Common sense for pilots. We call it plane sense this week on Behind The Prop!
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00:01
Wally Mulhern
Clear prop 773 Cherokee number two following. Flynn traffic three mile final makes for. In Runway two five going four miles.
00:10
Nick Alan
This is behind the prop with United Flight Systems owner and licensed pilot Bobby Doss and his co host, major airline captain and designated pilot examiner Wally Mulhern. Now let's go behind the prop.
00:26
Bobby Doss
What's up Wally?
00:27
Wally Mulhern
Hey Bobby, how are you?
00:29
Bobby Doss
I am fantastic as always. This week we're going to call this show Plain Sense. We stumbled across a handbook from the FAA that we neither one of us aware of. And I got a lot of information out of it and we're gonna share some of that stuff, summarize maybe the document, point y' all towards it, encourage you to read it. You'll learn a bunch. The the handbook from the FAA is called Plain Sense and we're going to get to that in just one minute. Before we do, I think Wally wants to share some recent learnings from some multi engine students and checkrides. Take it away, Wally.
01:06
Wally Mulhern
Yeah, I've found myself doing a whole bunch of multi engine checkrides here lately and I've actually done some instructing in multi engine airplanes which has been a lot of fun because I actually get to talk in my check rides. But anyway, I just want to give a lot of you a little bit of history and those of you who are kind of new to flying may not be aware of some of this, but back in the day, to get a commercial pilot certificate, you needed 10 hours of complex flight time. You needed 10 hours in an airplane that had a controllable pitch propeller, a retractable landing gear and flaps. Now through most of our training we're all used to using flaps, so that's kind of not a big deal. But the two really big things were the gear and the controllable pitch propeller.
02:07
Wally Mulhern
And that had been the rule forever. And you actually were required to take at least a part of your multi engine checkride in a complex airplane. When I came up through the ranks of getting my ratings back in the 80s, the norm in Monroe, Louisiana, we had three different flight schools and all of the flight schools did it the same way. You would go take your commercial checkride in your 150 or 152 or whatever airplane it was, you would do the bulk of it in that airplane, but you would stop the check while you come in and land and you'd go get in a complex airplane and you had to demonstrate competent competency in a complex airplane. So you actually used to Check two airplanes for the checkride.
02:54
Wally Mulhern
When I started doing check rides down here in Houston, that really wasn't the norm in Houston. Most people would do their entire commercial checkride in a complex airplane. I think I, earlier I may have said a multi engine checkride, but I'm talking about a commercial single engine checkride. Most people would have done their commercial single engine checkride in either, the two most popular airplanes at the time were either Cessna 172 RGs or Piper Arrows. And you know, so you would go out and you would do your lazy eights or your Shondells, your steep spirals, your accelerated stall. You do all those maneuvers in a complex airplane. And so by the time you got the checkride, you're pretty competent, pretty confident in a complex airplane.
03:51
Wally Mulhern
Well, about, I don't know the exact date, but about five, six, seven years ago there was a checkride taking place down at, in Florida at a very popular airplane university flight program down there. And the wing of an arrow actually came off and it killed the examiner and it killed the applicant. And the FAA acted very quickly. Immediately an ad came out to check the wing spars on a whole bunch of Piper airplanes for corrosion. But they did something else. They, and I believe that this was in the works before this happened. And this is just my speculation. I believe a pretty popular airplane manufacturer that does not have a retractable gear was probably behind some of this. They were working on coming up with a new aircraft designation, if you will, and it was called Technically Advanced Airplanes.
05:01
Wally Mulhern
And they said they came out with a new rule because what was happening is the majority of these complex airplanes that people were training in were pretty old. And so the FAA's fix for this was they came out and they said, okay, you don't have to have 10 hours in a complex airplane anymore. You can have 10 hours in a technically advanced airplane. And of course, the technically advanced airplane, I don't have the definition right here in front of me, but it has to have some sort of a multifunction display. It has to have an autopilot and has to have a GPS. So we could take a 1950 Cessna 172 and configure it that way and make that airplane a technically advanced airplane.
