IFR training - getting the polish on

This weekend I flew two IFR sorties. On Friday I flew to Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, then to PAE for a unconventional circling approach and back to Renton. On Saturday I flew to Port Angeles and back. Both times I was flying the Cessna 172S's. I flew 97PD with the altitude hold 2-axis autopilot on Friday and 435SP with the 1-axis (heading hold only) autopilot on Saturday.

I have decided to use these aircraft for my instrument check ride. Even though they differ in the capabilities of their autopilots, the rest of the instrument panel and other controls are identical. Having that kind of consistency is important, so that lessons I learned one day transfer over to the next day.

We decided to go to Friday Harbor, the main airport in the San Juan Islands in the Puget Sound. Friday Harbor is a popular destination for a lot of VFR flyers, being a great scenic spot within reach of the mainland. On a good VFR day the traffic congestion there has to be seen to be believed.

We did the RNAV (GPS) RWY 34 approach at Friday Harbor. I was doing ok with holding my height and track, but was missing the checks and the GPS manipulation cues. I had to be prompted by Howard to do the checks. Also I had some missteps in using the autopilot. I had to remember that it went into both roll (wings level) and vertical speed mode as soon as I put it on. So if I wanted it to hold wings level and an altitude I had to have it trimmed with zero vertical speed, or failing that immediately hit the ALT button to get it out of VS mode. Otherwise the autopilot keeps the airplane climbing/descending at whatever rate it had when the autopilot was first switched on.

Then Howard had me fly to Paine and do the VOR RWY 16R approach, with a circle to land. The circle to land is a little different because the VOR is between the two runways. At PAE there are two main runways - 16R/34L and 16L/34R. As can be seen from this airport diagram there is a significant difference between the two runways - 16R/34L is 11000 ft long and 16L/34R is 3000 ft long.

I tracked to the runway ok - and on reaching minimums (which for circling is 1100 ft) 1 mile out Howard let me go visual. The tower could give us any runway to land on at that point. The aircraft is only 500 ft above the ground at that point and one needs to be level flight. The tower gave us 34R and we had to set up really quickly and land.

In the other aircraft I have been flying (the retracts), BEFA and I have a policy of never doing touch-and-gos. I usually do "stop-and-gos" so that I have time to set the prop, flaps, cowl flaps, fuel, trim, carb heat and throttle (in a "U" flow in the 182RG) to go. With the 172S there are only the flaps and throttle to set to do a quick touch and go. I was reverting to old habits and trying to stop rather than do a touch and go. I was quickly cured of this by Howard emphasising that the runaway was short!

On Saturday I went to Port Angeles (KCLM). Before we left I had Howard walk me through the phases of an approach and what I had to get done where. The approach was broken down into the pre-initial approach fix, post-initial approach fix and then final approach fix. The pre-initial approach fix essentially got us ready for the approach with the avionics set, the comm radios set. On the post-initial approach fix the aircraft got its approach clearance and slowed down to its approach speed with the landing checklist done and on the final approach fix the emphasis was on getting the missed approach prepared for. Each segment had a descent and the height to descend needed to be accounted for.

We flew the RNAV (GPS) 8 approach into Port Angeles. The air was pretty turbulent with significant wind. I was able to maintain height and track pretty consistently. I learned the one needed to be trimmed to a certain pressure to keep the aircraft at an altitude, and in turbulence once the "center point" was found small pressures on the yoke kept the aircraft at the altitude. One could not expect to trim the aircraft at the altitude due to the updrafts and downdrafts, while at the same time the trim needed to be somewhere near what it should be so that an excessive force didn't need to be held.

Howard was happy with my performance and said that we needed to find time for my long cross country. For the first time he indicated that I might be able to take the checkride in June!

More Eagle landings

I hadn't flown the Eagle for a couple of weeks now. And the Eagle isn't the kind of aircraft you fly once in a while. Both from the fun aspect and the challenge aspect of flying it!

As I had recounted in my previous report - I had been behind the aircraft the last time. I was determined to focus on flying and relaxing this time. So I left work a little earlier than normal for the flight, so that I would arrive with a ten minutes or so to clear my mind of all the everyday detritus and to visualize how I was going to fly.

As I drove up on I-40 , I saw Rochelle flying the Eagle for an entry into the pattern for 33 landing. I could only see her for part of the downwind - but the Eagle looked great. For some reason it looked bigger than the Cessnas in the pattern. I think the paint scheme does something to make it stand out. I took this as a good omen!

