FLYING LESSONS uses recent mishap reports to consider what might have contributed to accidents, so you can make better decisions if you face similar circumstances. In almost all cases design characteristics of a specific airplane have little direct bearing on the possible causes of aircraft accidents—but knowing how your airplane’s systems respond can make the difference as a scenario unfolds. So apply these FLYING LESSONS to the specific airplane you fly. Verify all technical information before applying it to your aircraft or operation, with manufacturers’ data and recommendations taking precedence. You are pilot in command, and are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make.
FLYING LESSONS is an independent product of MASTERY FLIGHT TRAINING, INC. www.mastery-flight-training.com
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This week’s LESSONS:
Reruns with a Reason Just since last week’s LESSONS, in the FAA Preliminary Accident Reports:
• A Honda Jet “veered off the runway through grass while landing….”
• A Taylorcraft “landed and was blown off the runway….”
• A Piper Cherokee “veered off the runway into the grass….”
• A Piper Seneca “veered off the runway into the grass….”
• A Beech Super King Air blew a “tire on landing, aircraft then veered off the runway….”
• A Piper Seneca “veered off the side of the runway during landing….”
• A Cessna 172 “was cleared for takeoff, veered left into the grass….”
• A Republic SeaBee “went off the runway into a ditch….”
• An Evangel Angel tricycle-gear twin “ground looped upon landing and struck runway lights….”
• A Taylorcraft “veered off the runway and flipped over….”
• A Kolb Mark III “on landing veered off the right side of the runway into the grass….”
• A Gippsland GA8 “blew a tire on landing and veered off the side of the runway….”
• A Piper Cherokee “struck a snow bank on landing and veered off the runway….”
• A Piper Cherokee “damaged a runway light” while landing.
• A Bellanca Citabria “went off the runway into a lake and submerged in water….”
• A Piper Pawnee “lost control on departure with a glider attached, went off the side of the runway….”
This tells us two things: (1) someone in the FAA Safety Center really likes the word “veer,” and (2) we’re having a lot of trouble maintaining runway alignment and aircraft control, especially during landing.
If you’re counting (I know you are), that’s 16 Loss of Directional Control – on Runway (LODC-R) events reported since last week Wednesday. Take the two blown tires off the list (we’ll assume the tires blew and caused the loss of directional control, not the other way around) and there are still 14 events in the last eight days of reports. The LESSON is valid for the glider pilot if
he/she pulled the Pawnee off the runway instead of the towplane pilot losing control, so it counts either way.
Most of these events do not require a report to the NTSB (because they do not meet NTSB 830 requirements), and there is no specific requirement to report any aircraft mishap to the FAA. So I suspect there may have been more that we do not know about. See https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2009-title49-vol7/pdf/CFR-2009-title49-vol7-sec830-5.pdf.
It seems as though this is common this time of year, as many Northern Hemisphere pilots are getting back into flying after a long winter at the same time the winds tend to increase with the change in seasons. It was almost exactly a year ago that I listed 13 LODC-R events in a single week and wrote this in the May 4, 2017 FLYING LESSONS Weekly:
The measure of a pilot seems to be how smoothly he or she lands the airplane. Certainly our passengers feel a good landing means a good pilot, but a firm or bounced touchdown negates everything the pilot did to that point in the eyes of a passenger. The popular vernacular also suggests that “any landing you can walk away from is a good one.” Somewhere between these two extremes—that the landing needs to be glassy smooth or it may destroy the airplane but it’s okay as long as no one is crippled—lay the reality: we need to land with a level of aircraft command.
How do we keep from loss of control on the runway (LODC-R) or runway overruns? Every situation is different, but you’ll improve your precision and reduce your chances of joining the list of “on landing….” by doing the following:
• Taxi with the nosewheel on the centerline. This reinforces your perception of deviations from runway directional control. Discipline here will pay dividends when you need to be making instinctive control inputs during takeoff and landing.
• Use the correct crosswind controls during ground operations. This makes instinctive your input of proper corrections during crosswind landings…even when winds are less than when you think you need the crosswind controls.
• Fly at the correct speeds. Trying to land too fast—a common mistake—makes it harder to land accurately in the touchdown zone, thus making a runway overrun or the need to apply heavy braking (leading to nosing over) more likely. Even in strong gusts you don’t need to add that much speed; the convention is to add one-half the gust value. The result is much less added speed than you might think.
