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FLYING LESSONS for August 27, 2015 suggested by this week’s aircraft mishap reports FLYING LESSONS uses the past week’s mishap reports to consider what might have contributed to accidents, so you can make better decisions if you face similar circumstances. In almost all cases design characteristics of a specific make and model airplane have little direct bearing on the possible causes of aircraft accidents, so apply these FLYING LESSONS to any airplane you fly. Verify all technical information before applying it to your aircraft or operation, with manufacturers’ data and recommendations taking precedence. You are pilot in command, and are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make.

FLYING LESSONS is an independent product of MASTERY FLIGHT TRAINING, INC. www.mastery-flight-training.com

This week’s lessons: Last week I traveled back in time 25 years and reacquainted myself with the tremendous Cessna 150. The “Nifty 150” and the follow-on C152 are one of the most under-rated airplanes of all time, probably responsible for training more civilian pilots than any other type in the 1960s through the late 1980s—the Golden Age of personal flight training. Most of my first 1000 hours were logged in the right (instructor’s) seat of a Cessna 152 or 150.

My goal is to help a friend complete is Private Pilot certificate, something he has been unable to do for several years, another victim of the usual state of much flight instruction in the United States: Very few training airplanes available, rental businesses going out of business in mid-syllabus, the need to repeat training with a change in instructor or rental company and after long gaps in training, inexperienced instructors and CFIs canceling lessons in favor of other time-building opportunities, weather thwarting attempts when traveling to an established school for a full-immersion finish-up program, and similar challenges to the student who wishes to learn to fly.

To attain this goal we are borrowing another friend’s 1970 Cessna 150. He is generously allowing us to use his ‘150 for as long as it takes to get my friend through his checkride. The catch: the Cessna was in Georgia; we’re in Wichita, Kansas. As we said in college, “Road trip!”

The 11-hour trip home reintroduced me to the absolute joy of low-altitude, VFR flight in a tiny yet nimble light airplane. It reminded me that it’s possible to cross great distances over short periods of time in personal aircraft, even if it’s not blazingly fast. The trip required me to make decisions I’ve not had to make in two and a half decades of primarily IFR flight. And it generated many FLYING LESSONS that apply no matter what type of aircraft you fly.

I “Facebooked” about my little adventure, and several of my Facebook (and real-life) friends suggested this would make a good edition of FLYING LESSONS Weekly. Even if you read about it there please read on, because I’m going to expand on the LESSONS as they apply to pilots of all types…not just those having the time of their life cruising along low-and-slow.

My plan was to make the first roughly two-hour leg to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, on the banks of the Tennessee River, the first night. First, I had to get to Griffin. That meant a 3 am wake-up for a 5:04 am departure via Chicago to Atlanta (United Airlines: $236; Delta Airlines nonstop: $684). The ‘150’s owner picked me up at the Atlanta airport and I took him to lunch before we reached his hangar, a Beechcraft-specialty maintenance shop on a private airstrip near Griffin (Southern Aero Services, www.soaero.com).

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It was about 1 pm by the time I was preflighting the little Cessna. I hadn’t flown the type in 25 years (although I have a fair amount of much more recent Cessna 172 time). I didn’t want to just jump in and fly away without some time for familiarity and to check things out (how would that look in an NTSB report?). With guidance from the airplane’s owner I took “her” up for about half an hour, practicing the basics: rudder control, steep turns, stalls (power on and off) and slow flight, before re-locating the little airport (there are so many trees compared to Kansas!), grateful for the help of my two GPS-es…my iPad running ForeFlight and a portable Garmin 796 that brings inflight weather and a backup source of aeronautical charts to this vintage cockpit. In that regard this was not a trip back in time!

My “nav suite” on the right seat of N5811G, along with the “snack service in the main cabin.”

FLYING LESSON 1: Set up your navigation devices on all flights, no matter how short. You might just need them!

FLYING LESSON 2: Unless you are using paper charts exclusively, have at least two independent sources of charts. Past LESSONS have focused on numerous pilot reports of iPad overheats, battery depletion and other outages that would leave you stranded without a backup.