Dave and Rochelle were in the hangar by the time I arrived. I told Dave I was not going to fly for 10 minutes but I would call the fuel truck. I walked down to the edge of the row of hangars and back, clearing my mind and focusing on the flight. By the time I walked back I was ready to go.

Just seeing the Eagle and its' cockpit gets me excited about flying it. I used the checklist the I had copied as a backup to my checks - making sure I didn't miss the g-meter and altimeter setting this time.

In the meantime Adam Tibbits had arrived. Adam is the newbie in the group, taking the baton from me. This fills up the last slot left in our group. Adam now works for Bombardier, but he used to be a Cirrus demo pilot and CFI before. He has way more hours than I do, including some in a Skybolt he used to be a partner in.

I managed to not miss any items in the checklist this time. I did have some trouble with the ratchet mechanism but was able to fix it without having Dave lean over or get back out of the seat. Since Rochelle had flown the aircraft right before, we used a hot start procedure. In this the mixture is left at idle cut-off, and as the engine is started, the throttle is pumped. As soon as it catches, the mixture is pushed in to full rich. I managed to do this ok.

We had a long taxi to runaway 33 at Renton, this gave me a chance to get the feel of the aircraft again. On takeoff I was able to keep it heading in the correct direction without the swing and was able to liftoff nicely. We took it out of the pattern to do some manuevers.

Dave showed me a real neat way of moving the Eagles nose in an continuous S-turn while flying, which gave us greater visibility and ability to see other aircraft around us. This turn is a slow sweeping of the nose from straight ahead to 30-40 degrees either side. This allowed one to move to an area that had been already cleared and clear an area to the other side to where the nose is moving.

We came back into the pattern pretty quickly and I handled the radios this time. I was flying much more positively and this showed in my flying. I entered the 45 for 33 at the white water tower at the correct height, and flew the pattern at a consistent speed. The landing was pretty good. I am also now in the habit of pulling the stick all the way back to keep the Eagle firmly planted. My rudder inputs are getting much finer than before and I was able to keep the Eagle pretty much on the centerline.

We did 4 more landings - and they were all decent except for one which I'll talk about below. I was aggressively keeping height but having some difficulty find the right amount of throttle and attitude to fly the downwind in. This effected the speed flown and the altitude a little bit.

On the second to last landing I landed a little fast and pulled back on the stick too rapidly. The aircraft went in a very nose high attitude and gained air beneath its wings. Dave was suprised by my action and took some time to react. But I had done the right thing by then, I gave it full throttle and took off again. Adam, who was watching, later said that it was beautiful to watch - it seemed to him the aircraft just briefly touched the ground lightly, rebounded and took off again.

I was able to overtake a Cessna that was out in front because of this go-around. There were a lot of spam cans around, and I had to slow down and weave to keep them in sight.

On the next and last landing I promised Dave I would do a good one. This one was good, I landed nicely had the stick back and slowed down to a full stop without Dave having to get on the controls at all.

Its always a blast flying the Eagle.

Flying the Beechcraft Bonanza

This weekend I flew in the Beechcraft Bonanza twice. On Friday I did a local area familiarization flight from Renton and on Saturday we went to the Tri-Cities area in Eastern Washington (to Pasco airport). It was Mother's Day weekend, and Amy's mother lives in Kennewick which is one of the Tri-Cities. Pasco airport is the largest airport near where she lives. There is an airport that is closer to her home but it was shorter, and for my first flights in a Bonanza I wanted a long runaway.

I had been preparing to fly the Bo by reading John Eckalbar's book "Flying the Beech Bonanza". I had also been given a manual for the V-35, V-35A and V-35B versions of the Bonanza and a checklist that Kent had prepared.

My first flight (as PIC, I have flown in the right seat of Bonanzas twice before - once about 3 years ago and then when I was considering the partnership) involved the usual pre-flight things. There isn't that much unusual about the pre-flight -except that the cowlings completely open using a screwdriver to turn the quarter turn locking screws. There is a lot more visible this way than in the Cessna's and Pipers I am used to. Another useful thing that Kent advised me of to lower the flaps after switching the battery master on. The Bonanza has two different switches, one is the battery master and the other is the alternator master. They are proper flip switches and not piano keys like in the Cessnas (some Cessnas have split piano keys that serve the same function as the two different switches in the Bonanza).

