Re: Teaching \"Emergencies\" to your students
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I agree with you. I'd go a step further and speculate that teaching "gear down and welded" in a fixed gear airplane causes more gear ups later than it prevents.
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A flight instructor, coworker to my third flight instructor, taught a before-landing gear check in the fixed gear airplanes. One day he looked down to check that the tire was still there, and the student looked down to check that the tire was still there, and the student yelled "IT'S GONE!"
The mechanic had forgot to install the cotter pin. On departure, the wheel vibrated off. They did their lesson, came back, and found a large empty space where the tire should have been.
Instead of the planned student's short field landing, the instructor did the landing with the emergency equipment standing by.
My school believes in stress training. Essentially, we up the stress on the student gradually until they can perform the proper actions under the real stress of a real emergency.
I train emergency procedures in all points of the traffic pattern. The first engine failure after liftoff I will demonstrate, the next the student usually can handle. They will see a failure before rotation; chop and stop.
They will see a failure:
at liftoff; chop, land, stop.
at 50' with runway remaining; chop, land, stop.
at 500' without runway remaining; chop, land within about 10 degrees of centerline avoiding obstacles as needed.
at 800'; if they really feel comfortable, they will have decided before takeoff if it'll be within 10 degrees ahead or turning around for a taxiway or parallel runway.
at the turn from crosswind to downwind; turn away from the runway, 270 to land.
in the first third of downwind; slip to land.
in the second third; modified traffic pattern, roll off the end
in the third third; aim for the numbers.
On downwind to base turn; aim for the numbers.
On base; aim for the numbers.
On final; accept the undershoot will be a landing in the grass.
On the go-around....
After the students have seen the emergency response demonstrated as needed, and practiced it to success, they are put on notice that the engine could fail at any time. The takeoff brief becomes much more serious at that point.
Then the real fun begins for me. I've already briefed myself on where I will pull the engine and what I will do if the student doesn't perform as expected. Then, when least expected, or even if it is expected, we will be working the pattern and BAM! the engine quits. I see the first three desired initial reactions (DO NOT STALL! DO NOT STALL! DO NOT STALL!), the nose goes down and when I've seen enough, I can add power and we continue the takeoff or whatever. Or it might be all the way to a full landing. (HINT: Have ATC's permission BEFORE boarding when doing any of this training --- especially landing opposite direction -- not recommended at an uncontrolled field.)
We cover lost comms, getting unlost, fires, sick passengers, sick pilot, VFR into IMC, Emergency IFR to get out of IMC, aiming for the dirt to make a real short strip, control surface failure, stall recovery, spin recovery procedures (we send them to Rick Stowell if they want actual spin training), all sorts of systems failures, we even cover what to do when the coffee is cold at the FBO. We cover factors to consider when treking over the desert-mountain-coastal climates found in less than 200 nm. We emphasize just how long it can be to be located after doing a successful off-airport landing, if no flight plan was filed and opened.
Just yesterday, a student remarked after a practice checkride, 'Wow. I see just how hard it is to land when airsick.' One of the unusual attitude recoveries had spun his internal gyros. We immediately stopped maneuvering and did straight and level back to the airport. He did the flying. He did the landing. He did the taxi. He completed the checklists. Only then was he allowed to listen to the internal compartment that said 'not feeling well.'
During my various refresher and flight training sessions, I've had to:
fly a complete missed approach to another instrument approach to landing with failed gyros and severe spatial disorientation.
deal with engine failure in a single engine on approach
all sorts of engine failures while training for the multi
Lost comm, lost gyros, single nav in instrument conditions
deal with engine failure at 500' AGL in a steep turn (mountain flying course)
and the above things that I train, I went through.
But the training worked... real life has thrown:
multiple electrical and communications failures
three gyro failures while in IMC (one in a freakin jet - un-bleeping believable)
while passenger, a pilot getting spatial disorientation
severe turbulence
a low-altitude stall due to windshear
stuck elevator
electrical fire while at 1000' (pucker factor = max)
two gear system failures, including one bailout on an active runway with a guy on final
unforecast turbulence with a downdraft that made I-5 my runway of choice until the escape maneuver worked (phew!)
and one weird flight where it took 50 nm for the brain to accept the fact that Los Angeles is southwest of Las Vegas, not northeast.
But the most insidious emergency is something I have to constantly keep in check: complacency.
Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein
