How do you keep yourself focused while flying?

coloradobluesky said:
Cover everything except the airspeed, altimeter, ball, fuel gauge, oil pressure and voltage indicator. All you need anyway. Turn the radios off. Then just fly the plane by looking outside with occasional glances at the airspeed and altimeter.
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Cover everything but the tach and the clock. Then you'll really learn to fly....(insert evil grin here)
 
einepilotin said:
Hello everyone :)

I am doung my IR training and my instructor still yells at me for not keeping the altitude and HD.
Even though i dont feel physically or mentally tired but I omit or fixate some instrument.
And had to aggresively fix them. :( while getting yelled..

How do you experienced pilots handle this?
How can you be focused compeletely without missing anything the whole time?
I try to mumble myself HD check, altitude check.
Do you think that is right way to be better at this? Ant tips??

And did you guys do pattern practice after started IR?
I sometimes feel like my landing got different than before since I started shooting approaches.

Thank you!! :)
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I have a mantra: H-A-S-T.......H = is my heading correct for this leg/phase of flights? A = Am I at the correct altitude for this leg/phase of flight? S = Is my speed correct for this leg/phase of flight? The key is T = Termination point, or the point at which you stop doing what you are doing and do something else....level off, intercept a radial/courseline, transition from cruise speed to approach speed, etc. Rod Machado has said that pilots need to have the next two things in mind...what do you do next and what comes after that. Bottom line is that if you are not actively thinking about all aspects of flight you are a passenger, not a pilot.

Bob
 
GRG55 said:
My turn to laugh. Isn't that what you just did above?

With all sincerity, your advice is spot on. We both know flying, as a profession or as a pastime, can be terribly unforgiving in certain circumstances. Nevertheless, the possibility of a vacuum system failure is not a good enough reason not to use the vacuum driven AI and Heading Indicator/HSI (one of your primary instrutments?) in an airplane.

I logged 1.9 hours last Tuesday flying my twin mostly on one engine or the other, doing a whole series of maneuvers including single engine approaches, landings and overshoots at a 3400 ASL airport. It is possible an engine on my twin could fail at any time. That possibility is not a good enough reason not to use both of them the rest of the time. ;)
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No, I did not say anyone should try to do it the way I did it. I just pointed out that there is another way and that way happens to have particular benefits.

As for your twin analogy. Maybe some are in the habit of not noticing one of the engines quit. We do know that folks have died because the AI failed and the pilot didn't notice. I have seen GPS track evidence that I track a needle consistently even when passing over a station and that needle wanders. Undoubtedly I would tend to do the same if I depended on the AI as primary indication of attitude. Hell, even airliners have crashed when they didn't realize the AI was bad.
 
coloradobluesky said:
Cover everything except the airspeed, altimeter, ball, fuel gauge, oil pressure and voltage indicator. All you need anyway. Turn the radios off. Then just fly the plane by looking outside with occasional glances at the airspeed and altimeter.
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Orville and Wilbur did not have an airspeed indicator...not sure about the altimeter. Covering the airspeed indicator is a good lesson in flying by looking outside.

Bob
 
MAKG1 said:
You're not instrument rated, are you?

That's not an adequate scan. You need some redundancy there, or the first instrument failure will kill you. A static blockage will make the altimeter, ASI and VSI all misbehave. You disentangle that with the AI.
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ya....guess not. :lol:
 
midlifeflyer said:
There are two competing schools of thought. "Primary/Supporting" and "Control/Performance." The mistake some make (not you) is thinking they are scan techniques. They are not. They are instrument interpretation techniques. P/S is the FAA's; C/P is from the military. For some years now, the FAA recognizes both. It didn't always, apparently figuring the armed services didn't know much about flying ;).

Primary/Supporting asks, "which instrument gives you the most direct information about your condition?" That's "primary." Other instruments providing the same information are "supporting." For the easiest example, in straight and level flight, the primary instrument for pitch is the altimeter. In P/S, the Attitude Indicator is primary only while you are changing attitude since it is, after all, the most direct indicator of, ummm, changing attitude.

"Control/Performance" asks a slightly different first question. "How do you control what the airplane does?" It treats the Attitude Indicator as the "control instrument" for (surprise!) exactly the same reason P/S treats it as primary for changes. Instead of dividing the others into "primary" and "supporting" roles, it treats them collectively as telling us whether the "control" changes we made have produced the desired "performance."