05:53
Wally Mulhern
So now we have commercial applicants coming in and doing their checkride and as we audit their logbooks, yeah, we look over there and there's 10 hours of technically advanced error, of technical advanced time, Maybe in a 172, maybe in an Archer, whatever. But they don't have that complex time. So now they come to their multi engine training and they're going to start training in a multi engine airplane. And I really, I don't know of any multi engine airplanes that do not have a retractable landing gear. Some of them do not have the controllable pitch propeller, but those are kind of outliers. The vast majority of. Well, I think every multi engine checkride I've given in my time as a DPE has been in a complex airplane.
06:50
Wally Mulhern
But we get people there that are now learning multi engine time, multi engine flying and they're not really comfortable with complex time. So it's a double whammy. So you know, back in my day, by the time I got to a multi engine airplane, I was used to moving the props around, I was used to putting that gear up and down and today not so much. So what I'm trying to say is if your flight school has a complex airplane available, do yourself a favor and get in that complex airplane before you go and get a multi engine rating. And I know some flight schools don't have them available, but if there is a complex airplane, I think moving that gear and getting used to those propellers is just worth its weight in gold.
07:43
Wally Mulhern
And, and I think this would lower the stress level a little bit in your multi engine training.
07:51
Bobby Doss
Yeah. The one thing that I remember, really remember when I, I don't know how many hours I have in an arrow, but quite a bit. And I have some in the Cessna RG as well. And I did my 10 complex. I think I was right around that transitional time and I flew with a flat school that maybe only had one technically advanced airplane. It was my flight school, but they didn't have a lot of TA aircraft at the time. I think I did all 10 plus in my, in the RG and then probably had another half dozen in an arrow. But you really start learning about drag and what those, what happens to an aircraft when you stick those gear out into the, into that window and it does, it flies very different. Right. So when you're, it all comes to light, you know.
08:39
Bobby Doss
And I, I've heard a couple of. Actually this week we had a, an electrical issue on a long flight, Austin to Houston and they diverted and landed and they actually had an alternator going out on them. Luckily they caught it. I'm not sure if they caught it or if the lack of radio made them catch it. But in an arrow it's not necessarily an emergency because the arrows, the arrow gear system is going to Work with or without the electricity, it's gonna drop. But I guarantee you they were thinking about it because that's part of the training that you're doing in that complex aircraft. In our twin, you need the electric to get the gear started down and that would be a problem. Right. So I think you're just a better pilot.
09:25
Bobby Doss
I think you're more aware of what's going on when you have that complex time and you fly something with that gear lever in it, for sure.
09:34
Wally Mulhern
You know, if you're a, a baseball player, you know, you probably a professional baseball player, you know, you start out in rookie ball and then you move up to, I don't know what the different classes are. I don't know if there's an A ball, but I know there's a double A and there's AAA and then you make it to the big leagues. You know, most of the time they don't draft you out of high school, and the next day you're starting center field in Yankee Stadium. You know, there's a progression. And so to go from a 172 to a twin engine complex airplane is a big jump. So if we can, you know, put something in the middle and get some time in a, you know, a complex airplane, whether it be a. And I keep coming back to arrow.
10:29
Wally Mulhern
That seems to be the kind of the popular airplane. But they are getting fewer and you know, they're getting harder and harder to find. There aren't as many around because of the advent of the technically advanced airplane. So what I, I would encourage if you're an instructor or you're a student at a flight school, you're working on rating, you got to get a whole bunch of instrument time. If your flight school has a complex airplane, and especially if the avionics are similar to what you're used to flying, tell your instructor, hey, let's do a couple of flights in this complex airplane and you know, fly some approaches where I have to worry about putting a gear down, where I need to worry about retracting the gear after we miss the approach. And I think it will make you a better pilot.