The start process was the same as most fuel injected engine. The throttle is fully open, mixture is rich and the auxiliary fuel pump switch is flipped on till fuel pressure peaks. Then its master and mags on and the engine is started.

This is when I encountered the vernier throttles. The Bonanzas power controls (throttle, prop & mixture) are operated by rotating them in a vernier action. There is a button on each control that can be depressed for quick action in the conventional way but that is used only a few times in a typical sortie. I used this button when I first started the engine and over-revved the engine. I had to hurriedly pull back on it to make sure we didn't head for the hangars!

The impression from the pilot's seat is one of solidness. The seating position felt very comfortable, and I didn't have to fidget with up/down rotating handles or seatback rotating handles like I have to in the Cessnas. The seat slides back and forth but otherwise the default position fit me like a glove. The rudder pedals feel solid and comfortable as well.

Taxiing was easy and the visibility on the ground was much better than I am used to than even the low wing Piper Arrow. There is lots of window area and the visibility is great. There is nosewheel steering available much like the Cessnas. This was missing in the T-34B that I flew in the Navy Flying Club in Atlanta and taxiing using differential braking was required for the T-34B. The T-34 is based on the Bonanza wing and gear but the lack of nosewheel steering is an interesting difference between the T-34B and the Bonanza.

The runup has all the usual items and I just had to get used to using the vernier on the throttle and mixture. The instrument panel is laid out more logically than the Cessnas in my opinion. One issue is that the circuit breakers and light switches were on the bottom of the panel and the big two pilot yoke hid them. Till I get used to it and know where the switches are, I will have to duck around and look for those breakers and switches.

Takeoff was normal, acceleration pretty brisk with the 285 hp IO-520. One thing I noticed was the tendency of the right wing to lift. I am not sure whether that is a result of the rudder-aileron interconnect and my corrections on line up with the rudder or it was just a cross wind that sprang up.

The Bonanza pilot's handbook calls for liftoff at 71 kts and has a speed which I had not seen in any other handbook. It is a "speed at 50 ft" which is 77kts and is equal to the Vx (best angle of climb) speed. Vy is 96 kts and cruise climb is 107 kts. Kent tends to use mph and I prefer to use knots. The airspeed indicator indicates knots on the inside scale and mph on the outside and the handbook lists speeds in both so it works for both of us.

The climbout looked to be shallow from the cockpit, but even at cruise climb we were climbing at 700 ft/min. The climb is made at 25 in of MP and 2500 rpm. Cruise is at 23 inches and 2300 rpm. The mixture is leaned till we see 15 gph of fuel flow, which reaches the EGT figure for cruise. This is how the partnership runs it engine and since the engine is running strong way past TBO, I am not going to mess with it!

We went out the practice area close to Lake Sammamish. The view out is fantastic. Even though there is less glass area than the Eagle, there isn't the upper wing to block the view. You don't realize what you are missing in a Cessna! Even the view downwards for the pilots (sitting ahead of the wing) is fabulous.

The aircraft handling is superb with light ailerons and elevator (though trim is definitely needed). There is very little rudder pressure needed, though one needs to hold some rudder in climb. I like the ball presentation on the turn and bank indicator. Overall the instruments come nicely to hand.

We tried standard rate turns to the left and right, steep turns for 360 degrees to the left and right. These presented no problems and the lightness of the control forces and the view made them easier to do than in a Cessna in my opinion. We then transitioned to slow flight.

In slow flight the aircraft got skittish at about 65 kts without flaps. Putting any flaps down at all increased the feeling of solidity and the stall occured at about 50 kts indicated. We didn't go into the break but into the stall warning. I don't remember any buffeting or any looseness in the controls with the flaps down, but that may be just me. We did turns in slow flight and the aircraft responded solidly without any signs of sloppy handling.

Once we were done, we set course back to Renton for a few landings. I still have to get used to the speed of the Bonanza which is about 10-15 kts faster than the 182RG. It was showing a 145 kt cruise at 23 square, which with the wind was giving us a 155 kt groundspeed.

I kept my usual 2000 ft on approach, but was having a hard time slowing down. We then dropped the gear and it slowed right down! But I will have to manage the energy much further out than in the draggy Cessnas and the square winged Piper Arrow.

