Circuit Tips?

[Redbird72]

I did my first circuit detail at the weekend, and found it a tad intense, to say the least! By the end of the hour, I was literally trembling from the concentration and effort.
Now everybody at the school made an big effort to insist that a couple of lessons from now I'll be in the rhythm of it and finding it much less stressful, with everything coming together much more easily. However, do any of you have any hints or tips for making the workload more manageable? I know my instructor is first base for this kind of information, but I now have a three week wait to my next lesson, and I'd be grateful for a little food for thought to chew over in the meantime ...
Thanks.

[ThePirateKing]

That is a bit like rubbing your tummy, patting your head and making a phone call all at the same time.

Don't forget to stand on one leg and fart the national anthem while you're at it.

Then try doing it twice as fast - it's a bit like a circuit at Denham (where I trained).

TPK

[Fright Level]

fart the national anthem while you're at it

Did you see the F1 car on Top Gear last night? They had their laptop running the engine in the pits and it played the tune.

[DogfighterF22]

If you've got three weeks to go..

I would fire up the flight simulator.

Chances are it has your airfield already installed on it.

Practice the theory there.

Naturally a control yoke, rudder pedals and headset help.

DF.

[llanfairpg]

Pre-landing check BUMPFFICHHL !!!!!!!!!!

Change school to one that dosnt teach folk lore and spend the extra time with LOOKOUT.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Quote::

Pre-landing check BUMPFFICHHL !!!!!!!!!!

Change school to one that dosnt teach folk lore and spend the extra time with LOOKOUT.

***************************************

Schools make more money by making something simple complex.

And it gives the instructors the false sense they are operating the space shuttle.

[llanfairpg]

And it takes just 1.5 seconds to hit another aircraft.

There are many ways of doing things Gemma, drinking one wine dosnt make you a wine expert and 21,000 hours dosnt make you a good instructor. Ive woiked with brand new instructors who are much better that their high hour counterparts.

There isnt even an airliner I have flown with that many pre-landing checks!

If you need a check list to remind you to put the wheels down, best stay on the ground

[tigerbatics]

G-EMMA, I see the value in giving a student a handy means of covering the necessary items prior to landing. What I don't see is the point of adding irrelevant items that the aeroplane does not have because you may one day fly a machine so equipped.

You should be taught to fly the aeroplane you are in and through getting to know that understand how to cover different items in different machines. A one size fits all strikes me as rather silly. 'Lets check the gear is down' when we know it can't be anything else looks daft to me.

[fireflybob]

I did my first circuit detail at the weekend, and found it a tad intense, to say the least! By the end of the hour, I was literally trembling from the concentration and effort.

I wonder how you are being taught circuits?

I often introduce one circuit demo at the end of the early sorties as an ice-breaker.

When I teach the circuit the first instructional detail will concentrate on (mainly) the azimuth pattern and how to Go Around from a) downwind, (b) base leg, (c) final and (d) demo of recovery from misjudged flare. This means that the student has been enabled to recover from an incorrectly executed circuit and/or go around due to other traffic.

From there onwards it depends a bit on the aptitude of the student but in the early days I place little emphasis on the actual landing and more on a well flown circuit and final approach and encouraging the student to make an early decision to go around if things dont look good.

Prelanding checks and even RT can be blended in when the student begins to get the idea of the circuit.

Hope this helps!

[Sam Rutherford]

I'm just going to pop in, say my bit, and then leave before things heat up!

Use the kitchen table as your runway, and 'fly' your circuit around it. Literally stand up and walk around it - see where it is (including piano keys etc.) from each point on your circuit and how it looks (over which shoulder, what sort of angle etc.). You'll be amazed how that basic bit of situational awareness 'training' will make things easier in the air.

Okay, you'll look a right t**t doing it, but who cares!

Sam.

On your kitchen circuit, also do your checks (er, whatever they are), your radio calls, what heading will you need for what course, etc. etc.

