September 2009Departments

Training Notes and News

By: Jill W. Tallman

Bring it on: Stress during training could make better pilots

The secret to better piloting skills may lie in sticking your foot into a bucket of cold water. A recent study by U.S. Air Force Maj. Chris McClernon found that pilots subjected to a controlled stressor during training performed better than those without.

McClernon's study took two groups of student pilots who had never before touched the controls of an airplane through simulator training, and then in an airplane. One group was subjected to a controlled stressor, in this case placing the student's foot in cold water, while the rest of the group was given the same training without the stressor. Then each student was individually put through the same maneuvers in a Piper Archer and his or her progress was recorded. After analyzing aircraft telemetry data and CFI anecdotal evidence, those subjected to the stressor made significantly fewer errors than those in the control group.

As far as McClernon is concerned, those subjected to stress "blew the control group out of the water." Not only did the data prove stress during training increases piloting ability, but the group subjected to the cold water said they felt more relaxed, a fact McClernon's human factors data bore out.

Next for McClernon is figuring out how to practically implement the findings. "How and when do you introduce the stress?" he said. "It's hard to apply the results of the study without answering that question." Although putting a student's foot in water isn't practical for everyday use, McClernon said the larger point is that a well-placed stressor of any type should have the same effect. "We can introduce not only tasks, but also stress to teach a coping mechanism," he said.

Just remember it if your instructor is yelling at you in the pattern.
- Ian J. Twombly

$1,000 for training

hat do Frank Ciapanna of Gardners, Pennsylvania; Dean Seevers of Marietta, Ohio; Littell Miles of Nashville, Tennessee; Mahnaz Ahmadian of Malibu, California; Stephen Young of Milford, Connecticut; and Debbie Dahl of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have in common? Each is $1,000 closer to earning a pilot certificate. They are the latest winners of AOPA's Flight Path sweepstakes (www.aopa.org/flightpath), a free program that helps students track their flight training progress and possibly earn cash in the process. Students who sign up are sent a series of more than 25 e-mails filled with information and resources designed to educate, inspire, and motivate them to finish flight training. Then when participants reach a milestone, they are automatically entered fora chance to win $1,000. What's better than free help to finish flight training and a chance for money to get there? Sign up for Flight Path today online.

Legal Briefing: Reexamination

An FAA inspector asked me to submit to a reexamination of my qualifications for my CFI certificate, following an accident with my student who flared too high and we landed hard. I successfully completed the reexamination, and there has been no further action against me by the FAA, but the inspector asked me to fill out and sign some paperwork. Did the inspector put anything in my FAA record? And, if so, how might that affect my ability to get a flying job?

An FAA inspector may exercise the FAA's authority to reexamine an airman when the inspector has sufficient reason to believe that an airman may not be qualified to exercise certain privileges of a particular certificate or rating.

The purpose of a reexamination is to determine whether an airman remains qualified to hold his or her airman certificate. The guidance provided to FAA inspectors cautions, "the reexamination of an airman on the basis of lack of competency is never to be undertaken lightly...[and]...there must be ample or probable cause for requesting the reexamination...[gathered from]...reliable reports, personal knowledge, or on the basis of evidence obtained through an accident, incident, or enforcement investigation." A reexamination must be conducted by an FAA inspector, but it is not required that the FAA inspector requesting the reexamination also administer the reexamination; in other words, you can ask to have the reexamination conducted at another FSDO with another inspector.

Before the reexamination is conducted, the FAA inspector will ask you to fill out an FAA Form 8710-1, Airman Certificate and/or Rating Application, and ask you to check the box on the form for "Reexamination." When you successfully complete the reexamination, the FAA inspector completes the appropriate portion of the second page of the form indicating "Approved." The completed form is sent to the FAA's office in Oklahoma City to be included in your airman certification file. When you submit to a reexamination, and you successfully complete that reexamination, the fact of that successful reexamination is made a part of your official FAA airman record by reason of the completed 8710-1 form. The Pilot Records Improvement Act (PRIA) requires that a potential employer request and receive certain information from the FAA before making a hiring decision about you. PRIA requires that the FAA information must include current airman certificates and associated type ratings, including any limitations to those certificates and ratings, and summaries of legal enforcement actions resulting in a finding by the FAA of an FAR violation that was not subsequently overturned.

The successful reexamination did not affect your current certificates and ratings, nor limit them in any way, and a reexamination is not a legal enforcement action. So, the fact of your reexamination should not be included in any response under PRIA to a potential future employer. Unless the employer learned of the information another way, it should not affect your application for a flying job.

Send your legal questions to legal@aopa.org and we'll answer the best in upcoming issues.

Kathy Yodice is an attorney with Yodice Associates in Washington, D.C., which provides legal counsel to AOPA and administers AOPA's legal services plan. She is an instrument-rated private pilot.

What It Looks Like: Fuel quantity indicator tab

A student pilot learns early on that one of the basic limiting factors of an airplane is weight. Few airplanes are capable of taking off within the approved maximum gross weight when all of the seats are occupied by standard-size 170-pound people (not to mention larger-than-standard) and all of the fuel tanks are full of 6.02-pounds-per-gallon avgas.

Along with the over-gross-weight concern, we should know that weight has a direct effect on an airplane's performance, and, depending on how that weight is distributed, its handling, too. The no-exceptions rule in flying is, less weight, better performance; more weight, poorer performance - to the point that it can become dangerously poor. For those reasons, controlling gross weight is a primary flight-planning task for every pilot.

We have two ways to control how much the loaded airplane will weigh at the start of a flight: limit the payload (pilot, passengers, flight bag, luggage, sodas and candy bars, and everything else that goes into the cabin and baggage compartment); and limit the amount of fuel that goes into the tanks. In most cases it's easier to pursue the latter option - limit the fuel.

One reason is because many airframe manufacturers provide us with a handy tool to help determine how much fuel is in the tanks when they aren't topped off. That tool is a fuel port indicator tab or, in some airplanes, a filler neck.

The idea is simple: The indicator tab or bottom of the filler neck is positioned so that when you fill the tank to that exact point, you should have a known quantity of fuel in the tank. That quantity can be found in the pilot's operating handbook (POH) or the airplane flight manual, whichever applies to the airplane you fly.

For example, a Piper PA-28-161 Warrior III has one fuel tank in each wing, with each tank having a capacity of 24 gallons usable fuel. That's listed in the Limitations section of the POH. But in the Descriptions and Operation section under Fuel System, it says, "Each tank is equipped with a filler neck indicator tab to aid in determining fuel remaining when the tanks are not full. Usable capacity to the bottom of the indicator tab is 17 gallons."

So there you have it. Fill each of the two tanks to the bottom of the tab and you can be sure that you have 34 gallons - about 205 pounds - of usable fuel for the flight. That's a difference of 84 pounds compared to full fuel - enough, possibly, to invite another passenger aboard.

Add that 205 pounds to the payload figure to compute useful load. Then add that figure to empty weight to arrive at gross weight. It should be no higher than the maximum gross weight (some manufacturers list maximum ramp and takeoff weights) specified in the Limitations section. Don't neglect to also compute center of gravity location to make sure it is within acceptable range.

Filling the tanks to the indicator tab or bottom of the filler neck is a convenient and effective way to allow for more weight in the cabin. It could mean the difference between taking everyone, or conducting a lottery to see who gets left behind.

-Mark Twombly