More on 14 CFR 61.57

A beautiful Monday morning followed a spectacular Sunday

Driving to work and getting off the Danbury airport exit around eight am, I saw Tony's D’s stars and bars Cub flying the short pattern to runway 26. Sitting at the light at the bottom of the exit I checked out the sock at midfield. As it lay limply from its moorings and with the knowledge that my first appointment was two hours away, I took a right instead of my normal left and headed to the Mooney rather than opening the office. I thought of Robert Frost as I made my way to Reliant Air "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by"

58 Victor was waiting for me as I walked across the ramp.   As I finished sumping the right tank Colin appeared out of nowhere with the Reliant fuel truck and a big smile. “Good Morning Captain Walsh” was how he greeted me, “Will you be needing any fuel today?” he continued. I took on 10 gallons a side not out of necessity but for the opportunity to shoot the breeze with him while he pumped the fuel.  When I told him that I was going out to practice maneuvers and then some pattern work, Colin (who has logged more than four thousand hours of dual instruction) automatically countered “you know sometimes it seems like you’ll never get a landing in”. The breeze was barely a whisper as I ran up and taxied up to the hold short line for Runway 26.  I called ready and requested a northerly departure. The plane was off the ground by the end of the displaced threshold and climbing briskly through the soft morning air.

Leveling at two thousand feet and clear of the delta I started with some fifty degree steep turns. After a three sixty in either direction I made my way over to our house and did pylon turns using the swimming pool as the reference point. That complete I did a chandelle using Candlewood Lake as my reference points. I hadn’t done one in a while and I was happy to hear the stall warning horn sounding through the last fifteen degrees of the turn. Recovering to Va without changing altitude,  I was pleased with the Chandelle but thought I could have got more altitude out of it. “Something to practice more” I thought as I called Danbury tower reporting 12 to the north. I was told to enter the right downwind to runway 26 and I descended to pattern altitude as I joined the pattern from the forty-five.  Cleared for the option I touched down around the runway intersection, poured on the power then entered left traffic. I did two more touch and go’s and made the last one a full stop.

Taxiing back in I realized that I had, in an hour and a half’s time satisfied my 61.57a requirements and was current to carry passengers for another ninety days. Had I not practiced the commercial maneuvers it could have been done in forty minutes including the shooting the breeze with Colin part.

The short flight made all the difference in the quality of my day, I walked around confident of my abilities and satisfied with my accomplishment. For the balance of my morning aggravations slid off me like water from a duck's back.


Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

The most inexpensive piece of safety gear you can buy for your next flight.

I went on a trip with a customer the other afternoon to Martha’s Vineyard. We were on island for about two hours and prior to leaving the airport my client requested that they top off the airplane with 100LL.   I looked at the price of the fuel and saw that it was $6.70 a gallon on April 16^th.  The plane took 18 gallons which is what we burned coming from Danbury when it was last topped off.  The bill for the fuel came to $120.60 before fees and taxes. That’s when it dawned on me; the most inexpensive safety item you can buy for your next flight is a flight instructor.

Are you fearful of landing in strong crosswinds? Take an instructor and practice crosswind landings. Having a hard time executing missed approaches? Go out and practice them with a CFII.

Practicing things you are apprehensive about doing with an instructor makes you a safer more competent pilot. Looking at areas that give you pause and addressing them with someone who teaches this for a living will help you overcome your fears while  you become more accomplished.

An iPad with the latest navigation, weather or flight control app, and XM receiver or a Mode S transponder will provide information making you a better-informed pilot, but none of these gadgets will improve your stick and rudder skills. For that you can hire a professional. Hell it’s cheaper than the fuel.

Getting past the knowledge test.

I’ve got a full schedule of rating candidates sitting on the sideline and not furthering their goals because they cannot muster the time and effort it takes to study for, then take the FAA knowledge exam for the rating.

As someone who has passed eight knowledge tests over a number of years, (each a bit more demanding than the last), I acknowledge from experience that they are difficult.

AOPA has all sorts of statistics about why pilots don’t finish their training and even though my aforementioned assumptions are not scientific, I think it would be interesting to find out how many people would start training for additional certificates and ratings if there were an easier way to prepare for the written tests.

I always advise customers to take the knowledge test early in their training. Getting it done early is the best way to have a shot of understanding the concepts and principals you will need as you prepare for the practical examination.

Myself, I’ve done it both ways and I prefer having the test behind me when I start out. My flight training for the Private license was complete early in 1986 yet I had not studied for, nor taken, the knowledge test. George Bianchi was my instructor at the time and I remember how disturbed he was when he asked for my test results while tallying up my time, endorsing my logbook getting ready to refer me to the examiner.

