By Bob Hart
What’s an Avionics Guy doing talking about Personal Minimums? It dawned on me that I have this discussion with all my clients. Your personal minimums speak loudly to the way you plan to fly the aircraft and therefore, the way the aircraft should be equipped. Be leery of an avionics shop that starts selling before asking you how you plan to fly the aircraft! Unlike the avionics shop I recently mentioned in a previous article, who denies the concept of “Light IFR”, and who advises his clients that any plane that will venture into IFR must have the “best of the best. I believe that pilots essentially have four potential “missions” when piloting a light aircraft:
VFR: Self-explanatory, I think. No weather of any consequence, relatively short cross-counties, Lower altitudes and lots of $100 hamburgers! This pilot needs only a good panel mount com, a good portable GPS or iPad with Foreflight or similar software. Certainly, my preference is the iPad over the portable and there is frequently a lot of available landscape in a VFR panel to allow the iPad to be installed securely in a better place than the yoke or suction mounted to a window. Most VFR pilots also need or could benefit from a Mode S transponder but a UAT with a reliable Mode A/C transponder can do the job. The affordable uAvionix Beacons have been doing a good job for pilots in this scenario. Adding an ADS-B receiver is a personal choice. There’s that word “personal” again. An autopilot is a luxury, but an engine management unit is always a good idea, and I would add a PLB (personal locator beacon, under $500) to augment the aircraft’s older 121.5/243 ELT if a 406 MHz ELT is not installed.
Light IFR: Fact is, the majority of flying that a Light IFR pilot does is VFR! Most of my light IFR clients who are upgrading their panels for Light have personal minimums of 800-1000 feet AGL. They have no plans to go anywhere near approaches to minimums so … installing dual Garmin GTN’s or Avidyne IFD’s makes no dollars and sense to me. This pilot needs a good WAAS GPS as primary. Built in com makes sense. He is often removing a legacy navcom with VOR only so the com must be replaced. A reliable legacy navcom with ILS can fill the backup role but there isn’t much that is reliable anymore and most make no sense for a new installation, but some can stay and be addressed later. The Mode S transponder makes more sense here and ADS-B IN is a must as is an autopilot. A reliable legacy autopilot (that usually means one that has been maintained) can work and if the budget has room, the ability to monitor CHT and EGT, lean safely and fuel flow (to monitor) the combustion side is my minimum equipment list for Light IFR. The PLB also makes sense here.
True IFR: I kept calling it medium or hard IFR in my articles until my editor a few years ago suggested “True” IFR and I stuck with it. Pilots that fly True tend to fly IFR more frequently, in fact they often file IFR in VFR conditions. Certainly, there are degrees of True IFR, but they all include “Approaches to Minimums” on the menu at some point, but it still doesn’t suggest that the aircraft be equipped with the “Best of the Best”. Certainly, the Integrated Navigator makes sense here and it’s not uncommon to see dual GTN’s or IFD’s in a True IFR panel. That simply gives the pilot the redundancy of dual GPS and since that is the nav option most used today for not only enroute navigation but for approaches as well, once you have planned an IFR flight with GPS as the primary nav, losing the GPS in weather and being forced to switch to VOR/ILS is in a word, distracting. Switching to GPS #2 keeps the flightplan intact. The True panel suggests an Audio Panel with “True” features like a digital recorder and the ability to monitor both coms. ATC and ADS-B are handled with a Mode S ES Transponder and while the iPad with aviation software is standard equipment in a Light IFR panel, dependence on the iPad for information that is critical to the flight (WX, Traffic, etc.) in True IFR, should be available on a panel mounted source; either a large format navigator like the GTN-750Xi or IFD 540/550, MFD or EFIS display. Why do I suggest this? Today’s certified avionics are incredibly reliable, but the iPad suffers from points of failure you don’t see in panel mount avionics. iPads get hot and can shut down and are dependent on batteries or an external USB charger.
I am not suggesting that the iPad does not belong in true IFR but not as a “primary” source of information. It’s a great back-up and a potential lifesaver in the event of a power failure. That’s the role that the portable GPS used to have but simply stated, the iPad with Foreflight does it better! No offense to the other providers of aviation software but I see constant updates coming from Foreflight to their products and believe that they are at the top of the game. Today, they announced the addition of “Runway Alert”. The latest ForeFlight release includes a feature that warns the crew of an aircraft on final approach if there’s an airplane on the runway to which they are headed. It also warns the crew of the airplane on the runway that another one is headed their way. This is a response to the growing concern about runway incursions and a good example of what I referred to as “True IFR features”. A True IFR panel should also have a sophisticated autopilot with features like a “Go Around” button and all the vertical features that make approaches that much simpler. Certainly, the new Envelope Protections we see in all the new digital autopilots is a game changer for True IFR. The Garmin GFC 500 autopilot is leading the pack. It’s hard to justify a Primary Engine Management System in a Light IFR platform (@ $10K and up) but knowing the condition of your engine in serious IFR “right now” is basic and makes sense when the flying is True. I think JPI’s EDM-830, which monitors most engine parameters in an advisory capacity, is the perfect compromise for the Light crowd. Your ELT should also be upgraded to a 406 MHz satellite-based unit.
