Flight Instructor – Flight Instructor’s Corner

FLYING ANALYTICALLY
By: Bob Johnson – ATP, CFII, MEI
In instrument flight training we learn early on to scan critically and analytically. That is, given our pitch, bank and power, is the aircraft performing as anticipated? And are the primary & supporting instruments in agreement? Actually, it would behoove us to apply the same type of critical thought process to all our flying. Consider the following examples:

Is our departure airport weather as the forecast predicted earlier in our planning?… (read more)

Right Seat – Flight Instructor’s Corner

Insights From Bernoulli
By  Bob Johnson, ATP, CFII, MEI
Early in our study of aerodynamics we learn that air particles, being fluid in nature, behave in accordance with Bernoulli’s equation as they flow around our aircraft’s surfaces. The Bernoulli equation (which is derived from Newton’s second law) is simply an expression for the conservation of energy in fluid flow, and for our purposes has two major components: dynamic pressure and static pressure. Their sum yields a total pressure which is… (read more)

Right Seat – Flight Instructor Corner

Aircraft Ground Operations
By: Steve Boothby CFI, CFII, MEI
We spend so much of our time training and focusing on flying, from take-off, maneuvers, cockpit management, emergency procedures, navigation, and the ever elusive perfect landing, that we can often neglect or simply fall out of practice on good ground operating procedures. Let’s take a moment to refresh our memories on some simple but important aspects of pre and post flight ops.
Checklists are an important part of aviation. Most in-flight… (read more)

Right Seat – Flight Instructor’s Corner

Estimating Distance in Flight
To learn how to focus along a 10 degree angle of depression, simply measure (forward and to each side) out six times your seated eye height above the ramp while parked in your tie down and note where your line of sight intersects a part of the aircraft.  For example, some night find that point to appear just beyond the nose of the aircraft or at a certain spot on the windshield while the aircraft is… (read more)

Right Seat – Flight Instructors Corner

Local Knowledge
When the winds are blowing out of the east or forecast to do so it could well mean a storm is approaching our area. This happens several times a year usually from the fall through the spring. In the winter time the path of the jet stream is further south and its winds are stronger as compared to the summer time when the jet stream is further to the north and its winds are weaker. This wintertime southern… (read more)

Right Seat – Flight Instructor’s Corner

Say Again…
With the roll out of a new procedure for taxi instructions at towered airports from ATC, it’s a good time to review some key elements of good radio communication.
First, let’s cover the changes to the taxi instructions.  While the format of the clearance has changed slightly, the important part of the change is clearance to cross runways along your route.   Whether active or inactive it will no longer be implied but always be explicitly included in the… (read more)

FAA Safety Seminar August 19th – Ditching and Surviving

Download Steve Boothby’s PowerPoint presentation on Ditching and Surviving from 8/19 [pdf]
Thursday August 19th at 7pm Red Baron Aviation sponsored an FAA Safety Seminar at the Santa Barbara Airport Visitor Center.   Steve Boothby CFI, CFII, MEI  lead a discussion on Ditching and Surviving.  All of us are interested in this subject especially those of us who fly out of SBA.  It was free and Wings eligible.  Ditching and Surviving was the second in  a series of FAA Safety Seminars… (read more)