Working the system
One of the most satisfying things I’ve found about flying is the feeling I get after a well-executed flight during which I faced obstacles, came up with creative solutions, and “worked the system” in order to accomplish my mission.
Such a flight happened to me a few days ago.
A new student signed on to my schedule last week so we met together this week to go up for his first flight. Although he’d flown in small planes a few times before, this was his first true flight lesson, so I treated it as though we were working from the ground up.
Before leaving the office, I checked the weather. The forecast called for lowering ceilings and marginal VFR conditions to arrive shortly, but there was no mention of IFR conditions predicted for the area. I figured as long as we could fly around for at least a few minutes the flight would be worth it.
As we slowly worked our way through the preflight inspection, examining each detail of the aircraft, a cold, blustery wind whipped around us. It wasn’t a pleasant day to spend much time outside, but I needed to make the point that a thorough preflight inspection is always required, regardless of the weather.
Towards the end of our preflight, a fellow instructor came out and informed me the latest METAR reported ceilings overcast at 2900 feet and a visibility of 5 miles.
“You still going?” he asked.
“Ok….umm…yeah, no problem, we can go out for a quick hop over the city,” I replied. He shrugged and walked away. I doubt he’d be flying in this, but that’s his choice.
After getting an excited student out for a first lesson and trudging through a preflight in nasty weather, I wasn’t about to scrub the flight because of poor visibility. Sure, it maybe wasn’t ideal for learning basic attitude flying, but taxiing, learning checklists, talking to air traffic controllers, etc. could all be useful regardless of the weather. If nothing else, I didn’t want to disappoint my new student by having him go through all the work of preparation without the reward of getting in the air, at least for a short while.
So we loaded up, fired up, and prepared to copy a VFR clearance out of our Class C airport.
The controller issued our clearance and we prepared to taxi. Only a few seconds before calling for our taxi instructions, the controller radioed us back:
“Cessna Four Sierra Papa, cancel your departure clearance, visibility is dropping quickly and the field just went IFR.”
Crap. Ok. What now? I’m sure as heck not going to give up that easily! We’re fired up and ready to taxi. Let me pull a trick out of my bag. Work the system…
“Clearance, Cessna Four Sierra Papa, any chance we could get a Special VFR clearance for a quick flight over the city?”
“Four Sierra Papa, standby, I think we can figure something out for you…”
After a few moments the controller returned with a Special VFR clearance and we began taxiing to the runway.
After completing an engine runup, we pulled up to the hold short line and called for our takeoff clearance.
“Cessna Four Sierra Papa, we have multiple IFR aircraft inbound for approaches, including a regional jet currently inbound on the ILS. It looks like it’ll be about a 10-12 minute wait before we can release you, and even then we’re going to need to keep you in the local traffic pattern.”
Think fast, Mr. Instructor Man! It’s time to make decisions. Should we pack it up and head home before we even get off the ground, chalking it up as a lousy day to fly, and hanging our heads in shame? I don’t think so.
So if we’ve decided to fly no matter what, are we going to sit here for 12 minutes, idling at the hold short line, looking fat dumb and stupid? That’ll cost the student an extra $32 in case you were wondering about the math. Not a very nice option.
Quick, key the mic…work the system…
“Tower, we’d like to shut down on the runup pad and restart in about 10 minutes in order to save fuel, would that be alright with you?”
“Will you be able to monitor this frequency while shut down?”
“Yes sir, we’ll be standing by.”
“Roger, approved as requested. I’ll give you a call when you can go.”
And sure enough, after chatting with my student in a silent, cold cockpit for ten minutes with only the Comm 1 radio powered up, the tower informed us we had two minutes until our release.
A few switches flipped, knobs turned, and buttons pushed later, the engine roared back to life. Soon thereafter we lumbered up to the hold short line.
Right on cue the tower cleared us for takeoff. With a bit of coaxing my new friend pushed the throttle in to the wall, steered with his feet, and eased the nose upward. As we lifted off, I looked across the cockpit to find him grinning from ear to ear.
“Pretty cool, isn’t it?” I said.
“Haha…yeah it is,” came his simple reply, still through a huge grin.
“This, right here,” I thought to myself, “is why I love working the system.”
You see, a lot of instructors might have canceled the flight immediately after seeing the forecast for marginal conditions. Other instructors might have given up after the preflight in worsening weather. Still, others might have scrubbed the mission after hearing the field go IFR shortly after startup. Finally, others might have thrown in the towel after hearing of a 12 minute delay. All of those would have resulted in a disappointed student, now less enthusiastic about getting their license.
I didn’t do any of the above because I knew how to work the system. When I saw the look on my student’s face, I knew it was worth it. It’s that “I can’t believe this is so cool!” look that most flight instructors have seen many times before.
After going around the pattern twice, in two miles visibility, we called it a day and returned to the parking ramp. 0.8 hours on the hobbs meter, two takeoffs and landings, and one happy customer who’s coming back for more. That’s what I like to see.
Take it easy and enjoy the ride folks!