![To gain great satisfaction when you demonstrate pilot mastery and to detect when you need to focus time and effort on education and proficiency, look for 'little moments of mastery' on every flight.[Credit: Leonardo Correa Luna]](https://flyingmag1.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/09/FLY0925_3.2-Proficiency-B.jpeg?width=959&height=763)
The old FAA Practical Test Standards (PTS)—now superseded by the Airman Certification Standards (ACS)—included a statement in its notes to examiners that was the guiding philosophy of whether a candidate performed well enough to pass a practical test: The candidate for a pilot certificate or rating “must demonstrate mastery of the aircraft, with the successful outcome of each task never seriously in doubt.”
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It’s a subjective judgment applied to an objective evaluation. Not only did the pilot fly a task within the “pass” criteria, they did so in a way that showed the examiner it was not a fluke, and the candidate could do it again and again. I’ve taken the pursuit of mastery as my lifelong goal for flying and teaching in airplanes. The ACS were designed to remove subjectivity from the evaluation process, and perhaps that’s why the PTS phrase didn’t survive into the newer guidance.
But the concept is still valid. And it’s a goal to aim for, knowing you’ll never completely master flying and how close you get to mastery changes from flight to flight. It’s something you have to work at constantly.
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How do you gauge mastery and answer the question, “How proficient am I?” To do that, to gain great satisfaction when you demonstrate mastery and to detect when you need to focus time and effort on education and proficiency, look for “little moments of mastery” on every flight. Here are a few.
70/50 Rule
During takeoff, the airplane should be at about 70 percent of its liftoff speed by the time it has traveled 50 percent of the computed ground roll distance. If not, something’s wrong. Abort the takeoff to find out.
To use the 70/50 rule during takeoff, you need to compute two things—liftoff speed and takeoff ground roll distance. Determining runway requirements is required by regulation. But then monitor your takeoff to ensure you met your performance targets.
Using the 70/50 rule intelligently to assure a safe, efficient takeoff goes far beyond minimums. Doing so is a little moment of mastery.
Plus or Minus 20 Feet
I remember one of my early instructors pointing out I leveled off above my desired altitude.
“If you can level off at 5,700, you can level off at 5,500,” he told me.
Since then I’ve tried to be more precise as I level off and trim the airplane for cruise. My goal: Level off precisely on altitude and stay there, no more than 20 feet off the exact altitude.
You’ll generally climb at some airspeed and cruise at some faster speed. The bigger the difference between climb and cruise indicated airspeed, the greater difference there will be in trim setting as you make the transition. This change occurs gradually as the airplane accelerates to cruise speed.
Since a stable airplane will pitch to remain at or return to the indicated airspeed for which it is trimmed, most airplanes will tend to gain altitude while leveling off. You need to apply forward control pressure to capture the altitude and apply a little down trim to hold the pitch. The airplane accelerates as a result, and as speed increases the airplane pitches up to hold trimmed speed.
So you apply a little more forward pressure and trim nose down a little more. The airplane holds altitude but continues to accelerate, meaning you need to hold even more forward control pressure, and trim nose down a little more, a bit at a time, until the airplane reaches its cruise speed and you trim off the pressure required to keep it there.
A technique that helps, if your airplane is climbing at more than 500 fpm, is to begin the process by lowering the nose and climbing the last 1,000 feet at 500 fpm—it will take two minutes. Trimming for this climb rate means you’ve taken care of the first part of the dynamic trim change that occurs at level-off.
At 200 feet to go. close the cowl flaps (if you have them) and begin pitching toward the horizon. You’ll accelerate so it takes only a little pitch and trim change to merge with your desired altitude, and less trim change from there to final cruise speed.
If you wait until reaching your altitude before you begin leveling off, you’ll almost certainly climb right through it. Level-off is less an event and more a process that begins 1,000 feet and two minutes before reaching altitude. With a more gradual transition to cruise, it’s far easier to level off precisely on altitude and certainly within 20 feet.
Even in airplanes with a modern autopilot, hand-flying the level-off (unless workload is very high) is free precision practice every time you fly. It makes it more likely you’ll achieve this little moment of mastery.
Guess the Message
If you have one or more GPS navigators, you see a lot of message lights. They flash when you’re about to enter Class B, C or D airspace, military operating areas (MOAs), restricted airspace, alert areas, and more.
Message lights flash if you’ve set a reminder, such as to switch fuel tanks. As a measure of your situational awareness, tell yourself what the message is going to be before you touch the key and read it. It’s a little moment of mastery when you’re situationally aware enough to know what the “box” is going to tell you.
Am I the Traffic?
Air traffic controllers (ATCs) are required to keep participating aircraft separated from one another (although any time you’re in VMC conditions you are responsible to see and avoid). Controllers are not required to advise pilots of other traffic—they only call out traffic as they feel their time permits.
One way to judge situational awareness is to figure out when you’re the traffic being pointed out to someone else. Use the “big picture” in your head aided by an ADS-B display.
If you’re at, say, 5,500 feet and hear “traffic is at your seven o’clock, 5 miles, 5,500 unverified,” start looking around and checking ADS-B to see where that other airplane might be, and if you’re the traffic that’s been called out. It’s another little moment of mastery to find you’re right.
