When a student of mine does a couple of touch-and-go’s (typical take-off and landing practice) without any help from me, I decide they’re ready to solo. I tell them to stop on a taxi-way, and I climb out of the airplane.

I normally get these beseeching looks from my students, the question “Where are YOU going?” written all over their faces.

November 9, 2008: When I asked Paula if she was ready for me to leave, she said “Yes,” looking straight out the front. “I’m ready!”

There are always a couple of things outside a Flight Instructor’s control.  Before Paula’s first solo takeoff, a Hawaiian Airlines B717 turned around directly in front of her airplane. She handled that just fine. After her last landing, she noticed that the taxi-ways leading off the runway were closed. Simple: she asked the Control Tower in plain English that she wanted to get off the runway.

And that was that.

Congratulations, Paula!

Aviation is full of redundancy.

Your airplane may have only a single engine, but that one engine has dual, redundant systems for fuel, air, and ignition.

The next time you do a run-up, consider that you’re testing the primary and backup for each of these systems.

Magneto check?  You’re testing each one of the two independent ignition systems: two separate magnetos, driving two separate sets of spark plugs.

Carb-heat?  You’re testing an alternate source of air into the engine.

If you’re in a high-wing airplane, gravity will force fuel into the engine, and that’s pretty fail-safe.  But notice that you have two fuel tanks.

If you’re in a low-wing airplane, you’ll have an auxiliary, electrically driven, fuel pump in addition to the engine-driven fuel pump.

All this redundancy doesn’t make the engine twice as reliable: it makes it thousands of times more reliable.

A pilot with good judgment would never intentionally remove any one part of a redundant system.  Before take-off, the run-up proves to the pilot that both halves of that critical engine system works.

Redundancy in Instrument Flying
Private pilots are taught attitude instrument flying (hood time!) and then are told that it is illegal and unsafe to fly into clouds.  The attitude instrument flying experience, and that artificial horizon, is the pilot’s backup.

Should a non-instrument-rated pilot blunder into a cloud, the attitude indicator can be used to do a smooth 180-degree turn back to good weather.  At the worst, the attitude indicator keeps the airplane upright while the pilot calls for help.

But, if a non-instrument-rated pilot intentionally flies into clouds, all faith is being placed on a single instrument: an instrument which can fail as often as every 500 hours.

Instrument-rated pilots do have a backup: your turn-coordinator and all that partial panel training.

Vacuum pumps and magnetos have about the same failure rate.  So consider a partial-panel practice instrument approach as the philosophical equivalent to a run-up.

Here’s part one of a two-part recipe for mastering instrument flight on the Big Island.

Hilo has actual instrument conditions, more so than any other airport in the State of Hawai’i, I believe.

Kona has technically challenging approaches, these approaches are almost never needed. I’ll be covering these approaches in a later post.

Do the approaches listed below every couple of months, and you’ll not only be legally proficient and current, but you’ll be ready for the worst that the Big Island can offer.

---

Approach One: VOR/DME

Location:	Hilo, Hawai’i
Approach:	VOR/DME or TACAN-A
Equipment:	VOR DME or IFR-certified GPS
Rationale:	The VOR Alpha Approach is the most fuel-efficient instrument approach into Hilo. It’s not that much more distance to cover than a regular visual approach. The weather in Hilo is usually the worst in the entire state, but clouds are seldom lower than the 500 feet or so required for this non-precision approach.
Scenario:	An IFR flight from Honolulu or Maui, we’ve requested “direct VELLA,” or we’re stuck going all the way out to PARIS.It’s late at night, so Hilo Approach is closed. We’ll be doing the approach without radar guidance.
Elements:	It’s just a VOR tracking exercise, with some step-down descents. Remember to IDENT the station. What would you do if the DME failed? Execute the published missed approach: How do you enter the holding pattern over VEWES? Holding over VEWES is an excellent segue to the next approach: the ILS RWY 26 approach.

