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FLYING LESSONS for March 28, 2019

by Thomas P. Turner, Mastery Flight Training, Inc. National Flight Instructor Hall of Fame inductee

FLYING LESSONS uses recent mishap reports to consider what might have contributed to accidents, so you can make better decisions if you face similar circumstances. In almost all cases design characteristics of a specific airplane have little direct bearing on the possible causes of aircraft accidents—but knowing how your airplane’s systems respond can make the difference as a scenario unfolds. So apply these FLYING LESSONS to the specific airplane you fly. Verify all technical information before applying it to your aircraft or operation, with manufacturers’ data and recommendations taking precedence. You are pilot in command and are ultimately responsible for the decisions you make.

FLYING LESSONS is an independent product of MASTERY FLIGHT TRAINING, INC. www.mastery-flight-training.com

Pursue Mastery of Flight

This week’s LESSONS: The world’s attention has again been focused on the impact of technology on commercial air carrier safety. The Lion Air and Ethiopian 737 Max 8 crashes once more raise the question: when does automation outpace the training and experience of today’s pilots? How can something as desirable as an automated stability system have such a deadly outcome? Are today’s pilots up to the challenge of flying commercial airliners?

Although the investigations are in their infancy, and the two tragic events may prove to have entirely different causality, the flight paths of the two airliners exhibit similar, erratic vertical speed changes. Although previous crews of the Lion Air accident aircraft were apparently able to disengage the erratic system and recover to controlled flight, something was different in the final case and the crew was either unaware of how to address it or unsuccessful in doing so.

Initial reports are that the aircraft manufacturer did not provide information about the operating logic, characteristics of operation of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS). MCAS is reportedly a stability requirement that arose from a change in 737 engine mounting design that resulted from a new engine that had to be mounted higher and further forward than on previous models. Again according to initial reports, even some U.S.-based carriers—long known for setting the standard for safety—provided “differences check” information to 737 pilots transitioning to the Max 8 that consisted of iPad-based self-study that did not mention the MCAS.

True or not, these reports suggest this LESSON for those of us flying with autopilots, especially the newest models that include so-called envelope protection. Envelope protection is a system that monitors aircraft attitude in two axes (pitch and roll) and two airspeed extremes (low speed and high speed). This monitoring occurs full-time, even when the autopilot is not turned on. If the envelope protection system senses the airplane’s bank exceeds a certain value, usually

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about 30°-35°, it will engage and gently “nudge” the controls back toward wings-level flight. The pilot can override this safety feature manually, but it takes increasing effort to do so. If the bank exceeds the preset engagement amount for some period of time, for example, any cumulative 10 seconds in a continuous 20-second period, the stability protection turns on the autopilot, overpowers the pilot and forcibly levels the wings.

Similarly, if the airplane’s pitch attitude is too high or too low—say for example, 20° nose up or down—the stability protection system nudges the controls back toward level flight. Again, the pilot can manually force the nose up or down against the safety device, but if the exceedance lasts longer than some amount of time the autopilot engages and forces the nose back to the horizon.

Such a system may also monitor airspeed for “too slow” and “too fast” conditions, nudge to reduce the exceedance at first and assume control to put the nose back on the horizon, again after some amount of time.

It may sound futuristic, but this type of system is already in service in several popular types of autopilots that range down to some of the simplest single-engine airplanes. I fly one at work, a single-engine retractable (bonus points if you can guess the aircraft make and model). Among other things, it will resist and eventually forcibly recover attempts to perform (or train pilots in) standard maneuvers such as steep turns, stalls, demonstrations of spiral stability characteristics and short field landings. It’s possible to manually disable the stability protection feature, if you read the supplement and know what to do. I’ve added this step it to the list of things to do (for example, clearing turns) before certain flight maneuvers.

Stability protection is great. But it also adds a learning curve and a training (or at least read-and-practice) requirement.

