Don't make these pilot mistakes 

Your dedication to sharing what goes wrong as much as what goes right in all of your videos is right up there with the ethos of commercial airline safety culture. It's so great to see it.

Honestly, why they’re still requiring the use of pen paper and math in the cockpit rather than 2023 technology is beyond me. In the real world NOBODY does it that way anymore. We have multiple backups. Having to be heads down trying to draw lines, do math and find a point on a paper chart (not even discussing the fact that nobody has up to date paper charts anymore), is just increasing risk of the worst dangers. Why not get modern aviation students absolutely slick on modern technology and testing their ability to quickly, accurately and correctly use all available technology.

I had to do 3 hours of dead reckoning with an examiner for “rectification training” after my airspace infringement (which didn’t involve any navigation problems, but hey!) and it really brought all that early nav training back. Great video Jon. I really battle to keep up my proficiency with everything else going on in life. Thanks for all the hard work making these videos. That one must have been a big edit! 👍🏻

Brilliant video greatly contributing to flight safety. In the pro world we have to do a skills test every 6 months in the form of either an LPC or OPC. In the private world this is different and John really stuck his neck out here and did well. It can always be better which applies to every one! Great stuff!!

Good friend of mine told me to never go flying without a goal of practicing something... On a A2B flight, lots to learn. Really excellent video and don't knock yourself... for only a few minor bad habbits to settle in after 800 hours, that's pretty robust! How many could say the same about driving a car?!

Well done John. Takes a bunch of very good qualities in a human being to share that sort of thing. What I got from the video is that you have all the skills to fly through a tough checkride, its just proficiency that erodes. We ALL need to work on that. As a well known aviator across the pond reminds us often - currency and proficiency are very much not the same thing.

I totally understand. I'm starting on my IFR training... and some PPL stuff has slipped away. While I am a safe pilot... I haven't don't "Standard Maneuvers" in a while. My younger cousin is getting his PPL, and he will ask be "Text Book" questions... and I really have to dig to remember some of them. Good vid, and nice flight.

Good episode John that highlights how easily our skills can fade. I think it's really important we continually practice different things and ensure we have not developed bad habits. Personally I make a real effort to try to construct various general handling exercises for myself whilst en route to practice different things, rather than just flying from A to B. Ironically my next RU-vid upload is of a flight where I do exactly that to maximise the time in the air. I'm sure many of us regularly fly with an instructor in order to keep ourselves current with PFLs etc

Passed my test a year ago ago at Earle’s colne and without doubt going to have a lesson with my old instructor very good episode

Your humility makes you a good safe pilot and practiced skills of course with a sprinkle of being a clever person. Wish there were more humbles like you in GA. Top man Top video

Brave, brave man - well done. The nav bit - well, we only use a map when the satellites are jammed. The PFL, you got down and would have walked away - that was to me the most important bit. My tip though, hold the map up to the window so your periphery eyesight will tell you if you are descending or banking. I'm guilty of left banking if I look down as my left hand is still on the yoke. I'm practicing a PFL next time I'm up. Good to brush up on those touch drills.

Great video, appreciate you sharing these videos where not every bit of flying is “perfect”- helps us all learn and improve. I’m a recent PPL and find these videos immensely helpful so thanks.

What a great exercice. As well as a good proof of humility! Thanks for sharing :)

Thanks Jon for yet another open and honest piece. It would be easy for any ‘armchair’ critic to have an opinion on each and everyone’s flying but as you highlight skills fade happens to us all. A timely reminder that practice makes perfect and reliance on modern tech is something more than one or two of us have been guilty of - but only if like you we are honest withourselves!

Passed 9 months ago and I am for sure rusty on some of this. Patiently awaiting your lee on solent episode

Great video John, really useful reminder to us all to keep skills sharp - I try and have the discipline of doing specific practice flights with a focus on one or two items each time - reality is with pressure of time, weather etc it can often be sometime between these!! Keep the great content coming 👍

Imagine turning off the Sat Nav and giving a modern Driver an A-to-Z to find his/her way to the destination the old fashioned way..AND Drive the Car...most couldn't do it😮 Great Video. It looks daunting to me as a VERY low hours student pilot😂

Got to do a skills test again to convert my ICAO PPL license, so a timely and helpful video, thanks Jon!

Catching up on videos and this is exactly what I needed! I've not flown since early October and, in that time, both my medical and SEP have lapsed. I have my medical next week and doing an LPC with Nigel in a couple of weeks. I think I need to hit those checklists and memorise some procedures and brush up on my nav skills!