---

Approach Two: ILS

Location:	Hilo, Hawai’i
Approach:	ILS RWY 26
Equipment:	Localizer/Glideslope ADF or IFR-certified GPS
Rationale:	Every once in a while, our VOR is out of service. Of course, you know when this happens, because you get a pre-flight briefing, right? Right?
Scenario:	The weather is down below the non-precision approach minimums. The Hilo (ITO) VOR is out of service.Here is the text of the FDC NOTAM issued right before your flight: !FDC 8/8518 ITO FI/T HILO INTL, HILO, HI. ILS RWY 26, AMDT 12A... S-ILS 26 DA 288/HAT 250, VIS 3/4 ALL CATS. S-LOC 26 VIS CATS A/B/C 3/4. NOTE: FOR INOPERATIVE MALSR INCREASE S-LOC 26 VIS TO 1 MILE ALL CATS. !FDC 8/6428 ITO FI/T HILO INTL, HILO, HI. ILS RWY 26, AMDT 12A... MISSED APPROACH: CLIMB TO 450 THEN CLIMBING LEFT TURN TO 3000 DIRECT POA NDB AND HOLD N, LT, 160 DEGREES INBOUND. ADF AND RADAR REQUIRED EXCEPT FOR AIRCRAFT EQUIPPED WITH SUITABLE RNAV SYSTEM WITH GPS, ITO VORTAC OTS. Aha! You can do the published approach without the VOR, but you cannot do the published MISSED approach! Imagine finding this out right in the middle of the real missed approach. Surprise!
Elements:	Transitioning correctly from the holding pattern in the last approach. You can use the holding pattern as the procedure turn! Remember to IDENT the localizer. And to IDENT the NDB, if you’re using the NDB. Do you have an ADF? Good! It’s finally relevant! Or do you have an IFR-certified GPS? The GPS will automatically assume the publish missed approach, and will draw a nice, pretty, but totally WRONG holding pattern. You’re going to have to program the GPS beforehand, somehow, or be dialing in DIRECT POA while doing the missed approach climb-out. Way too much fun!

---

Approach Three: VOR or RNAV

Location:	Hilo, Hawai’i
Approach:	VOR/B or RNAV RWY 26
Equipment:	VOR (for VOR/B) IFR-certified GPS (for RNAV RWY 26)
Rationale:	It’s break time.
Scenario:	You’re holding over the POA NDB, tired after the last two attempts. Let’s get Radar Vectors to the instrument approach of your choice.
Elements:	Circle-to-land to a good runway. If you started off in the holding pattern, POA 3000 feet, this is a good time for some light unusual attitude recovery. If you’re doing the GPS approach, do you know how current your GPS database is?

“He’s a good stick,” the D.P.E. said after the flight.

Congratulations, Andres!

Dale, one of the excellent Hawai’i Flight Academy instructors, needed time with his family; so he passed his student, “Dickie” Wilson, over to me.

I only needed to fly with Dickie 5 times to be convinced that this guy knew how to fly. Dale did a great job teaching him – Dickie definitely understood his airplane. So, a checkride was scheduled with Hawai’i’s new examiner, D.P.E. “Mac” Smith.

The checkride started at 9:00AM, June 8, 2008. They started flying a little after noon. By 3:00PM we all knew he had passed. His flying was *perfect*.

Dickie has his own Grumman Cheetah. There are advantages and disadvantages to learning to fly in your own airplane. One disadvantage is obvious: you’re bending your own airplane on those hard landings. But there’s a clear advantage to flying a checkride in your own airplane, when you have the incentive to learn every quirk of your bird. And that’s the advantage Dickie brought to today’s checkride: mastery of his aircraft.

Congratulations, Dickie!

16 year olds just need a short, sharp shock whenever they get too cocky. Other than that, a flight instructor merely needs to point them in the right direction and get out of their way.

Solomon has flown with me 7 times, no previous experience.

Date:	2008 May 14
Airplane:	N41282
Airport:	ITO
Dual Instruction in make/model:	13.3

3 touch-and-go’s later, and Solomon has soloed.

Congratulations, Solomon!

Jesse took his check-ride – excuse me, his Private Pilot Practical Test – with George Morikawa on March 21, 2008. George has done hundreds, if not thousands, of check-rides, so I think he knows his airplanes. More importantly, he knows people.

I tried to pump him for details on Jesse’s weak spots, but all he would say was: “He was very strong on the ground portion [the knowledge test].” And, of course, I witnessed his landings. They were perfect.

Congratulations, Jesse!

I replaced the old Narco NAV12 VOR receiver with a NAV122D.

This thing is a full VOR/Localizer/Glideslope radio and indicator.

So, N41282 is now full IFR.

I spent Thursday flying around, driving Hilo Approach absolutely nuts; and on Sunday night had to use it in hard IFR, a night flight from Kona to Hilo.

It works great, and I’m very very happy.

I’ve put N41282’s schedule on Google Calendar.

http://www.wayforward.net/schedule.html

A&P Mechanic Phil Byrnes and I completed the required 100 hour inspection on N41282.
The airplane is back in service, with new brake pads and discs.