After that, quite a few evenings were spent grilling my instructor’s dinner as both he and Judy peppered me with questions from the test book he made me buy. A few weeks later I received an 86 on the test then I rode with Ray Noble for my practical.

Since then I have always passed the knowledge test prior to starting flight training. Flying is so much fun that encumbering it with the mental chore of memorizing a steaming pile of meaningless minutia ruins it for many participants.

I have used the King Schools material for seven exams. For me the computer based format the Kings have embraced over the past several years is much better than video only. Since my Commercial test I have always viewed the material on my laptop while exercising. I spend an hour a day on a treadmill five days a week. By watching the ground school while I exercise I manage to get through the material in about fourteen days, or three workweeks. I use the fifteenth day to take the practice exams and get the endorsement to take to the exam center.

Scoring consistently between 88 and 94 on the instrument (taken twice) the Commercial, Fundamentals of Instruction, Flight Instructor Airplane, Flight Instructor Instrument, and Airline Transport Pilot exams, my workout schedule fits very neatly within the confines of a self paced computer based training program.  The King Schools content runs $289 for the material either on CD/DVD  on-line through the internet delivery

Some people for whatever reason cannot carve an hour a day out of their day to dedicate to computer based training and for them the Aviation Seminars two-day ground school format works best. Aviation Seminars travels the country offering the courses in hotel conference rooms and suggests that you take the knowledge test as soon after the class as possible. Their classes are $429, start on a Saturday at eight am and run till six and four respectively. The knowledge test fee is not included for this offering.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a ground school advertised by a local flight school.  The Aviation Seminars  and King Schools offerings plus addition options from Sporty’s, Gleim, and Jeppensen has made the local twice weekly-two hour a night-for a number of  weeks ground schools obsolete.

Regardless of the method you choose, passing the written exam is a milestone residing in the critical path of achieving a new certificate or rating. Viewing the test requirement as a prerequisite for flying provides motivation to study and learn the material.  Eating your greens prior to having dessert is the parental mindset most of us grew up with. Taking care of the boring mundane elements upfront moves us forward to our goals, as we all love to fly, yet not many of us like to be subjected to testing.

Once again I’m reminded of the Nike slogan “just do it”, and to all of you sitting on the sideline waiting…there is no time like the present.

Trainers, Coaches, and Pro's

I used to join a gym every January along with the crowd of other people making new years resolutions to lose weight and live healthier. After wasting a lot of money on many memberships I decided I wasn’t getting what I needed out of it because I never had been instructed on which equipment I should be using, using it correctly, and how often to meet my specific goals.

In early 2001 I decided to use the services of a personal trainer. I received a few referrals and called around eventually hiring Nick to work with me three sessions per week. By making this commitment I felt I would get much more out of my gym membership when I had an authority telling me which exercises to do and when.  On the two days a week I wasn’t working with Nick he would tell me what he wanted me to do.

Five days a week I would go to the gym and spend three hours there. Every day started with 30 to 45 minutes of cardio then various types of weight training on machines or with free weights. We did all sorts of things with Nick mixing it up and keeping it interesting and varied. After about six weeks I started noticing changes in how my clothes fit and after working with Nick for three months people started commenting about my appearance.

Needless to say having a professional coaching me while modifying my routines to produce the best result was probably the best money I could have spent. Nick wasn’t cheap but he delivered the results. 

Eleven years later, if I were to embark on a fitness regimen like that again I would most certainly retain a trainer to help me along the way.  The value I received from his services was multifold. First off, left to my own devices I gravitate towards the workout I like, which tends to get easier over time as my body becomes accustomed and I get into better shape. Also I like having someone watching out for the “me in me” and countering my laziness and tendency to get bored with things easily.

By constantly being presented with regular challenges a trainer keeps you fresh and focused on your goals until the positive results from your efforts cannot be ignored.

Benefiting from a professional’s coaching is the accepted way to perform at a higher level. Flying is one of those activities that once we receive our license we are only required to get a minimum of two hours of training every twenty four months. Now most professional pilots who fly several times a week can function at a high level with  two hours of training in two years. However professional pilots typically train with more regularity than their counterparts who do not fly for a living.

Aristotle said “we are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit” The things we want to do well, we need to practice and to keep that practice productive and meaningful requires an auditor, a coach, dare I say an instructor to keep you honest and performing at a high level.

Its as simple as that.

Clarifying 61.57 Recent Flight Experience: Pilot in Command

Flair Minimum
Office Space at MOVIECLIPS.com

I use this scene from Office Space to describe to clients what the recent experience regulations mean to us as pilots. The supervisor in the scene tries to motivate his employee to do more than the base minimum required. Jennifer Aniston's character behaves like many aircraft owners when confronted with their own lack of proficiency training. 

