PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - How does your company describe circling approaches?
Old 6th Dec 2013, 23:23
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AirRabbit
 
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I posted a set of comments, not long ago, on what I believe I’m seeing more regularly in this industry … that being the development of, and the subsequent dependence on, a “set of numbers” that are presumed to be the “answer” to the problem or the situation under scrutiny. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, this practice has become a rather routine goal of an increasing number of aviators – the practice likely initiated when each person was a “new hire” … ostensibly generated either by that person, or other persons, to provide an outcome of the specified task, under the specified circumstances, using the specific set of numbers, to allow the appearance of an adequate piloting performance.

I even described several “number set” discussions …
Originally Posted by AirRabbit
“…for tasks such as … “what engine parameters should I set for a heavy weight landing in an XXX airplane type?” or “what rate of descent should I hold during a zero flap approach for an XXX airplane type?” or any of the multitude of other similar “examination crutches.”
The line of thought represented in this particular thread is yet another example of seeking and providing information regarding the accomplishment of a very specific flight task - here, the completion of a circle-to-land – where simply “plugging in the provided numbers” will provide an “adequate” result. The fact that a "circle-to-land" is a visual maneuver appears to be completely disregarded and replaced with a dependence on altitude and stop-watch timing to determine when to turn to land. It's a VISUAL maneuver. It has nothing to do with blindingly flying until a determined number of seconds has ticked by - and then doing something else - likely just as questionable. The reason such a task is included is to allow a pilot to fly an instrument approach procedure to get below a cloud deck or within visual range of the airport and from that point, visually maneuver the airplane to the runway on which the pilot was cleared to land. Nothing more. Nothing less. Deliberately ignoring the concept of keeping the landing runway in sight while maneuvering to land completely ignores the concept on which the procedure was developed - and potentially sets up a skills-deficient pilot for almost anything less pleasant than landing on the runway originally intended.

If I were ever to plead with anyone about flying an airplane – particularly an airplane with innocent passengers aboard – where their presence is only due to the fact that they “trusted” in the ability, knowledge, and professionalism” of the pilot – this is where and what I would plead ... Please … evaluate the reasons you are asking for such information … review the mechanics required to perform the task in question … talk with a flight instructor you trust … practice the mechanics involved in completing the task in question … ask your instructor to critique your performance and offer recommendations for improvement … and then repeat that sequence until you and your instructor agree that you have learned how to perform the task.

There is nothing wrong with breaking down any flight task into the scientific and mathematic parameters that are involved … however, your reliance on being able to repeat any such sequence of parameters may well work only under circumstances essentially equal to the circumstances that existed for the task associated with the particular flight task on which the analysis was accomplished. Being a pilot is highly individual ... and is dependent upon being able to deal with the circumstances that exist at each individual point in time and space, which you, as a pilot, are expected to perform. It’s analogous to learning how to write by copying and committing to memory (both mental memory and muscle memory) very specific sentences, paragraphs, or books. Then, when you are inevitably asked to write the answer to “how do you feel?” you might well find yourself being quite ill-prepared to write an answer to that perplexing question. However, if you were to have learned how to read, write, spell, develop sentences, understand punctuation, and the like … you might be able to write an answer to such a question without having to be overly concerned about the concepts of verbs, adverbs, connectors, personal pronouns, and adjectives … like, “I am feeling pretty darn well, thank you.”

It may take some innovative thought processes on your part, and certainly a lot of effort and a lot of practice, but you will find it supremely beneficial to learn to fly rather than learning to apply a canned sequence of numbers to any specific circumstance you might meet in your aviation career.
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