FLYING LESSONS for November 2, 2023

This week’s LESSONS:

In last week’s LESSONS we reviewed using Takeoff Targets to positively determine the aircraft is meeting performance expectations and you can safely continue your takeoff. Establish precise targets for pre-takeoff planning, power development, acceleration on the takeoff roll, liftoff and initial climb. Closely monitor and measure actual performance against those targets.

If you attain all takeoff targets, then continue. If you fail to attain one (more more) of your targets, then abort. Sounds simple. But how do you safely reject a takeoff?

See https://thomaspturner.com/flying-lessons-weekly/flying-lessons-for-october-26-2023/

Handling rejection

What if you don’t achieve one of your takeoff targets? What if a cabin door pops open, or an obstacle appears on the runway, or you’re taking off into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) and realize you left your instrument approach charts on the FBO’s counter? Here’s what you need to do to safely reject a takeoff (RTO):

Pay attention: Do everything you can to avoid the need for an abort before you ever reach the runway. Don’t skimp on your preflight inspection; don’t absentmindedly rush through the before-takeoff checklist. Brief your passengers to maintain a sterile cockpit (refrain from talking except in the case of clear danger). The purpose of all this preflight work is to keep you from having to abort in the first place.

Maintain control: There’s no better way to maximize your chances of survival and minimize the danger of damage than to keep the airplane under control. Keep the airplane wings level and the nose pointed straight ahead. Even if you go off the runway, doing so under control maximizes the airplane’s structure’s chances of protecting you and your passengers. Stay positively on the controls as long as possible.

Reduce power: Get the power to idle. The speed with which you need to reduce power–whether you should reduce or chop the throttle–depends on your circumstances:

Aborting from well below liftoff speed, with lots of remaining runway? Bring the power smoothly back to idle.
Rolling toward the last thousand feet of the runway? Get the throttle to idle now.
Lose an engine on takeoff in a twin-engine airplane? Chop the throttles to remove asymmetric thrust that threatens to force you off the side of the runway.
Going off the side of the runway? If you’re pulling to the left, reducing power (in most propeller airplanes) will make control easier. If drifting to the right, maintaining some power may help you keep it on the runway. But if you can’t hold it on the prepared surface, bring power swiftly to idle.

Apply brakes: After reducing power, brake as needed to come to a safe stop. If you feel the wheels slipping, then “pump” the brakes (apply and release the brakes in quick succession) until your speed is under control. Don’t lock up the brakes; a skidding tire can quickly blow, making directional control almost impossible. It may be helpful to pull all the way back on the control yoketo keep weight firmly on the main wheels to maximize brake effectiveness.

Some POHs call for retracting any takeoff flaps to increase braking. If so, be very careful to select the proper handle for flap retraction. Many pilots have inadvertently activated retractable landing gear when they thought they were retracting flaps.

Regardless of the circumstances of your takeoff abort, the most important thing is to maintain control.

Going off the runway

What if your RTO is taking you off the side or the end of the runway? If time and maintaining aircraft control permit:

Pull the mixture control(s) or condition levers to idle cutoff. This quick action stops most fuel circulation in the engine compartment(s)–important for fire prevention if your runway departure leads to a collision and engine compartment damage.
Turn fuel selector(s) OFF to prevent additional fuel from flowing to the engine(s)–where things are hot and ready to burn.
Turn off the alternator/generator and battery master switches. Electricity can spark a fire if you collide with something after leaving the runway; turning off the switches shuts off this dangerous ignition source.
Do not pull the propeller(s) to low rpm in airplanes with controllable-pitch props. At the higher rpm position propeller blades create significant drag. Keeping the prop(s) full forward will help you stop sooner.

In some turbine airplanes it may actually be safer to “abort to climb” if you lose an engine or otherwise fail to meet some takeoff targets. Trust me, though, the “accelerate-go” option rarely exists in multiengine piston airplane operations, and often is outside the realistic realm in some turbines. If accelerate-go is available to you in the airplane you fly, you’ll know it because you’ll have practiced it numerous times in a simulator that realistically mimics that airplane type.

History shows takeoffs are more potentially fatal than even landings. We need a way to identify and respond to problems before they lead to accidents. By establishing takeoff targets to anticipate performance, gauging actual to expected performance during takeoff, and immediately executing a preplanned takeoff abort technique if you fail to achieve a target, you will be better able to handle rejection and avoid a serious takeoff mishap.

Questions? Comments? Supportable opinions? Let us know at [email protected].

