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Temporary flight restrictions pop up all the time. If you don’t know they are there and you fly into one, you risk a suspension of your pilot license. For student pilots, a TFR over your airport means you probably won’t be training that day but for a private pilot, you can still fly as long as you follow a few simple steps.
Rather than write this next article myself, I asked one of the pilots I know to write it because he recently flew into a TFR. I thought it would be good to hear it straight from someone that did it with explanations of the steps he took to do so. After reading this, you will realize that it’s not as scary as you thought. Thanks for taking the time to write this Jeff.
Jeff Dickenson
For those of us living in the Chicago area, Presidential Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) covering a circle with a diameter of 60 NM for a period of 2 or 3 days, have become a common occurrence. During these periods, I all too often hear pilots complaining about being grounded for yet another weekend. While it is true that most TFRs do prohibit some types of flight operations during certain time periods in certain parts of the airspace, it is simply not true that GA flying is prohibited as a whole. In fact, by following a few simple and easy steps, flying within a TFR is not only allowable, but very simple, and not very far removed from any VFR or IFR cross country flight. (more…)
I have been asked many times by pilots and student pilot whether it’s ok to fly into rain. There is no problem flying in the rain but it really depends on the type of rain and other factors. Is it a steady rain? Is it showers? You can’t just decide whether it’s ok to fly in the rain based on the type of rain. You need to check all aspects of the weather. You know what your weather minimums are as a pilot. You have certain visibility and cloud clearence requirements that you have to meet. You can’t fly in thunderstorms and should maintain at least a 20 mile distance from the nearest thunderstorm! If it’s raining during a thunerstorm, forget it!
Steady rain is usually ok as long as there are no thunderstorms associated with it, but not always. What I mean by that is how heavy is the rain. Even though rain may not be associated with a thunderstorm, it can lower your visibility quite a bit if you fly through it. In general, if it is raining over a large area, like half the state, then the visibility is probably good. You still need to check the weather to see before you fly though. Where the problem comes in is if there are showers. Showers are more spread out in small areas and are easy to see from the air. They do not cover large areas, but they cover an area of only a few miles. This is a picture of what an area of showers looks like.
Showers like this are NOT good! When I took this picture, it was great visibilty everywhere I looked, except where the showers were. You can see the horizon just fine until you look at the showers. If you can’t see the horizon through the rain, then you won’t be able to see if you fly into it. You could end up with 1 mile visibility or ZERO visibility!
These showers are only covering an area of about 2 miles or less, but they can spread out quickly. They can also fade out just as quickly as they spread. I’ve seen showers associated with a thunderstorm spread from 2 miles to 15 miles in 5 minutes while flying back from Key West Florida in a small plane many years ago! I was pretty nervous and was getting ready to put the plane down on the only road leading through the swap area on my way back if I had to.
It popped up out of nowhere. I was 10 miles miles away at the time, admiring how cool it looked. I thought it was just showers but it ended up being a thunderstorm cell. In just a few minutes, it was twice the size and much closer to me. There were no airports anywhere near me and I was in the middle of the everglades. I was flying over the only road around. I maxed out the power in the plane without exceeding redline. I kept my eye on the storm and kept my eye on the road below me, getting ready to land on it if I had to. By the time it spread out to about 15 miles wide it was only about 5 miles from me. Look at the picture above. These showers are only 5 miles from me but they are less than 2 miles across. Imagine 15 miles across, just as close and it’s a thunderstorm. At this point, I noticed that I was slowly getting farther away. I was 15 minutes from the nearest airport. I called ahead to the airport to see how the weather was there and it was clear sky. By the time I touched down at the airport, it was overcast and raining. By the time I taxied to the ramp, it was pouring rain so hard it sounded like hail. It was thundering really loud too. I had heard 3 other planes talking to the tower too behind me and when I looked back, all 3 landed right in a row behind me in the thunderstorm that I had passed. In 15 minutes it went from clear sky to a heavy thunderstorm. Look at the next picture to see how fast showers can spread out.