I landed and began to take a serious look at the weather for my first leg homeward, conscious that I’d been awake (and traveling) for over 11 hours at this point. There was a forecast for possible thunderstorms in north Georgia and Alabama; the weather was hot, still and steamy, which is “Southern” for afternoon thunderstorms. I wish I had taken a screen shot 30 minutes before the first image (4:38 pm). At 4 pm there were only a very few isolated spots of green as the afternoon thunderstorms began to build. It came out of nowhere fast (unless you know what causes storms to form in the first place). Twenty minutes later it looked like the second image. I postponed beginning the “long trip in a tiny airplane” until the next morning...that, and my duty day hit 14 hours before I could make it to KMSL even if weather allowed—my second no-go limit.

FLYING LESSON 3: The atmosphere on a hot, humid day is like a pot of water heating on a stovetop. At 99°C/211°F it might not look hot at all. But as soon as it hits the boiling point it becomes tumultuous. Remember recent LESSONS about how storm-related turbulence is dangerous before it ever shows up on radar, and why it’s wise to stay out of all the green returns in areas of thunderstorms or when moderate or greater precipitation is in the same area.

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FLYING LESSON 4: Look at all those green-box VFR ceiling reports on the radar images above. Don’t let a report of visual meteorological conditions (VMC) fool you into thinking it’s OK to go when thunderstorms are popping up. It’s very common for the ceiling and visibility to meet visual criteria very close to storms, and even with storms overhead in drier areas.

About the time I made my no-go decision and began looking online for a local hotel, another pilot entered the shop’s office and told me the rotating beacon was flashing on the Cessna 150, meaning I’d forgotten to turn off the battery master.

FLYING LESSON 5: Fatigue is real. I was making small mistakes that, left unchecked, could have a big impact on the progress or safety of my flight. As a result I’m lowering my personal duty day maximum from 12 hours from 14…and committing to be on the ground with the engine(s) stopped when I reach 12 hours from my wake-up time, no matter what I’m flying.

Day 2: Bugsmasher Air Flight 001: Cedar Ridge Airport, Griffin, GA (GA62) to Muscle Shoals, Alabama (KMSL). Planned trip: 2 hours 30 minutes.

“What a difference a day makes!” exclaimed the airplane’s owner at 7:15 the next morning. I lifted off on a GPS-direct line to KMSL, flying a little off track to stay near some open fields over the forests of northwest Georgia at 2500 feet above sea level (MSL) to stay below the Atlanta airspace and broken to overcast clouds at 3200 feet. I was lovin' that 76 knot ground speed, which is about the over-the-fence landing speed in the Bonanzas I normally fly, and 20 knots below the final approach speed in a Beech Baron.

Yes, "Automatic Rough" is a thing. Automatic rough is a psychological condition in which you believe your single engine occasionally "sounds funny" when you're over an area with few to no airports or open fields to land—such as over water, in the mountains, over large urban areas or, in this case, over the expansive forests while climbing out in northwest Georgia (National Association of Flight Instructors chairman Bob Meder reminds me this applies to first flights with a new or overhauled engine also). You watch your engine gauges and turn toward the nearest airport at the first sign of a real anomaly. Of course, the ‘150's little 100 horsepower Continental was "powering the nation" just fine. (Continental Motors’ slogan in the ‘40s and ‘50s was “As Powerful as the Nation”).

FLYING LESSON 6: The shortest distance between two points may be a curving, great-circle line, but the wisest distance probably includes deviations from that route to remain over suitable landing spots and, in the case of twin-engine airplanes, away from terrain that’s higher than your single-engine service ceiling under current conditions. Sometimes you don’t have a choice, but if you do make that choice.

About two hours into my flight the fuel gauges were showing half tanks (about 11 gallons) remaining. My soon-to-be student pilot friend and I neither one are the FAA-standard 170 pound person, so we'll be limited to a little more than half-full tanks when I instruct him because of the airplane's maximum weight limit. Therefore it's important to know how accurate these fuel gauges really are...and how much fuel the Continental burns per hour. So I descended between the widely scattered clouds to Hartselle/Morgan County Airport (5M0), just southwest of Huntsville, AL, instead of pressing on to Muscle Shoals. I logged 2.2 hours total on Bugsmasher Flight 001. Turns out the fuel gauges are spot on and at high cruise (2550 rpm, leaned for maximum RPM) it burns about 6.5 gallons per hour at 90 knots true airspeed. Not bad!