My friends and sponsors at Pilot Workshops extend this offer to all FLYING LESSONS readers in all aircraft types:

Debrief: Readers write about recent FLYING LESSONS:

Well-known Cirrus instructor Mike Radomski writes about the October 19 LESSONS:

My current two primary students are a father/daughter pair who are learning to fly in their PA28-140. I just sent them the email below. FYI.

———- Forwarded message ———

Marc and Isabel,

I’m forwarding you this week’s Flying Lessons by my colleague Tom Turner. I’ve recommended his e-zine to you before.

The reason I’m sending this one is that it discusses an accident in an airplane that is probably almost identical to yours. It illustrates that you stand a good chance of surviving an “unplanned landing” if you arrive at terra firma under control with wings level.

Tom points out that the pilot clearly mismanaged her fuel. Note that an element of the mismanagement might have been mixture mismanagement – i.e. not leaning for the cruise. Forgetting to lean the mixture at altitude WILL result in higher fuel flow – the higher the cruise altitude, the greater the increase will be over “book.” This could contribute to unexpected fuel exhaustion.

If the airplane could climb high enough, the engine would let you know – the mixture would eventually be so rich that it will run rough, or even quit. But a PA-28 can’t climb high enough for that, so it’s incumbent on the pilot to remember to lean. Even if the flight is relatively short – say 1 hour, so that even with maximum fuel flow there is ample fuel – it’s still important to lean for the cruise. Running the engine “too rich” is a triple-whammy:

You are wasting money (unburned fuel is going out the exhaust);

You are giving up power (a too-rich mixture results in sub-optimal engine performance), and

You are “gunking up” the engine – excess fuel results in deposits inside the cylinders that do nothing good.

I’ve related here (long) ago a personal experience that was life-changing in the way I fly. A customer had attempted to fly to a training event I was conducting in Wichita, Kansas. Weather intervened, however, so the pilot landed 200 miles east at Springfield, Missouri, rented a car and drove the rest of the way to Wichita. Later in the week a second student in my class, owner of an A36TC turbocharged Bonanza, offered to let me use his airplane to fly the first student back to Springfield so he could fly his airplane to Wichita for the inflight portion of his instruction.

Skies were mostly clear and I flew the roughly one-hour flight under Visual Flight Rules. I landed and shut down, the pilot exited the aircraft to get his Beech, and I departed for the one-hour flight back to Wichita. A scattered cumulus layer was forming and it took some maneuvering away from “direct to” to climb above the clouds VFR. Departure Control was busily pointing out traffic and I was given several traffic alerts and suggested headings to avoid other aircraft. Ultimately I leveled at my 6500 MSL cruising altitude, pushing against the Kansas wind. Half an hour later I looked down to realize I’d not switched fuel tanks, nor had I leaned the mixture for cruise.

Now, in a Bonanza at climb power it’s not unusual to burn a full quarter tank of fuel from one wing before reaching a cruise altitude in the 6000- to 9000-foot range. It’s even more pronounced in a turbocharged Bonanza rated at 36 gallons per hour at takeoff power, and 34 GPH at the cruise climb power setting. The trip from Wichita to Springfield burned about a quarter of one tank to cruise altitude and, after switching to the other tank, a quarter of that wing’s fuel for the remainder of the trip.

This left about ¾ full tanks on both sides for my second departure. Climbing to cruise cost another quarter tank for fuel, leaving the first wing half full. Flying half an hour at close to climb fuel flow on that same tank (having forgotten to lean) took that same wing down to about half full, while the other wing had about a ¾-full tank.

I was in no danger of fuel starvation or exhaustion in the last half hour to landing at Wichita. But say I was planning to fly on to Colorado Springs or Denver, a bit over two hours past Wichita. And suppose I’d not caught myself and attempted this longer flight without switching fuel tanks or leaning. I most assuredly would have drained one wing dry before reaching my destination. And the NTSB record shows that, for whatever reason, when a tank is run dry the pilot is not always able to restore engine power simply by switching to a tank containing fuel.

It was my self-debrief from that flight, in the third year of my professional flying career, that convinced me the way to overcome distraction and workload is to use a printed checklist. Get in the habit of transitioning to the next phase of flight, for example, from climb to cruise, and then after you believe you have all actions complete pull out the checklist and make certain you have not missed anything. That’s the effective and professional way to use checklists in a single-pilot cockpit.

