This week's episode is all about FAR 91.103. Preflight actions! There's so much that goes into preparing for a flight. Fuel, weight and balance, weather, runway lengths, NOTAMS... and the list goes on and on. Bobby and Wally discuss some ways to cut through the clutter and zero in on what's really important in your preflight planning.
Preflight actions are often overlooked, but they really are so important. We plan so much for our training cross country flights, but when we get our certificate, how many of us are really sitting down and planning each flight in depth? On this week's episode of Behind The Prop, Bobby and Wally give us some great practical real world tips for preparing for your cross country flights.
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 are you? Fantastic, this week. We take on the FAR/AIM a little bit. Bring some regulations to the world but not since we're going to teach the regulations. We want to talk about making better pilots. So this week's all about preflight action 91.103. I'm sure see if is and students out. There have all been through the reg. And the common. I guess acronym that people use this PAVE. The FAA has some good documents on it. But I think today we want to talk about why we all think through PAVE and probably use it before getting plane what are some of the common pitfalls that we don't do well or maybe you don't see people doing perfectly on check rides or in your training with other applicants not applicants but the people that you might be teaching how to fly as CFI. What should we may be focused on a little bit more that we don't focus on good enough. Maybe it's some of these things that are CFI said on your check ride do this but we really should be doing it. All the time right So let's just jump right into pave and start talking about some of those things and If you have thoughts or comments out there in the podcasts world give us a give us an email or a comment on Facebook and we will incorporate your conversation so with that, PAVE. Let's talk about the pilot. What what are some of the things that we probably regularly do end or think about but maybe we don't do a good enough job of preparing for as it is with the flight and I jokingly asked you before we talked how many people the think really know the length of runway a remote airport that they've never been to before. Yeah but it's a big city right with a tower right. Do you think we all maybe assume it's bigger big enough wide enough. Yeah we don't really know. Yeah you know the airlines go in there while it's big enough for me. It's good enough for me so technically that doesn't meet the requirements as you need to check runway lengths. And you just you need. You need to be aware of that. But I think as far as the you know when we when I think of preflight or I think when most people think of preflight they think of going around and walking around and airplane and making sure the airplane is ready to go but You know there's three other words in the letter in the word pave and the first one is pilot so the first thing we need to think about One we're getting ready to go fly as the pilot. I'm ready to do. I have everything that I need to go. I see a lot of people that Keep their you know me personally and again. We're going to talk about techniques. May be how everybody does it. But I personally keep my pilot documents my medical my pilot certificates and my radio license. I keep that in my wallet. okay now. Have I ever gone and flown in airplane without my wallet. I don't think so You know. I guess it's possible but you know my wallet is usually in my back pocket. I a lot of pilots keep their documents in a flight bag. And that's fine as long as your flight bag is always with you on your fly. One thing. I see with private pilot applicants when I asked to see their documents. One document that I Check is their medical and a lot of times. They're medical is taped into their logbook and at the end of the check ride I’ll have a discussion with would the applicant. Hopefully the Check ride has been satisfactory. So person is now a private pilot I will. I will comment to them. Because the during the ground portion of the check ride. I will ask them if they're logbook is required to be with them when they act exercise the privileges of a private pilot and the correct answer is no. You're logbook does not need to be with you but you're going to choose to you know a fix your medical to your logbook you got to the medical and if it's stuck in your logbook book then you got to have your log book and a lot of pilots will say. Well I’m never you know I’m never going to fly without my logbook And I said well.