The landings in the Bonanza are much easier than in the Eagle! It basically flys into ground effect and cushions out any flare errors. We did a couple of more landings. I got a little slow on the second one but instead of thumping in like the 182 it landed just fine. I have to still figure out the standard speeds to fly on downwind and when to let down the gear etc, but landings didn't present any problems.

The weekend was Mother's Day weekend and in the interest of flying off my insurance hours and making Amy happy - we decided to fly on Saturday from Renton to Pasco. Amy got a large fresh bouquet of flowers from the Redmond Farmer's market. Kent very kindly consented to fly with us. Our plan was to start from Renton at 1-2pm fly to Pasco (about 150 NM) in a total time of an hour and half, have late lunch/early dinner and then fly back.

The weather was a concern initially. Kent is rated IFR but there was icing forecast and the MEA is 9500 ft to cross the Cascades. The ceilings were 4500 or so. We planned to fly VFR across the Cascades and once over there was no concern as the eastern part of the state was severe clear. We took the safe VFR route over Stampede Pass rather than follow I-90 across Snoqualmie Pass. The valley leading to Stampede Pass is wide, allowing for a quick turnaround at any point. Also there are landing options along the valley. Snoqualmie on the other hand is pretty narrow and there aren't as many landing possibilities. Stampede Pass also has an automated weather station which allows us to get weather AT the pass.

We flew through the pass fine with plenty of visibility and ceilings and turned towards Ellensburg. I had to navigate to waypoint FEBUS which is on V-187 and avoids the Yakima firing range restricted area. The range was hot on the day. Then it was a turn south direct to Pasco. I did have some turbulence and had some Bonanza waggle which was easily damped out by putting pressure on the rudder pedals.

On the approach to Pasco, which was straight in, I again had to have a giant descent rate because I didn't descend and slow down early enough. This airplane is slippery!

But the landing went really well. We went on to Bergstorm Aircraft which is the FBO and flight school at Pasco (which is officially "Tri-cities" airport). Bergstorm rents out a Bonanza S35. We didn't need any fuel since we had only flown an hour and a half.

After a nice dinner we headed back to Renton. The reports were not encouraging, though Stampede Pass was showing a 1500 ft ceiling. The takeoff from Pasco was very nice, the scenery there is very different from the Puget Sound area with a lot more open space and not that many trees.

On the way back I practised using the wing leveler. It is a handy autopilot and will be very useful for holding wings level especially when looking at charts during IFR flight. It also does turns upto standard rate and I practised flying 5931S using just the wing leveler and pressure on the yoke bar (rather than the yoke itself). This way the wing leveller does its' thing without my hands interfering while I corrected any small altitude deviations for a well trimmed aircraft. I love the fact that the aircraft has aileron trim, one of the things I found really annoying was holding the yoke turned to one side or other especially in the Cessna 182RG to hold level flight. In the Bonanza, of course, you can change tanks so that there is approximately equal fuel in each tank, which you couldn't do in the Cessna.

We learned a good lesson about not making assumptions about weather and what it can do. Kent had said that in his experience if the pass is clear then valley beyond almost always has better weather. When we tuned into the ASOS at Stampede it was indicating 7000 ft ceilings with 10 mile visibility. But as we crested the pass, an ominous wall of clouds could be seen which obviously had reduced visibility and extended all the way to the valley floor. We made the right decision to turn around and land at Ellensburg. Again I was way high and fast and had to set up a high descent rate to get into the downwind but the landing was good.

We took a rental car (which is a story in itself) and drove home. That is a first for me! But I don't think this will be the last time this happens.

Bonanza (part) Owner!

I did it. Forked over the check to become part owner of a 1966 Beechcraft Bonanza V35!

I guess the Bonanza has been the ultimate single engine private airplane in my mind for a long time. It all began in my childhood, I was all of 10 years old. My father was Flight Commander of 6 Squadron IAF in Poona (now Pune) India. 6 Squadron flew Lockheed Super Constellations modified as MR (Maritime Recon) aircraft and English Electric Canberra bombers tasked with an anti-shipping role. There a number of hangars at Pune, which were pretty large. The Super Connie's didn't fit in those hangars though the Canberras did.

