Phase 2 Cumulative Review

Section 91.103 requires each pilot to know all available information before a flight. For a cross-country the information includes weather, fuel, alternatives, ATC delays, runway lengths, and distance data 1. NOTAMs and TFRs are available information. The sectional has a scale of 1:500,000, the name of a region, and a 56-day cycle. The Chart Supplement carries runways, lighting, frequencies, fuel, and hours. The pilot picks the frequencies for each leg on the ground.

The pilot draws the route by airspace first, then by terrain, airports, and glide. The pilot verifies the EFB's chart currency, charge, backup, and shade before flight. The raw product is the authority over the app's summary.

The MEF is the highest feature plus the chart's own error allowances, rounded up. The pilot adds the clearance margin above it. A higher altitude gives more glide distance. Section 91.159 applies above 3,000 feet AGL, by magnetic course. A course of 0 to 179 degrees takes an odd thousand plus 500 feet, and 180 to 359 an even thousand plus 500 2. The pilot weighs the wind advantage at each altitude against terrain clearance and the cost of the climb.

Time is distance over groundspeed. The pilot budgets the climb and the descent separately, and plans the descent backward from the destination. The pilot converts local time to UTC once, and the nav log stays in UTC.

Leg fuel is time multiplied by burn rate. The total includes taxi, climb, cruise, descent, and reserve, and must fit within usable fuel. Section 91.151 requires 30 minutes by day and 45 at night at normal cruising speed 3. The personal reserve is one hour. The pilot lands before the reserve hour begins. The Warrior holds 48 usable gallons of 50.

The VFR flight plan exists for search and rescue. No rule requires it. The pilot files it on Form 7233-4, opens it after departure, and closes it on the ground. A search starts 30 minutes after the ETA. An intercepted pilot:

• follows the wing rock
• calls 121.5
• squawks 7700
• tells ATC.

The pilot applies PAVE to each leg and treats the reason to arrive as a risk. Flight following is a service, and see-and-avoid stays with the pilot. The pilot sets a fuel decision point on the ground. Night planning uses a higher floor, lighted checkpoints, and routes within glide of lighted airports. The pilot of N7682U flew a Cessna 150 four hours on 3.75 hours of fuel. She diverted too late, tried to land on a taxiway at Franklin, and struck a berm 4.

Pilotage is navigation by landmarks and dead reckoning is navigation by computation. The pilot uses the two together. The training rule names charts, pilotage, dead reckoning, and a compass as the foundation.

The pilot measures true course at a meridian near the midpoint. The pilot reads variation from the isogonic line, subtracts east variation, and adds west variation. The mnemonic is east is least, west is best. The heading chain is TC, WCA, TH, variation, MH, deviation, CH.

The chart draws contours each 500 feet, and closely spaced contours show a steep slope. A checkpoint is unique, visible, and near the line. A line feature across the course is a timing gate, and one parallel to the course is a bracket. The pilot spaces checkpoints at regular intervals, with the first after top of climb.

TAS is CAS plus 2 percent per thousand feet. The manual's cruise chart gives TAS and burn for each power setting. The wind side of the computer solves WCA and groundspeed. Winds aloft and the written METAR give direction in degrees true. Voice broadcasts give it in degrees magnetic.

Actual groundspeed is distance over time. After a groundspeed slower than planned, the pilot recomputes fuel first. The pilot re-intercepts the course, then sets a new heading. A persistent disagreement between the planned heading and the heading that holds the track means the wind is not as forecast.

Radials are magnetic and extend from the station. The pilot identifies the station by Morse. The needle shows displacement from the OBS course, the flag shows TO or FROM, and each dot is about 2 degrees. Reverse sensing occurs when the selected course does not match the direction of flight. One radial gives a line of position, and two radials give a cross-fix. VOR reception is line of sight.

VOR accuracy checks are an IFR rule, and the VOT check is the VFR habit. DME reads slant range. The FAA removes selected VORs from service. GPS needs four satellites for a position, five to detect a fault, and six to exclude one. A RAIM loss means the pilot cross-checks the position by other means. The pilot checks RAIM availability before takeoff.