Business Flying. I’m not talking about the business flyer sitting in the back of a Citation while the pilot does the work, I’m talking about the small business owner who enjoys the benefits of GA flying as a tool to get to the job or the customer in a light aircraft, often flying solo. Why do I consider this mission the next level? We all know about “get home-itis”. A pilot who should probably land and rest is motivated by the comforts of home and continues on when they probably should not. I’m suggesting that flying, motivated by profit, can put a pilot in a situation where they would otherwise avoid. I had a recent client who lives in New England and is a Custom Home Builder on Nantucket. He is required to fly to and from Nantucket on an almost daily basis. While still a student pilot, he recently purchased a solid Piper Arrow with yesterday’s avionics, and we set out to create a panel that will have the tools he needs to fly in this environment (we all know the Kennedy story) with the limited skills he currently holds. It will be some time before he will likely be ready for approaches to minimums but when he is ready, the plane will be ready also. Here, is where I think, the door is open to equipping with the “best of the best”. That means a large format EFIS Primary flight display with integral Primary engine management. Dual Integrated Navigators, one in the large format with ADS-B Traffic and WX displayed on it from an “all in one”, hybrid Mode S transponder with certified ADS-B IN. A top-of-the-line Audio panel which in my mind is the PS Engineering PM405B. The “best of the Best” also includes a serious look at Active technology for traffic and WX avoidance.
ADS-B is fine for the light IFR and most True IFR pilots but there are weaknesses in the ground-based system that delivers these benefits. An active traffic system sees all the traffic in your area by essentially “pinging” other pilot’s transponders both mode A/C or Mode S and displaying it on an appropriate display in the cockpit. ADS-B falls short on reporting lightning strikes in a timely manner and an active weather avoidance system gives you the information in greater detail in real time. Sadly, the advent of ADS-B is limiting these options. The Insight Strikefinder has been around and updated over the years and is a very affordable way to add active Lightning Avoidance to your panel for about $6500 installed and is gyro stabilized so when you turn, the WX in the display moves with you. The Avidyne “SkyTrax” series offers you active traffic avoidance starting at about $13K installed and gives you the confidence that you are seeing all the traffic without dependence on ATC or ADS-B.
Personal Minimums. We all make personal choices in life and some of the choices we make can result in bodily harm or worse. I did a lot of skiing when I was a kid and managed a ski shop for a few years in my twenties. This is a good analogy. You get to the top of the mountain and are greeted by signs indicating the best way to go depending on your skiing ability: Easiest … More Difficult … Most Difficult and … Expert Only. You have a choice and if you have ever made the wrong one, you learn. This can go anywhere from embarrassing to a broken leg to a unexpecting meeting with a tree. Yes, skiers have died making the wrong decision! Flying offers a significantly greater risk and skill by comparison.
The FAA defines Personal Minimums as
“An individual pilot’s set of procedures, rules, criteria, and guidelines for deciding whether and under what conditions to operate (or continue operating) in the National Airspace System.”
They have gone so far on this as to create a Personal Minimums Checklist:
Personal-Minimums.pdf (faa.gov)
Conclusion. The majority of my personal flying was from 1982 through 1992.I went from a Cherokee 140 to a Cherokee Six to a two-Place Grumman (with HP!) to a Corbin Baby Ace, single seat, open-cockpit experimental that was my introduction to aerobatics. I was flying regularly, and my confidence level was at a high. I shared a hanger with a student pilot who had a Moni Motorglider, wings off, tucked in the corner of the hanger. It had caught my attention and when he said he wanted to sell it and asked me if I would be willing to fly it, I said yes. The Moni was powered by a Hirth 2-stroke snowmobile engine. We put it together and started it up. Frankly, I don’t think we were very thorough in our preflight and I hit the throttle, got airborne only to see no response from the airspeed indicator. I was committed and my plan was to simply get to 3000ft over the airport to get the feel of the thing before returning to the airport. As it would be, the engine quit at 1500ft and with some glider experience, I set myself up to land using what I had learned in my fifteen glider lessons. Altitude is almost always your friend and I lined up a little high, generally a good idea for a dead stick landing except … I was in a glider. Gliders typically have speed brakes, and the Moni had a single speed brake that came out under the belly. Remember, I have no airspeed. When I lowered the brake, the nose dropped. It was below the center of gravity so that was the result. That means when you retract the speed brake, the nose comes back up. I’m fighting pilot induced oscillation while trying to slip the heck out of it to loss altitude. I was originally lined up on the 3000ft runway but decided the extra drag from the dirt adjacent to the runway was a better idea and finally got it down, taking a runway light (and a ding in the wing) with me and … a broken prop! I made some pretty poor decisions that day and frankly, could have killed myself.
Surprisingly, the owner of the Moni never asked for any reimbursement for the damage I did to his airplane. I think he was happy to not have my death on his conscience. I, on the other hand, learned to make better decisions around an airplane that day.
That’s the simple concept behind Personal Minimums. It is essentially to make a contract with yourself to stay within your ability. If you haven’t given any thought to this in a while. Maybe it’s time to revisit your Personal Minimums!
Thanks for reading!
Until next time, Safe and Happy Flying!
Bob Hart