Flight Reviews: What knowledge areas are pilots most weak?

The transponder codes are pretty easy

7500, think 5 fingers on a hand, like "hands up"

7700, 7 is lucky in and a emergency you're going to need all the luck you can get

7600 is just the one in between.


For the light gun signals, yeah no trick there other than to memorize it or have a cheat sheet somewhere lol
 
James331 said:
The transponder codes are pretty easy

7500, think 5 fingers on a hand, like "hands up"

7700, 7 is lucky in and a emergency you're going to need all the luck you can get

7600 is just the one in between.


For the light gun signals, yeah no trick there other than to memorize it or have a cheat sheet somewhere lol
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"Hi, Jack. Can't talk right now. I'm on fire!"
7500 7600 7700
 
75 - you’ll never take me alive
76 - can’t hear sh*t
77 - everything else
 
Honestly I think the hardest is remembering vfr cloud clearances in all the different classes of airspace
 
Hi jack can’t talk right now I’m on fire. That’s how I remeber the squawk codes
 
Maybe I'm odd. I just figure 7500 is a nice round number that a hijacker wouldn't find out of place.
 
midwestpa24 said:
Maybe I'm odd. I just figure 7500 is a nice round number that a hijacker wouldn't find out of place.
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Apparently I'm odder...I just memorized the codes without a memory jogger.

Because realistically, mnemonics should be appropriate to the situation, and you can only use the "oh ****" mnemonic for so many things.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Apparently I'm odder...I just memorized the codes without a memory jogger.

Because realistically, mnemonics should be appropriate to the situation, and you can only use the "oh ****" mnemonic for so many things.
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You aren’t alone. The acronyms and mnemonics are rampant. I concluded that they were getting in the way of my understanding, and made a conscious decision to ban both from my aviation vocabulary.

Obviously not the right choice for everyone, but it works for me.
 
I have light signals and transponder codes on my custom checklist. I figure if under stress I could forget them. I’d pull it out of my flight bag. You don’t need to memorize them.
 
Rory said:
You aren’t alone. The acronyms and mnemonics are rampant. I concluded that they were getting in the way of my understanding, and made a conscious decision to ban both from my aviation vocabulary.

Obviously not the right choice for everyone, but it works for me.
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So you banned acronyms, huh?

Does that include radar, METAR, SIGMET, ATIS, AWOS, PIREP, AMOC, BORTAC, ETOPS, and so many more?
 
teejayevans said:
I have light signals and transponder codes on my custom checklist. I figure if under stress I could forget them. I’d pull it out of my flight bag. You don’t need to memorize them.
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In ForeFlight, it’s possible both to create a checklist from scratch and to customize an existing checklist.

One of the first things that I did in ForeFlight was dump I.M.S.A.F.E. and create a checklist, based on the underlying principles, that makes sense to me and my situation.

I’m a lot happier with it than with the generic checklist, and one more annoying mnemonic is gone.
 
SkyDog58 said:
So you banned acronyms, huh?

Does that include radar, METAR, SIGMET, ATIS, AWOS, PIREP, AMOC, BORTAC, ETOPS, and so many more?
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Yes. Given a choice between plain English and jargon, I will choose plain English every time unless there is a really good reason not to.

Except for radar, which is at this point a well-understood word, I use the full form of all of those. There is some debate about what METAR stands for. I use Meteorological Aerodrome Report, which if I recall differs from the FAA translation but is the norm outside the U.S.

For me, this makes crystal clear the difference between a METAR and a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast, the latter emphasizing the idea of being both a forecast and for the immediate area.

This works for me. As I said, it doesn’t necessarily work for everyone, apparently you included.
 
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Speaking of getting a checkride - flight went good, then stump-the-dummy Q&A after; the check pilot asked me;
"What color the are runway signs?"
"Red and white."
"Which is which? Numbers red or numbers white?"
"I dunno; I figure it out when it comes up."
"WHAT? Doesn't your airport have runway signs?"
"Oh yeah, sure - I know 'em when I see 'em."