No rule requires a current GPS database for VFR, so the pilot cross-checks the database against the chart. A handheld GPS is a situational awareness aid. GPS jamming occurs. WAAS adds accuracy and integrity.

ATC provides flight following workload permitting. The controller calls traffic by clock position from the ground track. A radar service terminated call ends the service, and no handoff follows.

The transponder has Modes A, C, and S. The codes are 1200, 7500, 7600, and 7700. The pilot does not turn the knobs through those codes. Mode C sends pressure altitude. ADS-B Out transmits once a second, and TIS-B shows only transponder targets in coverage. The transponder runs in controlled airspace.

The pilot programs the navigator before reaching the runway and schedules head-down time. On signal loss the pilot states the loss aloud, holds the last heading, and rebuilds the position. The lost procedure is climb, communicate, confess, comply, conserve. The time since the last fix, multiplied by groundspeed, bounds the position. The pilot reads from the ground to the chart. A VOR cross-fix or the GPS resolves the position.

The pilot asks for help early. Low fuel, darkness, or lowering weather means the pilot asks at once. The pilot flies the airplane first. The instructor in N9515A used his phone as the chart. When the phone failed he could not find the airport, and landed a Cessna in a field 5.

Performance numbers come from the manual's charts. The pilot enters each chart with today's weight, wind, temperature, and altitude. The pilot interpolates and rounds each input the adverse way. A chart's number applies only under the conditions in its title block. Book performance is a test pilot's number, so North Aero adds 50 percent to takeoff and landing distance. The pilot chooses an abort point before takeoff.

Pressure altitude is the altimeter reading with 29.92 set. Density altitude is pressure altitude corrected for temperature. The airplane performs as if it were at the density altitude. The standard atmosphere at sea level is 15 degrees Celsius and 29.92 inches. Hot, high, or humid conditions each raise density altitude alone.

The three losses are lift, thrust, and power. Each degree Celsius above standard adds about 120 feet. Humidity is the smallest of the three. A headwind shortens the roll, a tailwind lengthens it more per knot, and only the components count. The demonstrated crosswind is a demonstrated value, not a limit.

The chart's number assumes the manual's technique, flap setting, surface, and slope. Ground effect can lift an airplane that cannot climb. Stall speed rises with the square root of load factor, 41 percent at 60 degrees. Va falls with weight and stall speed rises with it.

Weight times arm is moment, and total moment over total weight is CG. The datum is the manufacturer's line, 78.4 inches ahead of the Warrior's leading edge. Basic empty weight includes unusable fuel and full oil, and the airplane's own weighing record is the legal source. Useful load is 888 pounds in the school's Warrior. Avgas weighs 6 pounds a gallon and oil 7.5.

The envelope chart shows whether the loading is legal at takeoff and at landing. Weight moved times distance equals total weight times CG change. Overweight operation degrades each performance number at once and voids the charts. Baggage placards are structural limits.

A forward CG is stable and nose-heavy, raises the stall speed, and needs more flare force. An aft CG is less stable, faster in cruise, and worse in stall and spin recovery. Behind the aft limit, spin recovery can be impossible.

Limitations bind in the manual, the placards, and the markings. The Warrior's limit speeds, in calibrated mph, are:

• Vne 176
• Vno 140
• Va 124
• Vfe 115.

Va covers one full control input, one time, one axis. Limit loads are 3.8 and minus 1.52 in the normal category, and 4.4 and minus 1.76 in utility. Vy is altitude per minute and Vx is altitude per distance, 87 and 76 mph. Service ceiling is where the best rate is 100 feet per minute. Range and endurance are different power settings.

The performance check is per flight, and the pilot computes the runway decision before taxi. The airline transport pilot in N1651J computed the weight, skipped the takeoff chart, and left Panguitch at a density altitude the chart did not reach 6.

Section 91.103 requires weather reports and forecasts for any flight away from the airport. The two outlets are aviationweather.gov for products and Flight Service for briefings. A self-briefing from official sources is compliant, and a briefing on the account is the record. The raw product is the authority over the app's summary. Nothing in flight replaces the preflight briefing. Flight Watch and HIWAS no longer exist.

