Introduction
Effective training is vital to any business operation, but especially for those serving in the aviation evaluation process. When facilitating students to make sound decisions, part of that training method involves applying safe and effective judgment. The skills that are taught during the initial and recurrent training become and influential factor in how a pilot makes decisions throughout their flying career. This training program provides seven different, but common scenarios used during initial, recurrent and advanced flight training.
For more FREE CFI and other related topic courses go to:
goo.gl/eYwTf
Video
The Federal Aviation Administration's aviation safety program has developed this training in an effort to assist instructors and those who serve in the evaluation process to help create meaningful and practical scenarios for use during flight training.
The objective of this training is to enable instructors to develop good judgment and aeronautical decision-making skills and their students, pilot examiner's and aviation safety.
Inspectors should also benefit from this program and being able to develop similar type scenarios.
When evaluating pilot applicants reviewing recent aviation accident and incident statistics, we can recognize some of the major cause of factors leading to accidents, primarily the human factor element.
The pilot is the direct causal factor in 75% of all aviation accidents.
Even though we blame the pilot in most aviation accidents, we need to realize that the accident or incident chain starts early.
Poor judgment usually begins during pre-flight planning in preparation.
This lack of judgment, or rather good judgment, can be attributed to poor training, lack of experience or lack of proficiency.
As you can see, some of the major factors contributing to aviation accidents include poor pre-flight of the aircraft, inadequate planning due to lack of receiving of proper weather briefing poor decision-making once airborne enroute and the act of eliminating options for leaving yourself an out as the flight continues on average.
Over the past few years, the NTSB accident statistics indicate that 24% of the total accidents occurred during the takeoff phase 10% during the descent approach phase and 38% during the landing phase of flight.
If you compare the amount of flight time involved in these three phases to the total flight time of a normal flight, over 72 percent of the accidents occur during a very short period of time.
The fact is that these three phases of flight occurred during a high workload period, while operating close to the ground.
The fatality rate for weather-related accidents was 15% of the total accidents.
These statistics are alarming.
Most of these accidents indicate a failure of the pilot to recognize a poor decision or a failure to make a decision in a timely manner.
This is where you as a flight instructor, can play a vital role in bringing about a positive change for the aviation industry.
The practical test standards and regulations require that flight instructors educate students on how to make sound decisions as an instructor, you have the responsibility and flexibility in developing lessons to challenge and enhance a student's skill and applying safe and effective judgement.
The tools you use help expose the student to the decision making process earlier during their training as flight instructors.
We know that during the practical test, it's common for evaluators to use scenarios to test the student's ability to make safe, sound decisions, the decision-making training tools that we use during initial and recurrent training influence.
How a pilot makes decisions throughout the flying career.
Remember a key factor is how well we train the pilot.
This will determine how they perform during the real situation.
The scenarios provided during this training session should be used during initial recurrent and advanced training, including flight reviews.
Let's look at some realistic scenarios that can put the participants decision-making abilities into action, feel free to use or modify any of these during your flight training evaluations.
This is a preflight situation where a student and instructor are slowly walking around the aircraft, checking different components during the pre-flight.
The student encounters a questionable airworthiness situation, no loose pins or safety, no obstructions of those panels, skins underneath no damage at the stable, later tip no damage on the lower fin.
You know the antennas, secure and no damage on the flat page landing gear looks good.
Brakes are okay, Bruce mera.
Second, this tire is showing some wear.
I can't tell what's going on.
What do you think? Is this worth cancelling a flight for as an instructor? What would you do if a student asked you a question like this? Would you tell the student what to do and why let the student figure it out for themselves and intervene if necessary, or would you let the student decide? After all, it is their chance to make a decision.
Let's see how this instructor handles it.
First of all, that's a good catch Pierre.
That could be a potential problem, but let's pretend that I'm not here for a minute.
What would you do? I'd, probably call the nearest mechanic and see what what they thought.
That's a great idea.
Why don't you do just that? Go, find a mechanic and see what they think.
Thank you.
It's certainly worn there don't know what type of landings you're gonna be doing, whether it's uneven surfaces, heavy braking or possible side loads.
We can change it now or we can wait till you get back now.
The student is faced with making some real pilot and command decisions.
He misused some decision-making tools that factor in on the safety of the flight.
From what we have observed.