That's fine but I think the logbook is something at least for me. I like to keep my Well my logbook at home. Of course my logbooks electrolytic now. So there on my pad. It's in the cloud at some. I can access at any way. I want to now. So it's a little bit of a different world but were assuming back in the days of a paper logbook which people still Us at least for their private pilot training. But you know suppose you now have your private pilot certificate and you're out in you drive by the airport and you stop by the flight school and they say hey. We got this airplane. We need to ferry from here to the airport. Forty miles away. Think you could do that and you say I. Of course I can do that. Well you're logbooks at home your medicals at home so legally. You can't do it so might be a consideration You know and again. I'm not saying it's the right thing to do. It's how I do it. It works for me. But just be aware that I mean you as a pilot you need to have the required documents with you and of course You know you need to be healthy in the right state of mind. All that that sort of stuff. Yeah I’m a flight bag guy. I keep my medical in my certificates in my flight bag Obviously my driver's licenses in my wallet. And I have a pattern that I’ve created or technique. I've created over time. Where as soon as I put my. Pull my head out of my flight bags headset bag. I put my wallet and keys in that. Because I want those to come right out whenever I get to my destination as well That way kind of a check for me. That I’ve got my wallet driver's license and then I’ve got my other stuff my flight bank but we've all been there and seen it probably where that flight bag was cleaned out or something was moved. And you might lose that. So if you're that kind of use that technique We need to Think about where we were we how often we check those documents. Make sure they're with us as well. Of course I think we all go through the. IMSAFE stuff at least on a regular basis. I guarantee you everybody meets you and check ride. They've got it written out probably ready to go. They talked through all of it One thing that came up recently someone there was on their day off told me they couldn't fly. It was a student meaning a commercial student or whatever because they had just taken Claritin or something right. Well shockingly enough Claritin. Some of these allergy medicines are on the twenty-four-hour list or forty-eight-hour list. Yes that we probably are. All consistently aware of if we're just going to take a few laps in the pattern but that could be a big deal if you're wanting to be a professional pilot make a mistake like that so it's not just have I drank or have I done something that alters my state of mind it could be something that's on the list that could be a bad thing that could come back to haunt you So be cognizant of those things if you have a trip. Don't take something that might make you know. Make your nose Stop running if you know what I mean right. Physical condition more so again sleeps those sorts of things. I think we go breath. That's a pretty good thing that we go through. I think it's the knowledge around the flight that we get a little Lazy is the word that comes to mind. I'm not sure that words the right one but the preparation around that stuff It's I guess the combination of the environment and the airports that I’m thinking about right. It's not so much the destination because we ninety nine percent of the time you get to that destination. It's the what about some of the alternate stuff and we're in. Houston
I fly to Austin a lot. I think a Brenham and Giddings are kind of my to intermarry intermediate spots and I know I can land a Cessna there. But what if I’m in the twin. Can I land at both those places. I know I can at Brennan but I’m not really sure, I haven’t checked Giddings in a long time and it's not that might not be able to land there. But can I take off from there right. I don't know what my I’d have to go through and do some work to make sure I knew my stopping distance and that airport's runway length. Yeah if one of those. Those airports have single runways. What if I’m in Austin Austin’s two runways one. Big one small, small one is not always open. But what if the big one was closed and small one was open. I get out of there in the twin. I'm going to bet. I probably could It's some of those things that I think we probably take for granted. Yes in this light aircraft world that. I don't think you have the luxury of doing in your major aircraft world. I'm sure dispatches helping you find these things but there's some real places we could get in. I would think in some of that planning for the airport environment and the things that I need to be thinking about from my flight. Yeah as I look at FAR 91.103 there are. There are two letters A and B. and I think what we got to be careful of is if I’m looking at “A” I’m and I’m quoting from the regulation right here. It says for a flight under IFR I think a lot of people quit reading right there. Say okay. I'm taking a VFR flight to New Orleans today. Okay well “A” doesn't apply to me because it starts with for a flight under IFR but if you keep reading there's no comma so just keep reading it says for a flight under our or a flight and not in the vicinity of an airport. Oh jeez well that's me. I'm going to wind facility for me. Fifty-foot circle is at a five-mile circle. Yeah I don't know I don't know what the answer is to that but I would say I would go with about a five-mile circle but the pattern would probably what I think of that. It's going to be susceptible to whatever the situation right happens. So I would just say anywhere. You're outside that pattern. Yeah probably ought to take heed. So basically it says for any flight under IFR flight not in the vicinity of an airport weather reports and forecasts fuel requirements alternatives available. If the plan flight cannot be completed in any known traffic delays of which the pilot in command has been advised by ATC. So that's boy that's an open book. It says alter alternatives available. So as I as I think of flight from here to New Orleans. I'm thinking well I got Beaumont I’ve got Lake Charles. Lafayette I got Baton Rouge and I’ve got New Orleans okay. Those are my alternatives. And I’m