In one corner of the hangar was a small dark blue single engine airplane, which my father told me was a "Beechcraft Bonanza". One Dr Bhave (pronounce "Bhaa-way") owned the aircraft and the IAF allowed him to store it in their hangars. Dr Bhave was a famous surgeon and used to fly the aircraft between Bombay (now Mumbai) and Poona. That journey would take 5 hours through the Western Ghats (a mountain chain) by road but was only an hour by the Bonanza. I heard from my father and his colleagues that Dr Bhave was an accomplished pilot and flew the Bonanza far and wide in all kinds of weather. I checked up on the Internet and found that it was an A-35 Bonanza. (For an explanation of the Bonanza models check out this Wikipedia article). It was registered "VT-CZE" in 1971. Dr Bhave had a number of Bonanzas, all of them A models. Private flying in India was very rare, and the handful of private citizens who flew their own aircraft were looked upon with awe. I remember my father telling me that I could own my own aircraft if I wanted. That seemed like a distant dream at the time!

The Bonanza I am a partner in is based in Renton. There are a total of six members - all of them long time part owners. Their partnership has had a number of airplanes. Most of the members have been associated with Boeing. In fact the member who was retiring was a well known aerodynamicist who had worked on the YC-14 (and even co-written a book on it). It has been hangared since it was bought - and this shows part of the gang in the hangar for the new member induction ceremony. Jay was fashionably late!

The members are all aviation enthusiasts, which is very important to me. They haven't been flying the aircraft as much as they would like but keep it in very good shape.

I saw the ad for the open membership at this years North West Aviation Conference and Trade Show. I wasn't going to pay it much attention but Amy pointed it out to me and I pocketed the number.

I am glad I called. I did my due diligence - joined the American Bonanza Society(ABS) and posted questions on the Beech Owners e-mail list. They gave me very sound advice. Avstar, a very well known Beech Bonanza specialist in the Puget Sound area, gave the aircraft a thumbs up. I also had the privilege of talking to Phyllis Baer, who used to be their CFI. Phyllis is a grand dame of aviation, still has her medical and flight instructors license at 83! I think I will fly with her as a thank you for her advice.

One of the selling points of the partnership was that Kent Curtis, the president, didn't try to sell the aircraft to me. In fact he was pointing out all the minor flaws rather than the more obvious assets of the Bonanza!

I met the entire partnership (except for Jerry who I met later) and they charmed both Amy and me. (Jay, the Mariners tickets helped but the humor did more!). They are obviously careful flyers and have a genuine affection for the airplane.

I am going to have to do an insurance checkout and I am looking forward to it. Heres to hours and hours of happy flying!

I hope to use the Bonanza to get more proficient in my flying. I will fly more (due to availability), fly it further (taking trips much further afield than I have) and use it for maintaining and enhancing my IFR skills. I will use the ABS's resources to get Bonanza specific in depth training including the highly regarded Bonanza Pilot Proficiency Program (BPPP).

>Thanks Dr Bhave and dad, for letting me dream. Living the dream is a great thing!

Flying on autopilot ain't automatic!

Today I flew N97PD, a Cessna 172SP in BEFA's fleet, for the first time. I had originally started my IFR rating on N435SP, 97PD's sister ship in 2004. This time around I have flown most of my IFR sorties on the Cessna 182RG - but decided to go back to using the 172 SPs. This was mostly because of scheduling reasons - the 182RG is going to get a new set of avionics including a Garmin 480, which is significantly different from the KLN 94 I had been flying it with. I would have used the Cessna 182 straight leg for the rest of my training, but there is only one of those in the club. I needed something that had the proper avionics and of which there were at least two in the club - and that narrowed the choices down to the Cessna 172SP or the Piper Warriors. The 172SPs have a 180 hp engine and have better climb performance compared to the Warriors. Besides I was already checked out on the 172SPs. I had flown and checked out on the Piper Arrow, but not the Piper Warriors.

However 97PD has the King KAP 140 autopilot with heading and altitude hold. So, I needed to get familiar with it in IFR conditions. 435 SP has the same autopilot but without altitude hold. The KAP 140 is a very capable autopilot but has its' idiosyncracies. In an IFR environment an autopilot can reduce workload significantly, but if the pilot doesn't know how exactly the autopilot works it can increase workload at critical junctures.