11:22
Bobby Doss
Yeah, and I would just encourage the flight instructors out there. If you, if your school has one, you know, nudge your students into it. It might not be a requirement, it might cost $10 more an hour, but encourage them on the value of it. And at the same time, you continue to get smarter and better yourself as you're flying that aircraft as well. Alright, let's jump into the handbook that we're talking about today. So I was doing some research on something and came across this handbook. Had never heard of it. No one had ever pointed me towards it. I asked Wally if he had heard of it. He had never heard of it. And I think we're pretty enthralled aviators. I think we've seen a lot and heard a lot. I was shocked.
12:04
Bobby Doss
How shocked were you when I shared this book with you the other day?
12:10
Wally Mulhern
I was very shocked. I mean, the first page I went, wow, there's some really good stuff on here.
12:19
Bobby Doss
Yeah, it's such a good book. And I'm disappointed I never heard of it because there's so much I've always wanted to know. And I get asked about buying an airplane a lot and this is the first thing I'm going to send people for sure. But the book is called Plain Sense and it really is intended to be a book that's going to teach you about the ownership of an. Acquiring an airplane, owning an airplane, kind of some of the rules and regulations around all that stuff. It's really broken into three sections or the book talks about three sections. Things that are for all general aviation readers. It's really like owner responsibilities and FAA publications and records, FAA contact information, then regulatory guidance. There's a section or a bunch of chapters that fit into the acquisition, registration and ownership.
13:11
Bobby Doss
And I guess in the training world we probably talk about the acronyms that will help us pass a written exam or maybe an oral portion of a checkride. But this is the good stuff, right? It's really what has to be there. Buying the aircraft, airworthiness certificate, the registration, special flight permits, and then light sport aircraft are in that grouping. And then there's a section all about maintenance. So really maintenance in general, the records that are required, Airworthiness directives and then the service difficulty program, the AD component seems like such a ghost to a lot of students when I talk to them, Wally, like where would I go? How do I figure out ads? How do I possibly know what's required for this aircraft? And if your flight school doesn't do a good job with that stuff, man.
14:02
Bobby Doss
The Airworthiness directive chapter is a very good read, very simple, I'll call it. It's not quite as bad as reading the Far aim, but really good stuff in this handbook for sure. What'd you get out of it? Or what did you take away right off the Top Wally.
14:19
Wally Mulhern
Well, I'll tell you page one. I. Here's what I got. You know the page one, it says aircraft owner responsibilities. And the first point is documentation. And you know, every checkride, every commercial and every private checkride. I do, I ask the applicant tell me what documents are required to be on board the airplane. And what I tell them before the, before we start is that this oral, that we're about to do, this oral examination is within the context of our flight today. And we, on our flight, we do not cross any borders outside the United States. So it is a, a, you know, a domestic flight, if you will. Okay, so they go through and they, I'm not sure anybody has ever really missed this, but they'll say we have to have an airworthiness certificate, we have to have a registration certificate.
15:28
Wally Mulhern
And this is where some people will tell me about the second R and some people won't. Well, within the context of our flight, we're not going international, so they'd be perfectly fine to just jump into operating limitations and weight and balance documents. And I'll say that's great. Okay. And then we talk about expiration of those documents and so forth. But I'd say a good 60% of them tell me that if were going international, we need a radio license. It's called a radio station license. We don't think of the airplane as a station, but it technically is. And so I say, well, since you brought it up, I says, tell me about that radio license. And it's a blind look. They may say, well, can I look it up? And I say, sure. This is an open book test.
16:26
Wally Mulhern
So they try to look it up. And what they end up realizing is that they can't find anything in the fars about it. Well, the radio license isn't an, it's not an FAA requirement, it's an FCC requirement, Federal Communications Commission. And that's something that we're just, I mean, we've just learned, well, we got a radio license. And then I'll ask them, I'll say, well, radios need to be on that radio license. And, and you can see the, you know, they kind of are uncomfortable, but it, we kind of use it, you know, as an aha. Moment of oh, boy. Yeah, there's more to this. It's, it's not all just FAA stuff.