not looking at a map on just Those are the drive. Yeah exactly well. What if the Beaumont airport is closed. What if Lake Charles is closed You know those are things that I need to be aware of off. Those are both close to water. Maybe not right on the water to but you think that may be more inland we would have less moisture in the air right Giving me a better opportunity if something really bad happened how far how far in that planning to go north. Yeah I bet. If I run out of fuel and don't get to an alternate the FAA is going have a problem. If I don't know about a whole bunch of them right I mean you. We always be worse case scenario but I bet we should probably plan for something. That's not in these major cities right on the coast right Beyond for sure. I think what's funny. Is that bullet, “A” 91.03(A) pretty much means you have to know everything. Possibly that could happen and your plan of action to solve for anything that could possibly happen. Yeah exactly. Are the runway lights inoperative at. Can you even read the NOTAM them that that talks about runway lights being inoperative. We just talked about a local airport here that that has the runway lights out and You know the four-letter code for the runway lights It's REDL, Runway edge lights I think on the surface if most people would look at that and well gee, I don't need a REDL. What's a REDL. I don't know well an even bigger on that airport in that NOTAM that is it's old It's in its sixty fifth day right so if you if you think about really what. The world's doing now they look in foreflight and there's four NOTAMS for that airport and the newest one is obstruction two miles southeast of the field for whatever reason without a light on it and then I looked down. I read two more. And I get to this older one. Those sixty-three days old and it says REDL out REDL INOP. I'm probably not going to pay much attention to it right well. That's probably a really big problem. If you're planning on landing at ten o'clock at night yeah exactly in. This airport happens to be in a really remote part of Houston that does not have a lot of area lights around you that that would help light that place up at all and if you're using it as an alternate I mean we're talking about a perfect storm here where multiple things go wrong but if you are used you are planning to land there because of low oil pressure and you trying to find the airport and you go to our. Let's say you're landing there for an electrical problem.
You've lost your electrical system. Well guess what you don't have a landing light they'll well you say we talk about this because it's an easy example to say. Well what if what if what if but how many of us really are reading all the NOTAMS. I mean even from here to Austin. If I read every note him I probably would never get to Austin because there's hundreds of NOTAMS across every airport across every all the little pack circle in foreflight twenty miles either side of your centerline. I think is what it is right. That's a lot of stuff. Yeah lots of obstructions lights out everything else But I would even say. does that. Make us numb to some of the critical things. Like I might go to. The airport at ten pm might need to look up. What REDL is right We talked about it the NOTAMS. The NOTAMS aren't the greatest thing in the world because we think they were designed for the teletype days and we're way past that but right man we're not there yet so they don't spell it out but it will be nice once we get to a point where that says runway lights and this is a great segue to segue to a future episode. You teed this up for me Bobby. I'm just going to. I'm going to take this opportunity to tell someone about Tell our listeners. About a future guest. Robert Sewall to is the chairman of the National Transportation Safety board (NTSB) has agreed to be a guest on our show. He's retiring and five days. So we're going to we're going to get him as a guest Probably sometime in July and Maybe late July He'll be a guest on our episode. So the current. NTSB chairman will be Will be on behind the prop, so stay tuned. That's going to be a great conversation. I have a feeling while he's done a lot of great work. He's going to have a lot of things that he wished he could have done. And things that he wants to hear from aviators as well so if you have a question you want us to ask Mr. NTSB yeah let us know and we will get the Question on the list to ask him for sure. And I bring that up. Because I know that's one of the things that that was on his to do list when he took over as the chairman was to clean up the way NOTAMS are Sent out to pilots Because they're hard to understand. And I don't know why they can't just be in plain language. I don't know but anyway. Maybe he can talk to us about that. So we got digress off the aircraft a little bit but so we did pilotless. Talk aircraft I think it. I think we all in training for sure. We all make some assumptions around runway length and those are probably good. We probably need a thousand feet to take off. We probably need thousand fifteen hundred feet to land In reality less than that but those are probably are safer comfortable numbers and must be honest. There are not too many paved runways around the united states that are shorter than either one of those numbers right so we probably get lulled into a sense of security that they're going to be long enough and wide enough for our needs but crosswinds and other things come into play there that make me as a flight school owner think man. I hope we're not just making that assumption. Every time we go that we're we really are not just on check ride day checking all those airport runway links etc. But we're checking it more for our safety and our being a great pilot than we are just for that one day the fuel becomes a big one and we've talked about this couple times but we really don't manage fuel in a training environment too terribly often. Either we have that one big practical test day that we probably do across country plan fuel and move weight in or out etcetera but once you get that private certificate you probably taking passengers. You're probably going farther. You probably need to manage fuel in a different way both daytime and nighttime you may have. You may know the regs.