[bjornhall]

Not speaking from any deeper knowledge, but "one student to another"-type advice...

a) You asked for tips, and you got plenty, so one more then: Don't overthink it! It will come together with experience; at our stage, it is practice we need most.

b) Read up on and practice the checklist and procedures used at your school, but don't do it any other way, no matter how sensible some pprune advice might seem... If we take what our instructor says, add in some good ideas of our own, and a few good suggestions from elsewhere, it'll all be a fine mess in the end, even if the individual ideas are great (been there, done that ).

For instance, at my club we take a very different approach to landing checks from what G-EMMA (and others here) speak about... Maybe theirs is better, maybe ours is, but either way I'm not even considering changing until after I have my PPL! We have neither the knowledge nor the experience to go second-guessing our instructors, IMHO, so for better or worse, their method is the one we'll use...

c) Echoing the Flightsim advice, if you're even a tiny bit into such things... Has helped me tremendously, by being a far more immersive way of "dry flying". Not just for pattern training either; can go through the whole flight, including preflighting and actions on the ground before and after the flight, in the sim... Near useless (or worse!) for stick and rudder skills; superb as a procedure trainer!

[llanfairpg]

Gemma

Most of those checks are pointless thats why.

Hatches and Harnesses for instance--whats changed since your last check did you open the doors on landing?

I would leave the fuel pump on

U/C --ridiculous (landing wheels up mainly happens to PPLs who forget the checklist that they rely on to prop them up esp after a GA)

Pitch -- ridiculous

I mean why not check the cabin is depressurising too and the cabin crew are secure. (well you never know you might be fliyng an airliner one day, thats your argument)

The main reason is that I am most likely in a circuit with low hour pilots who think lookout is something to do with a bank raid. All of my attention is going to be focussed on lookout.

I think the chances of you landing wheels up in your Warrior are a bit slimmer than having a near miss in the circuit but as you already know I do not think or teach like others do.

I would aslo add that long lists encourage reading without doing(in my 20,000 hour experience)

[llanfairpg]

Just to take up what Firefly Bob is saying

He is far too nice to say what he is thinking.

Is your school the type that introuduces you to the complete circuit exercise in the first hour, RT as well, if so no wonder it is tiring.

Also notice FBs leaning towards Go Arounds rather than Landings at this stage. Its not a great landing you should be aiming for but the ability to make a great go around.

[bjornhall]

It is interesting to compare...

We only have five points on our landing checklist:
1. Altimeter -- Set
2. Fuel valve -- Both
3. Mixture -- Rich
4. Landing light -- On
5. Vth @ flaps 30 -- 60 - 70 KIAS

1 - 3 we get out of the way before even entering the pattern, 5 is not until on final. The only downwind 'check' is to switch on the landing light, which we do when opposite the touch down point, as we decelerate and add first notch of flaps. Flap handling is not even on the checklist. Checklists in the air are all memorized, but there are only 21 points all in all, so that is perfectly doable.

This is when flying the 172R or S; when forced to fly the N we have to remember the carb heat as well... But since those are different aircraft, we use different checklists and different speeds; still even us studes seem able to keep those different procedures apart, without resorting to 'generic' lists...

Which method is better? *shrugs* Will form an opinion on that once past my PPL exam!

[BackPacker]

I was also busy typing a response when I realised that it didn't contribute anything more than what Bjornall and other had said already.

The way I see it, there are two schools of thought:
- Come up with an acronym as long as you can manage, which includes every conceivable check that you might want to carry out in-flight, and do that just before landing. This ensures that you've done each and every check at least once during the flight. (Oh well, I'm overreacting but checking for example the hatches, for the first time since taking off, on downwind, sounds a bit unnecessary. If there's something wrong with the hatches you should have noted that earlier, shouldn't you?)
- Keep the downwind checks as short as possible, so maximum time is spent looking outside.

For me personally, I'm from the second school. My checklist works out as follows:
- FREDA check well before entering the circuit. This takes care of fuel management, instruments, radio settings etc.
- Dab the brakes two or three times to check pressure, and on most aircraft you can feel if the parking brake is engaged - the dabs will feel different with less "give". (The second and third dab are there to detect an engaged parking brake if the parking brake is a one-way valve type. You feel the buildup of pressure on the second or third dab.)
- Fuel pump on before entering the circuit, or anytime I'm operating below 1000' AGL
- Carb heat anytime RPM is below 2000.
- Mixture rich anytime before I make a power change.
- Lights anytime viz is poor, or when a lot of traffic is around. In good conditions, the aircraft seems to land perfectly fine without the landing lights on. But in bad conditions, the lights are on well before I enter downwind.
- Flaps is something I consider a flight control just like pitch, roll, yaw and throttle. I don't "check" flaps but "operate" them. Hence they're no "check" item.