FLYING LESSON 7: It’s vital to have confidence in the aircraft’s fuel indicating system, and to regularly renew that confidence by comparing indications to actual fuel remaining. Many pilots fixate on knowing precisely when a fuel tank will run dry. A wise friend and retired TWA captain once told me it’s far more important to know the actual fuel level when a tank reads ¼ full—because that’s when you need to be making a decision about continuing a flight or landing for fuel. Past FLYING LESSONS have reminded pilots that, despite the “old wives’ tale” that fuel gauges are required to be accurate only when the tank is empty, the reality is that regulations require them to be accurate at all marked levels on the cockpit gauge.

Quick-turn (about 35 minutes on the ground) to top off the tanks and it was time for Bugsmasher Flight 002, Hartselle/Morgan County nonstop service to Poplar Bluff, Missouri (KPOF)—The Great River Route. Planned time: 2.7 hours. I stayed low (2500 feet) for a tailwind on the southwest side of a big high pressure system. Check out the 101 knot ground speed! And

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the low-and-slow view was great... something I've not done in decades. Exactly 2.7 total hours, for a while along the Tennessee River west of Huntsville, AL (everything is "for a while" in a Cessna 150). Then, northwest over Jackson and Dyersburg, TN to cross the Mighty Mississippi (taking the obligatory "crossing the Mississippi" photo). Thence, across the Missouri Boot Heel to Poplar Bluff.

BSM003 (Bugsmasher Flight 003) departed Poplar Bluff for Monett, Missouri (KHFJ), just southeast of Joplin. Planned time: 2.2 hours. Sorry, first class upgrades are not available.

A direct route would be over dense forests of the northern Ozarks, so I chose to fly IFR—I Follow Roads—a long U.S. Highway 60, a road my wife Peggy, our son Alan and I drove many times to visit her parents in west Missouri when we lived in Tennessee. This gave me the highway as an emergency landing spot if I needed it. Check out this video and you’ll see what I mean. It only added about 18 miles to the direct-to distance. Guess what—no automatic rough! See www.mastery-flight-training.com/hwy60.html

XM NEXRAD weather on my Garmin 796 showed areas of light to moderate rain in isolated air mass thunderstorms near my destination. The good news: knowing the life cycle of a thunderstorm told me what I saw would be gone in less than an hour (see video). One nice thing about flying slowly: Sometimes the weather gets out of your way! Of course, it can form before you get there, too. I watched the development closely and only had to make one small deviation to stay in clear skies the entire way. Total flight time: 2.3 hours. See www.mastery-flight-training.com/radar.html

FLYING LESSON 8: Weather is not static, it’s a dynamic thing. It moves and changes constantly. Inflight weather data is probably the greatest advance in aviation since the last time I flew a Cessna 150, even more than GPS. This is because a preflight weather briefing tells you what the weather was at the time of the most recent observation, and what it is expected to be by the time you reach it. The reality is that a forecast is a highly educated guess, but it is still a guess—so if you’re still on the fence about purchasing some method of obtaining inflight weather updates please get that capability now. Various products and services have advantages and disadvantages over one another, and all have limitations that make none of them 100% accurate (so keep your distance and keep your eyes open). But they all provide a margin of safety that was not possible only a few short years ago.

I rested about an hour and the Bugsmasher was doing fine. So I mounted up for BSM004, nonstop service to Stearman Field, Benton, Kansas (1K1), just east of Wichita and the Cessna's temporary home field for the next month or two. My weather briefing showed fairly low clouds, 1700 - 1800 foot ceilings around Wichita. Since ceilings are reported above ground height and the field elevations around Wichita are in the 1500-foot range, this meant the clouds were at

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around 3200-3300 feet MSL. Therefore, I could maintain the safe and legal 1000-foot minimum height above ground and the minimum 500 feet beneath the clouds. But it would be tight.

Visibility everywhere was reported as "10 miles." In aviation weather reports, 10 is usually as high as it gets. So the visibility beneath the clouds was somewhere between “very good” and “unlimited.” Time to go. As I got closer and closer, however, the clouds above me were gradually dropping even as the ground elevation beneath me steadily rose. And the horizon was getting hazy. Before takeoff I checked the charts for the Maximum Elevation Figure (MEF) for each segment of the flight and decided the minimum altitude I would fly in each. I also determined that turning east toward a lower MEF was my best choice if I needed to deviate from my course while at the lowest altitude. Knowing this information beforehand took most of the stress out of flying at a safe, low altitude while the weather was behaving somewhat contrary to predictions.

