Not Flying - JAFGS

Quoth the Weather-Raven this morning: IFR.

Hail, wet snow, and heavy rain and low overcast this morning. Perfect, just perfect.

So off to JAFGround Session I went.

On the upside, I was able to convey that I'm really quite ready on the oral stuff so we didn't review that. Instead we focused on what the likely check-ride will be like as the examiner does have a pretty set pattern and knowing the route and that he's going to take away your chart and GPS and expect you to find Linden on sight and find your way back is rather nerve-wracking.

We went over some of the issues he's seen so far with my landings (leaving too much power in) and steep turns and that was reasonably helpful and I'll be working on it if the weather ever clears sufficiently for flying.

He also went over a proper instrument scan for the impeding foggles session which was enlightening and a different and both a more systematic and meaningful approach than any I've been taught to date. In short, the instruments you focus on depends on what you are doing - Climb uses Airspeed, Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro; Level flight is Attitude Indicator, Altimeter, and Directional Gyro; Descent is Vertical Speed Indicator, Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro and Turns is Attitude Indicator and Directional Gyro and turn coordinator. Pretty nifty.

We also went over emergency landings and he gave me one heckuva great tip - if the field you like is in line with the first row of rivets on the wing, it is in gliding range. Very Cool.

Next, he figured out why Hunter gave me a blank look when I said in response to how you handle an emergency landing is as easy as using "ABCDE".

After all A=Airspeed, best glide; B=Best landing Area; C =checklist/flow check try for restart; D=Declare emergency; and E=execute emergency landing.

Well, DCT doesn't use that. They use Best Glide, WOSSS for best field (wind direction, obstacles on field, Size/shape of field, Slope of field and Shoots what do you hit if you under or overshoot t?), flow check for restart, and then execute emergency landing. I daresay I like ABCDE better but what can you do?

Well the ground session proved useful enough and at elast we didn't go over things I've already done before.