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Chapter 3 - A Plan for the Scan 3-13

The Scan Starts with The AI

Fig. 22 Fig. 24

Think about it this way. If you want to enter a climb, a want to make a major attitude change (i.e., climb,
descent, a turn, or any other maneuver that instrument descend, turn, enter a climb from a turn, enter straight
pilots make, you’ll simply run through the three steps and level flight from a climb and so on). All three steps
that I’ll give you. You don’t need to memorize a specific together should take approximately 10 to 15 seconds to
scan pattern for each maneuver you want to accomplish. complete. Figure 23 shows the three steps and the order in
Imagine having to say to yourself, “OK, I’m going to enter which to do them.
a climb so what’s the specific scan pattern required to do I’ll speak only of primary instruments in the three-step
this?” or “I’m returning to straight and level flight from a instrument scan procedure. Any pitch, bank or power
climbing turn so what’s the scan pattern for this maneu- instrument that isn’t primary becomes a supporting pitch,
ver?” This would be cruel, like using turtles for speed bank, and power instrument by default.
bumps. I wouldn’t want to punish that three pound brain Here’s the big picture of the three steps in action:
of yours with an exercise that requires as many scan pat- Begin any major attitude change by placing the airplane
terns as there are basic flight maneuvers (and there are in the new attitude, adjust the power and trim if neces-
quite a few, too). sary, all the while checking that no instrument has failed
Instead, you only need to remember three steps along or is reading erroneously.
with the instrument labeling system I showed you in Radial cross-check the primary instruments, making
Figure 13. You’ll do the three steps in order every time you small corrections on the attitude indicator if necessary.
Make a final trim adjustment, and then
monitor all six flight instruments to main-
Fig. 23 tain the new attitude.
The specific details and reasons for each of
the three steps follow.
Step 1 of the Three-Step Scan
The first step in the three-step scan is to
select the attitude, power, and trim condi-
tions for the new flight attitude and confirm
the correct operation of the attitude indica-
tor. This first step is executed by focusing
solely on the attitude indicator. That’s why
it’s labeled START as shown in Figure 24
(hopefully, someone won’t try and start the
engine by tapping on this instrument).
Select the attitude that your experience
says will provide the flight conditions
you’re after. You don’t have to be perfect,
just reasonably close.
The big question here is whether it’s
reasonable to focus your attention on only
the attitude indicator when changing atti-
tudes. After all, the attitude indicator could
fail and lead you astray (like scanning