Student Pilot Makes 2 Big Mistakes During X-Country Solo
Here’s a story sent to us by a one of our readers that you really need to pay attention to, especially if you’re a student pilot. Mistakes like this happen all the time, especially with a student pilot who has a million things going on in his or her head. Using your checklist and knowing your airplane could prevent this problem. This student almost put himself into 2 different situations that could have made his flight a very scary or dangerous one.
This story was written by Russell Butz
I was waiting for a fellow student pilot to return from his second cross country solo so I could take the plane he was using on my own cross country solo. He was running a little bit late so when he taxied to the ramp, I went out to begin my preflight inspection. As we exchanged pleasantries, he told me he experienced radio trouble on his final leg and thought he might have to enter the class Delta airspace without radio communication. Observing that the Garmin was flashing and on a hunch, he turned the alternator ON. Magically, the radios began functioning! He indicated he had not flown this particular airplane, although the flight school has a fleet of three, and did not realize the alternator switch should be ON! I informed him that it was certainly essential no matter which of the three that he flew.
There was more. I asked the person on the line to top off the fuel since I was going cross country and began my preflight inspection. After filling the right tank, the line-woman stopped briefly at the left tank before putting the cap back on and rewinding the fuel hose. Did it not need topping off, I wondered? When I asked about the refueling, the young lady who filled the right tank said that the right tank was practically empty but the left tank was almost completely full! To my shock, the previous student pilot apparently never switched tanks. Almost losing his electrical power, the guy was about to run out of fuel in his right tank! When I returned from my flight, I made it a point to tell the owner of the flight school about my experience. I don’t know who endorsed this guy to solo, but it scared me to know there was another student out there who could be as careless as that.
Advice From Flight Instructor Joe
My advice to any pilot, whether you are a student or not is to be sure that you use a checklist and know the airplane systems; know what information they are giving you and why. Knowing the systems well will help you problem solve in the event of some kind of problem. Things like this can be avoided by asking questions when you don’t understand how something works. Any time you fly a plane other than the one you have been flying, sit in it and get familiar with it. If there is something that does not look familiar to you or you are not sure of how it works, ask your flight instructor. Our e-lesson called Simple Explanations for the Mechanical Things on the Flight Training Products tab explains the things you should know about your airplane systems. I wouldn’t call this pilot careless, but he didn’t understand the systems completely and may have had other distractions which made him forget the checklist which would have reminded him about changing the fuel tanks.
Do the best you can to remember and learn from this story. Fly Safe!