3 Tips to Improve...WITHOUT Flying!

Today on the Free Pilot Training Channel, I'm going to show you three ways to get better at flying the airplane without actually flying the airplane. These are military techniques that military pilots use to get better with minimal flight hours. In order to use these tips, there's one thing you need to keep in mind. There are two parts to every maneuver when it comes to flying. Procedures and parameters. Parameters are things like airspeed, altitude, heading, bank angle, vertical velocity, and much more. In order to get better at controlling these parameters, you have to practice in the airplane. But you can practice your procedures on the ground anytime you want to. These include all kinds of different things like checklist flows, setting up the maneuvers, recovery procedures, emergency checklist steps, and much more. And by practicing these procedures on the ground, you're really going to be able to free up those brain bites. That way you can focus on your parameters while you're actually flying the airplane. Now I'm going to show you three of those tools you have available to you. That way you can practice those procedures on the ground. The first tool is what I like to refer to as the See and Say. For this method, you'll want to find yourself a cockpit poster of the training aircraft you're using. This particular cockpit poster comes from Sporty's and you can get it for free off their website. I'll try to put a link in the description below for you. Anyways, you'll want to find a cockpit poster that mimics your training aircraft as closely as possible. This particular poster is a little bit different than the airplane I usually fly. It'll work for today's example, but if you really want to save money on flight training, you want to get a poster that matches your airplane. Now what you want to do is you want to hang it up on a wall somewhere so you can put a chair in front of it. So there's a few things you can work on with this setup. First is cockpit familiarization. And that just means you know where all the switches and buttons are. And this is going to allow you to focus on flying the airplane instead of fumbling around trying to find those. To get better at this, have a friend call out the different switches and buttons and see how quickly you can get your hands on them. One really important thing you can work on with this method is checklist flows. You can pull out your checklist and go ahead and start going through the different checklists that you struggle with in flight. By the way, if you don't already have one, I recommend buying yourself one of these checkmate checklists for your aircraft. These are really nice because they have all the checklist steps on one page up above here. And one particular checklist that you really want to work on with this method is the pre-landing checklist. As you're probably already well aware, there's a lot of stuff going on right before landing. So this is really going to help you focus on that instead of fumbling for your checklist. Another thing that makes these checklists awesome is that they have these v-speeds right here in this little yellow area. Then they have some other speeds and flap configurations and stuff that you need to know down below. Then on the back, they have emergency procedures too. So you could practice those with this method if you want. I'll try to put a link in the description for these. They're like 15 bucks and if it saves you 30 minutes of flight time, it's worth it. Now break out that checklist in that cockpit poster and get to work. If you're able to do this with every checklist once or twice a day, you're going to start noticing a huge difference right away. The next method is my personal favorite. I call it the brain freeze and it's extremely effective to the extent that I have all my students use this method. In the past, I've heard instructors tell students that you don't have to memorize anything in order to learn how to fly. If you have an instructor tell you this, they're being dishonest and you need to find another instructor as soon as possible. Now while you don't have to memorize your checklist, you should be memorizing your procedures that you're going to be using during the different maneuvers. Because let's be honest, when you have a handful of airplane and you can't remember which step is next, you're not going to be able to do those maneuvers correctly. So here's a few things I recommend memorizing. Setting up for the maneuvers, maneuver procedures, maneuver recovery procedures, radio calls, emergency procedures, go-around procedures, and there's some more you can memorize too, but these are a good start. So let me show you how I go about memorizing these by using the go-around procedures in my specific airplane, specifically with flaps. So the first thing I do is I start by writing out what I call the boldface items. These are steps that must be performed and in the correct order in order to accomplish the maneuver correctly. For example, max power, cowling on the horizon, carb heat off and raise the first notch of flaps, positive rate of climb, raise the second notch of flaps, positive rate of climb and VY, flaps up. Now that we've written out the boldface items, we can start to memorize these, but you can also come back through and write yourself notes like I am here. And these aren't necessarily steps that you have to have memorized, but these are important things that you might want to remember. For example, you might want to put a note that helps you to remember to use more right rudder. Now if you take a look at