A friend of mine was heading home from a business appointment out on the west coast. He had fueled up for the final leg, picked up his IFR clearance and was eventually cleared to his final altitude of 12,000 feet. He set the autopilot and settled in for the three-hour flight back to Chicago.
About 100 miles from his destination, the engine stuttered, then quit. The pilot notified the controller of the problem and requested vectors to the nearest airport, which was right below him. The airport boasted a 5000ft runway and was clear of obstacles on either side. The weather was clear and it was day time. He spiraled down and entered a short downwind, a base and then final. He didn't judge his spacing correctly and landed short of the runway by about 700 feet where the aircraft experienced substantial damage. The pilot sustained serious injuries, but made a full recovery.
By all accounts, the pilot should have had plenty of time to go through the checklist, configure the aircraft and get lined up for the intended landing point – the runway. Was he a good pilot? Yes. Did he know his aircraft? Absolutely! Why then, did the outcome of this maneuver that is often practiced in the training environment literally end up short?
When preparing for a training session with an instructor, the trainee typically gets a good night’s sleep and studies as much as possible before the big day. Many of the training objectives are predictable and as a student, or pilot receiving instruction, you have some inkling that certain things – such as an engine failure - are bound to happen at some point. This isn’t so in real life as there are many variables creep up on us. You may be on the third leg of flying, it may be night time, and the typical pressures that gnaw at us may be rearing their ugly head– schedules, passengers, etc. When something dramatic happens such as an engine failure while we are in the air, there is typically a sense of disbelief, a pause and then the moment where training kicks in.
But, does the training always just magically kick in as I’ve read so many times in stories about close calls? Depending upon the situation, it might not, or at least it may abbreviate itself and in your haste to get on the ground, you may miss things on the checklist - if you even pulled out the checklist at all. When a real incident happens, your heart rate starts to elevate, blood pressure goes up and urgency kicks in. It's easy to make good decisions while you are calm, but how do you know if you will make good decisions when stress is at its highest point?
A good flight instructor will explore the boundaries of a pilot’s limits and attempt to add stress or to get that heart rate going. How is this done? That’s where unrealistic training scenarios come into play.
To give an example, I was performing an Instrument Proficiency Check with a student. He was doing great. Wait – he was doing fantastic! He was flawless on his approach briefings, radio setup, and standard failures that were presented to him. So, what did I do? I knocked his checklist on the floor. As he went to pick it up, I switched the localizer frequency to something else while he wasn’t looking, then covered up his attitude indicator. I also told him that his autopilot was broke, then I told him that he was losing power on his left engine and brought the throttle back to 15 inches.
The pilot did well as he dealt with each problem, but he didn’t think this was a very fair and accurate example of what could happen on a flight. He told me that in all seriousness, if all of that happened to him on a real flight, he might have just accepted his fate. He was clearly frustrated - and that was my goal. We discussed the flight once we were on the ground and I explained that it wasn't was my intention to see if he could handle everything I threw at him, my goals were as follows:
- Create a distraction
- Try to increase the heart rate
- Accelerate the situation
- Try to frustrate
- Evaluate the outcome
Is this just another evil flight instructor trick? Maybe. Was this a good way to evaluate how a pilot will react when things aren’t going their way in the real world? Absolutely!
When something unexpected happens, frustration will typically manifest itself as the pilot works their way through a problem. Thoughts are bound to go through the pilot’s head they manage disbelief at the situation and try to reconcile how this could have happened. (Why didn’t my mechanic find this at annual time? Didn’t I check the fuel level before departing? Why is this happening to me right now?) This is certainly an aspect of real life that is nearly impossible to replicate in the training environment, but as instructors, we try to do what we can to emulate it the best we can with the tools we have.
The next time an instructor starts to throw unrealistic scenarios at you during a flight review or an instrument proficiency check, know that they are trying to saturate your workload or try to explore the limits of your ability to cope and to observe your performance in a controlled environment. As with any training event, be sure to debrief with your instructor, especially on items you felt may have been unfair or not necessarily applicable to your type of flying. They may be evaluating you on something completely different than what you thought, so gaining this valuable feedback is very important. Conversely, the instructor should know if you are ready to advance beyond aircraft handling and procedures, because if those aren’t solid, there is no point in adding unnecessary frustration.
Every instructor wants to create a positive and valuable experience, so if you are one of those pilots that have owned the same airplane for many years, fly hundreds of hours per year, and are very proficient, a good instructor is going to do a little more than make sure you have procedures down pat by throwing you a curve ball that you didn't expect.