Conversations with With Expert Aviators
Talking with Wilco Blunt and the BBCFI (Bring Back Competent Flight Instruction)
WILCO BLUNT
A few years ago, I had a telephone conversation with a pilot examiner named Wilco Blunt (name changed to protect the innocent) whom I had known since we were both designated more than a decade prior. The subject was teaching aircraft control, and my friend seemed inspired about some new observations and conclusions he had reached.
Wilco said, “You know, when we do an instrument airplane practical test, the applicant’s entire performance is generally characterized by continuous corrections for one deviation after another. Altitude, heading, airspeed, or course deviation; the applicant chases these parameters, always a little off but hopefully getting closer to the desired values, staying within the required tolerances… And I’m talking about a satisfactory check ride!”
He continued; “But when you have an applicant who focuses on the aircraft attitude instead of all these other parameters, there are no deviations, and no corrections are required.
I agreed. Now here is the peculiar aspect of this conversation. I had been vociferously advocating for a proactive, attitude-based aircraft control paradigm for years. My friend’s juxtaposition of proactive versus reactive flying aligned perfectly with my own answers to what I will call the aircraft control “question”. Mr. Blunt is an aviator I have always held in very high esteem due to his depth of knowledge and his experience; a military pilot, glider pilot, aerobatic pilot, sea-plane pilot, tailwheel expert, and more. But during our exchange I got the impression that his realization about the primacy of attitude control, was a recent one, and I found this puzzling. How could this be? The primacy of attitude control for aircraft control had been an open secret, at least to me, for quite some time. How could my friend Wilco, just be figuring this out now?
This interaction, and many others with flight Instructors and their students, caused me at that time to question whether our flight training industry had lost a thread of simple truth about how to teach control of an airplane in flight. Had the FAA “lost the plot” as the British would say? In the last few years of my designation, applicants with a mature and correct understanding of aircraft control were a distinct minority. My fellow examiners all agreed with this assessment. Even applicants who demonstrated competency within the practical test standards of the time, showed signs of misdirected attention and perhaps a lack of a correct fundamental concept.
Many people, including me, have written books, essays, and articles on this topic. Chapter three of the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook does an excellent job of explaining attitude flying as the primary method of aircraft control (in my opinion, previous versions were much clearer and more precise). So, the open secret is out there; attitude control IS aircraft control.
Back then we had, and still have now, too many loss-of-control accidents across the spectrum of private and commercial aviation. And too many students are failing check rides, dropping out of training, or arguably worse, passing a check ride without this vital understanding of attitude flying concepts and techniques. How can this be?
BBCFI (Bring Back Competent Flight Instruction)
When I was an active member of a flight training support organization, I will call BBCFI (The name is changed to protect the innocent), I asked what we could do to help change the woeful status quo described above, something we all agreed was a problem. I was told that suggesting or dictating concepts, methods, or techniques to the membership would lead to vitriolic disagreements and subsequent ill effects.
My thoughts: while it is true that there is more than one way to state the truth, does that mean that the truth does not exist, or that it exists in a world where the laws of physics are variable? As an organization devoted to quality and professional flight instruction, I thought that we could and should attempt to raise the consciousness of the training community by officially embracing certain methods over others.
So, I proposed that we formulate a list of positive training elements that we might be able to agree on and present them to our membership. How to do this was another question. My thought was that if our purpose was indeed to promote professional and competent flight instruction, defining some desirable core concepts would be a positive step. The idea was that membership in BBCFI would entail more than paying fee and holding a flight instructor certificate, it would require us to examine and consider a common set of concepts and perhaps techniques, that form a superior foundation for flight training activities.
THE FIVE TENETS
If we could agree this was a worthwhile goal, my suggestions were:
1: Changing or maintaining aircraft attitude through proper use of the flight controls is our primary method of controlling the airplane. This is not a technique or a procedure but a concept. Not a syllabus or lesson script but the foundation of the building blocks of precise aircraft control. All subsequent control techniques flow from this singular concept.
