Pinch Hitter

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waynemcc999
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First Name: Wayne
Aircraft Type: DA40
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Re: Pinch Hitter

Post by waynemcc999 »

As Russ has worked with his wife, I also have done some in-aircraft and sim pinch hitter coaching with my wife. Many have seen my video postings to DAN, but just in case:

In-aircraft: A Taste of Autopilot on Return from Kern Valley

Simulator: Incapacitated? Pinch Hitting Skills - Autopilot & Hand Flying... and More?
Wayne McClelland
PPL/IR, 2008 Diamond Star DA40-XLS 40.922, KSBA
Photo logs of PilotsNPaws | Flying Doctors | Angel Flight | YouTube @GeezerGeekPilot
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Rich
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Re: Pinch Hitter

Post by Rich »

My wife has been flying with me for 40 years and almost 19 in our DA40, including hours traveling to Illinois, Colorado, Canada, and around the NW. So she's observed all kinds of situations and procedures hundreds of times. So the main task is to get her to be reasonably comfortable performing those procedures.

There is a bit of complication, yet simplification, with the installation of the Aspen. So I'm designing the syllabus around the reality of what we have. Honestly the biggest obstacle will be landings. The FI she had when doing that pseudo-pinchhitter thing years ago succeeded in convincing her she'd never "get it". The FI (a woman, BTW) didn't tell her so or berate her, but somehow wound up not getting my wife past the inevitable regression that happens during training. This resulted in my wife's performance getting in that spiral of getting worse, stressing, and the stress making her worse. You CFIs know what I'm talking about. Being a former CFI myself I know how to get past that.

I'm thinking a Go Pro might be in order as training tool - much more realistic that some wimpy simulator that doesn't resemble our plane at all.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Rich
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Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 12:40 pm
First Name: Rich
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: N40XE
Airports: S39 Prineville OR
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Re: Pinch Hitter

Post by Rich »

We've been married almost 40 years and the last week or so I learned my wife has no fundamental understanding of heading: You know, N,S,E,W. Example: we're flying a heading of East (090) and I say "now turn to a heading of North".

I've a kind of mental compass rose since Boy Scout (maybe Cub Scout) days. But she has no native concept that this is a 90 degree turn to the left. I've run into other folks like this but never knew my wife had this hole in her conceptual repertoire.

She's doing pretty well with systems, button pushing, like the wonders of FF->Garmin->Aspen->Autopilot but we have to get past this blind spot.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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Rich
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Posts: 4592
Joined: Mon Aug 30, 2010 12:40 pm
First Name: Rich
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: N40XE
Airports: S39 Prineville OR
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Re: Pinch Hitter

Post by Rich »

So we're just about to the finish line, lacking only actually landing the plane. Here's the base use case we're drilling:

We're established on a flight plan somewhere. The AP is in HDG and ALT modes. Then my clock runs out, so she:

1. Replaces the FF plan with a "direct to" a different airport. (Right now, just our home airport, but in real scenario, prioritize a "blue" one.)
2. Synchs the heading in the Aspen with current course and cancel GPSS.
3. Sends the flight plan to the 530 and activate it.
4. Based on what one sees in the FF map, select a runway.
5. Picks an RNAV approach (ignore "Z"s), vectors to final, and activate.
6. (Procedure shows up on FF, accept if required.)
7. Adjusts heading in Aspen as necessary to get close to the approach path.
8. Activates GPSS in Aspen and "APR" in the AP.
9. Monitors captures and adjust power as the plane flies the approach. We have "cookbook" power settings for certain points and process to add flaps during the approach.
10. Level off over the runway, pull the power and land (that's me right now).

Today I twice demonstrated that on an RNAV approach I can ignore MDA and let the AP take me all the way to the point of flare, cut it out, pull the power and flare for landing.

This all worked today quite nicely, even given the 25-30 knot crosswind at altitude. This, of course, slowly diminished as we descended.

The one wrinkle is making sure that one captures the GS from below. We have had cases where we wound up capturing from above and have dealt with that. But I prefer she didn't have to. In a real situation she would call on ATC to help out with vectors and altitudes. Naturally we have practiced this phase of the flight numerous times.

In all likelihood she'll never have to do this for real, given the low probability of this type of event happening in the minuscule percent of my time spent in the plane. It's more for her peace of mind. I expect that whenever we fly together, especially actually going somewhere, she'll be doing large chunks of the hands-on stuff.
2002 DA40-180: MT, PowerFlow, 530W/430W, KAP140, ext. baggage, 1090 ES out, 2646 MTOW, 40gal., Surefly, Flightstream 210, Orion 600 LED, XeVision, Aspen E5
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