In this scenario, the instructor allowed the student to seek outside information to build on his own decision-making process, but by receiving this outside input, it still places the student in a position to make a pilot and command decision.
The student will then weigh all the risk factors as provided by the instructor.
This next scenario could be used during an engine run-up.
The poor flight, in this case the instructor challenges the pilots knowledge about the engine magneto system before you check that magneto.
Can you tell me what an acceptable indication would be during a check sure an acceptable magneto check would be a hundred to 125 rpm drop.
The difference between the two Magneto drops should not be more than 50 rpm right, okay.
Well, what would you consider doing if the magneto check resulted in abnormal roughness? Frankly, I, don't know what I would do.
Can you help me out? You have several options: let's explore some of them.
Have you checked the logbook for any previous write-ups about problems with this engine yeah I did before we came on board.
Okay, what's the likelihood of having fuel contamination listen to the engine, you also have the option of running the engine at a higher power setting and leading the mixture back.
This can sometimes clear a foul sparkplug.
If you decide to do this, you'll need to return the mixture to full rich unless you're at a high off to the airport.
They reduce the throttle back to the proper rpm and conduct another magneto check.
In this situation, the instructor has become a valuable resource for the student pilot, while allowing the student to explore different possibilities about the situation.
Effective, aeronautical decision making or ADM is a systematic mental process that helps pilots decide the best course of action for a given set of circ*mstances.
An instructor should encourage and reinforce a student's ability to question their judgment at every step in the training process, helping them to anticipate the outcome of each decision made over time.
A DM should become an automatic process.
The next scenario examines the causes of poor decision-making, while numerous circ*mstances can apply to this context.
This scenario addresses decisions made about fuel and whether or not to continue to a pre-planned destination.
Every year, approximately 5% of all accidents involved pilots making the wrong decision about fuel management.
While many scenarios can be developed to demonstrate poor decision making, fuel consumption is just one topic among many that can be explored.
What is it that causes a pilot to make poor decisions? Let's see how this instructor develops a scenario to put a student pilots decision-making abilities to the test.
Sure is a nice day out here.
I, don't think we could have planned this any better.
Isn't that the truth? This is a perfect day for doing some cross-country training.
What airport was that we just passed I believe it was the downtown air park, good the instructor and the student are flying and are more than halfway along on their cross-country flight.
The instructor asked the student, the current status of the fuel supply while we're flying along here.
Let's, let's just say, hypothetically, that you look down at your gauges and notice at this point in your flight, that's the fuel gauges for indicating about one-quarter full.
What would you do? Are we, assuming that we started on a full tank? Yes, 36 gallons worth well I got it would have taken us 24 gallons to fly an hour, but if it did I'd say we have a problem.
Ok, acknowledging that you do have a potential problem.
What could be the probable causes? As you begin, troubleshooting go ahead, verbalize for me, some of the causes of the field problem.
Well, it's possible that I misread the gauge, so I may want to check again or it's possible that the gauge is reading and accurately.
Although I tend to trust my instruments, there could be a good all right, I, don't remember seeing any fuel leaks on the preak line, but it could be a new instead of pre-existing condition, good anything else.
It's possible that I may need to recheck my calculations and keeping track of my fuel consumption.
I know that this airplane normally uses about nine gallons of fuel per hour.
The gauges are indicating a quarter of the tank.
This means I have about 10 gallons remaining based on the student pilots, knowledge about the fuel situation, their present location and other factors.
Some important decisions need to be made.
Primarily.
The concern should be whether to continue flying or alter the course and land.
Are you aware that, by slowing down the speed of the aircraft, you can say Phil slowing down near to sweet burns? Less fuel? Oh just like driving your car? That's right! The student is presented with several possibilities as to why a fuel problem would exist and some alternatives and dealing with it.
Another possibility exists one that is difficult for any pilot to admit, and that is acknowledging that a mistake could have been made during pre-flight.
Regardless of the cause of the problem, a decision must be made.
Is it a go or a no-go situation for many pilots? Some are anxious to get home and can easily overlook potential problems, whereas some pilots may consider a minor problem and inconvenience, something that can be addressed later and, as we know, it's those little things that can grow quickly into big things, eventually eliminating a pilots possible options.
So what is your prediction of the actions of this particular student pilot? Think about the consequences evolved with each of the different options? Factors like the current time of day and weather conditions are likely to be a consideration in the decision-making process.
