Super Cool

I had a college professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that was cool. He was fair and relatable as an instructor. He assigned homework, but not busy work. He understood the senior in college "graduation-itis" syndrome. For "therapy" he rides motorcycles and flies airplanes. Cool. In fact, he took a cross country motorcycle ride and documented it on Facebook. Way cool. Thousands of ERAU graduates have taken his courses and have gone on to be successful in their endeavors and careers partly due to his mentoring and career advice. Super cool.

As with any strong reputation, (both good and bad) there can be an inherent danger of confusion. As related to aircraft icing, super cool water droplets are nowhere near as cool as the college professor I described earlier. These insidious water droplets are killers of aircraft and pilots, a true misnomer. A well publicized aircraft accident involving a Colgan Air commuter plane on approach in icing conditions into Buffalo, NY on February 12, 2009 illustrated this important point. The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) provides an excellent animation of this fatal accident of an aircraft that was certified for flying into this type of weather condition. For more information on this accident and its aftermath, read the NTSB's accident synopsis.

As most pilots know, unlike transport category aircraft, many general aviation aircraft are not certified by the FAA to fly into what is commonly known as flight into known icing, or FIKI because the certification process of the required equipment is time consuming and expensive. To remember if your aircraft has anti-ice only equipment and/or deice equipment remember this: anti-icing equipment is turned on before entering icing conditions and is designed to prevent ice from forming whereas deicing equipment is designed to remove ice after it begins to accumulate on the airframe. The obvious danger is a layer of ice no thicker or rougher than a piece of coarse sandpaper can reduce lift by 30 percent and increase drag up to 40 percent. Even aircraft equipped and certified for FIKI are significantly affected by ice accumulation on unprotected areas of the aircraft.


Super cooled water droplets are defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as "Liquid water that is below 0°C, or water that stays in liquid form if undisturbed even though it has been cooled to a temperature below its normal freezing point. The smaller and purer the water droplets, the more likely they can become supercooled." Because these droplets are held in suspension as liquid below freezing, the primary danger of them is they freeze on impact to any surface of the aircraft as illustrated in the following graphic in step number 5 and can cause all sorts of havoc.
 

Courtesy National Weather Service

There are numerous sources and training aid on planning for, avoiding and mitigating inadvertent flying into icing conditions. Check out NASA's Glenn Research Center web page for more detailed information on aircraft icing and complete the free training on this deadly topic. Many aviation managers and professional pilots view aircraft icing training as an essential industry "best practice" and complete it on an annual basis as any recurrent training.

Like other flying seasons, winter flying in the snow belt poses its own unique challenges that pilots must assuage. It's definitely not a time to hang up the wings for 3-4 months and wait it out. EVERY pilot should ALWAYS respect FAR 91. 527 (known as the Clean Aircraft Concept), execute proper planning and diligent methodology as essential functions for a safe and enjoyable winter flying experience. Check out Elite Aviation Training for current dates and times of our winter flying seminar, "Icing the Cake: Winter Flying Operations".

Have fun flying this winter season and leave the icing to the cake!

Tailwinds...

Practice Makes Proficient

According to the experts that know, the economy has bottomed out and taken a turn for improvement. While this is good news all around, in the terms of aviation and especially pilot proficiency, this is compelling news. Because of the heavy toll the economy's downward spiral took on pilot's disposable income, the total number of general aviation flight hours has decreased steadily since 2007; the year economic experts agree the world-wide recession began. For those with a pilot's license, the choice between maintaining flying proficiency and spending disposable income became less difficult. For many, flying took a backseat to heightened financial awareness.

Now, companies in the private sector are hiring, adding jobs and once again putting money into the pockets of pilots nationwide. Being proficient means being knowledgeable, demonstrating competency and maintaining aptitude (which we discussed last time). Increased disposable income should follow increased proficiency, and as GA flight hours once again increase, a reduced accident rate. But, we human beings forget things and become rusty. At one time in my life I knew all the State's capital cities in alphabetical order. Now, not so much.