You may have your own personal minimums But I think it's really important that we understand what that means when things don't go right Had a guy just yesterday was supposed to be teaching a course at this school and showed up twelve minutes late and was in a hurry trying to get all the students were here. All twelve students were here And he said. ATC wouldn't let him back in. You know these great pilots. It wasn't that he planned to be late. It wasn't he wasn't thinking it's possible that he could be late. But there's a real chance that you might get held out of an airport. Twelve minutes doesn't seem like much but when does twelve becomes thirty and when does thirty become the regulation minimums and if I thought thirty and I’m at twelve. I'm freaking out right you joke. There are three critical points three critical things. You must have in a flight. Those three things again are actually changes. Bobby I used to use three. I changed it to five. There are five critical things that you've got out on a flight and the first one is fuel the second one is fuel. The third one is fuel the fourth fuel. You see the theme here. You see the theme here You know I. I had a gentleman on a check Ride just a few several about three weeks ago and he was doing a very nice job and we were coming back to this airport to do the landings and there happened to be a rain shower. Right smack dab over this airport and I looked over at him. And I said well what do you think what do you want to do. And he went through a little bit of a mini panic attack and then he said well. Let's either go to Navasota or Conroe. Great idea fairly close ten twenty miles away. They're probably two of the closest airports and his reasoning was. He thought the storm was moving south so he wanted airports that were north and So we ended up going to Conroe. We did Two or three landings there by then we saw that the weather had moved out of hooks and then we came back over here and You know jokingly in the debrief we. I used the analogy of okay. You walk up to the food court at the mall the mall and you wanted to get pizza but the pizza place is closed. So what are you got to do. Well you got to go next door and get chicken or get a burger. So at the end I asked him. I said well what you think of the check ride. He says I. I realized that. If I can't get pizza I can get chicken. There you go. you know. There are alternatives so really know the runway length. That's the questions. Well it's big airport. It was probably safe. But I do think I go back to. I said this many times became a much better pilot when I got my multi engine rating because there are other things you think about the safety and a few segments of flight are very different than they are in a single engine aircraft and it made me a much better thinker of how to prepare and how to execute a flight but that runway length is such a different thing in twin engine than it is in a single engine. How I load that aircraft. What I need to do to stop that aircraft. This becomes very different What about equipment. We were going to do a whole show called. Can I go without this. But that's in future weeks but it is about inoperative equipment but would you go with one radio instead of two probably especially if it's a local flight when stay in the pattern probably no big deal right What about we. We talk about lights a lot. What if the green Nav light was out while they what am I. What is my thought process supposed to be. And do you think we're all doing the right things. Yeah I don't know you know first of all You know if it is a day flight How many people are actually Checking the lights. I mean it is in the preflight checklists. So hopefully everybody is but when you get into it. Do we need the nav lights. Do we need the position lights for a day flight and the answer is no we don't but there's a little bit more to it. We can't just um say oh gee the green light on the right wing. Tip is not working. It's daytime. we're good to go. There's more to it That light needs to be disabled. And because you know we all make the assumption that we got burned out lightbulb.
