Many student pilots and even some experienced pilots get behind the airplane sometimes. What I mean by “behind” the airplane is struggling to keep up. For a student this is especially hard because there are so many things that are new to them. There are a few things that can contribute to this and I will talk about how you can not only, keep up with the airplane, but actually stay ahead of the airplane!
Let’s start on the ground. This is the best time to get your stuff together. If you’re going somewhere, then you should have all available information about your trip ready in case you need it. It starts with the planning phase. I know that not everyone plans perfectly but this post is about what you should be doing. It’s advice to make things easier and safer for you. So, we will assume that you’ve gotten a weather briefing for your trip and you have all information you need and already planned it out.
Starting with the weather, you need to assess how the weather will affect you. Is there a chance it will get worse? Is there going to be turbulence,wind shear, strong crosswinds? Thinking ahead about how all these things can affect your flight will help you stay ahead of it because you will already know how you will react to the situation. If there is a chance that IFR weather may be coming in a couple of hours after the end of your flight, did you ever consider that it may come in earlier and could interfere with your trip? If you think of that as a possibility, then you will be prepared.
What about winds? When you get the forecast winds at the destination, you can look at the airport diagram in advance and figure out which runway you may be using before you even leave. While you’re looking at the diagram, you can go through any taxiway closures and mark them on the diagram.
Getting into the airplane, lay out all the information you have in a logical order and keep everything easily accessible. I would keep my charts, airport diagrams, flight plan and paper with a pen with me. Any other things I would leave out of the way within easy reach. Load up the radio frequencies. Most planes have 2 radios and each has a standby frequency. That’s enough to load 4 frequencies. Put them in the order you will use them so it will just be a matter of pushing a button or flipping a switch to get to the next one. If you have more than 4 frequencies you will be using, then as soon as you are finished with one, put the next one in.
Once you’re on your way, keep track of your checkpoints. If you are going to being flying past checkpoints A, B, C, D and E, then once you see A, you should already be looking of B. I see many people flying to checkpoint A and waiting until they get there to start looking for B. If you know you will be flying to B after A, then start looking for it as soon as you can and don’t wait until the last minute. The farther out you see your checkpoints, the easier it will be to navigate and the more time you’ll have to enjoy the view.
While you are flying, always think to yourself “what is next?”. If you are almost there and the next thing will be landing, then you should have the weather frequency tuned in for that airport already and ready to listen to it. If you’re flying to an uncontrolled airport then you should make your first call about 10 miles out. Knowing this, you should think ahead enough to listen to the weather before that. Do it far enough out to figure out which runway the winds are favoring. If they are favoring the runway you planned for, then great, if not then you’re still ahead because you listened to the weather far enough out to figure out which runway to use and how you will enter the pattern.
Coming down final, look at the taxiways and which ones lead to the ramp. You can get a nice birds eye view of the layout and see which is the easiest way to get to where you are going while approaching from the air. You already know what to do, most people do. The problem is they wait too long to do it. If you always think of what will be next and then get ready for it and actually do it ahead of time instead of waiting until the last minute, then you will stay ahead of the plane. It’s not complicated but it may take a bit to break any habits you have. Unexpected things happen too but if you’re ahead on the other things, you won’t have as much of a workload and it will be easier for you to handle!