The standard briefing is the full briefing, taken as close to departure as possible. The abbreviated briefing updates an earlier one. The outlook briefing applies six hours or more before departure and is for planning only. The briefer needs the details of the flight:

• the type of flight
• the identification
• the departure point
• the route
• the destination
• the altitude
• the times.

NOTAMs and TFRs are part of the briefing. "VFR not recommended" is advisory, and the decision is the pilot's. The self-brief order is:

• synopsis
• hazards
• current weather
• forecasts
• winds
• decide and document.

A METAR is an hourly observation, and a SPECI means a condition changed. The wind group is in degrees true and knots, and visibility is in statute miles. A minus sign means light and a plus sign means heavy. The codes are RA, SN, BR, FG, HZ, and TS. Sky cover is FEW, SCT, BKN, OVC in eighths, with heights in hundreds of feet AGL. The ceiling is the lowest broken or overcast layer, or the VV.

A closing spread of 3 degrees or less is the fog warning. AO2 means an automated station with a precipitation discriminator. The briefing covers stations along the whole route.

A TAF covers 5 statute miles around the airport, issues four times a day, and runs 24 or 30 hours. The TAF codes are:

• FM, a rapid change to a new prevailing condition
• TEMPO, a fluctuation of under an hour at a time
• PROB30, a 30 percent chance
• TAF AMD, which cancels the old TAF at once.

CB is the only cloud a TAF names. The flight categories are LIFR, IFR, MVFR, and VFR. MVFR is a decision zone. The no-go triggers are icing, turbulence aloft, and convection. Personal minimums are written numbers above the legal ones, and the comparison is mechanical.

The pilot sets the divert point, a place plus a condition, before launch. Weather worse than briefed and trending down is the diversion circumstance. Two-thirds of reduced-visibility accidents are fatal 7. The go/no-go order is brief, compare, decide, document. The pilot of N21480, tired on the second day toward Sun 'n Fun, flew a Warrior under the clouds until he was in them 8.

The chart draws Class B as solid blue rings, with the ceiling over the floor in hundreds of feet MSL. Class C is solid magenta, a 5-mile core and a 10-mile shelf from 1,200 to 4,000 feet above the field. Class D is dashed blue with a boxed ceiling, usually 2,500 feet above the field.

Class E to the surface is dashed magenta, and the vignette floor is 700 feet inside and 1,200 outside. Class G is below the Class E floor. Class A starts at 18,000 feet everywhere and is IFR only. The chart does not draw it. A blue airport has a tower and a magenta airport has none.

Class G and E en route have no communication requirement. Class D needs two-way communications established before entry. The controller establishes communications by saying your callsign. Class C adds a Mode C transponder and ADS-B Out. Class B needs the words cleared into the Class Bravo, and nothing less. The pilot holds a private pilot certificate or a student endorsement under 61.95 naming that Class B 9.

Twelve airports bar student solos entirely. The transponder and ADS-B Out airspace is:

• Class A, B, and C
• at and above 10,000 feet MSL, except within 2,500 feet of the surface
• the 30-mile veil
• above a B or C ceiling.

The speed cap is 250 knots below 10,000 feet. It is 200 knots near a C or D primary airport, under a B shelf, or in a corridor.

The minimums in C, D, and E below 10,000 feet are 3 miles and 500, 1,000, 2,000, the school's three, one-five-two. Class B is 3 miles and clear of clouds. Class G by day at or below 1,200 feet AGL is 1 mile and clear of clouds. At and above 10,000 feet MSL the numbers are 5 miles and 1,000, 1,000, and 1 mile.

Under a ceiling below 1,000 feet there is no VFR inside the surface area. Takeoff, landing, or pattern entry under VFR in a surface area needs 3 miles ground visibility 10. The preflight test is 1,000 and 3 against the destination METAR and TAF.

Special use airspace prints hatched, and the chart-edge panel gives the altitudes, times, and agency. TFRs are in the NOTAMs. Shelf numbers are MSL. After a possible deviation the pilot flies, complies, and files the NASA report within 10 days. The pilot of N4252G flew a Cirrus into Houston Hobby among 737s, never said unable, and stalled on the third go-around 11.

