This week's episode features an interview with Brian Hough from the School of Aeronautics at Liberty University. Brian talks about the advantages of getting a college degree along with your flight training, and shares some ways that Liberty University works to keep the cost down for flight students... without wasting their time! Plus we dig into the statistics that talk about where the industry is headed in this post-pandemic world. (Hint... it's looking GREAT for pilots!)
Our guest Brian Hough (School of Aeronautics/Liberty University) is not only an academic, but he's also an accomplished pilot. Brian is an ATP rated pilot, as well as a certified flight instructor and a designated pilot examiner. If you're considering going for a college degree in the field of aviation, don't miss this week's episode of Behind The Prop!
Clear prop! Number two following twin traffic on 3 mile final. JB using runway 25 on a 4-mile final.
This is Behind the Prop with United Flight Systems owner and licensed pilot, Bobby Doss. and it's co-host: major airline captain Designated Pilot Examiner, Wally Mulhearn. Now let's go behind the prop!
What's up, Wally? Hey Bobby, how are you? fantastic. Another show today today we're gonna talk about a potpourri of things. We'll call it but you wanted to start off telling a story about a recent check ride and we'll dive into the things that we're going to talk about today. Yeah i just wanna talk about i. I was doing an instrument. Check ride Here a couple of weeks ago and we were doing in. Irs less approach at a local airport and I i often. I tell applicants on an instrument. Check ride that that. It's okay for there to be silence in the cockpit and in fact especially on an instrument check ride their times of possibly awkward silence and lot of my applicants they. They can't stand that they they feel like they have to be talking Or there needs to be chatter going on all the time. The problem with talking is for the most part. If you're talking you're not listening okay. We we've got two years and we've got one mouth so listening might be more important than talking There are a lot of things that we learn. What our ears as. I sit in this room. recording you know i heard an airplane startup outside and i'm thinking okay well. Somebody's going flying as were sitting in around and and honestly i'm a little envious because we got beautiful weather. I'd love to be out there flying right now but anyway we we pick up on cues like this and so what happened The the general is doing a very admirable job on the check ride were flying and i'll s approach and we're about Probably about eight miles from the end of their own way about to intercept the glide slope to start Going down on the approach and the approach that we were using was to a runway. That was not the The primary landing runway at the airport. We're doing an approach to s roy. One four and most of their landings were two one nine this day. The winds were about Two hundred twelve knots any in any event as we were about eight miles out air. Traffic control called us up and they asked They asked my guy to speed up. I forgot the exact verbiage but they asked him to speed up and he said unable now. That's perfectly within your rights as a pilot to tell him unable. And if you're unable you should tell him that you're unable and that's what he told him and i think i think what he heard was literal. He heard from atc that they wanted us to go faster and he said well. We can't go faster. What i heard was they wanted us to go faster. Because we had a possible traffic conflict and so When i heard him tell them unable. I you know you know of course as just the the neutral observer. I'm just sitting there. And i i said okay. Well we'll we'll see how this thing plays out and imagining the controller in the tower trying to do his calculations figure out. If we're gonna meet at the airport at the same time with another airplane well not long after that I hear a jet call up and check in with approach and they are out On the approach to the other runway Doing an arnav approach and it's visual conditions Whether it was fine. I assume you're a check right in the jet so they were going faster right right and and what what the controller said to the jet is we have a cessna on seven mile final to enter intersecting your own way and you have You're doing seventy knots. Faster than he is. Can you pull back to your final approach speed and you hear the the. The jet pilot reluctantly agreed to that and which he did. And i'm still thinking to myself. Okay there's this may not work out. And in all likelihood priority will be given to the jet over us and we weren't planning on landing we were planning on doing mr approach and then going to another airport anyway and probably when we were about Twelve hundred feet which was about four miles out Atc came on and told us they needed us to break off the approach.