These are the same showers as the last picture. In a 10 minute period they spread out to about 4 miles wide. If this was a thunderstorm cell, it would have spread much quicker. Even though it isn’t a thunderstorm, if you were flying too close to it, you may end up flying through it by accident. Even flying through the area to the right side of the picture where you can see through to the horizon could mean a lot of turbulence! I’ve been there, avoiding the main shower shaft, flying in the lighter area. The rain there can be pretty hard and the turbulence enough to make you wonder what the hell you are doing!
My suggestion to you as an experienced pilot and instructor is to stay away from these areas. Keep an eye on them. Watch the direction it’s moving and fly around it on the side it’s moving away from. Dont fly toward it’s direction of travel. If it’s a thunderstorm, stay away by 20 miles or more. If it’s showers, then stay at least 5-10 miles away as long as it’s moving away from you.
Over time, I’ve come to realize that many people don’t know much about how any of the mechanical things work in the airplane. They go through the motions of doing a runup and not really knowing if something is right or recognizing if something is wrong. One example I can give is when I was with a student. He was doing a magneto check, and checked the right mag. It immediately started running rough. He checked the rpm drop and switched back to the both position. He then switched to the left mag which was smooth. He went back to both and then went on to the next item in the checklist.
I stopped him at this point and asked if he noticed the difference between the two mags. He said that he did. I asked him why he ignored it and continued on with his checklist if he noticed it and he said it was because the rpm drop was within the limits specified in the checklist. We had a discussion afterwards. As a pilot, you need to be able to problem solve things and if you don’t know how things work and what they are supposed to do, then how are you going to save the day if something ever goes wrong while you are flying? I can tell you right now, that if I was on an airline flying with a pilot that had no clue how things worked, I would be pretty nervous.
What about if the engine quit while you were flying. I’m sure you’d go through the motions of trying to restart by flipping switches and turning on buttons because that’s what you were taught to do, but do you know WHY you are doing it? Do you know how to narrow down the problem? Would you recognize the signs of the problem or know how to minimize your risk?
Do you know what an alternator is? How about a load meter, fuel pump, circuit breakers, carburetor or carburetor heat, magnetos, primer or vacuum pump? What about the throttle or mixture control, alternate air, annunciator lights, oil or master switch? Most people I talk to only know only a couple of these things. Knowing these things can be critical to your safety and the safety of your passengers. You need to study every detail about all of these items and know them well enough to be able to problem solve if something happens.
As of today, we have just released a new E-Lesson explaining in simple terms, you can relate to, so that you can easily understand and remember what all these things are. There are also tips on how to problem solve, explaining what you should be looking for and why. It doesn’t get any easier than this. If you’ve avoided this stuff because it’s boring and hard to understand, then this is for you. If you like the free tips we post on our site, then you’ll love the detail of this even more. The explanations are designed to make it as easy as possible for you! If you want to learn it all in as short a time as possible, buy it now! You’ll be glad you did.
The mechanical things and how they work
This article is about how an S-Turn helps you and the common mistakes with S-turns across a road. The purpose of S-Turns and other ground reference maneuvers is to prepare you for landing. During the S-Turn you are at an altitude that is the same as the typical traffic pattern. You are learning about maintaining the proper speed, wind correction and also timing your rollouts to be on a specific heading at the right time. You are developing your hand – eye coordination and learning how much control input is needed and when, to accomplish your goal. When you are making your turns in the pattern and timing your turns to final you are doing the same things you’d be doing during an S-Turn.
In an S-Turn across a road, you are putting in just the right amount of bank to make sure you stay the same distance from the road on both sides. During the beginning, the half way point and end of the maneuver, the plane has to be wings level, with the wings parallel to the road just as it reaches the road. See below for these three positions.