You know, based on all the information I have at my disposal, I.
Think at this point, I'm going to speed down and divert back to that airport.
We passed earlier, it's closer than our intended destination and, since it's getting dark, I'd rather play it safe right here, it's nice to know we're working with a conscientious pilot.
The fuel scenario is just one among many scenarios that can be used at any pilot skill level, regardless of the problem-solving technique.
The objective is to emphasize that a pilot must maintain situational awareness at all times during a flight, whether it is a fuel problem, weather situation or mechanical problem.
A pilot should be cognizant of how long they've been flying, how far they have to go and when it's necessary to make a determination whether to divert or alter their intended course.
The optimum skill and decision-making is to make decisions early.
Why you still have options? The more one delays making decisions, the more narrowed the alternatives become conceivably jeopardizing the safety of the flight.
This next scenario involves weather and controlled flight into terrain, also known as C Fateh accident statistics today constantly reflect that pilots are continuing their flights into weather conditions beyond their flying capabilities and are not staying situationally aware of the surrounding terrain.
Unfortunately, most pilots believe that see fit accidents can only happen in mountainous terrain.
A statistics show this is not true.
These types of accidents can happen anywhere.
This next example demonstrates how an instructor develops a weather-related scenario.
The student and the instructor take off on a cross-country flight and climb to a safe altitude for the route of the flight.
They observe a broken to overcast condition up ahead.
This forces the pilot to descend the aircraft.
How much lower would he be willing to go before he made a decision to turn back you're doing really well with your trading and since we're working with some lone cloud cover today, I wanted to work through some possible real flying scenarios involving weather.
Oh, you know, I'm, just a student pilot I'm, not IFR rated I, don't know if I the ability to work weather.
Don't worry, didn't worry, he'll be fine.
This is just part of your training and I wouldn't allow you to put either one of us in a bad situation anyway: okay, good pepper, but with that yeah.
If using that cloud deck up ahead, one that's broken to overcast.
Let's assume that we called flight service and they told us that this broken overcast layers taste the same all the way to our destination.
So considering that's that's, what's going to happen, that's the way it is.
We can't get through it we're stuck on top or we could be so based on what you know.
What will we need to do next? Knowing that the weather is going down at our destination, we're gonna need to get under that cloud.
Deck I recommend we descend at 3,500 feet: okay, since we're at 3,500 and I'm going to once again simulate with the cloud deck.
Let's just go down an additional 300 feet or down to 3.2 or 3,200 feet and as we descend and get below the cloud deck.
Let's pretend the visibility decreases down to five miles.
So let's go ahead and descend to 3200, okay, how much further west do you think you can go factoring in your flying experience and the fact that the cloud deck you know could get better, but it also might get worse well, we are still at VFR visibility.
Isn't too bad? We are getting lower.
I can see the interstate beneath us.
You know I really had a lot lower than I'd like to be in this area, with the weather going down and the terrain sloped uphill in a westerly direction.
My present position I'm 1,300 feet above the ground that doesn't take into account local antennas or obstacles in the area.
At this point, I'd like to land and replan this flight, the student pilot has made a wise decision to land the aircraft landing allows the pilot more options in decision-making.
For instance, now he can examine the weather from all perspectives.
The student pilot can rechart the intended course based on current conditions.
The student pilot can look at the price of getting a taxi and a motel in the area.
If conditions are too bad and as noted earlier, many situational factors can come into play.
Let's say the pilot was renting the aircraft.
Some decisions may be based on getting the aircraft back in a timely manner versus making a few phone calls.
From this scenario, we can observe that the decision making process needs to begin early, the point being that when the weather is deteriorating, a decision needs to be made either to turn around or divert from your course, while there so good visibility and adequate train clearance or to continue the flight accepting all the associated risks and consequences.
Delaying a decision may eventually eliminate all the student pilots options, even though this scenario was depicted over somewhat flat.
Terrain instructors should use the local area where they teach to include rapid, rising terrain and local weather hazards affiliated with the area.
The next scenario involves decision-making between landing or diverting to another airport.
Statistics show that approximately 40% of all accidents occur during the landing phase of flight crosswinds and gusty conditions contribute to the majority of landing accidents.
In this scenario, the winds are strong, but okay for the departure Airport.
The instructor has the student fly to another Airport, where the crosswind is within AFM Poh, safe limitations, but beyond the students capabilities.