Two miles from the approach end of the runway and fly an a missed approach procedure. All of this was things that i was ready for. I was prepared for just. Because i you know an experienced goes a long way. Of course i've done this. Thousands of times and my applicant you know had flown You know he's. He's gotten his instrument training getting an instrument rating and He he wasn't expecting this and he was a little bit confused over what. Atc wanted to do and so he he queried queried the tower gani. He said Say again tower tower. So we need you to break off the approach at Two miles from the runway. And at that point i just told him i says i'll tell you undergo mr approach and and so my whole point was is that and this is what we when we got back on the ground which he did a fine job on the checkered and i was just explaining to him. I said when when approach asked you to slow down or speed up. Rather i said he he had a reason for wanting you to speed up and i think what pilots think is that the most conservative course of action is always the most safest course of action. And it's a little. It's a little bit of a grey area. I i'll never forget on a private check ride one time i gave young man Cross country Trip that was about five hundred miles and he planned about five fuel stops and i asked him why why so many fuel stops and he so well i don't i don't wanna land with less than three and a half hours worth of fuel i said why and he he kept throwing up the safety Were well. I wanted to be safe safe safe and i asked him. I said at what phase of fly do you think the most accidents happen. He says will take off and landing and i said so. Now we have taken a trip that we could have done. In two takeoffs and landings and instead we've done five takeoffs and landings so we've more than doubled our exposure terror in takeoffs and landings and and he he sold. Gee i never thought of it that way so What we may think is always the safest course of action. The there may be extenuating circumstances or may be external circumstances to think about and This was one where You know if the applicant didn't feel like he could speed up. that's fine. don't speed up there. Is i mean. That's the bottom line and they had wally in the aircraft with them they. They knew their check out so they probably didn't. They probably wanna try something they'd never tried before. Yeah good point. Twenty four thousand hours and one hundred and forty hours. You guys are thinking very different thing right. And i think that's kind of the topic for today is how can we the two guys behind the prop give all you listeners. Some ideas and ways to use some resources in the cockpit to the best of your ability whether it's some local knowledge and taking what a tc sharing with you and doing some mental gymnastics to figure out what's best for me in the situation right To make the best decision it may still always be unable for this young designed to win but As he gets more and more down the road or down the runway in his car in his career he might change that some right and thank pre show. We talked about it. We're going to break it up into really three parts and we may jump around a little bit. But we're gonna talk about a us. Use your ears and radios Some other stuff in the cockpit and then how to maybe take advantage of some navigational tools and ways that you might not be doing. Maybe you are doing some of these and as always we would love the conversation to continue online whether that's emails We love getting notes and love responding to your questions and using them on future shows But but while he just gave a really good example of how he was using the radios and a very different way than the applicant was and had a lot of information that maybe wasn't going through the applicants mind likewise on a recent flight that i took i was in the cockpit. Observing just The other pilot pilot in command and they had asked for a little bit of help. And i was just watching. We were approaching an airport and the tower. We had just been switched tower on a fly. Following in the tower said inter report when you're turning base and we'd already been talking about briefing and some other things and what was interesting was three minutes or so later.