2: There is a Correct Primary Reference for each task or maneuver. It is important to know which reference(s) are primary and which ones are secondary. (Not to be confused with the Primary and Supporting method of instrument scan, which I do not recommend). For example, primary control for airspeed in a visual climb is pitch attitude measured against the horizon. Secondary references would include the Airspeed Indicator and Vertical Speed Indicator.
3: One Pilot on the Flight Controls. When two pilots are both making control inputs at the same time, sometimes known as “helping”, only one of them knows what is going on – and it’s not the student. While there may be cases in which guarding the flight controls with a light touch to monitor student input and to be ready to take control if the need arises, helping with active control inputs while the student is flying the airplane is a technique to avoid.
4: Specific Visual References. We should use specific visual cues for as many operations as possible. The most obvious might be cowling/horizon relationship for climb airspeed, or cowling/horizon reference for steep turns with a geographical point for roll out. References might change from one aircraft to the next, or be missing altogether in some cases, but the concept is solid and yields excellent results in formative stages of attitude-control-based instruction.
5: Checklist Integration. There is a correct way to use the checklist in-flight during single pilot operations. The good news, it’s easy, efficient, and when implemented makes it nearly impossible to make an omission or a procedural mistake while piloting an aircraft. For the checklist to become a welcome partner in the cockpit, it needs to be introduced early and correctly, and must be a mandatory part of every flight. I guess if there is any bad news it’s that incorporating the checklist correctly requires the student to know the physical steps of how to fly the airplane before sitting in the pilot seat. This requires more study and practice. All too often the checklist is used as a crutch in early training flights; a cookbook, if you will. Like reading; two cups of flower, three eggs, etc. The student reads; Airspeed 70, flaps 10, carb heat full, landing gear down, etc. Once we have made pancakes a few times, we don’t need the cookbook anymore, and the same thing happens when the checklist is introduced incorrectly. Once the simple set of tasks has been memorized, it seems superfluous, even distracting to read the list. Correct Checklist integration? Do the items for a phase of flight from memory, then read each item on the appropriate checklist confirming each switch, gage, or indicator is in the proper position.
Like most of my suggestions at BBCFI, this one went nowhere. I soon learned to keep my mouth shut and mostly listen at our monthly discussions. Everyone there was nice, highly experienced, and expert; perhaps I was just a square peg looking at a round hole.
DOES TECHNOLOGY MAKE US DUMBER?
Maybe as we hurtle towards fully automated aircraft, the skills and conceptual understanding I have tried to advance is less and less meaningful. In the old days a truck driver had to be able to shift an 18-speed transmission with no synchromesh, very difficult. Now transmissions are all automated; the old skills don’t matter. Is it the same in learning to fly? Maybe a pilot on a fast track to an Airbus doesn’t really need great attitude flying skills? What do you think? I am interested in your opinion.
I was surprised when I heard my friend, a pilot with a quality and quantity of experience I may never equal, excited as a kid at Christmas having realized that proactive attitude control was the answer to the question of easier proficiency for our students. I was also surprised and a little disappointed that BBCFI didn’t think that my 5 Tenets of Quality Flight Instruction were a good idea.
Have we, the flight training industry, really lost the plot? Well maybe a bit. Better technology allows us to do the same task with less skill than was previously required. So yeah, I am dumber than the 21-year-old “old man” aircraft commander of a B24, departing in zero-zero conditions along with hundreds of others: no radar, no GPS, using time, speed, altitude, and distance to not bump into his friends. Good technology is always a double-edged sword.
I know that there are many truly great flight instructors teaching and writing and influencing the aviators of tomorrow, and some of them disagree with my ideas. It’s a big world with many viewpoints about every conceivable topic. My experience has led me to understand the “truth of the matter” as I see it, and I feel compelled to write in hopes that one day something I have said or written will make a difference for a student on this magical path. That is the purpose of this Substack. I invite you to subscribe, read, and comment.
Best Wishes for safe flying to you all!
As always, please only practice new concepts and techniques under the supervision of a qualified flight instructor. Without safety, we have nothing.