When you talk to people about CFR 14 61.57 you’ll hear a lot of confusion about what a pilot needs to accomplish from a recent experience perspective to serve as pilot in command (PIC).

This area is widely misunderstood by a good deal of pilots. This is because the regulation has changed a bit over a number of years,  and quite a few of us older people interpolate our memories with things we've heard recently- but didn’t pay much attention to. Paul Simon sang “a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest” and I can think of many areas of my life where that statement is applicable; I have no intentions of throwing stones from my glass house.

Subparagraph A states that to serve as PIC in day VFR conditions while carrying passengers, one must, within the preceding 90 days, perform three take offs and landings as the sole manipulator of the controls in the same category class and type (if a type rating is required). Additionally if you want to exercise PIC privileges in a tail wheel aircraft the take offs and landings have to be in a tail wheel equipped plane.

  

Now that is simple enough. Over the past twelve weeks the federal government mandates that for you to serve as Pilot in Command (PIC) you must hop into a flying machine typical to the one that you’re most likely to operate and squeak out three.

Even if you are unable to find the time for one take off and landing every thirty days, after day 91 of inactivity you will still be able to, largely without time limit, get into your airplane by yourself and perform the three takeoff and landings specified in the regulation. Requirement met; once again you’ll be able to command an aircraft carrying “souls on board”. This will be true until the day after the last day of the twenty fourth month since your last 61.56 mandated flight review.

All of this is only applies if you are an aircraft owner. Although totally legal it is highly unlikely that  a FBO/Flight School/Flying club would rent an aircraft to a pilot who wasn't current.

Subparagraph B details night takeoff and landing experience and similar to Day VFR there is little confusion as to whether a pilot is current and what is necessary to regain that status. Once again three take off and landings every ninety days is the magic number. The FAA gets a bit more specific now that we are reading deeper into the regulation. These take off and landings must be made to a full stop.  Someone in the FAA rightly thinks night operations differ enough from daytime to require the pilot to go through the exercise of turning off the runway then taxiing back for takeoff.  Night is also clearly defined to mean one hour after sunset and ending one hour before sunrise. There is little left for interpretation. Simulator use is excluded unless the simulator is approved for landings or is used as part of an approved course conducted by a part 142 operator.

Flying at night is a surreal experience, one that I don’t do as often as I’d like, but as the owner of a single engine airplane I really don’t care for how limited my options become should the only power plant on board decide to take some time off.  However, on occasion, I have got caught out after sunset. This happens with some regularity when you are conducting multi leg operations, something happens to the airplane or weather delays you. If flying solo when these transgressions of night currency occur its no harm or foul. Rather it presents an opportunity to taxi back and take it around the patch a couple more times and regain your privileges. If you have passengers on board and the trip ends uneventfully no one would be any wiser if you were to violate the currency requirements of 61.57b.

Some may think this is an onerous burden but essentially the FAA is telling us that at least once a month, we need to fly at night to be legal to fly (kill) someone other than ourselves.

The part of the regulation that has most people flummoxed is subparagraph C. Titled Instrument Experience this details what we as instrument rated pilots must perform at the very least to fly in controlled airspace in weather less than VFR. The regulation reads 

(1)       Use of an airplane powered-lift, helicopter, or airship for maintaining  instrument experience. Within six calendar moths preceding the month of the flight, that person performed and logged at least the following tasks or iterations in an airplane, powered lift, helicopter or airship, as appropriate, for the instrument rating privileges to be maintained in actual weather conditions, or under simulated conditions using a view limiting device that involves having performed the following –

(i)            Six Instrument Approaches

(ii)          Holding Procedures and tasks

(iii)        Intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems

(2)       Use of a flight simulator or flight training device for maintaining instrument experience. Within six calendar moths preceding the month of the flight, that person performed and logged at least the following tasks or iterations in a flight simulator or flight training device, provided that the flight simulator or flight training device represents the category of aircraft for the instrument rating privileges to be maintained and involves having performed the following –

(i)            Six Instrument Approaches

(ii)          Holding Procedures and tasks

(iii)        Intercepting and tracking courses through the use of navigational electronic systems

Sections three and four go into combining aircraft, flight simulators and aviation training devices at advanced and basic levels and offer a whole host of thing you need to be doing with them to maintain the 6HIT’s which is online shorthand on a few pilot forums for six approaches holding intercepting and tracking.

The area drawing the most confusion is sub paragraph D or the instrument proficiency check. The FAA has sent out some clarifications on this recently and I have attached an email I received as a FAA Safety Team Member detailing the requirements in plain language.

While the email clarified some things for me the easiest way I know how to explain it is this.