The pilot had convinced themselves that they had heard left or right bay. Sorry bright based they they heard the the tower say right base. And i'm thinking through it. And i'm thinking there's we're never turning right base. This the way we're coming in is like on a long left base but we're going to make a little bit of a turn so i know i know what i think the towers asking for and i let things continue to progress a little bit more. Were still ten miles out and We get closer closer to. When are we going to be on right base. She's thinking through it and talking to herself and ultimately she realised never and what. I think happens as she heard right base because she and her mind had already briefed that she was going to be turning a right base. But that's not what they wanted us to do and that didn't make sense. She there are other reasons why she talked herself into this right base. But you can't add words you've got to really listen and i think these two examples are ones that we want to share that you really gotta listen and not add to it. I think a lot of times we were better known for adding words that are necessary to our speech but i think that We really have to think about not adding words. The things we hear both on the ground and in the air for sure right also on that same trip for me things something that i don't think people do but i'm sure we've all been astronaut to do. It is really use our radios as early as possible right and in this. This one instance. We were coming back to the airport. And i turned the radio to tower. Probably twenty five miles out. We were long way away. But i knew they were busy. I could see the traffic on my screen on four flight. And i just wanted to be listening. In case anything important came up and lo and behold something came up when we were about seventeen miles out we would not normally be talking the tower yet. We reported in that we were inbound and they called our tale sign. Ads's a great thing. They called our tale sign and said If you're listening turn ten degrees to the right to avoid traffic right. Which was fantastic. That we were on the channel Which saved us. Probably a little bit of headache. And that was very nice of the tower to do most. We were actually flying with another pilot. Maybe they were three miles in front of us. They were also told the same information but didn't hear that information because they weren't listening But he probably was listening a few miles later but but use those radios here advantage right. I'm sure we all do it in some way. But whether as soon as you can. We talked about using the radio to listen to emergency and other things and other podcasts. But i think getting on the the future channel a little bit earlier is better for everybody. Yeah for sure. We talked about practice approaches. You gave a tip about the if you go the navasota conroe hooks route. But do you. What do you suggest your students. You're you're teaching. What do you suggest they do only know Here in houston are in this area. A lot of times we go We do approaching conroe followed by an approach in hooks and Hooks airport is located Was it seventeen miles. It's close something like that. So yeah yeah about seventeen miles south southwest of connor airport so a lot of times. We do an approach to the south in conroe followed by approach to the south in two hooks and Things happen fast on that between conroy and here And typically atc once you check in with approach Conroy tower hands. You over to approach you call up. Houston approach Houston approach willing. Normally if they know what you wanna do if you talked to him previously They'll say Clear direct oiler. Advise when you have information. Charlie at hooks and At this point the the student is probably kind of fumbling to find oiler. Find the approach. going through the database Trying to fly ahead and trying to fly fly an altitude Because everything is happening at the same time and the last thing that you thinking about is flipping over to the aid. Us and picking up information charlie. So you can get information charlie before you even go to the first airport before you even go to conroe ahead and get charlie at that point now. There's a chance that maybe it's already changed to delta and you know and check in with them.
Say we have information charlie. if it's information delta the controller's probably going to tell you. What the differences. Oh yeah they'll read the wins and everything. Yeah probably not a whole lot of difference it could be but You know if it's information delta named they say you know they'll just say delta's current altimeters two nine eight nine. Yeah the other. i just thought of another one. That briefly happened with that had some passengers and we did the the corridor which is getting the ability to fly right through downtown houston and see the big buildings and took him to the monument. We turn around and we were coming back and they live in sugarland so already knew i is going to sherline so pretty much and this was fifteen minutes. After the hour we were in the air. As soon as we got airborne and on approach. I started listening to the the sugarland weather. Because i knew i was going to turn away from sugar. Land come right back to it. The weather wasn't going to change in thirty minutes. So i had the weather and they. They said the passengers asked me. Why are you listening to shirt. When we're not going there. I they were trying to pick up on all going on as i. Yeah but it's not gonna change in the next fifteen minutes. So i'm going to be prepared and i think that's just what we do. The more the more professional the better we get at being pilots. We think ahead like that right. Yeah it's it's