Flight Training Day 4 Today I am 1/3 of the way through flight training here at MAF in Nampa, Idaho. The structure of todays flight was a cross country flight with a stop to practice various procedures at a remote airstrip in Oregon. Although the aircraft are equipped with modern GPS navigation systems, I was informed by my instructor that today the equipment had failed. All I had was, once again, my trusty stop watch, slide rule, pencil, and map. I have prided myself in the past on the fact that I love to navigate in an aircraft by these basic tools alone. I am humbled today to see how much rust is on my skills. I have not been flying much lately and the high desert of the west is a tough place to navigate by sight. Also, there is no idle time in the cockpit here in training. You are constantly pushed to your limits and every moment is packed with new and intense procedures and activities. I found my check points but not without some errors and forgetfulness of some fundamentals. It is good to be held to such a high standard here and have the rust knocked off. This will pay big rewards later. I was initially in class with 4 new MAF pilots. There is also another guy, DJ, who, like me, serves with a mission aviation organization other than MAF. While the MAF guys moved on to study aircraft maintenance, DJ and myself started the flight training this week. DJ has flown with his instructor and I with mine in two seperate airplanes. We dont usually see each other until the end of the flight day. Today, however, both aircraft followed the same route and landed at the same intermidiate airstrip. On the way to the first stop we of course encounter terrain. I was not permitted to fly above a certain altitude as if simulating bad weather keeping me pinned down low. Once arriving at the mountain ridges, I transition to my safe configuration and slow speed and anylized how I would cross the mountain. My instructor and I appraoched the mountain from a couple different ways while using the techniques I had learned. During this time my instructor, Jason, simulated an engine failure. Be cause of my training, I knew exactly how to react. After successfuly crossing the ridge, I crossed over to the other side to fined extremely rugged and unhospitable mountain terrain. This was no suprise to Jason, as it was all part of his master plan to test me on engine failures in this more challenging situation as well. We did fine after gliding down through the rugged canyon to a hidden valley floor. Then it was on my way again - engine majically restored. We met up with the other aircraft at our stop over at an un-named airstrip. The other crew had already arrived and set up the airstrip to practice some super critical procedures. We had two very important procedures to practice - air dropping suplies and takeoff aborts. Aborting a takeoff or landing correctly is one of the most important types of procedures you can do in this type of flying. We are often flying from airstrips that are much smaller and with worse general conditions than found at the modern, improved, commercial airports in most of the US. Often times, your point of no return during a takeoff is before you get into the air. This means that you may still be on the ground while accelerating for takeoff, experience a problem, and not be able to stop before running out of runway. This is why it is super critic to accurately define this point were you can no longer stop safely and pay superb attention to any signs of trouble before this point while you can still stop safely. After that point, if an emergency happens, you must decide in a split second wether you believe the airplane can be taken to the air safely or wether you will take what you get and suffer a relatively low energy crash by staying on the ground. There are an equl amount of considerations for aborting a landing, but today was ment to better deal with takeoffs. In order improve our skills, we placed orange cones at 200 foot intervals down the runway. In the middle was a set of double cones - this was the abort point. With this set up we practice, with measurable outcomes, the physics and aerodynamics lessons we had in class. We used the airplane to its extreme maximum capability to stop the airplane in the least distance possible while under control. Each time we simulated a takeoff from increased distances from the abort point. Upon reaching the abort point, my instructor yelled abort. I did everything I could to stop the plane as effectively and safely as possible. What was proven was that with the techniques I have learned, I am able to stip the plane in a shorter distance than even the manufacturer states. Then we practiced air drops. This was much less intense but is a critical skill to learn as this low level manuever can be dangerous. We finished our time at the airport with one more important practice. We took to the air and practiced responding to the worst thing that can happen in an airplane - FIRE! While over the airstrip, the instructor indicates that there is a fire forming. We had to get the aircraft on the ground, shut it down, and evacuate with the emergency gear as quickly as possible. In the included photos you will see a sequence of pictures I took of the other crew practicing this - dirt flying, and ending with them fleeing the craft. I will try to post the video of my practice in another post.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 01:35:27 +0000
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