Games people play

Flying might not seem to lend itself to games, but there are some you can play safely within this very serious environment. And the benefits are tangible. Playing a game is simply another way to teach you how to do something, albeit in a looser fashion. Here are some games to try.

Toilet paper drop

Have you ever been to an airshow and watched Patty Wagstaff zoom through a streamer a few feet above the ground? You’re not ready to emulate Wagstaff’s low-level maneuvering, but you can get in on the fun—and you don’t need an Extra to do it.

Editor at Large Dave Hirschman likes to play this game with students who are tentative about making steep banks or firm pulls on the controls. Unroll a roll of single ply toilet paper at least two feet, drop it out the window to let it unfurl, and then turn to slice it with the wing. Extra points if you can slice the streamer more than twice in one go. Hirschman said students do best when they continue straight ahead for about five seconds after the drop, then turn with 45 degrees of heading change to the right, followed by a descending, 180-degree steep turn to the left. The target will be at your 10 o’clock position at the end of the 180-degree turn.

To ensure you adhere to the federal aviation regulations when playing this game, recall that FAR 91.15 says, “No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.”

Hover like a hawk

Another Hirschman favorite is to make slow flight a real-world exercise where you’re at a critically low airspeed and high angle of attack—but keeping your eyes outside and flying by feel, instead of fixating on the airspeed and vertical speed indicators. This “hover like a hawk” game is a favorite of flight instructors, because student pilots are always astounded at the fact that they can be flying along at groundspeeds close to zero knots. Flying at the lowest possible groundspeed calls for very slow turns, ground reference, and adjusting for changing winds as you balance on the stall.

Wheelie it on

Find a nice long runway at a nontowered field—or a nice long runway at a towered field that is not very busy. When the rear wheels touch see how long you can hold off the nosewheel. This game should help with rudder control and maintaining the centerline. A game like this requires some good preflight briefing with your flight instructor to ensure you’ll know what to do if you should bounce and go airborne again.

Rig an airplane for a ‘ramp check’

Here’s a way to have some fun when the weather is not conducive to flying but you don’t want to let an opportunity for learning pass you by. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and this game imitates an event that’s part of the National Intercollegiate Flying Association’s annual Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON, which some have called the NCAA basketball finals of collegiate aviation competitions). Ask your flight instructor to rig or bug an airplane with as many things as he or she can dream up that would cause an airplane to flunk its preflight inspection. You then have a set amount of time—say, 15 minutes—to find as many as you can. Note to CFIs: Keep track of your bugs, and don’t forget to put everything back the way you found it.

Cloud surf

For instrument students or to introduce pilots flying under visual flight rules to the effects of a transition from visual references to instrument conditions, file an instrument flight plan and pick up your clearance from ATC. Then request a block of IFR airspace and cloud surf—fly along the tops of the clouds within that block of airspace. The CFI who plays this game with instrument students recommends that you request a block of airspace approximately 10 miles from a VOR or a fix, away from airports or instrument approach corridors. The block of airspace should be between 1,000 and 2,000 feet; for example, you might request a block between 5,000 feet and 7,000 feet.

Draw it

We’ve seen an uptick among pilots who draw pictures using their GPS flight paths and electronic flight bags, and yes, some of the time they draw these pictures to get some attention on social media. But there are advantages to burning avgas in this fashion: It helps with pilotage and landmark recognition. Use ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot, or another electronic flight planning tool to map out a simple shape, like a heart or a star. The key here is to use landmarks or visual waypoints to outline the design. Then go fly the flight path and see how accurately you can render your design. Just, uh, keep it clean.

Smash it

Helicopter pilots get to have fun too. One could argue they get to have more fun because of the way they can maneuver a helicopter, and the things that they can do with that maneuverability. One such game is “smash it,” which involves literally finding things to smash with the helicopter’s skids: ant hills, bushes, milk cartons, cones. Or, try knocking over a cone with a skid and then—here’s the really tricky part—setting the cone back upright with the skid.

This teaches “really precise hover control,” according to AOPA Content Producer Ian J. Twombly, a rotary and fixed-wing pilot. “Knocking the cone over is easy, but picking it up again was really hard. You have to go over the cone, slowly lower a bit, and then snag the bottom lip with the inside of the skid, then move to the left (assuming you’re doing this on the pilot side) to stand it back up. Doing it once was hard enough, but repeated times really stresses your concentration.”

Or, try this: Choose something specific—a speed trap, a yellow sports car, a sailboat with two masts, a herd of bighorn sheep—and go look for it. Some helicopter pilots call this game “BOLO” (law enforcement jargon for “be on the lookout”) and say it forces the helicopter pilot to shift their visual cues from macro to micro.

I asked a CFI friend whether he ever played games of this type with his students. “No,” he said. “It was their money.” That’s a good point. If you have a syllabus and a lesson plan and you’re progressing nicely, there may not be a need to indulge in games. On the other hand, if you’ve hit a plateau or you feel as though training has become rote and uninteresting, try a few of these games to give your training a different flavor.

[email protected]