And it's not that big a deal but there could be a short in that light bulb In and wire going out to that light bulb goes through the wing. And that's where the fuel tank is and so that may not be the most ideal situation so there is a little bit more to just going with an inoperative equipment And you know going back to the radio. I mean I think we need to. We need to figure out. Well why is this number. Two radios not working Do we have a bigger electrical problem. in all likelihood the radio just is not working the radios broken by. Now you turn your tv on and it doesn't come on in your house do you. Do you immediately think oh boy electrical problem with my house. No you think the tv is broken. And you probably do some troubleshooting. Maybe you plug something into the same outlet and see if it works and if it does work Then then you've kind of eliminated the electrical problem aspect of your house. So you think. Tv is not working so same thing with the radio you know determined why it's not working But there are you know we are able to go with inoperative equipment and that's addressed in the regulations as well. I had a flight instructor not recently thank goodness. But it's been a year or so that Ended up not going on a flight because the fire extinguisher was outside the green. And so that you know that was broken equipment. They didn't want to fly plane with broken equipment if your potential flying instructor and that's your personal minimums you're not going to fly very much. Is there stuff like that. That's always going to be Somewhat out of whack you just have to learn how to manage it and how to do it the right way whether you're not you placard it And then there are some things you can help flight schools and mechanics hold you hold the system accountable to where if DME is out. And it's marked in operative that supposed to be removed the next hundred hours if it's not going to be repaired but DME while it might be helpful and beneficial and required for some approaches. It's not required to take off that aircraft and flying the pattern Know what you need to know and hopefully our future episode will help all of you out there. No more of what you can go without and what you can't go without part of the aircraft are part of the preflight planning for me. The aircraft what I’m thinking about. Have all the gear and stuff. I need or want in that aircraft right in technique for sure for me. It is foreflight for me. It is a big iPad. That's in my bag. A little iPad on my knee and my iPhone all fully charged all close by all with my foreflight subscription on them. But we need to have. I other things and I’ve been coached by different flight. Instructors you know. The airport diagram is something that is important. And I probably have heard someone say for your check ride. Make sure you have out. But I’m pretty staunch on this went around this flight school. They not only do you need to have it out. You need to have it in front of you. You need to market you need to listen to. The ATIS highlight. What's not open. What has been closed where the hot spots are. How am I going to navigate through those hot spots on the ground I think expectation bias becomes a big problem around here where people expect to go to the delta ramp via, Juliet, Echo, Papa. Because we hear that all the time every few turns on ground right. Now you're going to hear that a thousand times today but it is possible that the winds change and you go different place and I think we got to have that taxi diagram out. Do you do see strengths or weaknesses. Around taxi diagrams. Yeah that is required in the ACS for private spelled out for private and for commercial Basically and I’m paraphrasing here. I don't have a right in front of me. Basically says that if a taxi diagram is available you will use it and you can't use it if you don't have it displayed I mean to say well it's available. I've had applicants. tell me well. I had it available. I just wasn't using it. That doesn't meet the requirements. I'm sorry that we're having the conversation that we're having and I tell you I had a young man
Take off from wrong intersection or begin a takeoff roll on wrong intersection and we taxi it out. We applied full power and I said. Okay let's pull the power back in taxi back and didn't end the way I wanted it or he wanted it so Had he had the taxi diagram out. I think things would have been differently. And I think this is one thing that the I mean the. Cfi's are used to this airport. They know where the they know the they know they are airport by memory. They don't not going to say they don't need it because they do need it. I’ve been flying in and out of Houston intercontinental airport professionally for thirty-four years and I can honestly say I don't think I have ever taxied in or out of intercontinental airport without taxi diagram displayed and I expect my first officer to have it out as well and if we have a third pilot I expect that third pilot to have it out as well so three of us. triple redundancy So if instructors are out there and not using it welp shame on you. You should be should be mentoring your students because by not using it a taxi diagram you were the you know it or not. You're telling your student that when they grow up and get to be real pilots they don't need to use it either and they do need to use it. Yeah you know. There is cool factor to what we do right. So if I’m if I’m seeing my CFI who's got I’m assuming thousand more hours than me and they're using it at twenty hours is telling me it's probably a pretty good idea that I should be using it to because I’m always chasing. I felt like I feel like students are always chasing. Who's just ahead of them right in their aviation career right and if all of us that were just ahead of everybody behind us. We're using our taxi diagrams. I think naturally all those others around us will use it as well. Yeah and it's going to make a safer. I use the story that I think we may have told them past but yesterday I was talking to someone so you know what we never hear about the accidents or incidents. That didn't happen because someone was doing the right thing. We always hear about the ones that did happen. Because something did. And I