When the plane starts the maneuver it is perfectly lined up with it’s wings level and parallell to the road. At the half way point, it is excatly the same, but heading the opposite direction. The last part will look exactly as it did when you started. The half circles on each side of the road should be the same distance from the road on both sides. Many people struggle with the timing of the roll out as they get to the road. It needs to be timed so that at the exact moment you are reaching the road, you are just finishing leveling off the wings while pointing the exact opposite direction. You need to do a gradual roll into and out of the maneuver. Many people will hold a steep bank all the way to the road and quickly roll wings level as soon as they get to the road. This is not what you want to do. It has to be a gradual roll out timed to be level just as you reach the road. See below for common mistakes.
While practicing these maneuvers, try to avoid the above mistakes. Judge your distance accurately and time your roll outs properly while holding altitude and airspeed and you will do perfect S-Turns. Yes, you have to hold altitude and speed too! Have fun and don’t forget to enter the maneuver with a tailwind!
As of the writing of this article, we are just about finished with a couple more E-Lessons; one of which is about ground reference maneuvers. For those who have a hard time understanding where to look and how to judge distance, etc. the lesson will have actual IN FLIGHT photos of the maneuver with detailed instructions along with diagrams like those shown above to show you where you are in the maneuver as it is being done.
You as a pilot are responsible for collision avoidance. That means, in order to avoid a collision you have to be looking outside the plane! I see so many students and pilots both staring at the instruments instead of looking outside. I will remind them to look outside and for a brief few seconds they look up and around and then fall right back into their instrument panel coma.
This habit has to be broken or it will continue until you aren’t so lucky anymore.. There are many things that keep pilots from looking outside, such as trying to learn something inside the plane, distraction from passengers or even your new aviation toy. You need to learn to multi-task. I’ve asked pilots to turn to a certain heading, just to have them roll into a turn without ever even looking where they are going.
The average general aviation airplane used for training goes around 120 mph. If cars were driving down the street at 120 mph, and you were a passenger, how would you feel if the driver kept pulling out into the street without looking before he turned? The longer your head is down, not looking out, the more you risk death.
Keep scanning for other planes and don’t stop. If you see one out in the distance and it doesn’t seem to be moving, you are probably on a collision course. If you are heading towards each other and both going the same speed, you are closing in on each other at a speed of almost 250 miles per hour! In just a few seconds, you’d be right on top of each other and you wouldn’t have enough time to react. At least if you see it, you can divert your course to avoid a collision.
Whenever I see my students staring inside (which is usually while doing take off and landing practice), I cover up the instruments. I cover all of them. They usually ask how they are supposed to know their speed. I tell them that if they put the plane in the position it normally is for landing, then the speed will fall into place. You don’t need to stare at the airspeed because if you’re holding the plane stable, the speed will stay stable too. If you’re raising the nose, the speed will slow down. If your letting the nose drop, it will speed up. Look at the horizon and you can see it. You can also hear the engine changing.
When it comes time to take off, they worry because they don’t want to rotate too soon or climb out to slow. I tell them that we’ve done it enough times to know what it should look like, feel like and sound like. When you think we are at rotate speed, then rotate. Put your nose in the climb attitude during the climb that we always use and things will be fine. I also tell them to level off when they think we are at pattern altitude. Yes, the altimeter is covered too.
During climbout I will pop off the airspeed cover for a second just to show them that the speed is just fine. Every single time, it has been within 5-7 knots which is within PTS standards. They usually ask again, when to level off. I remind them to do it when they think we are at pattern altitude. After leveling off, I again show them and most of the time, the altitude is within 100′. Only one time was someone off more than that and they were only 200′ off. They did just fine without having any visual reference to any of the instruments. It just proves that you know the plane better than you think you do! We continue several circuits in the pattern like this before I pull off the covers. I say, now that you know you can fly without looking inside at all, keep your eyes outside! They are always amazed at how close they were on speed and altitude.
You need to know your plane well. Focus your attention on how the plane sounds, what it looks like outside while you are doing different maneuvers, etc. You need to realize that you know the plane better than you think you do and get more confidence in your ability. Before you know it, you will be looking outside 99% of the time while holding heading and altitude without a problem. Practice with an instructor sometime and see for yourself! It’s easier than you think.