For example, if landing a Cessna 172 in winds at 15 gusting to 22 knots, the gust factor is seven (22-15=7) and half that is three and a half. So your final approach speed increases from, say, 65 knots to 69 knots…not 75 knots, or 82 knots, or 90 knots, or some other amount that make it more likely you’ll land long or run off the end of the runway. In a mid-weight Beech 58 Baron landing in that same gust factor increases over the threshold speed from 91 to 95 knots. In a Citation the increase is almost negligible as a percentage of VREF (final approach reference) speed.
• If you receive Pilot Reports of wind shear with airspeed fluctuations on final approach (e.g., “airspeed varies + 15 knots”) you might add as much as that variation amount to your final approach speed, knowing you still have to dissipate it in the final moments before touchdown. If that speed adjustment is more than about 20% of your airplane’s final approach speed you probably need to land somewhere else. If the report comes from an aircraft larger than the one you are flying treat wind shear PIREPs
the same as you’d treat a turbulence or icing PIREP from a larger aircraft—expect that the indications will be worse for you.
• To be prepared for those speeds, practice and retain proficiency and comfort flying at low speeds and high angles of attack. Practice “slow flight” or, as we used to, “flight at minimum controllable airspeed” so you not only apply controls in the proper direction, you also apply them in the correct amount…without having to think about it.
• Be established on speed, in configuration, on glidepath to your planned touchdown zone, and in alignment with the runway and the runway centerline between your main wheels within about 400 feet of the ground or certainly before you cross the runway threshold…or go around without question or delay.
• Fly enough to know your capabilities, and your limitations. In most LODC-R mishaps the crosswind component is far below the airplane’s maximum demonstrated amount. In most LODC-R events the crosswind component is less than 10 knots. In almost all cases it’s a pilot issue, not an airplane issue. If you’ve not flown crosswinds recently, reduce the amount of crosswind you’re willing to accept.
Discipline yourself toward excellence. Back it up with demonstrated proficiency. And use good judgment to avoid situations you know are beyond your current capability.
Going further back, I found this discussion from the January 12, 2012 report:
We’ve focused a lot of words and effort in FLYING LESSONS over the years on maintaining directional control on landing. Although it doesn’t have the appeal (if that’s the right word) of thunderstorms or ice or low clouds and fog when discussion aviation weather hazards, the wind, especially wind during takeoff and landing, is the single largest weather hazard to non-transport category airplanes, according to the accident record.
Most pilot training texts, and most of FLYING LESSONS’ commentary as well, hones in on the stick-and-rudder skills needed to maintain runway alignment in a crosswind. That’s absolutely essential, and crosswind control should be at the center of all your recurrent training and Flight Reviews (or international equivalent). But along with the rest of the industry FLYING LESSONS is remiss in presenting the single biggest factor in the success of a crosswind landing—the decision whether or not to try it in the first place.
Typical primary pilot training pays some lip service to the decision about accepting a landing, but addresses the issue primarily on the basis of airplane certification criteria. I recall having to memorize the USAF T-41A Mescalero’s maximum demonstrated crosswind component (17 knots), and making my students do the same for Cessna 152s, 172 and Bellanca Super Vikings, and later, for Beech Bonanzas and Barons. And then instructors tell their students this is not a limitation, but merely a maximum demonstrated speed. The implication is that a “good” pilot can handle much more. See www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=403
An example is the Crosswind Danger chart from Section 8 of the FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook. The chart depicts a crosswind “Danger Zone” that suggests that there’s nothing to worry about if the direct crosswind component is as little as 15 knots. Although that may be true from a certification standpoint, accident history paints a different picture. See www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aircraft/airplane_handbook/
Most LODC (Loss of Directional Control) on landing events occur, in fact, with reported surface winds reported below 10 knots. Clearly the emphasis on certification-defined maximum demonstrated crosswind components is not doing everything that can be done to teach pilots to evaluate the wisdom of attempting a particular crosswind landing. So why do we lose directional control in such relatively low surface winds? I suspect:
1. We’re not as current in crosswind landings as we think we are.
2. It doesn’t take much change for a crosswind to swing around and include a tailwind component, which is even more destabilizing to many airplanes.
