Safety Topic of the Month: Energy Management—Part 1

Welcome to the Safety Section of the Flying Clubs Newsletter, Club Connector!

Every month we provide resources for flying club safety officers to keep their clubs informed and safe.   We also include links to slides that we use for our own meetings, so that you always have a topic for your club’s next safety meeting.  Along with the slides, we also provide links to relevant articles, videos, and other media that you may also find useful.

Okay then, let’s get on with this month’s safety topic!

Here is the link to the PDF of the presentation slides—please use them at your next club meeting:

April 2024 Safety Topic of the Month: Energy Management—Part 1

We may not realize it during initial training, but to become competent and safe pilots we must learn to manage energy in the form of altitude (potential energy) and airspeed (kinetic energy).  We must also understand that unless we somehow add more energy, we are always exchanging available energy between the two forms.  When we do add energy—or remove it—things get even more interesting as we can now “transition” between different energy levels, and so really become masters of our aircraft.

Background: 

Understanding the elements of aircraft energy—and its management—are fundamental to truly mastering how we control (or otherwise) our aircraft.  Understanding proper energy management, and the associated ability to prevent/recover from energy deficits, is critical for overall flight safety.

The analysis of aircraft mishaps (note that I no longer call them “accidents” since we know from the February 2024 Safety Topic of the Month article that many are highly predictable and so not accidental at all) illustrates that energy (mis)management is often cited by the NTSB and FAA as a causal factor in loss of control (LOC), controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and approach-and-landing “events”—many of which involve fatalities.

So…strap in for a “high-energy” presentation on the fundamentals of aircraft energy management and the associated control inputs necessary to ensure “it” is doing what you expect and intend.   Next month, in Part 2, we’ll take this knowledge and apply it to flight situations.

Learning Points:

• Knowledge of energy management is central to aircraft control
• As pilots, we are managers of energy, so we must work hard to better understand it
• Proficiency in both fundamental and advanced maneuvers are the result of truly understanding the “energy equation” at any place and time
• We must always have in our minds a metal picture of the existing energy state of the aircraft before we try to command it to do something different
• We must build the competency, via training and proficiency, to effectively coordinate control inputs to achieve and maintain altitude and airspeed targets
• We must understand and mitigate the risks associated with energy mismanagement…and be primed to take appropriate actions to resolve energy deficit situations

Reference:

Airplane Flying Handbook (Chapter Four)

Other Safety Resources:

Here is a reminder of just some of the resources available to all pilots:

FAASTeam:

faasafety.gov

The FAASTeam website is the portal to a vast array of courses, videos, links, and much more.  Remember that WINGS not only encompasses “knowledge” activities, but also flight activities.  Use the various search options to narrow down, to say, flight activities for a basic phase of WINGS and you’ll be able to find a syllabus and often a worksheet for each flight activity.

Highly topical is the FAA’s new Human Factors course.  This ten-module course (with WINGS credits) includes videos, quizzes, workbooks, and tests.  If you are serious about understanding the role of human behaviors in aviation safety education, then please, invest the time to complete this course.

Log into faasafety.gov, go to activities-> courses-> all available courses and scroll to find these ALC codes—one per module:  ALC-730, 731, 732, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829, 830.

Here is a link to get you to modules 1 and 2 (ALC-730 and 731): https://www.faasafety.gov/gslac/ALC/CourseLanding.aspx?cID=730

Don’t forget to regularly visit these FAA safety gems:

Pilot Minute

57 Seconds to Safer Flying

FAA Safety Briefing Magazine

From the Flight Deck

AOPA Air Safety Institute:

https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute

AOPA’s Air Safety Institute, which by the way is funded by the AOPA Foundation just like the Flying Clubs Initiative, is packed with amazing content, including exceptional videos, podcasts, accident analysis, online courses, recorded webinars and more.  Completing these activities may also earn WINGS credits.  Of particular interest to flying club safety officers is the recently updated Safety to Go section.  There, you can download a selection of topics, each coming with PowerPoint slides and speaker’s notes!

Wait—what—you don’t do WINGS?

That’s a shame—you are missing out on a free pilot proficiency program that will help you enjoy your flying even more, allow you to earn a flight review every 12-months just by flying, may provide insurance discounts and…may keep you alive longer to enjoy all of the above!

The FAASTeam WINGS pilot proficiency program is one way for general aviation pilots to ensure they are competent, confident, and safe in their flight operations.   Oh, and being persistently proficient will save you money in the long run.

If you are interested in using the FAASTeam WINGS program for your personal flying or with your flying club, create an account on the FAASTeam website, http://www.faasafety.gov, and explore the array of courses and flight activities.  Also, feel free to contact me (Steve Bateman, Lead Representative and FAA WINGSPro), and I’ll walk you through the program.

More on “WINGS for Clubs” can be found here in Flying Clubs Radio Episode 8 and the May 2020 Question of the Month.