all these steps, you'll notice something. I'm memorizing some things that aren't necessarily checklist steps, and that's because a lot of general aviation checklists are notoriously vague. This one just says to retract the flaps slowly. What exactly does that mean? Talk with your instructor and see what method he or she has used to get the best performance out of the airplane you're using. Then write these steps down and memorize them. These are going to help you develop muscle memory, which you'll use a lot in the airplane, because the truth is there's no time for reading checklists on a maneuver like a go around. Take a look at this brain freeze aid that I give to my students for power off stalls. I break this maneuver up into two segments, the setup and the recovery. Now notice I bolded the items that I believe need to be memorized, but notice I also put notes just like I did in the previous example. I don't think these are necessarily important to perform the maneuver correctly, but they are important for students to know. Here's my brain freeze aid for power on stalls. Now you might be able to read off of a cheat sheet for the setup, but for the recovery, you will have to memorize these procedures. And that's why I'm saying if an instructor is telling you that you don't have to memorize anything, they're lying to you. So instead of memorizing it in the airplane, do it on the ground. This is going to save you a ton of money. Now here's an example of my brain freeze aid for emergency approaches and landing. To make it easy, I break it up into three parts. First, the initial actions. These include the ABCs and the initial checklist items. Then we have the steps for declaring the emergency. Now notice there's not a ton of stuff that you need to memorize, but there are things that you should be aware of. Then we have the emergency landing procedures. Once again, you'll want to memorize these. And I don't know about you, but I want to be focused on making a smooth landing and not be trying to figure out what I need to be doing. You can also use this method for checklist flows. Here's an example of my before landing checklist flow. Notice I have my checklist broken up based on where I am in the pattern. And that's because you want to do all your checklist steps at the exact same place in the exact same time on all your patterns. And this is really going to contribute to a stabilized approach, which ultimately means better landings. And that's because you're going to be able to predict what the airplane's going to do if you do the same exact thing every time. Now there are a couple exceptions to this rule. One example is when you're making reduced flap landings. Another one is when you're high on glide slope. But as you gain experience, these won't be an issue. The real problem is going to be in the beginning. The third method I have for you that's going to help you improve without flying is called the Picasso Pilot. There's a few different ways you can use this method, but I found it particularly effective when I need to work on pattern work. For this method, you'll want to pull out a pencil and a piece of paper. Then I like to draw the environment that I'm flying in. For example, when I'm working on pattern work, I'll draw out a runway, then start drawing the pattern. Then I'll go through everything in my mind that I need to do while I'm doing that. All right, I just took off from runway 35. Now I'm climbing out on upwind at max power. Pitching for VX, and I'm making sure to use right rudder. Once I'm clear of the obstacle, pitch for VY, flaps up, landing light off, after takeoff checklist is complete. Now I'll imagine a little bit of a crosswind here. Which way do I need to crab? Oh yeah, I need to crab into the wind. And this is going to help me get a nice rectangular pattern. Okay, now let me see. When do I need to turn crosswind? Oh yeah, 300 feet prior to pattern altitude. And I also need to be looking for traffic and make a radio call if I think there's going to be a conflict. All right, so I'm continuing to crab into the wind. Now, when do I need to make this turn? Well, the wind is pushing me into the runway, so I need to turn just a little bit late. All right, I've made my turn onto left downwind. Now what? Well, I need to continue to crab into the wind, make my radio call, start the before landing checklist, and I always seem to struggle with altitude here, so I'm going to really pay attention to that this time. Okay, I'm going to beam the numbers. Now there's a few more things I need to do here. Okay, so I need to reduce the power. Then I need to pitch for 70 knots. I also need to lower the first notch of flaps and turn the carb heat on. Okay, so I'm turning base at 45 degrees off the wing. So now I'm going to be continuing to pitch for 70 knots, then lower the second notch of flaps. I also have a radio call I need to make right now. All right, now let's say I'm turning final. Now what? Well, I need to pitch for my landing speed. That's going to be 60 knots. Then I need to lower the rest of the flaps. I also need to be making a radio call right now. Probably the biggest advantage to this method is that it really helps with pacing, and that just means that it gives you a feel for when things need to be accomplished in the airplane. Thanks for watching this video from the free pilot training channel. If you enjoyed this or you got some kind of value out of it, would you consider hitting the like button and subscribing? Once you do that, check this video out right here. It's going to make you a better pilot, or maybe even this playlist. See ya!