Matthew Waugh
How many hours do you have behind your kitchen table? If you don’t have any hours, or only a few, then you’re cheating yourself of one of the most useful flight training tools while spending money to learn the same things in the airplane with the engine running, the Hobbs meter ticking and your instructor charging you by the hour.
Flight in an airplane is absolutely a required part of flight training, it must be true, the FAA says so. However, airplane flight is for you to practice techniques and to obtain experience in how an airplane flies. Techniques like using pitch pressure to maintain airspeed or using trim to relieve control pressures. Experience like how the controls feel approaching the stall or just what does a 30 degree bank look like over the nose. You can’t get those techniques and experience sitting at your kitchen table.
What you can practice at your kitchen table are procedures. For every activity in an airplane there are procedures that go along with them, and the more practiced you are with those procedures BEFORE you get into the airplane the better you’ll be able to focus on the techniques and the experiences while you’re in flight.
What do you need to do some kitchen table flying? Well all you really need is a chair, and you may not need that, I’ve done plenty of kitchen table flying standing up in the shower. You need somewhere you can concentrate. It may only be for 5 minutes, or it could be for an hour. That’s the beauty of kitchen table flying, you don’t need to get the plane out of the hangar to “go flying”. You can make the experience a lot more realistic depending on how much effort you want to make. There are a number of large posters available that show aircraft cockpits. Sporty’s seems to send me one for a Cessna 172 with every order I make. If you hang that poster on the wall and position a chair in front of it, you’ve practically got your self what the airlines call a cockpit procedures trainer. That’s what we’re going to be training on, cockpit procedures!
First of all practice running the checklists. Before Start, Starting Engine and Before Takeoff. Practice those other little things that the checklist doesn’t cover, perhaps getting the AWOS and setting the altimeter, setting the Heading Indicator to the magnetic compass or testing the brakes as you pull off the blocks. These are all procedures, and the more you practice them out of the aircraft the slicker you’ll be when you’re in the aircraft. Practice the After Landing and Engine Shutdown checklists as well as any other checklists you might use, written or verbal, such as Approach to an Airport, Cruise or Downwind.
Now we can move on to practicing the procedures for maneuvers such as slow flight, stalls etc. The more practiced you are with the procedures for these maneuvers the more you can concentrate on technique, holding altitude, holding heading etc. Let’s look at the procedure for a power-off stall in a basic Cessna trainer. Your procedure may differ slightly depending on your aircraft and instructor.
- Clear the area.
- Carb. Heat On.
- Power to 1500 RPM.
- Increase Pressure to Maintain Altitude.
- Airspeed in the White Arc – Flaps Down.
- Counter the “balloon” as flaps come down.
- Establish a 65K glide.
- Increase back pressure to the stall.
- Announce the stall warning horn.
- Announce the aerodynamic buffet
- Announce the stall.
Of course then there’s the procedure for the power-off stall recovery.
I suggest that you determine these procedures and write them down and learn them. Then you can practice them at the kitchen table, moving your hands and feet, muttering each item to yourself and reaching for the butter dish to adjust the power. Your family may think you’ve lost your mind, but you’ll know that you’re making yourself a safer pilot because now, when you get in the airplane and your instructor asks for a power-off stall you won’t look and act like this is the first time you’ve ever heard of such a thing. Now you can launch into the procedures, concentrate on the technique and improve your performance!