think craig talked about it. I think we've discussed it but recently a little plane. A plane of mine had a boo. Because someone didn't do the right things and it got bent And it's going to get fixed and it's not the end of the world. Nobody got hurt but it was so easily. Avoidable that you to sit back and you. Golly how easily was to be avoided And it was. It was just a moment in time where they thought they could handle it and solve it without doing the exact right thing well. Every time a plane didn't get bent. They did do the right thing and we never hear about it. We never dwell on it but the one time this one time that it didn't it got bent and it's easy to point to that and say it got bent thinking about that with the taxi diagram. Something happens and you have in your hand. We never hear about the taxis that went great right but when two planes nose touch an international airport somewhere in this country what is it. It's all over. Google two planes crash on the ground. You know we hear about those right. Yeah probably taxi diagram problem right. So use it Let's skip to environment airport conditions. We talked about runways etcetera. Some of that stuff crosswinds are important. Controlled uncontrolled are important. I think most of that big stuff. We get a think we get a lot of that. I think we get a lot of weather. If I had a question about weather it's probably how far are we looking. I think we talk about Visibility more than we talk cloud basis just between the two of us and visibility is a big one. and how do I get to good visibility. Which way am I going to try and navigate or get to again electrical failure in. IMC is a very dangerous situation. I probably want to see the ground as fast as I can safely. Yeah so if it was clear eye behind me. I need to go back. If it's clear east of me. I need to go right. Assuming I’m going north I need to. I need to have some situational awareness about stuff. And I’m not sure we're lazy in that respect but I just think you got to be on your game. Yeah and you know. I kind us a little bit of a sports analogy. If you're if you're playing football and your quarterback I’ll bet you.
Tom Brady knows where the defensive backs or who the defensive backs are and he knows the weak length he knows that the cornerback over on his left side is coming off a hamstring injury. So he's going to pick on him. Okay so we're you know he's going to he's going to go over there okay. That's where the good weather is. The guy might be uncovered over on that side. So you know when you when you getting your weather briefing back up back up and try to get a big picture whereas the high-pressure system if I’m flying a flight from You know El paso to Houston. And I know I got high pressure over Oklahoma and I get in a bad situation while I’m turning left. I'm heading toward Oklahoma. And what I the. The situation. I'm talking about is an electrical failure because an electrical failure. Not only. can you not communicate. But you can't navigate you’re in a tough situation so not. Try to know where the good weather is. Yeah so. I don't think it's just where the storms are where convection is I think we the further the further you go in your base and career the further. You're going to make flights longer. They're going to be the more weather. You'll transition the more elevation you'll transition and I think we just got to be thinking of those things. I don't think about ice ever. I don't fly in the cold ever. I don't fly at altitude where there's freezing ever But this past year we had a pretty good freeze down here. Lots of snow lots of lots of moisture that was frozen in the atmosphere. And I just don't think that's that people in Houston thing about regularly. But I the people that train in Chicago. They're pretty good with knowing icing levels. And what the most visible where visible moisture is for sure. Yeah we did get Slapped around a little bit with the ice storm this past winter and we are finding things. you know I was out trying to do some cross country flying with some Younger pilots and We're finding a lot of airports. Were just closed because there was snow on the runway. They didn't have any way to remove the ice. Airport still have FBOs that are closed because of all the water damage from frozen pipes and It's something that we don't think about on regular basis because back to NOTMAS and those things that would be abnormalities that we don't normally interact with and as we wrap. Let's talk external pressures. I think we all know them. We might not have all experienced them. But I think I watch it happen in real time around here all the time. Wally and I feel for these students that need to get something finished so that they can meet you and take a check ride but it's so scary sometimes. The watch people make decisions based on these external pressures just within the last twenty-four hours. I had to talk someone out of flying at night Instrument rated student pilot working on commercial. Who probably has to two hundred plus hours probably not instrument current meaning. They don't have those approaches. We talk about this. Go to private. We do instrument. We don't do any instrument flying while we're working on commercial right and here. We are that flown at night in six months and they wanted to take my plane up to get night current, while that is legal in the FAR/AIM. Say you can fly without passengers to get current again. It's not the best decision and the decision was being driven around .2 of nighttime required for the commercial check ride that they weren't planning on taking for another thirty days right it just seems like they create that we create that external pressure of it has to be now why not incorporate that in something else with an instructor. It's going to be a different sight picture. It's going to be a different environment. What if something happens. Are you really ready for that right. it's just it blows my mind. Sometimes it also crosswinds. Customers around here need .2 cross country before they can get done that they didn’t plan correctly. But they need that .2 which means that's going to be more of a 1.5-hour flight right man. We can't squeeze that in somewhere right and their solo private students.
