New Year's Resolution

It’s not that they are especially difficult for a pilot who keeps up with the latest rules and flies regularly. At a minimum, it takes at least an hour on the ground and an hour in the air with an instructor. But that’s the problem—many flight instructors are satisfied with those minimums and don’t present much of a challenge to a pilot seeking to maintain currency. And I have always enjoyed a challenge.

New Year’s resolutions really aren’t my thing, but years ago I made a promise to figure out a better way to maintain proficiency than the traditional flight review.

Fortunately, FAA provides alternate—and superior—ways to satisfy the flight review requirements. It stands to reason that pilots with a continuing education mindset will not only preserve the knowledge and skills they demonstrated on their last practical exam but increase them with further exploration and challenges. So, each new rating or certificate restarts the 24-month clock and is guaranteed to equip a pilot with new tools for safe flying. In my early years flying, my clock was reset when I earned commercial, flight instructor, and airline transport pilot certificates as well as instrument, multiengine, glider, and seaplane ratings.

While I do have more checkrides in my future, I had occasion to witness some of my own shortcomings while flying under instrument flight rules last summer in my Beechcraft Bonanza Niky. My clumsy use of the avionics put mastering my panel atop my flight training to-do list. (see “Rebirth Reflections,” December 2023 AOPA Pilot.) I consulted the FAA’s Currency Requirements and Guidance for the Flight Review and Instrument Proficiency Check (AC 61-98D) and reminded myself that a tailored program for proficiency is not only allowed but encouraged. Working under the FAA Wings program is yet another way to satisfy the requirements of a flight review with a continuing education mindset.

I tasked myself with a collection of reading and video materials that ensured I understood how each unit worked individually and went as far as I could studying on my own. I also completed the American Bonanza Society’s course for an instrument proficiency check (IPC). Time to consult an expert who could help me organize and use the information I had attained.

Finding an instructor who fits that bill is not easy. Sure, many instructors know a lot about flying IFR with glass panels in general, but I needed someone to help with optimizing the use of my new panel. I chose my PFD, nav/coms, autopilot, as well as placed an iPad connected to an avionics fan and power at the center of my panel—I’m sure there is no other panel exactly like mine. So, I searched for an instructor with an encyclopedic knowledge of the units I chose and experienced enough with myriad installations to guide me on the path to master my own.

With a ground training certificate from the American Bonanza Society in hand, I contacted one of their accredited instructors, Bruce Williams, who maintains an aviation blog as well as a reputation as an expert on IFR flying. I related my lack of facility with my new panel and explained that I wanted to start from square one, even learning a new instrument scan.

When we met up, I was pleased that Williams was in no more of a hurry to start Niky up and go fly as was I. We began by sitting in Niky inside the hangar with the battery and avionics master on to absorb the panel layout. It took the better part of an hour to populate the various user-defined fields on my PFD, GPS navigators, and iPad with the values that would make the most sense. Among my primary flight display (PFD), two GPS navigators, and iPad, there are 19 spots to locate such values as groundspeed, next waypoint, distance to destination, and estimated time enroute. We began by locating the most important parameters on the PFD in front of me and then worked toward the right side of the panel with others that are nice to have but not critical. After filling in the first 15, we decided to leave all four fields in my number 2 nav/com blank to better see the map since the screen on that unit is small.

Most important, I identified one of my own weaknesses as a pilot and tailored a flight review and IPC to solve the problem.

In that session, we also constructed a panel flow pattern that I would use preceding each critical phase of flight. Such a flow ensures that all gauges indicate continued engine health, that I have set up my communication and navigational equipment correctly, and that, if the autopilot is engaged, it is guiding the aircraft in the way I intended. A flow that makes sense for Niky starts with the throttle, mixture, propeller, and landing gear controls below the center of the panel. I then run my hand right to left across the circuit breakers that I had relocated low and in front of the pilot. Moving up, I commence a left to right flow across the panel starting with my backup attitude indicator and a careful view of the PFD that includes communication frequencies, engine gauges, as well as the status of the autopilot. After that, I verify the iPad, and my two navigators display the information in a helpful format.

It turns out that time in Niky on the ground was my favorite part of this training event. With a photograph of my newly configured panel, I spent time at home relearning where I would look for the information when I needed it. After updating my IFR checklist to reflect the new flows, it was finally time to plan the flight—one that would better simulate flying cross-country instead of three approaches done in rapid succession on a typical IPC.

We departed Sewanee Franklin County Airport (UOS) and headed 54 nautical miles northeast to Upper Cumberland Regional (SRB) for the ILS Runway 4 and flew the missed approach. Walker County (JFX), 156 nm to the southwest, served up a VOR/DME-A complete with a DME arc, and I circled for a full-stop landing on Runway 27. After reconfiguring the avionics on the ground, we flew a 61-nm hop for the RNAV (GPS) 7 at Guntersville Municipal (8A1).

Although the flight was already well over three hours, Williams asked if I would like to fly an approach using only my iPad and I jumped at the chance. So, we added the RNAV (GPS) 36 at the Winchester Airport (BGF) to the flight. With LPV minimums and the availability of WAAS, I’d normally have vertical guidance, but we simulated a complete panel failure, and I stepped down along the fixes using my standby altimeter and the geopositioned referencing on my iPad. I had never done this before, but it’s a terrific confidence builder in anticipation of a really bad day in the air.

After copious hours studying on the ground alone, then with my instructor, followed by a four-hour flight, I came away with not only an IPC but also earned a phase of FAA Wings Pilot Proficiency Program. Most important, I identified one of my own weaknesses as a pilot and tailored a flight review and IPC to solve the problem.

Unless I have a new certificate or rating to complete, I will use this method to satisfy the requirements for a flight review. Now that’s a resolution I can keep.