Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network.

Aero-Tips 07.29.06

My first flying job was as an instructor at a one-man FBO in central Missouri.  We had three airplanes: two Cessna 152s and a Cessna 172 instrument trainer. The Skyhawk as always in demand for weekend rentals; most of our students checked out in the 172 shortly after earning their private certificate-moving up to what we (at the time) honestly considered "the big plane".

Between instrument students (that earned their private with someone else), rental checkouts, and Flight Reviews in the 172 and students' own airplanes I saw a big percentage of the area's pilots-and I learned at least as much from them as they probably picked up from me. One of my most eye-opening lessons from those early days instructing is that there is a difference between procedure and technique.

Reduce power, lower flaps, flare and land. Do your run-up, configure for takeoff, add power, accelerate, lift off. Sometimes a situation calls for a precise, regimented response... but not often. A procedure is a series of actions that must be performed to achieve desired results. The specific order may vary from airplane type to type, from pilot to pilot, or even for the same pilot vary based on requirements of that particular flight.

A technique, by contrast, is a means of accomplishing the broad requirements of a procedure. Here's where flying remains an art form. One pilot may add flaps on the downwind leg, while another waits until turning final. Pilot A may hold the brakes until achieving full power on takeoff, while Pilot B lets the airplane roll form the beginning of power application. One pilot-in-command might use the #1 comm radio exclusively, leaving Comm 2 as a backup, while another switches from one to the other in flight. Is any one method wrong? Usually not. There may be good reasons to do things in one order versus another, but if the flight is safe and everything gets done, who's to say one way is "better" than the other?

Note: In rare occasion it is important to perform checklist steps in a specific order. An example is the engine fire checklist-turn off battery and alternator, ventilate the cabin, turn off all electrical equipment, then turn on minimum equipment and land. In this case it takes practice and drill to do things right. But these examples are by far in the minority.

Aero-tip of the day: Learn what you can from the techniques of others to make procedures work out for you. But don't insist that your way is the only way.

FMI: Aero-Tips