How do you think the student will handle the situation in a comp sense? The 63 six Victor anything a writedown one.
Four one: seven right, hey Chitti traffic, the student pilot is about to experience a phenomenon that can occur at any airport during this session of takeoffs and landings.
The student notices a difficult time controlling the aircraft and that the wind is increasing and shifting to a crosswind I got this taken off.
If Jesse down here, Webster and Margo crosswind I, don't like this I'm going around the problem, dusty of turbulent I realize that cross one might be on be beyond my ability.
You want to go back, tried again check the surface winds over there: okay, 126 913, the 6-3 3-6 Victor, Cissna, 36 Victor, why they post our and we noticed a change, Cessna 3:6 Victor when two nine zero at to five Gus three zero, because three five knots at five minutes ago.
Thank you.
Proceed to very post and we'd like to utilize runway 3-1 a lot of post from this scenario.
What do you think the student is going to do? There are several options.
If you learned that runway 3-1 is open, he could land there.
If not, you could possibly check with some of the other airports in the area.
Sometimes, winds can change quickly and the student pilot could fly around for a short period of time, while anticipating a change in the winds.
However, we can also make the assumption that winds changed due to a storm forming.
We can see that the instructor allowed the student pilot to make his own decision.
The student pilot continued the approach and finally realized.
It was beyond his flying capabilities.
The instructor allowed the student to make a go-around decision.
The instructor does have the responsibility of not allowing students to go beyond the safe limitations of the airplane or the instructors ability to recover from an unsafe situation.
As with most endeavors like flying, there is a certain amount of risk that is acceptable.
It's up to the student to recognize those limits and it's up to the instructor to point out potential risks when appropriate.
A hot subject in aviation safety is runway, incursion avoidance, proper training, maybe one way that we can alleviate the problem.
There are a lot of good training materials available for instructors to use for runway incursion avoidance.
Let's look at one instructor scenario: flying at an uncontrolled airport can present certain obstacles.
For example, this Airport does not have a taxiway to take you to the departure runway of 1/6, so you have to back taxi on the runway.
The taxiway is narrow, so pre-planning is necessary if you desire to make a clearing turn to observe traffic from this position on the taxiway.
A student pilot must be extra vigilant about the surroundings, especially when flying alone and being unable to rely on an extra set of eyes.
A run-up is complete.
This sure is a tight area to maneuver and to clear the traffic pattern.
I've been listening to the radio I know.
There's another aircraft out there, I guess I could make the call in the blind I saw the guy leaving on the lawnmower a little bit ago.
Did you happen to see where he went not exactly I? Need it worried about him too.
I'd say there are several factors of work here that you need to consider.
While the student is taxiing forward in hopes of seeing the traffic pattern a little better, there's always a need to stay aware of.
What's going on around you.
Looking at this situation, let's assess several factors.
Besides air traffic in the area, there are other considerations.
The man with the lawn cutting equipment needs to be considered, especially if grass, cuttings or other types of fog are blown onto the runway.
Maintenance vehicles should be another calculated obstacle, especially if they begin working on airport equipment.
The people riding bicycles can also present traffic in the area, especially if they turn in your direction.
People working in their hangars bringing their pets should also be a consideration.
There are numerous opportunities for incursions, some obvious and some not so obvious.
Even stirring up your own direct prop blasts can faut a runway, be cautious of your operations and your surroundings expect the unexpected.
In this scenario, we can see the instructor allowed the student to demonstrate their decision-making process by using good judgment and observing the entire traffic pattern before taxing onto the runway.
However, are there other items that we should be aware of? Could the student have planned better? What could the student have done with regard to run-up and other aircraft in the area? We've linked scenarios that can be used at uncontrolled and controlled airports because of the congestion and complexity of the situation be careful when operating at a controlled airport, not only the students but the instructor can get easily distracted.
Let's see how this instructor formulates a challenging scenario for the student pilot, wiley post ground cessna, five, five, one, four, six aar with information Bravo ready to taxi.
Now it's important that the student pilot gets the taxi instructions correctly and writes them down prior to moving something five, five, one: four six taxi to runway one: three one: one: seven left taxi runway, one three via taxiway, Lima and Charlie hold short of runway.
One seven left it looks like they're gonna, give us the short taxi route to runway one: three! Yes, don't worry about it.
Sometimes they'll do that.
For the student, it is of utmost importance that taxi clearances are adhered to, but it's important to realize that other distractions can develop.
That's the one four six, seven amendment to departure instructions.
Advise when ready to copy, go ahead on departure, TURN RIGHT heading two: zero, zero plumbing, 18,000 Oh short.
Now, it's time to get the student pilot thinking.
What could he have done to prevent this? If he wasn't ready, should he have asked ATC to stand by? Should he have just stopped what he was doing? What kinds of scenarios do you see developing here? What are students options? What should he do? What would you as an instructor, do in this situation, especially and preventing it from getting to this point? We can see from this scenario that sometimes the instructor does not have to do too much planning to wind up with a judgement, training situation presenting itself.
The student pilot was about to cross his hold point while ATC and an instructor diverted his attention.
In this case the student created a bad situation by losing his primary focus of controlling the aircraft.
He was more interested in answering the controller.
The difference between good judgment and bad judgment can be a matter of deciding priorities.
In this instance, the priorities of a flight are the control of the aircraft and adherence to taxi instructions.
In some flight operations, not enough information is available.
There are instances in which manuals, checklists and training simply does not provide solutions to abnormal instances.
Sometimes, training does not address a situation that seldom occurs normally.
The Magneto check addresses the drop in the RPM or a comparison in the two Magneto's.
In this scenario, the student encounters a situation rarely experienced.
Looking at my tech ometer, neither magneto appears to have dropped hand from what I understand the normal indication is to have an RPM drop I've not encountered a situation like this.
So what do you think you should do I'm, not sure if I can make an educated guess about this one right now.
My decision is whether to fly the airplane or not.
The drop does not exceed the limitations on the checklist and the drop is less than two hundred rpms per Magneto, and the difference between the two is less than 50, so I, don't think the engines faulty and since we won't be able to get or rent this aircraft next week, it may be three weeks before we can get together again, so I think we'll be okay.
Don't you think that, if you're not sure of the seriousness of this abnormality that it might be better to keep it on the ground and get some advice, some situations are better determined on the ground before they become an emergency situation in flight.
As we observed in this scenario, the student pilot perhaps place some unnecessary time pressures on the situation.
In many instances, improper decisions are made in haste instead of looking at the big picture and arriving at a decision in a more logical manner.
The fact that neither magneto dropped indicates that the magneto is not being grounded out properly and therefore not being isolated, indicating a zero rpm drop.
Consequently, the aircraft is not safe to fly.
The instructor has provided the student pilot with additional pilot and command decision making tools about one of the aircraft systems.
A similar type of scenario can be developed using any of the aircraft systems during pre takeoff or before flight checklist item.
This guy continuously makes bad decisions.
How can I possibly help? The instructor has many options for obtaining assistance when a student continually demonstrates to have poor judgments, and it's important to note that there are different levels of having bad judgment.
One option for an instructor in aiding a student is to introduce the student to an Aeronautical decision-making model known as the three P's.
This model is an effective way to manage the flow of information.
You first perceive then process and then perform at every stage of flight.
There are continuing situations that require recognition or the ability to perceive.
Then a student pilot must make decisions.
This is the process, and then the student pilot must act upon that decision or choose not to act.
Either.
Action becomes a perform function.
Instructors can encourage students to read more training materials to become better educated about a particular aircraft, and the mechanics of flying another option is to network with other pilots in the industry.
Talk to those who have some experience in certain situations and inquire how they handle the circ*mstance and, lastly, remember the FAA aviation safety office is a vital resource for any aeronautical enthusiast.
Incidentally, the FAA x' aviation safety program office has multiple training materials available.
One training package that might be beneficial for students who continually convey improper decision-making abilities is a training package entitled aeronautical decision-making.
The package consists of a DVD and educational, video and PowerPoint training to help walk through some areas for students needing additional guidance if interested contact, your local FAA flight standards, district office safety program manager for details, the aviation safety program has presented these scenarios that any instructor can use during initial or recurrent or advanced training.
Examiner's and inspectors can use the same or similar scenarios during evaluations.
Whether you use the examples or develop some of your own, it is important that every instructor use some type of scenario to help develop good judgment, an aeronautical decision making skills.
The key point is that we want the pilots we train, endorse to be safe and enjoy their flying careers.
The instructor is the one who holds the key to aviation safety training and helps develop good judgment and aeronautical decision-making skills.