FLYING LESSON 8: Before you take off, know the lowest safe altitude for each segment of your flight…a “segment” being some relative short distance you determine yourself, but one that changes with every major landmark and at any time the MEF (Maximum Elevation Figure) changes, or on instrument charts, when the Minimum Obstacle Clearance Altitude (MOCA), Minimum En Route Altitude (MEA) or Minimum Off Route Altitude (MORA) changes.

FLYING LESSON 9: Know beforehand what direction you will turn if things start to go badly. When I’m flying IFR I constantly think “if it starts to get too turbulent I’ll turn right,” etc. When I’m VFR, such as on the Bugsmasher route, I was forever thinking “If I have to descend any more I’ll turn east,” etc. You must always know the direction toward improving conditions and lower terrain.

FLYING LESSON 10: “High to low, look out below.” That tired mnemonic from Private Pilot ground school has real meaning in a situation such as this. Generally the air pressure lowers toward deteriorating weather (actually, it’s the lower pressure that tends to make weather conditions worse). If I did not have a current altimeter setting, the further west I went the lower I would actually be…lower than the altimeter on which I based all my terrain clearance decisions. I was too low out over the prairie to pick up any weather over the radio—so I depended on uplinked METARs that could be as much as an hour old. Even if I held the indicated altitude, then, my margin of safety was decreasing.

FLYING LESSON 11: Further, remember that a properly calibrated altimeter can read as much as 75 feet higher or lower than actual and still be within tolerance even for IFR flight. That’s yet another reason to get an updated altimeter setting as frequently as possible when VFR, and to dial in the current altimeter setting just before beginning a night or IFR approach.

Meanwhile, my wife and my friend/student-to-be were waiting for me at the Stearman Field Bar and Grill for a welcome-home supper and a congratulatory drink. I was nearly home, family and

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friends were waiting for me, and I was getting tired near the end of a 12-hour duty day as I pressed on toward deteriorating weather. See www.stearmanbarandgrill.com/#!menu/c5hf

Bugsmasher 004 was 20 minutes from destination when I found myself at my lowest safe altitude, with the clouds ahead dropping. The distinct horizon beneath the clouds was gradually getting hazier, until I could not see more than about three section lines ahead—about three miles. I was still in legal Visual Flight Rules (VFR) weather but I was pushing it. My onboard weather uplink told me I should be able to get home to Stearman Field, but apparently the weather was worse out over the prairie between the airport reporting points. FLYING LESSON 12: METARs are only valid for the weather within five miles of the reporting point—usually an airport. The only information available for current near-surface weather conditions at locations between the reporting points is Pilot Reports (PIREPs), which are usually very scarce. Even over flat terrain, but especially around hills and mountains, there can be a significant difference in local weather conditions that is not knowable ahead of time. In other words, don’t assume that because the METARs all report good ceilings and visibilities that you can safely fly between those airports in similar weather.

I could go just a little lower and be OK. The rules say I only have to be 500 feet above the ground over sparsely populated areas (and the east Kansas prairie is nothing if not sparsely populated). That puts me in Class G airspace, where I only need to remain clear of clouds in one mile visibility. The weather is good enough for that. I’m almost home. I can do this.

I quickly chose—because I had no choice—to turn around. So close! The weather was reportedly good at home, just ahead!

I can sure see why even experienced pilots sometimes talk themselves into disastrous situations...especially because the conditions worsened very gradually. It wasn't a distinct GO/CAN'T GO shift. It was "a little lower, a little lower," with no clear go/no go decision point.

EXCEPT...I had set a minimum altitude for myself for each segment of the flight before I ever took off. AND (big "and"), I forced myself to stick to that minimum despite all the temptation to go "just a little lower" in the hope that a few hundred feet would make the difference. Turning around was the only sure way to survive.

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FLYING LESSON 13: DO NOT HESITATE to execute your escape plan at the very first sign of trouble, whether it be terrain clearance, thunderstorms, ice accumulation, or any other hazard that affects VFR or IFR flights.

