By Fred Gibbs

Just to be clear, the opinions and statements made within my articles are strictly mine and may not necessarily reflect any policy or position of the Arizona Pilots Association.

Fred’s Perspective:  Train as You Fly; Fly as You Trained

That’s a mantra often heard in the flight instruction business. Or how about, just teach to pass the check ride, then when you get your private pilot certificate, go fly and really learn how to fly!! Or on a Flight Review, “Why do I need to demonstrate stalls? I never stall my Mooney; they are dangerous in a stall!” Or “I am based at an airport with a 7,000-foot runway. What’s the big deal about doing a short field landing?” Or, “The glide ratio of my airplane? I dunno, never gave it any thought. Why would I need to know that?”

So, I pose these questions: Is a flight review an evaluation session, a test session, or both? What are the standards? If a candidate loses more than 100 feet during a steep turn but corrects it by the time they complete the maneuver, is that OK with you?? What about the pilot based at that 7,000-foot runway airport who never does, and has not done, a short field landing in the past 2 years, because the taxiway back to his hangar is 5,000 feet down the runway? What are your expectations of his/her performance on a short field landing? What does the ACS performance standards call for? Does that same performance standard hold fast for the pilot flying a turbo pressurized Cessna 201?? Or a Mooney Rocket? Or a T-tailed Piper turbo Lance?? (Note to self – NOT ALL PILOTS FLY A CESSNA C172!!)

Let’s talk about flight preparation for a minute. Do your students, or you as a student, show up prepared for the lesson of the day?? Usually, for a cross country, I tell the student where to plan the flight to and provide them with a blank flight planning form, a blank preflight weather briefing form, and a practice weight and balance form. I expect them to show up for the lesson prepared and ready to go over the plan, to use the weather to complete our flight school risk mitigation form and show me the completed weight and balance computations.

Apparently, I live in a dream world!! The usual process has me spending the first hour to hour and a half of the lesson time reteaching all of this – again and again! Ya know, back in the old days, (and I am NOT talking about the dark ages), I was expected to do my homework and show up for class with that homework completed, and if I didn’t, my grade and classroom performance suffered. No excuses, no coddling, and often being called out in front of my peers and classmates. No trophy for just showing up!!

My generation and the current generation are worlds apart. Students can’t do simple math – at 90kts, how long will it take to go 30 miles? Without their cell phone/calculator function, they are lost!! Many have no clue how many feet are in a mile, let alone a nautical mile! HA – Latitude/longitudes? True north vs magnetic north? Magnetic variation? Fa get about it! Who cares, my phone GPS will get me there!! And don’t get me started on radio phraseology! I provide my students with a script to keep on their kneeboard for radio calls and they still can’t do it correctly. We posted the landing checklists on the pillar right next to them and they still can’t follow the 5 items on the downwind checklist, the 4 items on the base checklist and the 3 items on the final approach checklist.

Now, I must admit NOT all students are this way, and luckily, I have some very good ones! But a majority are – I believe it is the sign of the times. Learning to fly is not easy! Learning all the academics associated with the certificate is even more challenging and demanding. But what I see is this generation does not need to know anything: They can simply ask Siri…

Discussion point:

This goes to my original question introduced above: Is a flight review an evaluation session, a test session, or both?

 My opinion, and this is only my opinion and my personal philosophy, is that both the Flight Review (FR) and an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC) are evaluations. Either you pass or you need more training – you cannot fail, nor is there any reference in your logbook about failing. If you cannot meet the ACS standards, i.e., the private pilot, Commercial pilot or Instrument rating requirements, then more training may be necessary to meet the FR or IPC standards. Additionally, for an FR, I require everyone to complete the ALC-25 Flight Review course post flight and provide me a copy of the certificate for my records. With the introduction of the new IFR weather course, ALC-889, I have now added that post flight requirement for an IPC.

I know this may sound hokey, but I don’t do this for the money! I got enough! I do this because I like to instruct and I want to make sure when the going gets tough, the tough get going. You need to stay well- trained and be ready when the gauntlet is thrown down –

The saying goes that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. Ergo, if not well trained and/or well prepared, you may never get the chance to make a good second approach!!

In honor of Queen Elizabeth…

We'll always remember her sense of humor and that beautiful smile

 We were on Guard of Honour, waiting for the King of Saudi Arabia, on horseback.

On the right flank; Scots Guard (100 guardsmen), a gap, Her Majesty The Queen, mounted in uniform; alongside her the Commanding Officer Colonel Gerald, another gap, then on the left flank, the Queen’s Company Grenadier Guards (100 guardsmen). We all stood at ease waiting.

Suddenly the silence was broken by Colonel Gerald’s charger erupting with horse farts at full volume for two minutes. Embarrassed and staring straight ahead, Colonel Gerald says, “Sorry about that your Majesty!”

She replies, in a wonderful voice, “That’s alright Gerald, . . . I thought it was your horse!”

200 guardsmen silently cried with laughter, and tapped their rifle butts on the gravel. From that moment on, every man there adored her!

QUIZ of the MONTH:

1. If the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, what is the speed of dark?
2. If official sunset is when the setting sun’s disk is only 6 degrees above the horizon, considering the speed of light and our distance from the sun, hasn’t the sun already set??
3. Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?
4. Why do "tug" boats push their barges?
5. Why doesn't glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
6. If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
7. Is it true that you never really learn to swear until you learn to drive?
8. Why did Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?
9. True or False: A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second?
10. OK, One goose, 2 geese. So if you have one moose, shouldn’t you have 2 meese?

(Answers at the bottom of the Safety Program section.)

SAFETY PROGRAMS

There are NOT a lot of FAASTeam safety programs on the schedule over the next couple of months around the state, but that’s changing. Safety programs were held in Sedona in July, in Payson in August, and in Yuma on September 24^th. I am projecting a winter operations program in Flagstaff for late November or December, the date to be determined and for the Yuma pilot group in January 2023 . Simply log on to the Internet and go to WWW.FAASAFETY.GOV, click on “Seminars” and start checking for any other upcoming seminars. Masks are optional but are recommended.

Should you desire a particular safety or educational program at your local airport or pilot meeting in the future, such as the BasicMed program, our “Winter Wonderland” snow season special, or my newest one on LIFR approaches, which discusses the hows, whys, and pitfalls of shooting an approach all the way down to minimums and missed approaches, simply contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or call me at 410-206-3753. Arizona Pilots Association provides the safety programs at no charge. We can also help you organize a program of your choice, and we can recommend programs that your pilot community might really like.

There are also a lot of great webinars online, each about an hour long, and worth credits towards your WINGS participation. You might find one that is right up your alley or really “tickles yer fancy”!!

(OK, did you really expect to see answers to those questions?!?!?)

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