I still follow this habit I began as a direct result of that Springfield flight. Almost all the time there’s nothing more to do when I refer to the checklist—I’ve not forgotten anything. But if I ever do miss switching fuel tanks, or leaning, or any other vital airplane reconfiguration step, the habit of referring to the checklist and maintaining the practice and discipline to do it every time, especially when I’m very busy in the cockpit, will allow me to overcome workload and distraction, and complete all required actions before something becomes a hazard. Readers, this is why professional pilots in-the-know push use of printed checklists in all phases of flight…after you think you’ve done everything and have nothing left to do. It’s very cheap insurance, or more correctly, it’s a free way to minimize the chances you’ll need to use your insurance at all.

Thanks for helping spread the word, Mike. Isabel and Marc, I’ve trained with Mike. You’ve got a fantastic flight instructor. Best of luck—and always pursue mastery–on your flying journey.

More to say? Let us learn from you, at [email protected].

Share safer skies. Forward FLYING LESSONS to a friend

Please help cover the ongoing costs of providing FLYING LESSONS through this

secure PayPal donations link. Or send a check made out to Mastery Flight Training, Inc. at 247 Tiffany Street, Rose Hill, Kansas USA 67133.

Thank you, generous supporters.

Special thanks to these donors for helping with the Mastery Flight Training website rebuild:

Karl Kleiderer, Jeffery Scherer, Ken Newbury, William Eilberg, Wallace Moran, Lawrence Peck, Lauren McGavran, Stanley Stewart, Stu and Barbara Spindel, Danny Kao, Mark Sanz, Wayne Mudge, David Peterson, Craig Simmons, John and Betty Foose, Kendell Kelly, Sidney Smith, Ben Sclair, Timothy Schryer, Bruce Dickerson, Lew Gage, Martin Pauly, Theodore Bastian, Howard Greenberg, William Webber, Marc Dullude, Ian O’Connell, Michael Morrow, David Meece, Mike Gonce, Gianmarco Armellin, Mark Davis, Jason Ennis, William Moore, Gilbert Buettner, Don Denny, John Kolmos, LeRoy Cook, Mark Finklestein, Rick Lugash, Tom Carr, John Zimmerman, Lee Perrin, Bill Farrell, Kenneth Hoeg, William Jordan Jr., Mark Rudo, Boyd Spitler, Michael Brown, Gary Biba, Meaghan Cohen, Robert Chatterton, Lee Gerstein, Peter Tracy, Dan Drew, David Larson, Joseph McLaughlin, Nick Camacho, Paul Uhlig, Paul Schafer, Gary Mondry, Bruce Douglass, Joseph Orlando, Ron Horton, George Stromeyer, Sidney Smith, William Roper, Louis Olberding, George Mulligan, David Laste, Ron Horton, John Kinyon, Doug Olson, Bill Compton, Ray Chatelain, Rick McCraw, David Yost , Johannes Ascherl, Rod Partio, Bluegrass Rental Properties, David Clark, Glenn Yeldezian, Paul Sherrerd, Richard Benson

Thanks to our regular monthly financial contributors:

Steven Bernstein, Montclair, NJ. Robert Carhart, Jr., Odentown, MD. Randy Carmichael, Kissimmee, FL. James Cear, South Jamesport, NY. Greg Cohen, Gaithersburg, MD. John Collins, Martinsburg, WV. Paul Damiano, Port Orange, FL. Dan Drew. Rob Finfrock, Rio Rancho, NM. Norman Gallagher. Bill Griffith, Indianapolis, IN. Steven Hefner, Corinth, MS; Ellen Herr, Ft Myers, FL. Erik Hoel, Redlands, CA. Ron Horton. Robert Hoffman, Sanders, KY. David Karalunas, Anchorage, AK. Steve Kelly, Appleton, WI. Karl Kleiderer. Greg Long, Johnston, IA. Rick Lugash, Los Angeles, CA. Richard McCraw, Hinesburg, VT. David Ovad, Resiertown, MD. Steven Oxholm, Portsmouth, NH. Brian Schiff, Keller, TX. Paul Sergeant, Allen, TX. Ed Stack, Prospect Heights, IL; Robert Thorson, Reeders, PA. Paul Uhlig, Wichita, KS. Richard Whitney, Warrenton, VA.

NEW THIS WEEK: Steven Oxholm, Portsmouth, NH.

Pursue Mastery of Flight

Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety

Flight Instructor Hall of Fame Inductee

2021 Jack Eggspuehler Service Award winner

2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year

2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year

Three-time Master CFI

Disclaimer