Arguments over the two tend to sound like the same nonsense spouted in pitch/power arguments. They are both really nothing more than two ways of looking at the same thing and approaching the same goal - having us cross-check our instruments to know what they are telling us and resolve discrepancies between them.
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For me, my scan follows my methodology. I want to be constantly aware of airspeed, altitude, and heading. I've almost always gone to the turn coordinator for rate of turn and airspeed and VSI for pitch changes. Part of my problem is that I know my plane a little too well (at least while instrument training and could get pitch and roll right without much effort at all. I had read all the stuff about learning the numbers and we did the exercises and that's the last I looked at that stuff. Yes pitch + power equals performance. When I can't look out the window then I use other info to synthesize pitch. I never did like looking at the AI, it just seemed small and difficult to see where I was in exact terms. The Aspen display is better and the AI portion is just a fantastic display for unusual attitudes. That said I still use "Mickey Mouse" for unusual attitude recover. "Mickey Mouse" uses heading, airspeed and altitude to identify condition and appropriate recovery. I'm sure ya'll can see the consistency in how I approach instrument flight. Is it the way everyone should do it? no. I do think it is a reasonable approach and well suited to the equipment I fly. I do know the military trains differently and they have equipment well suited for what they do. Have you seen the size of the AI on their single pilot stuff? Before they went PFD and HUD displays of flight instruments the AI dominated the panel, that sucker was huge.
 
bobmrg said:
Bottom line is that if you are not actively thinking about all aspects of flight you are a passenger, not a pilot.

Bob
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Just one of the many weekend warriors around here.
 
Clark1961 said:
For me, my scan follows my methodology.
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There's no reason for the scan to follow anyone else's methodology. You remind me: One of the popular scans for straight and level flight is the "Inverted V" focused on AI, TC and VSI. None of them are considered "primary" for straight and level flight using the FAA's P/S concepts, but it works fine for those who use it.
 
midlifeflyer said:
There's no reason for the scan to follow anyone else's methodology. You remind me: One of the popular scans for straight and level flight is the "Inverted V" focused on AI, TC and VSI. None of them are considered "primary" for straight and level flight using the FAA's P/S concepts, but it works fine for those who use it.
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That reminded me of my first launch into IMC. The base was about 600 ft agl so not too bad. The bad was as soon as we went IMC the CFII announced somewhat loudly that he had the leans. Suddenly the TC was a big part of my scan and I replied that my wings were level. No heading change and TC agreed. All was well. We found ice later in that flight...
 
Clark1961 said:
That reminded me of my first launch into IMC. The base was about 600 ft agl so not too bad. The bad was as soon as we went IMC the CFII announced somewhat loudly that he had the leans. Suddenly the TC was a big part of my scan and I replied that my wings were level. No heading change and TC agreed. All was well. We found ice later in that flight...
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at least he didn't get a case of the bends.....:eek:
 
dtuuri said:
No, mumbling won't help. How do you rest on the controls? Do you grip the yoke too tightly, feeding changes to an otherwise trimmed and stabilized plane? Same for your feet--are they up heavy on the pedals? Only one toe at a time needs to touch a pedal, if either at all. Chances are, you're your own worst enemy.

dtuuri
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This is a good point. Even in the jet I fly now I only lightly hold the yoke. Most of the time I fly one handed after the initial rotation and retrimming. After the plane is trimmed it will often stay perfectly put. You should be able to let go at any point and the nose stay solid. If it drops or rises you aren't trimmed.

Also if you have arm rests USE THEM! It helps to keep your weight from resting on the yoke and slightly pulling it to one side. I fly with my elbows on the arm rests.

This will help your concentration as your not chasing yourself.

Remember to slowly go over everything. It's very easy to get stuck at one place or omit something. I did it today on the arrival I was shooting. I omitted the map and forgot to notice I was coming up to a speed restriction. I made the speed but I had to deploy the spoilers instead of slowly taking out the power over time. So even a omission of 30 seconds can cause you to miss some piece of the puzzle. Don't rush the scan either. Like the others have said it's a balancing act.
 
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