17:15
Wally Mulhern
We' lots of lettered government agencies, faa, possibly the fcc if we're going to go outside the US and you know, of course, the answer to the question is the radios that need to be listed on that radio license are the radios that transmit. And typically we have four radios in an airplane that transmit. On a typical single engine training airplane, we have the two comms, COM1 and 2. We usually have two, maybe only have one, but we also have a transponder that's a radio and it transmits. And we also have an elt, which is a radio that transmits. So those are the radios that need to be on that license that's in this book. You know, it's, it's right here on page one. And I was, I kind of smiled when I saw that because I, I have discussion on quite a few checkrides.
18:19
Bobby Doss
Yeah, it again, it's packed with a bunch of information. One of the things that I get asked about a lot or I hear conversations about because it is kind of a, it's, I don't know, a ghostly conversation, is special flight permits, used to be called ferry permits thing. A lot of people still refer to them as ferry permits, but it's like anything else. If you don't ever do one, you probably don't understand them and they're kind of secretive to you. And as a flight school owner with planes that have broken down at places or had bird strikes with broken windshields or other things, I've had the luxury of doing a number of special flight permits. And they're really easy to do if you know what to do. And in this book there's chapter five is about special flight permits.
19:07
Bobby Doss
And just to break it down and tell everyone just how simple it is, this chapter has two pages in it and then the other two pages, there's four pages total, I guess, two written pages. There's an example of a blank flight permit and a completed flight permit where they actually fill it up, fill out the permit and show you what all you have to put in the permit. So I've probably filed a half dozen of these things to get planes back where they needed to be in a condition that probably wasn't technically airworthy and the FAA had to prove their flight. And it's not, it's pretty big, not a big deal at all. You normally have a window of time where you're allowed to fly it and all those planes have been returned without incident.
19:53
Bobby Doss
But something that seems so daunting or big and scary maybe like a special flight permit is broke down in this book into four simple pages with examples that I really think pilots should know. We should all be aware of how These things work for sure.
20:12
Wally Mulhern
Yeah. And, and that's something else that we, that I talk about on Again my private and commercial checkrides is a special flight permit. I give them a, a scenario where we've flown the airplane out of town and the annual expires the end of this month and we get stuck by weather or sickness or whatever and it's the first of next month and we want to fly back. What are, what are our options? And you know, usually the first thing that the applicant says well we can have the annual done out of state. Well that's true. You could, that's absolutely an option. But the other one is a special flight permit or requesting a special flight permit.
21:00
Bobby Doss
Yeah. How long do most annuals take with the mechanic that you don't have a relationship with? Yeah, yeah. Two, three weeks. Month though.
21:09
Wally Mulhern
Absolutely.
21:11
Bobby Doss
Again, back to earlier. I get asked about buying an aircraft. A lot people have questions. You know, we might have all bought a car but very few of us have bought an airplane. Again, chapter two has five pages about buying an aircraft and it really is where to look factors that affect the value, the aircraft records, the title, the documents that you need to see. It's really informative and I don't know how many times I've had the conversation going through the process of buying an aircraft. But really good chapter. If you're thinking about buying an aircraft you can understand kind of the starting process and really what you would expect or should be expecting as you go through that purchasing process.
22:02
Wally Mulhern
Yeah. And the book, I mean it's I kudos to whoever wrote this or you know, the people that wrote it because it is, and I don't say this to be disrespectful, it is dummy down. I mean it's pretty simple. I mean I'm looking at this, I'm on the maintenance section and there's, there's a two paragraph little section about 100 hour inspections. Two paragraphs. I mean that even a slow reader that's going to take you less than two minutes. And it's some really informative information.
22:47
Bobby Doss
Yeah. Going back to those checkride acronyms and stuff, there's one we always talk about as required inspections. Right. That's AVIATE is the acronym and it this, the chapter on maintenance really is good. And I spend a lot of money every year on maintenance and I keep up with my logbooks and maintenance records and the FAA will be doing their surveillance soon on our flight school. But it, the pedot Static and the altimeter, the transponder inspections that have to be done. Again, if you, unless you do them or you pay someone to do them, you kind of just know they occur and that you. The things tested, but you really don't know what's occurring or what happens. Again, interesting.