Flying combines fine motor skills (muscle memory), spatial orientation and an intellectual component. Said another way, flying is a marriage of physics, math, law, motor skill, decision making, critical thinking...did I forget anything? Simply put, there's a lot to remember and a lot to forget! There are a number of to keep all that knowledge fresh in the mind. How are we as the pilot community going to increase flying hours and keep the accident rate low?

Beyond hitting the books and re-reading the most current FAR/AIM or other various hard bound (and stale) publications, a great free way to keep current is to subscribe to any number of free electronic publications like (reading this blog) AOPA's Aviation eBrief, PilotWorkshops.com Pilot's Tip of the Week and Flying magazine's newsletter, to name a few. Also, you can join Elite Aviation Training's mailing list and receive our informative newsletter. The FAA Safety Team hosts a website that offers a searchable clearing house of aviation training seminars and events, hosted by FAASTeam reps, like Elite Aviation Training, from around the country on many aviation topics of interest. Most of the training events are free. Another free way to help maintain proficiency is to simply chair fly.

Running checklists, imagining conversations with ATC and role playing emergency scenarios does have its stark limitations. Getting an hour in the simulator with an instructor is more beneficial for practicing instrument procedures, but any affordable simulator that GA pilots can rent lack the fidelity to practice takeoffs and landings and any VFR procedures, including flying straight and level. Arguably, the best way to maintain proficiency is to actually fly an airplane with a certified instructor. Smelling the avgas, talking to authentic ATC personnel, feeling the weight of the controls and seeing the rotation of the propeller makes the experience as real as it gets. People become pilots to fly airplanes and enjoy the adventure not to sit in a dark room and stare at computer monitors.

If you haven’t flown in a while, Elite Aviation Training offers a Proficiency Evaluation for any pilot certification level, including single engine and multi-engine ratings as well as instrument rated and VFR only pilots. The first defense in any potential aviation accident is recent training with a highly qualified and certified instructor. Contact Elite today and we will begin your Personalized and Comprehensive proficiency evaluation.

So, let's knock the rust off the wings and get flying!

Tailwinds...

From Pilots...To Professionals

Hello and welcome aboard!

Welcome to Aptitude and Altitude, the official blog of Elite Aviation Training!

There is an old adage spoken in aviation training: your attitude more than your aptitude will determine your altitude. A positive attitude helps make learning enjoyable and therefore more successful by any measure. While a good attitude can be encouraged and is irrefutably important to a positive learning outcome, it cannot be trained or tested. Though aptitudes can be innate, most are learned and developed. 

Our role at Elite Aviation Training is to further improve our client's pilot proficiency, airmanship and better develop their aeronautical decision making ability through mentoring and coaching.

Our goal at Elite is simple: to train all pilots to professional standard. We want our clients to evolve into safer, more competent and well rounded pilots capable of handling any situation with sound judgment and excellent decision making skills. To accomplish this goal we follow this process: 

1. Assessment of our client's previous training background, aviation technical knowledge, learning style and piloting skill; 
2. We build a comprehensive picture of their flying knowledge, skills and judgment making ability;
3. Then develop a personalized training curriculum. 

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recognizes "pilot error" as the number one cause of aviation accidents. While the term encompasses many things, the result is always the same: an airworthy and safe aircraft crashed, possibly resulting in fatalities, due to something a pilot did or didn't do. Therefore, Elite instructors employ training strategies often overlooked in general aviation training-but utilized in airline and military pilot training-as cornerstones in our curriculum development.

Well documented research says that not all students learn at the same pace or learn from the same teaching strategies. Each of our client's training experience is unique because our clients are taught in a manner in which they learn best. Therefore, our clients experience a seamless transition from their previous aviation education to Elite’s system of a personalized and comprehensive training syllabus. 

Elite Aviation Training professionals are gifted instructors that recognize latent safety hazards in the training environment that can result in pilot error in the real world and use their knowledge to create a powerful learning opportunity for their clients. Our pilots enjoy teaching, are passionate about life-long learning and love to fly! That enthusiasm positively impacts our clients making the learning experience fun.

 
At Elite Aviation Training, taking pilots and raising their aptitude to a professional level is our exclusive goal. We will better your aptitude so you can increase your altitude!

Tailwinds...