CFI-A Lesson 15 (Part I)

I planned on doing both a brief and a flight today. I went to the flight school early and drew a picture of a constant speed propeller and the associated gauges and controls on the whiteboard. Based on feedback from my last brief, I discussed the how, what, and why of the constant speed propeller, then went on to describe how the flight maneuvers would need to change as a result of flying an airplane with a constant speed propeller. The brief went well and lasted about 20 minutes.

The next subject was a non-formal discussion covering various unusual circumstances; for example: rough running engine, overheating, loss of oil pressure, induction icing, fuel starvation, and engine fire. Again, I approached this with the how, what, and why focus. How would you detect low oil pressure? What would you do to remedy the situation? Why would you do that?

It was finally time to go fly the Arrow. I haven't flown an Arrow since November, so I was looking forward to the change. As I was about to walk out the door to the tarmac, my instructor made a comment about the weather. I looked and said it didn't matter; I wanted to fly regardless, even if the lesson was incomplete. Then he said, "OK, it your Hobbs time." Translation: It's your money. Well, when you say it that way, it changes everything. What only moments ago looked like just a few low clouds here and there now looked like a solid overcast at 2,000 feet, with heavy rain certainly on the way, and getting worse by the minute!

I walked to the plane and started running through my pre-flight checklists. Every time I looked up, the sky looked worse. Another pilot was also looking at the sky. I checked the latest weather from the tower (ATIS), and it didn't sound bad, but it was getting old. I finally made a decision and cancelled the flight portion of lesson 15. When I entered the cancellation in the log, I noticed that two others had cancelled as well.

I'm on the schedule at 8:00am tomorrow.