23:33
Bobby Doss
In this book talks about those at a little bit more detail and would make you more familiar with what's actually going on those aircraft that you're flying. It's just not about the actual. It's done every two years kind of thing. Just really informative stuff.
23:51
Wally Mulhern
Yeah.
23:54
Bobby Doss
What, what, what other handbooks are out there? Let's talk about the whole Kitty. You know, we found this one. Are there other ones weren't aware of, Wally, that we should share with our listeners and maybe do future shows on there?
24:07
Wally Mulhern
There is a whole gamut of. Of FAA publications. You know, I'm out of town right now on a layover and on my to do list today is to. I just, I renewed my CFI and it's it. My expiration date is the end of this month, 2025. I have the temporary certificate, but I haven't received my permanent certificate. There used to be on the FAA website on the opening the homepage it would say we're currently processing certificate permanent certificates for temporaries that were issued on such and such a date. That is. They've moved that it's somewhere else. I know it's somewhere on their website. So on my to do list is to go on the FAA website and find out where that information is. But on the FAA website is just a crazy amount of free downloadable publications.
25:15
Wally Mulhern
I mean this book, Plain Sense, it's available for sale. People have taken the time to print it and they're selling it for a reasonable price. But it's. The one I have is right here on my iPad. I'm paging through it right now as I talk. And, and it's free. I shouldn't say free. It's. It's your tax dollars at work. Somebody pay for it? Yeah. Yeah. So. But oh my gosh, there's so many. There's so many. You. You were telling me about a, a risk management book.
25:49
Bobby Doss
Yeah, it's Ms. Risk Management Handbook. It was updated in 2022. You know, people talk about risk and wanting to learn more about how to analyze that risk and put it into their practice and what we probably have the I'm safe and paved checklist in a, in something on our knee board or in our iPad. But the Risk Management Handbook is a real book, very similar to the Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, solely focused on risk. How to build risk programs into your flight training, into your flight programs. If you do own a flight school or something similar. Again, a wealth of information that you can buy the print version. But all these are out there, the Aviation Weather Handbook, something that I just don't think. I think we buy a lot of third party stuff, right?
26:36
Bobby Doss
And I don't want to take away from those books. They probably are very good books. But the FAA paid a lot of money to the employees of the FAA with your tax dollars to write all these handbooks. And you should go out and explore the aviation handbooks and manuals on the FAA website. It will be worth your time. And if nothing else, download some of the copies and put them on your iPad so you have that reference material. Whether you ever become an instructor or not, you'll probably want to look back and search through those PDFs in the future. If nothing else, the next time something happens and you need a special flight permit, you'll have plain sense at your fingertips.
27:13
Bobby Doss
Be able to look at chapter five and be able to understand what you need to do to make sure that you file that paperwork accordingly.
27:20
Wally Mulhern
Yeah, and obviously you have to have a program or an app on your iPad if you're going to use it on your iPad to read these. And most of you probably already have it. You may not even know about it. But Foreflight, for those of you who use Foreflight, there's a, there's a tab on the bottom called Documents. And you can download these things and just keep them right there in foreflight. I mean, I've got binders called books, FAA documents, all kinds of things. So all this is available through that way of getting to it rather than just going to the FAA website. But Matt, there's just, there's so much information here.
28:09
Bobby Doss
Yes. I would encourage everyone to go out and get the book, Plain Sense. Whether you want to buy a plane or not, there's a lot of information in that book for you. Read it, study it, check out the other manuals and handbooks on the FAA website or in Foreflight. And as always, fly safely and stay behind the prop.
28:30
Nick Alan
Thanks for checking out the behind the Prop podcast. Be sure to click subscribe and check us out online@brave.theprop.com behind the prop is recorded in Houston, Texas. Creator and host is Bobby Doss. Co host is Wally Mulhern. The show is for entertainment purposes only and is not meant to replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening. And remember, fly safe.