fired because he’s unhappy, think of the guy who pushed his pilots until one of them flew him into the ground. It is not worth your life, or his for that matter, to be flying when you know you should not be.

Several years ago I was interviewing for a Captain’s job on a Turbo-Commander when the aircraft’s owner asked me if I had ever flown through a thunderstorm. I told him that I hadn’t, though I had come close a couple of times. I didn’t get the job and I’m sure the reason had to do with my answer to that question. He interrupted me several times as the interview went on and asked the question again. I gave him the same answer each time. It was obvious that he didn’t believe me.