Welcome to “What’s Wrong?“, a new twist on aviation challenge quizzes. “What’s Wrong?” works just like a real flight: You’re in an airplane, flying along and there are clues to a potential problem right there in front of you—but it’s still on you to notice them and take action before it’s too late.
Here’s how it works: You’ll watch a super-short video with a quick setup for the situation and then approximately 10 seconds of the pilot’s perspective in flight. Something is amiss. Can you find it? We’ll give you 3-5 options at the end as what is wrong, but don’t expect much help from these options. They are worded to (perhaps) give some hints—or distractions from the important issue—but they won’t give anything away.
Watch the video and see if you know what’s wrong. When you’re done, click through to the answer. Not only will you find out what’s wrong, but you’ll get at least one helpful tip, technique, or learning point to help if you ever face a situation like this in your real-world flying.
Watch the Scenario
Watch the Explanation
Click to view ▼
The gear handle is still in the up position. Given that you’re inside the final approach fix and only minutes from landing, you should have the wheels out and have confirmed three green lights. If you had run your pre-landing checklist, you should have caught that error. Another clue was that you were high and fast when you started this approach. Do you usually see only 13 inches of manifold pressure on approach? Probably not because you probably have more drag with the wheels in the wind. Yes, there should be a gear warning horn, but unless you heard it recently, how do you know it works?
Note: you can watch the videos full-screen by clicking or tapping the 4 arrows in the bottom-right corner of the video:
On mobile devices, tap the left caret symbol to expose the controls:
Sweet! Fooled me, then again, I don’t fly SEL and not familiar with the aircraft. I think this is a good series and thank you for putting this out. Throw out a glider challenge and see if this CFI-G catches it.
Love the concept, but I don’t fly Cessnas (or retracts) so in the short time allowed, it was not possible for me to get familiar with the panel. Also, the screen resolution is not great. Still, keep this going. It’s a great addition.
I agree with the screen resolution issue. Include an option to make the video full-screen so viewers can clearly see the image.
I really like this feature! I saw the MP was not in the green, but missed the gear. I agree with Kuemmsc about the short time for the video and the unfamiliar panel. The approach plate appeared briefly, and my first thought was “wrong altitude” on the approach, but I didn’t have time to analyze it. Still, I think this is a good feature… Keep them coming!
As a TR182 owner, this was super easy. The MP not being in the green can be normal, especially in this particular situation as the plane is faster.
Hi all. Appologies for the controls not appearing to allow full screen and as many replays as you want. The thinking was you could watch it over and over as you saw fit. We also have a video part for the explanation that will appear. I’m working on getting that on the page as well.
Glad the idea overall is a hit. Look for more of them in the future.
Never seen anything like this and I think it’s a great tool.
Yeah — l saw how low the power for the airspeed/sink rate and thought the bottom was about to fall out but that didn’t fit with any of the four choices. Then I went back and saw it was an RG, and only then I saw the amber light which told me why he needed so little power for that performance. “Those who have, and those who will…”
An excellent addition to the new platform. Thanks and good luck to everyone at AVBrief.
Love it.
how about GUMPS??