3. Some pilots may be too rushed (or more likely, too lazy) to fly to a landing into the wind when their route of flight is nearly straight in to a more convenient, if not wind-aligned, runway (note this may introduce a significant collision risk also).
4. Others may not be assertive or confident enough to change runways when ATC assigns a runway the pilot would not chose on his/her own, or a preceding pilot uses a runway inappropriate for the winds (I see this lead to runway excursions and groundloops every year at Oshkosh, when pilots are unwilling to question landings even with strong, quartering tailwinds because “that’s the direction they’re landing”).
5. Flight instructors are not emphasizing good crosswind technique, including proper control use and “flying” the airplane all the way to the completion of the landing roll.
6. Many pilots may not bother to consider the effect of wind as part of their arrival briefing.
How can we address these possibilities? Practice, realistic self-evaluation based, renewed emphasis on proper technique in flight instruction for pilots at all levels, and the confidence to refuse a runway when the winds do not favor its use…even if others are using it or if initially assigned by ATC. This means consciously estimating the crosswind as part of your arrival self-brief, and the willingness to request another runway or even fly to a more favorable airport, even if it means holding for some time or landing at a less convenient destination.
Make a copy of this diagram from the Airplane Flying Handbook, page 8-18, laminate it and keep it in your airplane. Use it to predict the crosswind component to expect given the difference between the heading of the runway you’re considering using and the reported wind (or your best estimate based on observing ground details). Compare the result to your level of crosswind currency in the airplane you’re flying. If you’re at (or near) your realistic comfort zone, start to look for other options. Make certain you give yourself enough fuel to divert to an airport with less wind, or wind more aligned with the runway, while preserving a safe fuel reserve. See https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/media/airplane_flying_handbook.pdf
Tailwheel pilots seem to be concerned less about their airplane’s demonstrated crosswind component, and more about their personal crosswind proficiency and currency level. I flew a tailwheel Cessna 120 early in my piloting career and recall very consciously considering the time since my most recent crosswind practice every time I considered going out to fly. Making that self-evaluation had been drilled into me when I checked out in type. Many amateur-built and modern production airplanes have free-castoring nosewheels to save weight and complexity, and as a result have many of the same “ground looping” tendencies and pilot rudder requirements as tailwheel designs. But the same tailwheel philosophy doesn’t seem to be as prevalent in high-performance homebuilt and Cirrus/Diamond circles. Perhaps all pilots need to think like a tailwheel pilot when considering their ability to handle a crosswind.
Takeoffs are optional. Landing are not. However, landing at any one location, or on a specific runway, is optional. Make a conscious decision to accept or reject a landing by figuring the crosswind component before accepting an approach or entering the pattern/circuit.
I apologize for sending “reruns” of past articles (with a few updates). But if we’re going to have virtually the same record at almost exactly the same time two years in a row, then perhaps a refresher on LODC-R avoidance is warranted. See: http://www.mastery-flight-training.com/20170504-flying-lessons.pdf http://www.mastery-flight-training.com/20120112flying_lessons.pdf
See https://www.pilotworkshop.com/nto-ifr?ad-tracking=turner-nto-ops
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Debrief: Readers write about recent FLYING LESSONS:
A reader who asked to remain anonymous writes about the April 5th LESSONS from the fatal collision of a departing Cessna 150 and a landing Citation 525:
Tom, I enjoyed your article and it made sense in every respect. Since reading it I talked to my wife, and we now have learned to pay special attention to aircraft on an instrument approach at CTAF [nontowered] airports. One question came to mind: An A&P suggested that we mute ADS-B callouts when we are flying in the pattern. Who wants to hear a message from their iPad about nearby traffic when they are flying on final approach? What do you think?
Although as I remarked last week ADS-B has limitations that mean you can’t count on it exclusively for traffic avoidance near airports, consider this from AOPA’s Air Safety Institute (with my emphasis added):
An Air Safety Instituten [sic] study of midair collisions revealed that 49 percent occurred in the traffic pattern or on approach to or departure from an airport. Of the other 51 percent, about half occurred during en route climb, cruise, or descent, and the rest resulted from formation flights or other hazardous activities. Eighty percent of the midair collisions that occurred during "normal" flight activities happened within ten miles of an airport, and 78 percent of the midair collisions that occurred around the traffic pattern happened at nontowered airports. Important strategies for avoiding these mishaps can be found in two of the institutes's [sic] Safety Advisors, Operations at Nontowered Airports, and Collision Avoidance: Strategies and Tactics.