Why do I think this type of system may catch a lot of pilots unaware? Because experience shows that many pilots of autopilot-equipped airplanes do not have full command of its features, operation and failure modes. Let’s go back to an excerpt from the almost-exactly-two-years-old FLYING LESSONS Weekly for March 30, 2017, in which I discussed the preflight “Controls – Free and Correct” test that should be done before takeoff, then moved on to what I called the second controls check:

There is even another, second controls check that must be done before takeoff in many, many airplanes. Yet my experience is that almost no one routinely does these checks, knows where to find the procedure, or even knows these critical, lifesaving checks exist. What am I talking about? Autopilot and electric trim system checks.

The autopilot is an autonomous flight control system, and as such it can command changes in airplane attitude before you can even detect them. To have a reasonable expectation the system will work as expected you must do a preflight performance check of the autopilot and the trim system it uses to move the flight controls. The autopilot check will almost certainly not be in the Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) or Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH). Autopilots are usually added as options; hence their operation and checks are included in an autopilot supplement to the AFM/POH…you know, one of those things that is required to be carried in the airplane as part of airworthiness.

Bendix/King KFC Pilot’s Guide: Similar to but not the actual POH Supplement for this once-ubiquitous autopilot/flight director system

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Buried deep in the Supplement you’ll find all kinds of information including, applicable to this week’s LESSONS, the Preflight Check. This is usually done as part of the Before Takeoff

checklist, itself containing the engine run-up (where applicable) and usually done out at a remote run-up pad somewhere between tie-down and takeoff. In the KFC200 Pilot’s Guide the preflight check is way back on page 27…and it’s in narrative, not in checklist form. The POH Supplement has a somewhat more “checklisty” checklist, but still strong on narrative, and as I recall (I don’t have one handy as I write this), back on about page 24 of the little booklet jammed into the POH ring binder on many 80s-vintage high performance singles and light twins. Example of a preflight test procedure for a popular legacy autopilot

I have created my own pocket checklist for this particular device since I see it so often in the flight instruction I provide. It goes something like this:

Look for and employ the full autopilot/trim check that applies to any aircraft you fly. Once you know the check very well, it takes only a minute (if that) to check operation and review procedures for the use of the second control system before every flight. Once your autopilot and trim system check is completed successfully, return to the standard POH checklist. This is usually where you do the “usual” Controls—Free and Correct check, and set the trim for takeoff (since its position has moved multiple times during your autopilot/trim check).

That’s a lot to do for a second control check, the autopilot supplement procedure. Most systems will not activate without passing some sort of

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self-test, so most pilots know about the first, short part of the check. More (but far from most) pilots seem to know about the trim check, in my experience. And very few seem to have an inkling about the full test that makes up the bulk of the second control check. But it’s this detailed check that tells you the true operational condition of your airplane.

Was a preflight autopilot test done by the single pilot of a Citation jet that fatally crashed in Georgia [the week before the 3/30/2017 LESSONS were published]? According to preliminary information [which is still the latest as of 3/28/2019], the NTSB reported that the pilot radioed during the accident flight that he was having a problem with his autopilot. See https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20170324-0

Would including the full autopilot/trim check during initial transition and recurrent training in autopilot-equipped airplanes make a pilot more familiar with the system, to avoid horrible and preventable events like this A36 Bonanza over Florida, only four miles from the departure airport in very good, visual conditions, in which the NTSB relates:

…the pilot advised the controller that the flight was at 1,800 feet and descending…the pilot indicated he was…unable to disengage the autopilot. The pilot then informed the controller that he needed to get the airplane on the ground and requested assistance. The pilot was provided a vector to return to ORL, and about 1121:52, he informed the controller that he had to use full force and asked on the frequency if anybody knew how to turn off the autopilot. An unknown voice instructed him to pull the circuit breaker. The controller asked the pilot if he was able to descend, to which he replied he was pushing as hard as he could on the control yoke. An unidentified voice on the frequency instructed the pilot to pull the autopilot circuit breaker, to which he replied he had but the airplane was porpoising. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane bank, then observed it descend in a nose-low attitude into the lake.

