Lesson 23 - How good is your ADM?
February 18, 2023
Your first traffic patter was so perfect, I knew that you didn’t know how perfect it was. 60% of it was you, and 40% of it was sheer luck, and I thought to myself - “Damn! he’s not gonna fly that again today.”
- Drew Terpin, CFI, on my first traffic pattern.
Recently, I have been dreaming and chair-flying my perfect traffic pattern. Today, I actually flew it. Right in the beginning of my lesson. It was so perfect, that I couldn't reproduce it for the rest of my lesson. My comms were spot on; my checklist use was “do list” rather than “read and then do”; and most importantly my control over the airplane near the ground was 100% improved over all of my previous lessons combined. It was GOLDEN !
Now that the best part of today's lesson is covered, let me try and dissect the rest of my lesson. Drew and Justin are clearly holding me to a higher standards, lesson by lesson, and that means I have to start holding myself to higher standards, too - in my proficiency over controls, and in my decision making. That was the theme for today - ADM - Aeronautical Decision Making.
What is ADM?
ADM is a continuous process of assessing the situation based on all available pieces of information and then making a sound decision. For a pilot, ADM provides a systematic approach to determine the best course of action in response to a given set of circumstances. It starts right from pre-flight, till you put the plane back in the hanger. In all three phases - Pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight - a pilot is constantly assessing the situation and making decisions.
During and after my perfect traffic pattern there were series of noticeable ADMs that could have been better, and/or avoided altogether. There were some good decisions too, which are important to recognize so that I can continue to practice them. Let me explain that with some of the examples from today.
Thinking vs. Mechanical Actions.
It was a gusty day today. Not ideal, but definitely within Drew's minimums and Drew thought it would be a good hands-on experience for me - to experience the stronger winds. With stronger winds, especially near the ground ADM skills become extremely important. After my first traffic pattern, I started “thinking” (or rather over-thinking) and that's when everything started to fall out of sync, especially on the final approach. At Rostraver, runway 26 ends, and right next to it is a ravine. Because of that ravine, wind does some stupid stuff - like change directions, or push airplane away from runway - when you are approaching runway. That effect is more dominant on a gusty day such as today.
That was the factor that I could anticipate, but could not control. The factors that I could control though, the difference between my perfect traffic pattern and other traffic patterns was that I started thinking too much in each leg - focusing on one aspect in particular (which was airspeed - I wanted to be above 70 knots). As a result, though in my mind I was dividing my attention, I wasn't really dividing my attention. When I was mechanically following my steps of reducing throttle, deploying flaps, I hit all my target milestones in the traffic pattern. It allowed me to pay attention at site picture.
I just need to be aware of this tendency and work on improving upon it.
Good ADM - Avoiding pre-mature taxi.
After one particular landing, I remember approaching taxiway Bravo. I was probably slow enough to exit that taxiway, but I wasn't 100% sure if I could make it safely. So I decided to skip taxiway Bravo and coninued to slow down until I was comfortable exiting runway, which was the next taxiway exit.
At face value it might seem like a non-critical event, but airplane can tip over if you are not careful while turning on taxi exit. The fact that I was able to identify it and the fact that I chose the safest option possible is a reflection of my ADM execution skill.
Engine Failure Procedures
It's not the first time that we ran through engine failure simulation, but during the post-lesson review Drew commented that perhaps I hadn't grasped the gravity of actual engine failure event. That got me thinking, and as I started to evaluate my decisions during the simulation, I started to come to the same agreement.
In the event of engine failure, what I have memorized is that the following two steps are critical
Pitch for best glide speed
Identify suitable area for landing.
So, as Drew pulled out throttle, I started immediately to get to the best glide speed. It took me few minutes to get there and once I got to it, I started looking for suitable ground to land. I noticed a couple of farm fields underneath, and I said that I was going to try and land the plane in one of those fields. Drew asked - “which one?”, and I took a moment to decide, and I picked one field. What had happened in all of this Q&A processing was
I had lost a bunch of altitude - which is a valuable asset when your engine fails.
I had an airfield close by - Rostraver. I was so tuned in to impress upon my engine failure checklist-items that I had completely forgotten that I could try and glide back to Rostraver.
This can happen under any unfamiliar circumstances. I need to be comfortable using any and all resources at my disposal to locate a suitable airfield before I land in a farm field.
All of these run-time decisions compound towards your and your passengers' safety.
Traffic Pattern Entry Procedures
This was a real eye-opener for me that just displayed the stark distinction between how I visualized the re-entry versus how I actually entered the traffic pattern. Not that I am not aware, that I should ideally enter traffic pattern at 45 degrees on downwind, for safety and visibility purposes. But as I saw my usual ground reference - Rostraver Ice Garden on my approach to the airfield, I joined the traffic pattern in a 90 degree angle. I am just glad that there was no one in the pattern at that time, because it certainly would have spooked them and potentially would have gotten everyone in difficult situation. In that situation a better decision would have been either extend my approach to get on a 45 degree to Downwind, or join pattern on the extended Base leg. The way I joined the pattern - midfield downwind at a 90 degree - it was a bad setup for pattern from that moment onwards.
These were some of the events that I vividly remember. Drew says he would let me tumble, but not fall. I am glad that he does allow me to tumble because through these experiences, I am developing my ADM database as well. The goal is that I recollect correct measures and improve upon my decision making under any ciscumstance.