I love your honesty, Jon, and for highlighting that someone who has flown hundreds of hours can still get rusty. Watching these videos confirm the necessity to avoid over reliance on SkyDemon. I'm learning a lot of how I should fly - and perhaps mix SkyDemon with dead reckoning in order to avoid getting complacent.

Fantastic content for a pre skills test student!

Very brave to put yourself in that position John! Great video yet again though with a good message to always test yourself and be aware that nobody is perfect. 👍 Well done!

During my last IFR renewal I was asked to perform a stall. As I was approaching the stall speed and getting ready to react the plane suddenly pushed down the nose by itself, much to our surprise. Both the examiner and completely forgot about the ESP of the autopilot 😂

Love your content John! Don't beat yourself up, most experienced drivers wouldn't pass the driving theory and practical tests again 😂

Nice to see you still got it sir.. the truth is we all have traits that are good bad forgotten or not worried about but will catch you out if you dont practise these every so often crack on

The nav highlights a chart-reading issue I found on one trip - I am so familiar with that area, I don’t need the chart, which limits the usefulness of the exercise. Practise manual navigation in strange areas! GPS is not infallible, but my chart has never gone blank mid-flight…

We can all learn from this one Jon 😊

Great video. I'm working on consistency in stalls, steep turns and pfl, before I can take my skills test, and found much useful content here. Thanks!

Super timing! I'm brushing up for my ST, exactly these things 😅

This channel is fantastic!

All good as usual, but gear down into a field after engine failure ! Piper Arrow will land gear up with minimal damage [ given that the engine has had it anyway ] and you won't tip over.

Amazing video. I have just finished my PPL and i must say this video has still been benefitial to maybe look at some of my flying from a different angle. Thank you :)

Good, honest video, thanks for sharing it, there should be more like these in general (not talking about your channel, but in general the GA RU-vid). I fully understand how difficult it is to share mistakes online, I have been doing the same very regularly, and while I am getting quite used to it now, every time I am editing a video that showcases mistakes, I have a difficult feeling in my stomach. :) Still, I always try to share my mistakes in my flying videos, because 1) I am so embarrassed of them, that if I put them in a video, I will never forget them, but also 2) because I have received a lot of positive feedback about sharing mistakes in a world where most people only show their best online. I have always been very good in navigation with a chart during my PPL, but I have also never ever flown without SkyDemon since then (albeit in my case it is just a bit more than a year since my skill test). While I love maps and I understand the whole theory of speed vector triangles and whatnot easily with my astrophysics background, I always hated preparing navigations on the map, simply because it takes so much time. I agree that classical navigation (dead reckoning) is a skill that needs to be taught and learned during the PPL, but I also think flying with SkyDemon should be covered during the training, as there are good and bad practices there too. When I fly with SkyDemon, I still identify ground features regularly to be aware of where I am, I run a timer, and I have the navlog printed from SkyDemon with me (with all the columns necessary to do a proper dead reckoning too) for the completely unlikely case when my 2 SkyDemon equipped devices, my onboard GNS unit, and the GPS in my backup handheld radio fails (and of course paper maps for the route too in the flight bag). You can still fly using the classical acronyms, prepare the Heading-Altitude-Timer for the next turn and make the turn based on the DG and not by looking at the magenta line, and so on. Using both SkyDemon and the VFR map in the proper way is a skill that needs to be learned. Following a planned route with SkyDemon is of course easier, because if you want you can indeed just turn until the magenta line and your projected track aligns even without thinking of any heading values, you could fly like this without displaying ground features and be completely oblivious to where you are, but of course that should not be the case. When people plan a route with SkyDemon you still need to be aware of all the airspaces, rules and regulations, performance (make sure your aircraft profile is actually adjusted for your actual airplane, especially for the weight and balance, etc.), etc. But there is no doubt that when used correctly, SkyDemon is an amazing tool that increases pilot awareness (location, airspace both horizontally and vertically), decreases workload (visualisation of arrival aerodrome circuit, noise abatement areas, loading in charts, potentially display some of the traffic, etc.), and as such has the potential to contribute to a safer flight. The problem is that when used incorrectly, it can have the opposite effect: one might tend to only look at the map instead of scanning outside (which is a very big no for VFR pilots), or one might be tempted to keep doing stuff on the iPad instead of looking outside, etc. It can be a distraction when not used correctly. Since we know that basically everybody is using SkyDemon, maybe the good practices of flying with SkyDemon should be part of the PPL training. For dead reckoning and SkyDemon I always come with the example of learning mathematics: in school we start be understanding the logics, then we learn the most basic tools to make calculations following those logics (arithmetics with pen and paper), but then when we have proven that we understand the logics and we can make these calculations using the basic tools, we are all allowed to move on to making calculations with a calculator or a computer. I have an astrophysics degree, but I would really not want to start making a float division with pen and paper again, and honestly, I am not sure I could at this point. But realistically speaking, why should I?... All this "rant" is of course only about SkyDemon, and I agree that basic flying skills such as emergencies and stall recoveries should be practiced regularly, as they are safety nets in critical life and death situations.

