Over my head

T

Tiger815

Well-Known Member
Yesterday I had such a bad flying experience I'm rethinking my whole idea of becoming a CFI. I needed to get a couple more hours dual in the complex for insurance in order to solo and the weather has been bad locally, so we decided to go shoot a couple of approaches in actual. (700 and 3)

I'm a recent IFR pilot with little experience in actual, I'm not trained on the Garmin 430, and I haven't done any hood work in the 172RG. That alone was enough to have me a full step behind the airplane, but I was managing. However, just to make things more miserable, ATC sent me back to the VOR to hold, just as I was ready to do the PT outbound. At that point, I pretty much lost it, and just barely kept the plane upright while fumbling around trying to figure out what the heck to do first. Throughout the ordeal I busted every parameter and sounded like a complete moron-idiot-retard on the radio.
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Really not the kind of confidence sapping experience I needed while trying to prep for a commercial check ride in a week. I did finally manage to get into the hold, back to the feeder, and flew the approach with no more than a 2 dot deflection and broke out nearly on centerline. Not pretty. The ILS back home was marginally better, but by this point my CFI realized I couldn't handle the plane and the knob twiddling on the unfamiliar radios so he plugged in the approach for me and there were some holes so keeping the plane upright was easier.

Now I'm wondering if I can get back on the horse, focus on the the commercial check ride and then start working to build my IFR skills to where they need to be without killing myself.
 
Don't let that experience faze you. It was a fairly new aircraft to you, so one would expect some fiddling with the NAVs, etc to be a little bit different. Also add to the fact that you're pretty new to the right seat, reading instruments that look different at that awkward angle, and in actual IMC trying to "impress" another CFI. Add these together, and you get a fairly easy-to-see recipe for a not-so-good flight. So, focus on what you have to get done: ie, your commercial, and don't let that flight get to you. You'll do just fine! Good luck!
 
Don't sweat it, Tiger815. Everbody has a bad performance sometime (It happens to everyone, right guys??
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). Seriously. Just sit down and write down all of the things that went wrong, and then see if you can see the factors that attributed to the problem. You'll probably see that the new plane in IMC and the 430 made things alot worse.

As far as being a flight instructor? One of the most rewarding things out there!!
 
So you're not trained on the 430. Curious, why keep fumbling with figuring out the 430 and not fall back on the "regular" instruments to keep the plane where it needed to be?
 
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Curious, why keep fumbling with figuring out the 430 and not fall back on the "regular" instruments to keep the plane where it needed to be?

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Great question, MikeD ! I know I have found myself in that situation as well, sort of. I will be shooting an approach with my CFII, no AI or DG and I will start watching the DTK/TRK hdgs on the KLN-94. I start to watch it too much and like magic, my instructor will turn the thing off. It sucks at first, but it makes me go back to watching the instruments I should be in the first place.
 
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Curious, why keep fumbling with figuring out the 430 and not fall back on the "regular" instruments to keep the plane where it needed to be?

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Great question, MikeD ! I know I have found myself in that situation as well, sort of. I will be shooting an approach with my CFII, no AI or DG and I will start watching the DTK/TRK hdgs on the KLN-94. I start to watch it too much and like magic, my instructor will turn the thing off. It sucks at first, but it makes me go back to watching the instruments I should be in the first place.

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Agree. I don't know if he did or didn't do this since he doesn't specifically mention it; but I assume he didn't, since if he had prioritized his instrument crosscheck, he shouldn't have been all over the place as he describes.

Good lesson learned. ANY time you encounter any problems with disorientation/task saturation/prioritization go BACK TO BASICS. And this is one of the problems I have with super automation....in this case, the Garmin......too many people are so into the "wow" of the GPS, they forget to revert back to the basics of VOR/OBS/DME that's right in front of you on the panel. The LAST thing you want to do is drop off your crosscheck and get focused on one instrument, in this case the Garmin. In the Aviate/Navigate/Communicate equation, doing them in order is a must, but also doing them ALL is a must too. Don't get stuck on the Navigate part at the detriment of the Aviate part.

Toss the Garmin and fly the plane. Review the Garmin on the ground, and take a flight in VMC to bone up on it, if need be.
 
Hey i like the 430 - very easy to use. Almost all of UND's planes have 'em. Plus, there's a nice Garmin 430 simulator trainer on the UND laptop they give you.
 
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So you're not trained on the 430. Curious, why keep fumbling with figuring out the 430 and not fall back on the "regular" instruments to keep the plane where it needed to be?

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Fair Question. I got my IFR rating with older King and Narco radios. The number 2 in this plane was a UPSAT SL30 which works essentially the same, but takes more button pushing.

Since the 430 was so new to me, I did exactly what you suggest and tried to rely on the number 2, because it's operation was more familiar. Still it was different enough that it required thinking about how to make it do what I wanted. The process for selecting a frequency for example, was not an automatic reflex as with a King radio.
 
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So you're not trained on the 430. Curious, why keep fumbling with figuring out the 430 and not fall back on the "regular" instruments to keep the plane where it needed to be?

[/ QUOTE ]

Fair Question. I got my IFR rating with older King and Narco radios. The number 2 in this plane was a UPSAT SL30 which works essentially the same, but takes more button pushing.

Since the 430 was so new to me, I did exactly what you suggest and tried to rely on the number 2, because it's operation was more familiar. Still it was different enough that it required thinking about how to make it do what I wanted. The process for selecting a frequency for example, was not an automatic reflex as with a King radio.

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The important thing is you learned a valuable lesson with no damage to yourself, the plane, or anyone else. Don't feel bad, there are those that have been there, and those that will. Unfortunately....there's also those that will constantly revisit there because they fail to learn the first time. Saddle back up, press, and don't be a repeat offender.....at least not in this area.
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I flew with an instrument rated pilot one day, and he literally COULD NOT fly an ILS approach when I turned the moving map off.

Scary....
 
Let me see if I got this right.

You
1. have a fairly new instrument rating
2. have little experience in actual
3. have relatively little experience in the airplane
4. have no experience dealing with the type in even simulated IMC
5. haven't really thought of the standard configuration settings that will give you standard performance (speculation)
6. were flying with a new-to-you avionics package
5. in actual IMC
6. on the spur of the moment without a lot of advance preparation (speculation)

and had a real problem in flight.

And you think it was a failure in your =skill= level? At least it sounds that way.
 
Dude, you had a rough trip. It happens especially in training!!! Your CFI was there and watching you. I'm sure he would have stepped up if he felt you were starting to sink. The way I look at it, I didn't die, the plane is in one piece, ATC didn't give me a number to call, LIFE IS GOOD.
Now you have done the first step in solving the problem. You recognize there is a problem and you felt overwhelmed. Get the 430's manual and read it. Sit in the plane and "chair fly" a couple of flights, see if you can hook into ground power as so not to drain the battery. I don't know if Microsoft's flight sim has the 430 in a plane and fly that around.
 
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