Also interesting to read the POH. Or even better: have a look 'round the panel. A Warrior, for instance, requires a placard with the landing checklist to be in full view of the pilot:
Fuel on proper tank
Mixture rich
Electric fuel pump on
Seat backs erect
Flaps - set (white arc)
Fasten belts/harness
Air conditioner off

Sooo... Different ways of doing things. As long as you're a student, do as your instructor tells you. Later on, find a way that works for you, is safe and works across the range of aircraft you are flying. Anything from one or two memory items, to BUMPFITCCHC-like acronyms, to "Red, Blues, Greens, and we're cleared to land" to taking out a paper checklist, to using whatever is placarded in the cockpit.

[llanfairpg]

American check lists are designed to protect the manufacturer in the event of litigation. Mine are based on best practice, although I have never been CFI of the year( or month). Noticably as cliams increased so did the length of checklists

Published pre-landing checks are based on returning to an aerodrome after an en route flight not repetive circuit and landings.

Continually checking things that do not need checking shows lack of understanding and rigid rule book mentality both have little to do with airmanship and good judgement.

By the way to keep this on subject.

The best way to do anything is to do as simple as possible.

Ive seen instructors brief and conduct circuit training as if it was a military exercise, why? I am more intersted in the checks that you do on the ground than in the circuit. I could miss all of the checks mentioned above in all the posts and still fly safe circuits.

I should add that when I started instructing I worked for a school that had monsterous checks some need all the downwind leg to carry out the checks and all of that time was spent with the stude looking in = complete madness. Lookout the window and keep it simple

[Contacttower]

Published pre-landing checks are based on returning to an aerodrome after an en route flight not repetive circuit and landings.

Continually checking things that do not need checking shows lack of understanding and rigid rule book mentality both have little to do with airmanship and good judgement.

I would defend BUMFFPICHH as a good checklist for landing...but for doing circuits over and over again it is too much (in the words of one of my instructors) like sucking a dummy.

[Contacttower]

G-EMMA, like you, in the circuit was exactly where I learnt BUMFFPICHH and while training for the circuit I did do it every single time.

I have to say I am rather surprised at the bad reaction some posters have had to it, perhaps they've forgotten what it is like to be a student PPL or wrongly associate adherence to procedure with lack of judgement.

Continually checking things that do not need checking shows lack of understanding and rigid rule book mentality both have little to do with airmanship and good judgement.

llanfairpg are you an airline pilot? If you are then I find your comment slightly surprising considering that lack of SOPs is one of the reasons GA doesn't have the excellent safety record that the airlines do.

[Pitts2112]

Redbird,

Honest answer - don't sweat it. Just keep doing your best and it will all come together of it's own accord. Trust me. Really.

It's like driving. You probably can't even remember a time when it was all you could do to keep the car on the road and not hit oncoming lorries. Now you can probably go around a 3 lane roundabout on two wheels, downshifting to accelerate out of your exit, all while changing the CD, eating a burrito, and not hitting the lorry that's in the lane you want. And you just kind of got to that point with no real thought, just time behind the wheel.

Flying's the same way. It'll just magically work itself out and you won't even notice it happens until suddenly you'll realise you're bored on final approach because it's taking so long and there's nothing left to do. Yes, really.

Pitts2112

[llanfairpg]

lanfairpg are you an airline pilot? If you are then I find your comment slightly surprising considering that lack of SOPs is one of the reasons GA doesn't have the excellent safety record that the airlines do.

Having a simple practical pre-landing check is an SOP. The answer is yes and simple pre-landing checks are very much the feature of modern airliners.

I alsked a collegue of mine once why they had 3 pilots on the Trident he answered. One to hold the checklist, one to read it and one to action it.

Thankfully the new geneartion aircraft have a check list on a card rather than a book!