Situational Awareness Is Key Inside, Outside the Cockpit

"Cannot accommodate you at this time. Steer clear of the (insert name of airport) Class Delta airspace." was the reply.

He looked at me. "Can they do that?" he asked, wondering if he had done something wrong as he turned away from the Delta. "Why won't they let me in?"

"Listen to the tower frequency," I said. "Note how busy they are."

As we flew away from the airport, we continued to listen. The airport had three Part 141 flight schools and accommodated lots of business jets. The pattern was full, I explained.

The learner asked what happened at nontowered airports when the pattern got too full—in particular, who made that call? "It's really up to the pilots flying," I replied.

Have you ever been at a nontowered airport where the pattern became so packed that you opted to either land or divert to another airport? That's a skill all pilots should develop. And as summer usually brings the best weather, resulting in the more aircraft in the sky, be ready for it.

Scanning for traffic, especially in the vicinity of the airport, is one of the first skills a fledgling aviator learns. You can probably picture the illustration in the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge that demonstrates how to scan for traffic by dividing the sky into 10-degree segments. When two pilots are on board, such as is the case during an instructional flight, both should be scanning for traffic.

The "90-seconds-outside, 10-seconds-inside" rule needs to accommodate the use of ADS-B if the aircraft is so equipped. It is easy to be distracted by the diamonds indicating traffic targets on the display. The ADS-B installation requirement a few years back was supposed to make our crowded airspace safer, and I would like to think it has. Some pilots, however, are more likely to have their eyes on the screen rather than out the window during a flight. For optimum safety there needs to be a balance between the two.

With the exception of "more right rudder,” admonishing the pilot taking instruction to clear the area before turning tops the instructor list of Most Often Used Phrases in the Cockpit. At best, failure to do clearing turns will result in check ride failure. At worst, a midair collision. 

During a stage check, a learner informed me that he relied on ADS-B to clear the area because looking out the window and flight following made him nervous. He spent so much time with his head down that a few times he came close to flying into controlled airspace without a proper clearance. 

To get him to look outside more, his CFI adjusted the range on the screen so that he was forced to look out the window to find landmarks and practice pilotage. These flights are sort of the aviation version of a scavenger hunt. The CFI finds a landmark on the VFR sectional and instructs the learner to take them there, keeping in mind appropriate altitudes and airspace entry requirements if applicable. "Tell me when you're over it," the CFI says, then sits back and lets the learner fly.

Pretty much every place you fly will have that one landmark that is elusive, such as the airport that is easily disguised by ground clutter. In my part of the world, there is an airport that is located near a prison and a fairgrounds, but my clients swear it has a cloaking device because it can be difficult to see from the air.

One of my learners was determined to find it—he used dead reckoning and a radial off a VOR for orientation. "I should be right over it," he said. He entered into a standard rate turn to the left while he scanned the area. He was correct—he was directly over it. He noted the value of placing the landmark on the left side of the cockpit to make it easier to see in the future.

ADS-B can add anxiety to the cockpit learning environment. I think of ADS-B more like the warning on a car GPS app that there is a speed check ahead. It gives you another tool to manage the situation, especially in VFR conditions, which, according to the FAA, is when most midair collisions happen. It has given us a list of places where midairs are most likely to happen. The short version is "any place where aircraft congregate," such as  airports, the flight school practice areas, over VFR checkpoints (look for the magenta flags on the VFR sectional), and VORs.

Flight schools located at or near airports with instrument approaches often educate their renter and learner pilots about the IFR fixes and may encourage the use of flight following. You do not necessarily have to be using flight following to benefit from it. By passive listening the pilot who is flying in the vicinity of an IFR fix will hear when an IFR aircraft has been cleared to their location—know they are going to have company in a moment.

Recently, the midair collision between a Cessna 340A and a Cessna 152 that took place at Watsonville Municipal Airport (KWVI) in August 2022 was a topic of discussion at my home airport. How could that happen on a VFR day? They were both on the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF), so they heard each other, yet still collided. Didn't they have ADS-B?

It is a sobering lesson that even if the pilots are in communication and the aircraft do have ADS-B, the warning of traffic doesn't help when the pilot loses situational awareness.

Three people and a dog were killed when the aircraft collided on final. It happened in the afternoon on a VFR day. The pilot of the 152 was in the pattern, and the 340A, a multi-engine aircraft about twice the size and speed of the smaller airplane, was attempting to perform a straight-in landing.

According to the recorded radio transmissions, the pilot of the 152 had turned final when he noticed how quickly the larger aircraft was coming up behind him. He announced a go-around. Witnesses on the ground reported the pilot of the twin veered to the right at the last second, but it wasn't enough and the aircraft collided.

At this time, the National Transportation Safety Board has not released the final report on its investigation, but the preliminary report notes the speed of the larger aircraft indicates that it probably wasn't configured for the approach, as it was going too fast for gear and flap deployment. In short, it appears the pilot was behind the airplane. Getting behind the airplane is a distraction that leads to poor situational awareness. If you are in the pattern and getting behind the airplane, and you have the fuel and weather to safely depart the pattern and reenter when you're ahead of the aircraft, you may select that option. The life you save may be your own.