From the day you receive your instrument rating you must fly six approaches every six months plus hold and intercept courses if you want to act as PIC in IFR conditions. So if you received your rating on June 1^st in 2011 you would have until December 31^st 2011 to perform these approaches, or simply fly one a month and you’ll be fine. If by some outside chance you were unable to fly all of the approaches by that deadline you would have another six months or until June 30^th of 2012 to get them in either with a safety pilot in an aircraft, or with an instructor in a simulator or flight-training device. On July 1^st 2012 should you not comply you would be required to have passed an Instrument Proficiency Check or IPC to legally fly IFR in the system.

The IPC consists the areas of operation and instrument tasks required in the Instrument Practical Test Standards. This check must be in an aircraft that is appropriate to the aircraft category; or for other than a glider, in a flight simulator or training device that is representative of the aircraft category. The check must be conducted by a FAA Examiner, an authorized instructor or a person approved by the administrator to conduct instrument practical tests.

So to clarify,  on day one of month 13, you as an instrument rated pilot must be evaluated by either a FAA examiner, FAA Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) or a CFII.  Evaluation is different than instruction and deviations to heading altitude or airspeed are graded against the Instrument Pilot Practical Test standard, the same document and process you lived through when you got your rating.


This is why the IPC is so feared and misunderstood. Essentially you are retesting for your rating. But a key thing to remember is that when working with a CFII you cannot fail a proficiency check, rather unacceptable performance is typically logged as dual instruction. The post flight briefing is where your strengths and weaknesses will be discussed in detail, and if necessary, additional time scheduled to remediate deficiencies discovered during the session.


Most pilots have a negative connotation associated with check rides and are reluctant to submit themselves to retest for a skill they were very proud to acquire the first time around. By treating the 

Our Redbird AATD simulator cannot be used for a complete IPC as it is not certified for landings. I usually advise pilots not to let their experience lapse to month 13 because of this. However if an IPC is required either for a lapse or insurance requirements we can complete most of the work required for the check in the simulator. After satisfactorily completing this, we simply fly a couple of approaches in the airplane, one with a landing from a straight in and one from a circling approach.  My scenarios have us depart DXR to OXC via CMK and V384 to Denna Intersection, we can then do the ILS 36 or the GPS 36 where a landing finishes the approach. We then depart OXC to DXR via CMK where we execute the VOR/GPS A with the circle to the active runway.

This satisfies the letter of the law and then those sucessful pilots can return to service as PIC in weather less than VFR. Noteworthy is Part 135 and 121 Pilots have to perform these checks twice a year regardless of how many approaches they get in during the past six months. Additionally owners of high performance singles and light twins are sometimes required to get an IPC annually as a prerequisite for their insurance policy renewal. Immaterial of your experience level, taking time to fly with an instructor on an yearly basis is a responsible way to show your passengers you care about their safety as well as your own.


These days, most instructor's are available for less cost per hour than the fuel used during the session so flying with one either in an airplane or simulator is probably one of only bargains in aviation. As a full time instructor who has been teaching pilot 

AOPA and Keep Em Flying

While I was at the Sun N Fun last week I was fortunate enough to be a guest at a dinner held by the AOPA foundation. After the meal they announced a new program that they were launching called Keep Em Flying. The idea behind keep me flying is to make a series of logged cross country flights and submit them on the website, post pictures on Facebook and twitter and generally use our airplanes to have some fun and talk it up. AOPA has prizes that they will provide to some lucky pilots who participate. What a great idea! I fly quite a bit and my 300 or so Facebook friends are probably tired of seeing the snaps I post from my iPhone online. But recently I have encountered a different type of pilot that I haven't encountered before. These pilots have never flown for any reason other than instructional sessions and practical tests. This program should be great for them. With the expense of flying many of us forget that one of the primary reasons we share this passion is because it is a whole lot of fun. I always joke that flying is the most fun a person can have while fully clothed. Anyway I would suggest that you check out the program on the AOPA website and then go out an do some flying. Aside from having some fun, maybe you could win some cash too.

Haven’t been Blogging recently.

Wow. I’ve ignored keeping up with the blogging over the past few weeks, as I’ve been crazy busy trying to tie up loose ends with where Motion Simulations is going as we start out third year.

We recently leased the balance of the office space in the building so there has been all of the associated work involved in fitting out the space with furniture and fixtures. We’ve picked up a few more product offerings that we’ll be announcing presently so there has been all of the conversations/negotiations related to that. And I’ve been recreating our website which needs refreshing after two years.

Anyway no excuse aside from this one; I also purchased an iMac to help me with the graphic processing that I needed to do for the website. I’m a PC guy from way back like circa Altos 580/DEC Rainbow/IBM PC-XT days.  The mac had me floored for a couple of days but I am getting used to it as time passes. I just loaded Microsoft Office 2011 on it and am now feeling comfortable enough to type on it, hence this post.

Speak to you all again real soon

Sean