There's so much that could go wrong that they really need to make good decisions and that external pressure check ride or getting that next tick box or whatever that might be really is prevalent around here on a regular basis. I ask everyone to be cautious. And I think every flight I would say almost every flight has some external pressures You know unless you're just I mean there have been times. Where I’ve been at my hanger with no intention of flying and I just kind of look around and go. Jeez the weather's really nice. I think I’ll go fly a little bit I guess you could say in in that situation. They're not really a whole lot of external pressures but most of us are flying to get somewhere and whether it be you're coming in and you know this is the only time that you and your instructor on the weather and the airplane could all get together. I mean that's an external pressure right there So every flight has external pressures. We're not just talking about you. Know we got to get out here in a hurry because we have to beat the weather system. That's moving in or the weather. That's moving into our destination. We've used the example of flying someone to a funeral or you're flying your Girlfriends somewhere for a photo op to propose to her in. And you've got the photographer all set up and all the stars are aligning. Yeah those external pressures so even when less than that. I had a friend who brought their nephew of all things to do. A discovery flights. Really this fly around. They wanted to learn how to fly and they wanted to experience it. I really good friend. They drove from Sugarland again. That's no small drive. That's an hour plus drive and so they get here and the clouds we were talking and look. The clouds are kind of low. Not sure it’s good a day. it's going to be the fly. They wanted a chance. It they come up here to fifteen hundred feet. We can't yet. Can we legally fly is a good day to discovery flight. Know what happens if the clouds come down lower to fall day. It's very likely and we did that twice. And I’ll tell you the second time the pressure to get in the air for me. Them Making the drive twice was pretty intense. And I just ended up sticking to my guns and saying no and they drove home that day. We did a little bit in the sim just to just to do a little bit of something but the external pressures are real There's no question and they don't always feel as real as they are in real time right but they don't seem like that big of a deal. Those are where the chain of events that first one is the first of many that become unfortunately really bad accidents for some people and even on check rides. I will have applicants where You know the weather is supposed to be well within our margins at the time that we're going to go fly and we get ready to go fly and it's the weather isn’t quite right. And a lotta time. The applicant will look at me and he'll say will. When could you finish this check. Ride and I will say. Don't factor that one bit into your decision whether we're going to fly or not. That should not be part of the decision. Talk about external pressures. Yeah because if. I say it's going to be six weeks there. Maybe more likely to put I envelope. Let's see if we can get this done. Whereas if I say I can get you in tomorrow afternoon. Okay well Now if I can get them in tomorrow afternoon I’ll usually say that and it alleviates a little bit of the pressure from for them but Yeah external pressures are huge so very short paragraph. And they're very big book. 91.103 preflight action Just produced a forty minute. Podcast that We barely scratched the surface on all the things that pilots should be responsible for and doing to make sure that they've covered their responsibilities as PIC for a flight. Also try not to be lazy.
Try to have a plan. Try to get better with your plan. Try to demonstrate professional pilot things in front of other pilots taxi diagrams etcetera to make other pilots better. That's what we try to do here as always fly safe and stay behind the prop.
Thanks for listening. 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 show is for entertainment purposes Only. and not meant to replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening and remember: fly safe!