Cones serve center vision, color, and detail, and they need light. Rods serve peripheral and dim-light vision, detect motion, and see no color. The night blind spot is the center of the eye, so the pilot looks 5 to 10 degrees off center.

Dark adaptation takes 30 minutes, and a few seconds of bright light removes it. Red light preserves night vision and hides red and magenta print. Hypoxia degrades night vision first. Carbon monoxide, smoking, fatigue, and low blood sugar degrade it too.

The beacon colors are:

• white and green, a civil land airport
• two quick white flashes between the green, a military airport
• white and yellow, a water airport
• green, yellow, and white, a heliport.

Runway edges are white, the threshold green, the far end red. Taxiway edges are blue and the centerline green. VASI is red over white on path, and PAPI is two white and two red. The pilot keys 7, 5, or 3, and the lights turn off after 15 minutes. Obstructions show red lights at night and white strobes by day, and the guy wires carry no lights.

Position lights are red on the left, green on the right, and white on the tail, lighted from sunset to sunrise 12. Anticollision lights stay on at all times unless the pilot in command decides that safety requires them off. Night equipment is the day list plus:

• position lights
• anticollision lights
• a landing light, for hire
• an electrical source
• spare fuses.

The three definitions of night are:

• civil twilight, for logging night time
• sunset to sunrise, for the position lights
• one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise, for carrying persons 13.

Carrying persons at night needs three full-stop landings in 90 days, and night landings count for day.

The pilot carries two flashlights and organizes the cockpit before dark. Night pilotage uses lighted features only. Distances are hard to judge at night, and the instruments corroborate the view. The pilot finds the beacon first. Ground lights that disappear along a line are the first warning of night IMC or terrain. At night the pilot cannot see the weather, and the night personal minimums are higher.

The pilot taxis slowly with the diagram out, keeps the taxi light on when moving, and turns the strobes on when entering the runway. Another airplane's lights show its direction:

• red and green together, with red on the right, is head-on
• red alone crosses from right to left
• green alone crosses from left to right
• white alone moves away.

The night illusions are:

• autokinesis
• the false horizon
• the black hole
• the bright runway
• the road that looks like a runway.

Night currency is the legal minimum, and night proficiency is the personal-minimums question. An inoperative position light grounds the flight. The night forced landing turns toward an airport or away from congested areas, with the landing light on in time to light the terrain. The pilot of N6312G had no night landing in three years. He extended his downwind over a dark lake in smoke and spiraled into the lake 14.

The order in any abnormal situation is aviate, navigate, communicate. Situational awareness is an accurate understanding of what happens now and what happens next. Distraction and fixation are its two main threats.

Variation is the angle between true and magnetic north. Deviation is the compass error from the airplane's own magnetic fields. The card below the compass corrects it.

On east and west headings the compass swings north on acceleration and south on deceleration, ANDS. Turning from north the compass lags, and turning from south it leads, so the pilot undershoots north and overshoots south. The lead and lag are about 15 degrees plus half the latitude. The compass is reliable only in straight, level, unaccelerated flight.

The six accidents

The six Anchor Accidents of Phase 2 are:

• N7682U, a Cessna 150 flown four hours on 3.75 hours of fuel, and an attempted taxiway landing at Franklin 4
• N9515A, an instructor navigating by phone who could not find the airport when the phone failed 5
• N1651J, a Cherokee 140 at Panguitch, 20 pounds under gross, with the takeoff chart never opened 6
• N21480, a tired pilot under the clouds on the second day toward Sun 'n Fun 8
• N4252G, a Cirrus at Houston Hobby whose pilot never said unable 11
• N6312G, a Cessna 150 over a dark lake in smoke, with a pilot who had no night landing in three years 14.

In each of the six accidents, the decisive decision came before the emergency. In each, the Points of the Module, applied at that moment, would have ended the flight safely. The Phase 2 gate before Lesson 17 asks the Points of all six Modules and the seven Points from Modules 1-1 and 1-7. It weights the Points marked load-bearing in each Module's touch schedule. It asks them as the Modules did, with multiple choice in the Leg checks and written answers and scenarios in the final quiz.