Fire Drill Season

It’s a professional duty for flight educators to catch pilots off guard during a routine “currency flight.” We’ve all had those diabolical CFIIs turn off the GPS at the initial fix and then sit back to watch you scramble around for the chart. Or cover up the HSI and artificial horizon, just to see if you can stay on the localizer. These exercises sure are fun, at least I think so (full disclosure: I’m one of those mischievous CFIIs). But there’s a real purpose: simulating bad things that can happen. To you.

So to kick off the spring flying season, let’s sample some in-flight anomalies and see how well you’d handle them, and what needs work. They’re all based on NTSB reports of GA accidents. However, locations and situations have been changed to emphasize that wherever you’re based, you can practice similar scenarios tailored to your aircraft or training device. And if you do manage to stay on track down to the approach MDA/DA in “IMC,” you get to log the approach for currency, too. 

Have a BALLL

ILS approaches are great for this scenario ’cause the needles, whether lateral or vertical, can be wobbly. Same with the pilot. The ILS or LOC 32 at KMIE (Muncie, Indiana) is one example of the standard precision approach you can find anywhere. Some, like this, have a catch or two. See the lengthy fine print in the Notes Box. These get skipped a lot. Sometimes, it matters. Let’s make conditions 600-1, and the airport weather station is inop. Indy Approach was kind enough to remind you of this NOTAM during vectors. The outage, though, as noted, means using Fort Wayne for the altimeter setting. But there’s more. Now, coming up on intercept, you’ll have to check those notes and make some last-second adjustments. Try that on a bumpy day with your instructor snickering in the corner.

This is when you wish you’d read it 20 miles ago to sort out what’s relevant for this approach. Even if you did this on the ground, the notes are convoluted and it takes a couple reads to digest. Did you increase the DA to 1258 feet as required? Great, now the glideslope just failed. Are you ready with the LOC MDA, 140 feet added? If you manage to hang on until BALLL, Tower will advise the MALSR is inop (the cunning instructor can arrange this ahead). You might realize at this point that the lighting outage is a red herring if flying Category A or B. The notes do not require adjustments in that case so long as the visibility’s 1 SM—see how that was set up? But if you weren’t sure about it, you’d be second-guessing the descent when the workload’s already high. Perhaps you go missed to play it safe—great option. Still on the correct path? Continue, but there will be a missed called out. The fun’s only begun. Even if pre-memorized, it’s easy to forget one of these traditional ILS missed approach procedures because it’s three steps: an initial climbout altitude (not very high), a climbing turn to the top altitude, then direct to the holding fix. That’s typically a navaid that’s back on the approach somewhere. Here, it’s a climbing right turn to BALLL. Any fumbles? Have another go at it.

Missing Magenta

We do favor RNAV approaches for ease of use. They are so nice when they come with a glidepath, and those with precision-approach quality are indeed the best. But there are plenty of airports, some with multiple runways, that don’t offer LPV minimums. Some days, you can’t even get a straight-in. There’s a great example at KMIT in Shafter, California. Like a lot of old military fields, this one has three runways. But the chart menu has only two approaches: RNAV (GPS) 12 and a VOR-A. Add in a GPS failure and an east wind, and the pilot is stuck with a radio-based, circling-only procedure. Some of you do these Alphas all the time, maybe the GPS version, at the home airport. No worries—there are ways to throw in more wrenches for the veterans. It’s night and windy, so only Runway 12 is usable. Really? There’s that darn Notes Box again. And, quiz question: How will you circle? Feel free to argue your case, but this one’s best flown with a right-hand pattern in the spirit of 14 CFR §91.126.

Now, you’re flying in from the east, but the safety pilot kept you high at 5,000 feet and the IAF is also the final fix. The hold-in-lieu-of-procedure turn will likely be more than once around, so best to tell ATC that you’ll advise when ready to proceed. Without GPS, neither ZUDEG nor UMVEW can help, which means this is timed. If your little two-seater comes screaming in with a groundspeed of 120 knots, you get a bit over two minutes to break out, get your bearings, and circle. If it’s going well, be ready for a missed approach on short final to Runway 12: “Climb to 4,000, straight out.” That’s the depiction, but now you’re facing the wrong way. If you briefed this, you’ve got a chance. Beware the obstacles east and north of the airport, so it’s safer to climb and turn on the south side to join the prescribed radial. But as the holding fix is an intersection, you’ll be tested on the ability to juggle two navaids and enter the hold at the right spot. Meantime, the instructor’s filling out a little notebook to commemorate your first 30-day VOR check in two years. Oops.

Voltage Outage

An electrical/alternator failure, naturally an emergency when in IMC, requires good working knowledge of the aircraft’s electrical system beyond the checklist procedures. Be especially familiar with circuit breakers and avionics bus configurations with new-to-you avionics upgrades. The flight manual or POH and associated supplements have more details, but other variables include what equipment you consider must-have versus can-do-without. In addition, there might be options for independently powered components (depends), and the realistic life of the airplane battery (depends). A custom checklist to include electrical triage and conservative battery times is great for making quick plans if there’s a problem. It’s good homework in addition to some ground testing, as a lot of this stuff can’t be determined in flight. Know how much available power there is for standby gyros and flight displays.

Then, try out your new procedures with a VFR currency flight. This scenario might be best flown at a non-towered, quiet airport to work with. Discuss the scenario ahead of time (your CFII will keep certain surprises, though). For a great example of how this works, let’s head to Florida and find ZephyrHills (all one word), KZPH. It has four cookie-cutter approaches, satellite-only, quite convenient. Pick the RNAV (GPS) 19 at KZPH. If you’re lucky enough to have good electrical redundancy, add some weather challenge like gusty southeast winds. If you’ve lost everything electrical, this is your chance to see how you’ll fare with an EFB-flown approach on a portable device. Oh, and since the aircraft battery died three miles from the IAF, no charger and no comms. That means FAR 91.185 kicks in. Got there 20 minutes before the filed ETA? It’s required in the reg to kill some time so hold at IXROV until close to arrival time. At least this is a chance to review the lost-comms and missed approach procedures while logging a hold.

Better yet, keep it higher than you’d want at 5,000 feet. It’s still outside the Class Bravo, but close, so this requires that everyone monitors airspace carefully with good situational awareness. Continue the approach and over IXROV, see how the descent’s gonna work to the final fix. There’s at least six miles to accomplish it, and you only need to be at or above 1,700 feet. But it’s mighty uncomfortable to fly a steeper descent on approach, especially if you haven’t practiced it before. Sure, you can miss and do it better. Normally, that’s a good choice. In an emergency, though, you’re not going to do everything perfectly and this is when practicing for those times pays off. Plus, depending on backup batteries isn’t the best for repeated approaches or late-in-the-game diversions. 

I Can’t Take Any More!

If you want to get more comfortable with flying abnormal/emergency scenarios, beg for mercy and focus on one piece at a time. Want more realism? Training devices and sims are fantastic for safely re-creating any situation, anywhere. You’ll find that there’s no end to the combinations within the devious mind of the instrument instructor. But don’t stop there. Have fun and keep tackling each scenario until they’re just as uneventful as a cruise on top of the overcast. Only then can you truly say you’re prepared for an unlikely, but possible, emergency.