This went on for a bit, until it was clear he couldn't get past it, so I guessed right (the numbers are white for all you guys who are trying to remember. I think. . .). It seemed (and still does) a trivial pursuit, given I clearly knew the colors, and could identify the signs, and knew the meanings.

Funny thing is, I told him I was guessing - and that was cool with him, as long as I guessed right! Same guy shoved a styrofoam cup up the exhaust stack on another checkride, to see if my preflight was adequate. I must have dodged that bullet when I looked in the stack. . .
 
I may be an outlier here, but...

...I tend to emphasize the “review” part of “flight review”.

I spend most of the time going over things I think the pilots should be aware of, very little time quizzing.

I may add light gun signals to my list - to be honest, I might not be able to pull up all of them from memory*. But it might just be a leading question...”If you lost your radio and needed to land at a towered airport, how might you know you were cleared to land?”. If the answer was fuzzy, I’d just recommend he or she review them, and recommend a “cheat card” for the cockpit, that might also include the transponder codes being discussed.


*The runway sign color question might easily have stumped me as well.
 
Isn’t it easier just to remember why airspace limits change:
At 10000+ there’s no speed restriction, so need more visibility, hence 5111.
NiCE = Night, C thru E is standard 3125,
G is less cause it’s uncontrolled 1125
Then it’s clear of clouds exceptions for B12, visibility is as expected: 3 for controlled airspace, 1 for G.

Somethings need to be memorized like east,west altitudes, which are arbitrary.
 
East is first so it gets a number one. One is odd. So east COURSES (not headings) use odd numbered altitudes.
West is .... well, even. No need to go into why, but its obviously the same logic.
 
coloradobluesky said:
East is first so it gets a number one. One is odd. So east COURSES (not headings) use odd numbered altitudes.
West is .... well, even. No need to go into why, but its obviously the same logic.
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One thing about that tho, is I can't always remember is due south/north. IIRC, 360-179 is odd and 180-359 is even. Had that very scenario the other night, I got it right but had to pull out one of those old clipboards with the useful flying info on it just to get the nagging thought out of my head.
 
I remember WEEO - West Even, East Odd. I also remember that it isn't WOEE, both because I dislike woe and EE makes no sense. When I want to figure out an altitude, I have to stop and do it every time, but it works.
 
labbadabba said:
One thing about that tho, is I can't always remember is due south/north. IIRC, 360-179 is odd and 180-359 is even. Had that very scenario the other night, I got it right but had to pull out one of those old clipboards with the useful flying info on it just to get the nagging thought out of my head.
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I call it the ONE rule. Odd North East.

Btw, that's magnetic course too.
 
Odd people fly east works for me. And my CFI grilled me for two hours Saturday, we covered a lot of ground.
 
If I'm flying exactly on that 179.5 magnetic heading, I'll just alternate every 10 minutes. 5500', 4500', 5500', etc. :D
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
If I'm flying exactly on that 179.5 magnetic heading, I'll just alternate every 10 minutes. 5500', 4500', 5500', etc. :D
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mscard88 said:
gentle S-turns :cool:
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Seriously, a fellow instructor had a near midair on an approximate heading of north. He now will intentionally fly a bit of a dogleg to avoid magnetic courses too close to due north or due south. Probably not a bad idea.
 
FastEddieB said:
Seriously, a fellow instructor had a near midair on an approximate heading of north. He now will intentionally fly a bit of a dogleg to avoid magnetic courses too close to due north or due south. Probably not a bad idea.
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I've heard people say that. Sounds wise.
 
ateamer said:
Transponder codes:
7500 Hi Jack!
7600 Can't talk...
7700 got an emergency.
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Heard that one too. It helps young kids remember stuff without having to remember much. Well, they do have to be able to recall a silly mnemonic in an emergency. But hey, if they can and use the right code, it counts.

Soooo, what if you get hijacked, the terrorists smash the radio and set the airplane on fire? What do you squawk then? My CFI failed to cover that one with me. :(
 
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