Lesson 14 - Fighting Task Saturation
September 01, 2022
In the previous lesson, I flew from Rostraver to Latrobe, and during that flight I was overwhelmed and over-saturated. I need to get used to that, be comfortable with it. The only way to get comfortable is to fly, fly to the destination, so I believe flying to Latrobe is something that I will be doing more often. There are three main tasks that need to be performed - AVIATE, NAVIGATE, and COMMUNICATE - in that order.
So far we have worked on the first part - AVIATE. We know very well what a learning curve that was, and after so much effort, I reached a stage where I can aviate without much of Drew's input, and more importantly, I have reached a stage where Drew and Justin feel safe when I pilot the plane. I know from my experience so far that how quickly I get task saturated, so now that NAVIGATE - getting from Point A to Point B, and COMMUNICATE - Radio Communications with Tower and Ground are introduced, I anticipate to get task saturated and try to put in some pre- work.
In preparation for today’s lesson I had my knee-board ready with tower frequencies, and I wrote down some initial radio calls. After last lesson, I chair-flew my flight from Rostraver to Latrobe and tried to get comfortable with the tasks as much as I could.
It did help a bit, but I was still overwhelmed and task saturated by the end of today’s lesson.
Lesson Objective:
Today we were going to fly from Rostraver to Latrobe and come back. On our way back, we were going to either do some maneuvers or go through emergencies. At each step, the emphasis on “Follow the checklist” aspect is more important than ever.
What is a checklist?
There are many phases that a pilot goes through across the entire flight. It starts with pre-flight inspection and then just continues from there. In each phase, a pilot needs to execute and confirm certain tasks - which is what a checklist is for. But rather than reading a task and doing it, it is much more economical to do the series of steps and then verify if you have covered everything needed. For Cessna 172 - the plane that I rent - there are 24 distinct checklists with specific tasks for normal operation. For Emergencies - such as engine failure, electrical failure, etc. there are 14 distinct checklists. Just to give an example - Engine Failure has 4 checklists for 4 different scenarios. What to do -
When engine fails during take-off roll
When engine fails after takeoff,
When engine fails during flight, and
When engine fails and you need to make an emergency landing without power.
All of the above have different set of tasks and that’s A LOT of information.
The initial part of the flight was pretty smooth. I took off and departed the area to the West, then general direction of Southeast, and was en-route to the Latrobe airport. I managed radio calls without any trouble. Loaded the destination in GPS and started following the directions. Established initial communication with Tower and told them what we were doing. As we got closer to the airport, this time there was another plane that was approaching to land. So the ATC scheduled both of us to land in a specific order. That radio communication went like the following:
Me: Palmer Tower Cessna November One Niner Six Eight Zero. Entering right midfield downwind, Runway Two Four, Six Eight Zero.
ATC: One Niner Six Eight Zero, Roger Runway Two Four, Clear to Land.
Me: Right midfield runway Two Four, Six Eight Zero.
Drew: Clear to land, Six Eight zero.
As you can see, the task saturation was beginning to show. I repeated the wrong message. As we started our preparation to land, I went throgh the “Before Landing” checklist and made sure all the tasks were checked and performed. As we joined the right midfield downwind we heard another plane approaching to land.
Flight 377: Palmer Tower, Three Seven Seven, Left midfield downwind runway Two Four.
ATC: Roger Tthree Seven Seven, you are number two following Cessna, Cleared stop and go following traffic right midfield downwind.
Drew: Palmer Tower, Six Eight Zero, It's gonna be a full stop.
I didn't quite understand why Drew said that to him, since he was in communication with other plane, but according to Drew, such clarification helps ATC with managing. planes.
The landing was okay. My airspeed management and “Holding the center line” is still work in progress, but it is not bad or dangerous.
After we landed, we were going to fuel the plane, so we needed to come to a full stop. For that reason, the taxi instructions were different than before. After touchdown on Runway 24, the radio comunications went like the following:
ATC: Six Eight Zero, Left next taxiway, park via Alpha with me.
Usually the Tower would hand-off communications to “Ground” after landing, and that's what I expected. But “with me” meant that we were still communicating with tower, and we were not going to switch to ground.
That was a bit more than I could process, at least in that moment.
When the other plane landed, the communication was different, too. the ATC told them - “Clear for Options”. That means that they can either
Come to a FULL STOP, or
TOUCH & GO, or
STOP & GO, or
LOW APPROACH - like if the plane is crossing the airfield.
As we pulled in the parking, the ground personnel directed us to a proper parking place using hand gestures. That was more new piece of communication for me. All I can remember right now is when he does an “X” with the hands, that means STOP.
After we fueled the plane, Drew demonstrated “Progressive Taxi”. At bigger and unfamiliar airports, progressive taxi instructions are provided in stages to a pilot when pilot is unfamiliar with the airport. Also, you always start with the GROUND for taxi communications. I called them “Palmer Tower” rather than “Palmer Ground”. I am sure they had a chuckle out of it. We did go through our checklists for “Before Take-off” and departed Latrobe airport.
En-route to Rostraver, Drew simulated Engine Failure Emergency. I was better prepared this time. I quickly got to 70 knots of glide speed and searched for nearby airports in the GPS. I found the desired airfield about 3 miles away, But it was in the opposite direction. I decided to turn around and to follow the directions in GPS. At this time, Drew started asking me questions, like
Drew: Where is your checklist? What does it say?
I found the checklist and started going through the actions. While I did that Drew asked,
Drew: What do we do if we have electrical fire in the flight?
Me: No idea as of now.
Drew: First thing we do is we turn the master off - and he turned the master switch off.
With that I lost EFD - Electronic Flight Displays - including my navigation.
Drew: Say we have an electrical fire. We came out (from Rostraver), we went Southeast and now (from Latrobe) we just have been going West-Northwest the whole way. So why don't we go the Northwest. Use compass in the flight.
By this point I was already saturated with everything that was going on. I obliged and continued flying in the general direction of Northwest. After some time, I was still lost, so what's the solution? - Call the guard frequency at 121.5 and take their help.
Drew simulated being the ATC and tried to help me, but didn’t look like I was much of a follower there. I was still in my own “Pilotage” mode and trying to find way. What a disaster that simlation was ! At one point Drew said:
Drew: One Niner Six Eight Zero, you are incapacitated. I said fly the North heading.
Me: Roger that, Six Eight Zero.
At this point I started flying in “General” direction of North, but I should have flown “North”. That is 360 degrees on compass. Not 359, not 001, not 350.
Want to fly North - Stick to Heading 360.
When you are lost, confess to yourself that you are lost and seek help. There is a checklist for Lost Procedures, too. Follow that checklist.
I find everything we did today extremely exhausting and I can see why getting trained in these situations is important. I am really glad that I am writing down my experience after every lesson, because now I clearly see huge value of doing it.
This routine likely would be new normal. Let's see how it improves over next few lessons.