I have used the KAP 140 before, in the Garmin 1000 suite equipped Cessna 182T for the Civil Air Patrol. However I haven't flown the 182T for a while and it was good to get a refresher. Howard has a presentation that he had prepared for the KAP 140 when 97PD was first acquired. It was also a refresher for the heading only autopilot in 435SP. I won't go into too much detail about the autopilot operation, but I will point you to a very nice succint description of it. This description is from the Flightgear wiki. Flightgear is an excellent open source flight simulator.

This is what I gathered from the briefing

1. The trim and autopilot need to be tested thoroughly - this is part of the procedure whether or not one intends to use the autopilot. There is a special trim switch and disconnect button. The trim switch is split and for the trim to move both switches have to moved. This is so that a short in one switch will not cause trim runaway.

2. There were a number of audio alerts for the autopilot. These included the following

1. TRIM IN MOTION, TRIM IN MOTION… (pitch trim running for more than 5 sec)


2. CHECK PITCH TRIM (out of trim condition for more than 15 seconds)


3. ALTITUDE (1,000’ before)


4. LEAVING ALTITUDE (200’ away)


5. AUTOPILOT (AP has disengaged)

3. Both the HDG (heading) and the ALT (altitude) buttons are toggles. The HDG buttons toggles between ROLL (maintain zero rate of turn) and HDG (maintain the heading dialed on DG with the heading bug). The ALT button toggles between Altitude Hold (ALT) and Vertical Speed (VS) mode.

4. The ALT mode is confusing. Even if the altitude is armed (shown by an ARM indication) if there is no vertical speed up or down towards the altitude the autopilot will not hold that altitude. Once it reaches the altitude (after going up or down towards it) it will hold that altitude but the initial VS component has to be present.

5. The APR mode has a "standard entry" mode, which is a 45 degree intercept of any published leg that is dialed in on the DG and the CDI for NAV1. In order to do a standard entry one has to go from HDG mode to APR mode. An "all aspect entry" goes from your current position to intercepting any published leg that is dialed in on the DG and the CDI for NAV1 (at any angle). In order to do this kind of entry one has to go from ROL mode to APR mode. The procedure to do any kind of approach is to dial in the heading on the DG and then dial in the course on the CDI for NAV1. Then go from HDG to APR mode (if standard 45 intercept) or go to ROL mode then to APR mode (for any other type of intercept). The autopilot will not follow a procedure (as there is no GPSS steering) but will wait for you to dial in the heading and course in the DG and the CDI respectively for the next leg.

6. For any barometric pressure change the process is to change the pressure in 3 different places - altimeter, GPS and autopilot. The BARO key allows one to input the current altimeter setting into the autopilot

7. The autopilot holds altitude by using elevator and elevator trim. The power and yaw of the airplane need to be managed by the pilot. So if you are at idle power and have armed an altitude hold at an altitude, the autopilot will hold it for you - into the stall!

8. VS is the same way, power and yaw have to be managed by the pilot. When the autopilot is first put on, typically in the climb on takeoff, the default mode for it is ROL and VS. The VS is to whatever rate the aircraft is climbing when the autopilot is put on. So if you have a 1000 ft / min rate of climb, that rate will try to be held to whatever holding altitude you set on the ground. I don't know about you but my Cessna 172 doesn't hold that kind of rate of climb for very long - and it is possible that the autopilot will take it into the stall, unless rate of climb is adjusted using the up or down keys.

9. The big knob on the autopilot changes altitudes by a 1000 ft up or down and the small knob by a 100 ft increment. Just changing that value has no effect as explained in 4 above. The UP and DOWN buttons when in ALT hold will increase/decrease the altitude held by 20 ft increments and is useful when temporary pressure altitude changes need to be fixed.

10. On the ILS, once in APR mode, on capturing the glideslope a GS indication will come on and the autopilot will track the GS down to whatever altitude. The approach speed has to be maintained using power by the human pilot!

We carried out the entire flight from Renton to Paine Field and back on the autopilot. It certainly flys the airplane a lot better than me! We did the VOR/DME 16R into KPAE, a missed approach and then the ILS 16R into KPAE another missed and onto KRNT for the RNAV/GPS 15 for a circle to land 33.

One thing I learned is that the pilot has to be scanning continuosly and maintaining situtational awareness. The autopilot has so many modes and transitions that it is easy to get confused. One has to be able to take over control at any time and fly safely and correctly immediately. Fixation on the autopilot can be dangerous.