Look Out!
We are in an era replete with “heads-down” devices. Automation and advanced cockpit technology lure pilots away from looking out the window. The windows are a pilot’s best tool for precise flying and avoiding mid-air collisions. From the beginning of training, students should be taught to fly by references outside the aircraft. The law of primacy states that things learned or experienced first create strong, lasting impressions that are difficult to change. This makes initial instruction or exposure especially influential in shaping future understanding and behavior. Instilling the habit of referencing outside cues early in a pilot’s training makes a better pilot.
A pilot should be looking out the window more often than not. This is not just for the beautiful world outside, but because regulations and common sense require pilots to be vigilant in looking for traffic1. The AIM recommends that pilots spend 80 percent of their time looking outside2. Knowing the external visual cues that indicate an aircraft’s attitude is important. Like a blind person’s other senses, hearing will be heightened. Looking outside makes a pilot’s hearing more attuned to engine RPM and wind noise, which convey power settings, airspeed changes, and high- or low-airspeed regimes. CFIs should demonstrate what fast and slow airspeeds sound like while your student looks out the window. Refining these skills makes a pilot better prepared for an instrument failure and less likely to have a mid-air collision. A bonus of looking out the window is seeing traffic.
Techniques include comparing the wingtip-to-horizon distance on both sides of the airplane. If they are equal, there is zero bank. To maintain a heading, don’t bank the aircraft. I know you’re thinking, “What if the ball isn’t centered?” Great question. Look straight ahead to ensure the aircraft’s nose is not moving left or right of distant objects.
In high-wing airplanes, compare the bottom of the wing to the horizon for pitch information. When they are parallel, aircraft pitch is zero. During level-off and cruise, pitch down until the cowling is a specific distance below the horizon — a distance that you know will result in level flight. I like to teach how many fingers (at arm’s length) are between the top of the cowl and the horizon. Know where to put the airplane to get what you want out of it. (You will hear this a lot from me.) Please comment below what “out the window” techniques you like to use and teach.
Looking at a distant object helps detect small aircraft movements and enables a pilot to fine-tune their corrections. Don’t be like the passengers on my airliner who live in the dark with their window shades down, oblivious to the world around them.
