Instructor intel

In September CASA advised that it had amended the CAAP 5.81-1(0) to 5.81-1(1) – Flight Crew Licensing Flight Reviews.

The change is to recommend that a person conducting a Flight Review include a navigation component into the review.

While CASA did not elaborate as to the back ground for this amendment and recommendation it stems from an accident that happened on December 24 2008. On that day a Cessna 172L, VH-EKS, crashed while on a flight from Mudgee to Glen Innes. ATSB accident report AO-2008-83 refers.

The pilot took off from Mudgee and climbed above increasing cloud. He then elected to descend through the cloud to maintain VMC. In so doing the aircraft ended up in a closed valley and collided with terrain. The passenger suffered fatal injuries.

The investigation revealed a number of short comings to the flight including that the aircraft did not have an ELT on board. There was insufficient flight and reserve fuel. No formal flight plan had been submitted. Aviation weather forecasts had not been obtained for the flight. The pilot flew into IMC conditions while not holding an instrument rating. When in the accident valley the pilot was unaware of his location.

The key item in the report was that the pilot had undergone an Aeroplane Flight Review the day before the accident. The investigation identified that the optional nature of the navigational component of the Flight Review meant that a pilot’s navigational skills could remain unassessed for an extended period. While this did not contribute to the accident CASA advised ATSB that the Flight Review CAAP would be amended to recommend a navigational component and that guidance would be provided on its conduct.

Logbooks This writer recently heard of yet another case of a logbook stolen from the owner’s car. It was in a bag along with a headset. All three items have not been seen since.

As pilots we need to be ever careful with where we store our logbooks given that they are almost impossible to fully replace.

In the past this column has suggested taking a periodic photocopy of the pages of ones logbook. To do this can sometimes be difficult given the size of the copier scanner face. This then means that the two pages of a log book entry have to be copied separately.

One way around this could be to use modern technology, a digital camera, to copy those pages. A camera chip card takes up far less space to store than that of bulk photocopied pages. Taking a photo can be done almost anywhere, anytime and quickly.

On the subject of logbooks perhaps one should put an obvious note on the inside front page saying ‘Reward if returned, no questions’ along with a contact phone number and email address. Appeal to the greed factor to get that logbook back.

Licence Test Failures.

Chatting with a CASA FOI recently he commented on the reasons of flight test failures for GFPT and PPL licence candidates. Top of the list of reasons for a GFPT candidate to fail the test was take-offs and landings. Second major reason was situational awareness not being maintained.

For the Private Pilots Licence test the major fail reason was navigation and again followed by situational awareness not being maintained. Obviously those reasons give instructors incentive to ensure that the candidates they put up for testing are competent in those vital areas.

D Class Airspace Radio Calls.

GAAP Airspace has gone and has been replaced with D Class Airspace. One of the requirements with this new airspace is to get a clearance from the ground controller to move around the active areas of the airport.

GAAP, now D Class airports, have in the main been training airports and with them come trainee pilots, rookies by another name.

With the requirement to get a clearance along taxiways and across inactive runways to the chosen take-off runway holding point comes an increased amount of radio traffic by inexperienced and sometimes nervous trainees. It is not uncommon for the trainee to make an incomplete call that requires a further call from the ground operator. All this can clog the air waves while others are waiting to make their call and get rolling. It is not uncommon for the next in line to make a call over another party or even before the earlier call has been completed. Then more calls are required to complete the original call.

While all this radio work is taking place the ground radio is effectively clogged thus preventing an urgency call if so required. An urgency call could be to stop an aircraft going the wrong way, needing to be stopped or simply be given a clearance to clear the active area.

One has to wonder if all this increased radio work is in the interests of safety?

Contact Dave via email at [email protected]