See https://www.ntsb.gov/_layouts/ntsb.aviation/brief.aspx?ev_id=20151120X31605&key=1

And although it is not part of the Supplement preflight check, it’s vital to remain proficient and ready to disengage the autopilot and the electric trim system in the event of a trim runaway—a personal experience I related way back in the May 19, 2011 FLYING LESSONS Weekly. See https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gslac/library/documents/2011/May/54237/FLYING%20LESSONS%20110519.pdf

We don’t all have autopilots. But many of us do. And a new wave of low-cost, capable autopilot systems will likely soon add this level of automation to a much larger number of light airplanes, including many types that traditionally have never had the option of an autopilot installation.

If you have an autopilot, you must have an autopilot supplement…and it almost certainly contains an autopilot preflight check. Even if it doesn’t, it’s a very good idea to run through its modes at least on the first flight of a day, to ensure it and the trim system it drives is working properly.

Pertinent to this March 2019 report, and the possible LESSONS from the 737 Max 8 crashes: Any technology—even automatic safety systems—can have failure modes that require the pilot to immediately and correctly respond, then hand-fly the airplane if needed to resume control and get the airplane back on the ground. Given that some very popular and attractive autopilot systems available as retrofits and new equipment even in light airplanes now have automatic stability protection systems to keep us safe, it’s even more important to read the entire autopilot supplement and fully understand the normal, abnormal and emergency modes, including how to test its operation before flight and to override and disable the autopilot in the event of a malfunction.

Questions? Ideas? Opinions? Send them to mastery.flight.training@cox.net

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See https://www.pilotworkshop.com/botched-go-around?ad=turner-goaround-botch

Debrief: Readers write about recent FLYING LESSONS:

With apologies…

I was away for three full weeks with my friends in the Australian Beechcraft Society, teaching and “on holiday” flying Bonanzas and Barons around the southeastern corner of Australia.

During this trip I would miss four issues of FLYING LESSONS Weekly (five if you count the one I sat out on in my post-trip exhaustion last week), so I pre-loaded editions for weekly transmission. Unfortunately there were some issues with a couple of those editions that some readers kindly pointed out but that I was unable to address while I was away:

• The correct link to the video of the gear-up landing cited in the March 7 FLYING LESSONS is here.

• The link to the article on task saturation by Jim “Murph” Murphy in that same issue has been changed to this.

• In the March 14 LESSONS I made a statement that some readers thought was mean to be an equivalency, highlighted below:

Whether 1000 feet/100 meters, 1/3 the total runway distance, on the second stripe, or immediately after the displaced threshold chevrons, the key in all landings is to command the aircraft so you touch down where you plan, and

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to immediately go around if you are not on targets of speed, in configuration (flaps and landing gear as appropriate), on glidepath to your planned touchdown zone, and aligned with runway centerline as you approach the runway...making your go-around decision before you are on the ground and in danger of a runway excursion.

In retrospect you’re right. I should have made that virgule (“slash”) a comma. I didn’t mean to say 100 meters is the same as 1000 feet (in fact, I was successfully making my way using Metric System as a Second Language during that the time), any more than I meant to suggest that 1/3 the runway distance necessarily equals either of those figures, or that any other these is the same as the position of the second runway stripe. What I meant to say was that no matter what your target, the key in all landings is to command the aircraft so you touch down where you plan…. I apologize for creating that slashing confusion.

Thanks, readers, for your notes and for your patience awaiting these corrections. And thank you to my many friends in Australia. Peggy and I had a wonderful time. See: http://www.abs.org.au http://www.mastery-flight-training.com/20190307-flying-lessons.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5McECUtM8fw http://nomapnoguidenolimits.com/2010/03/23/task-saturation/ http://www.mastery-flight-training.com/20190314-flying-lessons.pdf Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Let us know, at mastery.flight.training@cox.net

Readers, please help cover the costs of providing FLYING LESSONS through the secure PayPal donations button at www.mastery-flight-training.com. Or send a check to Mastery Flight Training, Inc. 247 Tiffany Street, Rose Hill,

Kansas USA 67133. Thank you, generous supporters.

Share safer skies. Forward FLYING LESSONS to a friend

Pursue Mastery of Flight.

Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety Flight Instructor Hall of Fame 2015 Inductee 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year 2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year Three-time Master CFI

FLYING LESSONS is ©2019 Mastery Flight Training, Inc. For more information see www.mastery-flight-training.com, or contact mastery.flight.training@cox.net.