Collision history suggests then that if you need ADS-B (or other) traffic detection capability, you need it most when you’re close to an airport and in the pattern. I advise you keep the traffic advisories turned ON in the pattern, as an adjunct to your visual scan and to tell you when you need to look out even more.
Remember that if you’re displaying ADS-B on your iPad, you may be using a passive traffic system (such as Stratus). Passive systems do not trigger position reports from other airplanes, so you only listening to the interrogations triggers by active ADS-B airplanes. If there’s no active
ADS-B airplane nearby, and you’re out of range of an ADS-B ground station, you’ll not receive any traffic reports.
AOPA’s video “Collision Avoidance: See, Sense and Separate” covers the basics of traffic avoidance techniques in an eight-minute package if you’d like a quick review. See: http://www.mastery-flight-training.com/20180405-flying-lessons.pdf https://www.aopa.org/-/media/files/aopa/home/pilot-resources/asi/safety-advisors/sa08.pdf?la=en https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute/safety-spotlights/collision-avoidance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQrzrNkmUzs Understanding the advantages and limitations of technology is extremely important. The NTSB preliminary report for the Citation/C150 collision that sparked this discussion was published this week. Investigators report:
The pilot of the Cessna 525 stated that he did not see the departing Cessna 150 while he was on a straight-in approach to runway 22, nor did he see the 150 during the landing roll. He stated that he did not recall making a radio call on UNICOM” but that he “did utilize his on-board Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) system while on approach. He stated that the TCAS did not show any traffic on the airport.”
Unfortunately, if true this statement suggests a lack of familiarity about how TCAS works. TCAS relies upon receiving transponder information from other aircraft. Here’s why we can’t rely upon TCAS while landing at a nontowered airport:
1. Not all aircraft are transponder-equipped. There is not requirement for an airplane like a Cessna 150 to have a transponder at all.
2. Transponders emit replies to interrogations triggered when the transponder receiver is hit by an Air Traffic Control radar beam or a signal from another aircraft’s traffic detection device, such as TCAS and lower-technology TCAD (Traffic Collision Alerting Device, which warns of nearby aircraft but may not provide relative position information and does not give specific instructions for collision avoidance). An aircraft close to the ground, such as the Cessna 150 during its takeoff roll, is almost certainly too low to be in radar contact with ATC. Even if the aircraft had a transponder, the transponder would not have been emitting a signal to be picked up by the Citation’s TCAS.
3. Unless an aircraft has a TCAS or lower-technology TCAD, transponder antennas are mounted on the bottom of the aircraft. TCAS and TCAD devices have transponder antennas on top as well as on the bottom of aircraft. This makes sense, because transponders rely on line-of-sight transmission, and originally they were designed to communicate with radar stations on the ground. Because transponder antennas are on the belly of the aircraft, that aircraft’s fuselage and wings blank out the transponder signal to nearby aircraft that are higher up. Even if a departing aircraft had a transponder and was somehow being interrogated by ATC radar, it’s almost certain that a nearby landing aircraft would not receive its transponder transmission, and the departing aircraft would not appear on the landing aircraft’s TCAS.
So run your ADS-B, TCAS, TCAD, whatever, especially when near airports and close to the ground, because that’s where most collisions occur. But keep your eyes outside the aircraft when in visual conditions, because old-fashioned see-and-avoid is still the name of the game. See https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20180403X00427&AKey=2&RType=Prelim&IType=FA
Thanks to the very many of you who watched my NAFI MentorLIVE webinar “Stop Teaching About Safety” last week and wrote to tell me what you liked (and didn’t like) about the program. For those who have not seen it and would like to, and anyone who for some strange reason wants to sit through it again, the webinar
is posted on the National Association of Flight Instructors website (www.nafinet.org). You must register with NAFI to view the program, but registration is free.
See http://www.mentorlive.site/program/8.html
Share safer skies. Forward FLYING LESSONS to a friend
Pursue Mastery of Flight.
Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety Flight Instructor Hall of Fame 2015 Inductee 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year 2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year Three-time Master CFI
![Crosswind Guidelines[1]](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/542d898f219acd4d4b8b573b/crosswind-guidelines1.jpg)