just anticipation. That's it. And i think i've observed that with you and and other professional pilots around me are so far out in front of the airplane. We hear about this. Private pilots say up front of the airplane. You're way out front of the airplane compared to even me today but i'm way out front of the airplane compared to someone who's at thirty or forty hours right and i think that's what we're all striving to do is get a little bit further out in front of him so that things are speeding up catching up with. Here's another little technique. Let's say you you come into a a class d airport or class. See an airport where. Atc gives you a squawk. And maybe you're on an eye of our flight plan. But you have something other than twelve hundred in the transponder after you land park. The airplane put that transponder. Back to twelve hundred. Because what you're doing is you're you're helping the next guy. The flies airplane. Who might be you if you're going via our It's all set. And it's ready for you. But the other thing is is if you're going out i f are all you gotta do is look over that transponder and realize that the transponder is not set. Yup that's a good one as a flight school owner who flies my own planes. What a bit. it's frustrating. When i go out there and i sit down on a turn that thing on and it's got five three to six come on man. Yeah that that tells me to do the checklist when he cleaned up the aircraft I always tried to keep it a little nicer than it was when i got it right. So yeah we can do that. I did find it. When when i was in an aircraft partnership all three of us all three of the the owners i need i know each guy really took a lot of priding and getting that airplane pristine when we got it in and now that i'm not a partnership i find myself a little lacking on that and i kind of wish i could go back to that because boy when we got that airplane and we scrubbed did there was not a bug on the airplane left to feel accountable that you don't want them to be ragging on you. Next time they see. There's right some some other tips about staying in front of aircraft this stuff section. We talked about it a little bit before we started recording but when i was a forty five to sixty hour pilot had a lot of cheese sheets that i wrote and had on my own kneeboard anything that would help me be a little bit more on front of that aircraft radio numbers. I flew to austin for the first time. I think i had every small airport and vr. Between here in austin and probably a hundred miles the other side of austin and about fifty miles both ways right right now we all just pack and four flight and we get that downloaded but i had. I had them written down. Typed out and four at everything at my fingertips You you talked about you. Have everything in your notes for a trip to hear monroe because you make that trip off. Yeah it's a great backup even for a professional pilot. You have some of those cheat sheets The one that i think's missed over and over and over again because we are always at this airport is the use of a taxi diagram and that could decade really bite you one day for show absolutely and and it is in fact required on all the check rides it does say use. I forgot how it's exactly worded in the acs but It does say that you are required to have a taxi diagram available to you and You know that you can view. Yeah most of his probably do that in four flight. Four flight automatically does it. But i will challenge you while you're listening the you really look down at it. The stop when you when you have the opportunity to stop clear the runway and know exactly what you're gonna do i think that's one of those Listening things to we also sometimes maybe have a a a bias to previously being.
Told juliet echo papa. Here juliaca echo papa. Your juliet echo. Papa will might not be juliette echo. Popica- could very easily be foxtrot hotel. Mike parking right. That's very different right And if you just in that mindset of. I'm gonna go the same way i've always gone. That could be a real problem. Yeah and and you have to. You have to make sure you're not caught into that bias in police cleanup twelve hundred. Especially if you're a student at this school how about some navigational stuff. I i get asked this question a lot when i fly people in the one eighty two. I try ever leave a seat open. If i'm going to fly somewhere by myself. I try to take a student or a friend or somebody. Get some time In that aircraft. And i talked about the autopilot while i try to teach autopilot but i'm constantly hitting the heading bug on that she went thousands of you. The heading bug the bug goes right to what you're on at that moment and time and people always asked what are you doing. Why am i. Why am i doing that. The autopilots flying the plane. Why do you need the heading book. And it's something that i've just been inhabit of. Someone taught me obviously. But what if the stops working. What if i take it off on opa. What if i am flying on autopilot. And they tell me to divert ten degrees. I take it offer a little bit or change. The heading and i've turned the heading bug back. I want to know what it was flying before. That i can fly it again and it's really about if the pilot quits or turn it off. For some reason it's got a wind correction built into the computers. Really really smart. It knows exactly what it needs to fly and if anything happens he's a heading the best practice and i would say all encompassing the heading bug is the best practice yeah and and and with with With my airline. I mean that that is our practice. Most of the time the then mode that we are flying in is called l. math which stands for lateral navigation in general aviation