With the limited amount of training time it seems like a better use of that time to train with the airplane with the equipment you normally use. I don’t even carry a paper chart with me anymore. What good is it going to do me to practice with one? I could know my GPS navigator better though and that’s being used every flight.

Another great video John! Thank you so much! Flying and verbalizing actions, is not natural. Well done for passing this test. You do push yourself hard, you just show us the way, the right airway ;-) Merci beaucoup Pilote!

Great video Jon, and it makes me wonder why flying schools don’t offer this to seasoned pilots. I think it would be a great investment of time and money, although I’ll stick to SD, thanks ;-)

Good old navigation is well and all, but looking at your lap this much in a possibly busy airspace cannot be deemed safer than glancing towards a panel presenting all the information in one space.

Not a bad effort at all, Jon, well done! Plus, it made for a very entertaining and informative video 👌🏻👏🏻👏🏻

This is amazing about to do some notes

Great video John 👌🏻

You should invest in a pivot case. A much cleaner ipad mounting system.

Excellent Jon. 👌

Great video Jon and very helpful

If your RT wasn’t up to scratch, there’s not much hope for the rest of us. I guess if we didn’t have SkyDemon and onboard moving map displays, most would likely fail a skills test. However, our SA because of this equipment is far better for it and dare I say safer too. Fly regularly, train often. Another great warts and all video.

Another great video and a really useful reminder of the skills to maintain - many thanks

Well done John

A really Interesting video Good to go back to basics once in a while

You make great videos!

John i see you have your automatic landing gear extension disabled on your arrow like me!! LOL.

interesting video. I suppose we all form our own habits over time which diverge from those as taught in the syllabus - relying on moving maps etc. Always good to brush up on the general handling side although I do hate PfLs personally. Navigating by DR is almost certainly a lost art to some/most of us (myself included!) - I always carry a plog and a marked chart but am definitely guilty of relying on a GPS and the ipad!

Great video Jon, I had to do a Biannual a few weeks ago, and we did stalls, and mainly because we try to stay away from stalls if possible, i'd forgotten the correct procedure, I did OK but it was good to be told how to do it properly again. We also did recovery from Spiral Dive, which was also interesting to say the least!

Oh... this is all so familiar LOL! I have to say I feel very sympathetic to your pain during that mock GFT. One thing I would say is that I have a rigid schedule of doing the general handling maneouvres in sequence, one type per flight, and I try to do a PFL en route on every XC flight I do as well. Even though I plan every XC using the map & whizzwheel I do tend to rely a bit too much on Skydemon during flight. Every day's a school day isn't it :D

Awesome

Very good Jon, have about the same hour, alway sure bi annual check in plenty of time for that very reason 🤣🤣🤣

Magnificent episode! Out of weird curiosity, why is Nigel so concerned with the power and pitch attitude sequencing during stall exercises? At 18:28 you unload the aircraft G-force just before applying power. What is to be gained by delaying the (deliberate but not rushed) power increase?

Can someone please explain why the examiner said the prop pitch should be pulled back during the forced landing ? I am at a bit of a loss as to why you should spend time on this while in such a high pressure situation.

I think there’s a difference between passing a test and learning to fly. What’s scary is the number of middle aged men flying who are put off notifying the CAA of a new medical condition for fear of the consequences and I include instructors who obviously need to pay the bills! You are clearly a self-improver probably operating to airline competency, and are candid about any medical conditions. As with drivers on our roads, there are undoubtedly PPLs who have the hours but don’t recognise in themselves when it’s time to hand your licence back. Anyway, another thought provoking video on what for many will make for uncomfortable viewing! 👏

Nicely done. You're being way to harsh on yourself IMHO

It makes me a bit sad to see how hoplessly outdated these aircraft procedures are. This is probably the way things were done in the 1950s.