FLYING LESSON 14: The distance remaining to your planned destination is not a factor to consider when faced with the need to make a diversion. If conditions require you to divert do so even if you’re on the approach or in the pattern to your destination.

FLYING LESSON 15: Educate your family and friends that you may be delayed—perhaps significantly. Don’t let the fact they’re waiting for you impact your decision-making process. My wife and my friend know this—others who might someday want to meet me at the airport may not. Sometimes it’s best to tell those you’ll meet that you don’t know precisely when you’ll arrive, and that you’ll call them when you get to the airport. That reduces everybody’s anxiety level.

I made a level, 180° turn back to my pre-determined easterly escape route. After completing the turn I briefly thought I’d try to go to nearby Eureka, Kansas, but the skies looked darker that direction so I almost immediately returned to my easterly heading. I knew Chanute, Kansas had recently had a 2200-foot overcast, because I’d listened to the weather there as I’d flown past westbound. I landed at Chanute, called my very understanding wife and told her I was down for the night (she told me looking at the clouds she knew I probably wouldn’t make it—smart lady!). I followed posted directions to enter the locked FBO building using a code based on a charted aviation frequency, called the airport manager on the after-hours number posted on the door, got the keys to a beat-up Jeep Cherokee from his desk at his direction, checked into a beat-up motel (the best option available), ate a greasy dinner at a sports bar with extremely poor service, got a shower and had a good night’s sleep. Alive.

The continuation of Bugsmasher 004, now-overnight service to Wichita/Stearman Field:

More low clouds awaited when I awoke the next morning. Worse, huge thunderstorms were bearing down on the Wichita area from the west. I watched the storms develop, shift, dissipate and reincarnate on my iPad weather radar—so very different from when I last flew a Cessna 150 in 1990.

The storms didn't extend much north of Wichita, except one tiny cell that appeared to be dying out. The big mass of storms was moving east, so I knew if I just sat and waited it would eventually get to Chanute and I'd be stuck there all day. So instead of flying direct to Stearman Field (1K1), I planned to fly north to Emporia, KS (KEMP), then southwest to Newton, KS (KEWK), and then southeast to 1K1—an “end run” around the weather to come in behind the front. If the weather moved within 20 miles of me en route to Emporia I would turn east to any number of airports. If I got past the turn at KEMP and weather got close on my leg to Newton, I'd turn around and land at Emporia. And if I got to Newton and the storms had not passed beyond Stearman Field I'd land at Newton and either wait it out or have my friend pick me up there, and go back after the airplane another day.

I had to fly at about 2500 feet about half of the way to Emporia, matching my personal minimum for the segment. But soon the clouds above thinned out. I could hear an airplane on the Newton radio frequency reporting flying visually in the pattern there, so I turned west toward Newton without flying all the way to Emporia.

At that point my portable NEXRAD was showing the storm right over Stearman Field. But through The Miracle of Flying Slowly the storms moved away before I was due north of 1K1. I hit "Direct To" on my portable GPS and landed with no difficulty at all. Time en route: 1.7 hours.

Recap: I departed Griffin, Georgia at 7:30 am local time (6:30 am Central) on Friday, and arrived at Stearman Field 10:30 am Central the following day. I've been on commercial flights home from Atlanta that took that long to finally make it. I logged 10.9 total hours flying time plus the 25-minute shakedown flight at Griffin. About 70 gallons of fuel burned cost about $350...not much more than my one-way ticket to Atlanta to pick up the Cessna 150.

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I did a type of flying and made decisions I hadn't had to make in the past 25 years. I highly recommend you try it too! My next adventure: Conducting primary flight instruction with a Private Pilot candidate. I love it!

Thank you for flying Bugsmasher Air. I hope you had an enjoyable flight, and learned—or relearned—as much as I did on this trip.

In the hangar at Stearman Field, the Bugsmasher’s home for the next month or two.

Questions? Comments? Let us know, at mastery.flight.training@cox.net

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Personal Aviation: Freedom. Choices. Responsibility. Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety, MCFI Flight Instructor Hall of Fame 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year 2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year

FLYING LESSONS is ©2015 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. For more information see www.mastery-flight-training.com, or contact mastery.flight.training@cox.net.