airplanes. You just have a navc function but are practices to keep the heading bugah straight ahead where you're gone all the time even though we're not actually in the heading mode but there are a lot of times where. Atc will say fly president heading and in that case all you have to go and engage heading and you're already you know it's it's set right so but the other thing it does do is it gives you a very good idea of where the wind is coming from. You may not have all the fancy equipment where you can actually see the display of the wind but if you see that you know we're going straight ahead but are heading is ten degrees to the left. We know that we've got some sort of wind out of the left. And then then you know you could compare your true airspeed your ground speed and kind of figure out well. Is that coming from the front end to the left or from the talent to the left. Obviously if you're ground speed is greater than you choose airspeed well. It's coming got a little bit of talent. A left quartering tailwind no doubt. I think you should be using the heading bug before you take off you know. Just get the runway heading in there. Yeah i use it for a lot of different things. If i'm honored approach i normally would put it into what i what i'm gonna turning to next if i don't have an hsa or something that's going to help me do some of that As well so. I think it's a tool that goes unused in. If you have heading bug just makes you're using it definitely goes unused i. I fly in get find a lot of airplanes. That don't have autopilots but they do. I've heading bugs. And i would say at at the private pilot level Maybe fifteen to twenty percent of the people actually use the heading bug. I mean and we'll get to the point. Where i'll i'll put the applicant under the hood and i'll give them headings turn right heading three to zero. And they're turning to three to zero and you've got this beautiful heading bug that would mark three to zero and still still. Don't use it now. Well that's too bad for them. You should use the heading book. Yeah likewise on a gps. If there's a gps in the airplane use the gps at least navigate with it. If you're going to an airport obviously direct twos the easiest thing to do. But i find that people when they're cut when they get towards the airport environment. They don't know the approaches. I think we've talked about this before. But why not load the arnav approach into the gps. It definitely is gonna help you find the airport. Yeah you might have extended lines on your four flight in your ipad but man if it tells you where to turn. It's a lot easier to find the you'd have to fly the whole approach. You're using for situational awareness right but man really does tell you when you're getting really close to the runway. Whatever however far out are now have approach goes right.
Yeah yeah so. Take advantage of that I probably an ob s mode in every gps to you can turn that on and pick almost anyway point an an a an item to intersect if you needed to from a navigation perspective right and then the last one that i think we'll talk about was really. The autopilot came up recently. Were flying with someone. They didn't have a lot of autopilot experience man. Almost i'm sure you could find a video. And almost anything. They all have about the same a buttons they probably all have at least two of the same features wings level and a heading. Probably maybe not outs to. Maybe not a lot of vertical speed stuff. But if they do they're all gonna work real real similar and it's a. It's a tool that you just should take advantage of no matter what i hear it all the time while. I'm i'm such a great pilot. I'm just going to handle of this baby the hallway. That's not always going to be the best solution because you get stressed out really quick and some imc. Yeah yeah and and what. I see on instrument check rides or what i hear other times. The applicant will say. Well i got an airplay autopilot in my airplane Am i allowed to use it. Well the answer is yes. And not only. Are you allowed to use it. I'm required to test you on it if it's part of the airplane. So we're going to use the autopilot. It's it is a tool. I mean most of us. Probably have dishwashers in our house. I would venture to say most of us. Use the dishwashers in our house. you know at some point. It's brand new. I may have a lot of fancy buttons but you're going to figure out how to use it. It's a tool. Yeah and. I think it would be crazy to wash your dishes if you had a dishwasher. Be crazy handful of the whole flight if you had an autopilot so Very similar topics. There so i think we don't even know what we're gonna call the show yet. It's just a bunch of cockpit best practices. It's not really a how to use your single pilot. Resource management all up but. It is some tips and tricks that we've seen over the last few weeks that we want to share with everyone about how to use your ears to really hear what's going on on the radios. How to use some cheats in tools. That you might make yourself in the cockpit and how to take advantage of all that navigational equipment to get information that you might not easily get without. It will help you navigate and get to some some location. A whole lot easier as always. Thanks for listening and say the thanks for checking out the behind the prop
Thanks for checking out the Behind The Prop podcast. be sure to click subscribe and check us out online at BehindTheProp.com behind the prop is recorded in Houston, Texas. Show creator and host is Bobby Doss. Co-host is Wally Mulhearn. This shoe is for entertainment purposes Only. and not meant to replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening and remember: fly safe!