Traffic in Sight
When traffic is called out or you see a target on ADS-B, it’s a little moment of mastery—not to mention, a vital skill—to find the aircraft visually.
By the way, controllers don’t want to know if you have the other aircraft “on the fish finder” or “on ADS-B.” Either you have the traffic in sight and assume responsibility to see and avoid, or you do not.
Through the Motions
One proficiency exercise you can do on every flight is to practice emergency procedures in cruise when not much is going on. Call out a procedure, then move your hands through the motions of the checklist response.
Do this without looking at where your hands are moving, figuring you might need to be looking elsewhere as you perform the “memory steps” of an emergency checklist, or your vision may be impaired from smoke, a bird through the windshield, or some other catastrophe.
For example, in the airplane I fly the engine failure in flight checklist calls for establishing best glide speed then, if time and altitude permit, attempting to restart the engine by accomplishing these tasks:
• Fuel: SWITCH to another tank
• Mixture: FULL RICH
• Auxiliary fuel pump: ON. If engine does not restart, return to OFF.
• Magneto switch: BOTH
• Alternate air control: PULL
I look out the front of the airplane or focus on the attitude display while I move my hands to the controls or switches in sequence. I should be able to find the fuel selector with my left hand, the mixture control and auxiliary fuel pump switch with my right hand, the magneto key switch with my left, and the alternate air control with my right. If I can’t touch them without having to look, I’ll practice until I do.
Do the same with other emergencies, like engine fire, electrical fire, emergency descent, maximum glide, etc. Finding the controls for an emergency response the first time without looking is a little moment of mastery.
‘I Have the Weather’
Many airports have weather reporting, usually an automated surface observation system (ASOS), automated weather observation system (AWOS), or automated terminal information system (ATIS). If you’re talking to ATC (IFR or VFR), the controller having jurisdiction over your destination airport will expect you to confirm having listened to the recorded information. Most times you’ll be able to pick it up at least 50-60 miles from the airport.
It’s a demonstration of mastery to tell a controller you have the destination weather when you first check in with that controller. Look at the Approach or Center frequency for that airport, in a GPS waypoint database, or in the chart supplement.
Compare this exchange…:
ATC: “N329PT, contact Wichita Approach on 134.85.”
Pilot: “134.85, N329PT.” After changing frequencies, “Approach, N329PT 4000.”
ATC: “9PT, confirm you have the information for Jabara Airport.”
Pilot (sheepishly): “Ah, negative, I’ll get it and report back…”
…to this one:
ATC: “N329PT, contact Wichita Approach on 134.85.”
Pilot: “134.85, N329PT.” After changing frequencies, “Approach, N329PT 4000 with the weather requesting RNAV 18 approach via HENEV.”
ATC: “Cleared direct HENEV at or above 4,000 cleared for the RNAV 18 approach.”
Which version better illustrates mastery of the aircraft?
Computing the Landing Crosswind
In my experience, most pilots think about crosswind component in terms of control inputs for takeoff. But when they get wind information before landing, thoughts are less about crosswind control requirements and more simply choosing which runway to use.
I suspect this attitude toward crosswinds plays a part in common loss of directional control on the runway (LODC-R) mishaps.
When you receive wind information for your destination, don’t think only about which runway to use but also what control inputs will be required. Decide whether conditions are within your current level of crosswind proficiency. Should you choose a different runway or divert to a different airport? It’s usually the pilot’s skill, not the design of the airplane, that makes or breaks a crosswind landing.
Flight planning apps give real-time crosswind component information if you have a signal that permits updates in flight. That’s not cheating—it’s using available resources. Using wind reports to select a landing runway but also to consider the crosswind component is another little moment of mastery.
Earn Your Stripe
On a runway with standard markings a runway stripe is 120 feet long, and the space between stripes is 80 feet long, making the combination of a stripe and a space 200 feet. This will be valid in the first third of the runway in each direction—the stripe and space lengths may vary in the middle third, so the two ends work out correctly.
This 200-foot measure is useful to pilots in gauging precision and mastery. The private pilot ACS requires candidates to touch down at minus-0/plus-400 feet of a point on the runway for a normal landing. That’s no sooner than the identified spot and not more than two runway stripe/space combinations after. Touch the wheels before the spot or on the third stripe (or more) after, and you don’t meet the minimum standard to be a private pilot.
For the short field task a private pilot candidate must land minus-0/plus-200 feet from an identified spot on the runway. You have to touch down on a single runway stripe, no more, no less, or you can’t be a private pilot that day.
You were able to demonstrate this precision as a very low-time pilot. Now that you have a lot more experience, there’s no reason you can’t be at least that precise every time you fly.
Landing short, landing long, and running off the end of the runway, LODC-R from trying to land too fast, and hard landings from getting too slow, are all symptoms of improper speed control and flight path management—not making the airplane go where you want it to go.
Pick a runway stripe (perhaps at the touchdown zone markers) and touch down smoothly on it under control, compensating for crosswinds and with the runway centerline between the main wheels. Achieving all these criteria is a little moment of mastery.
There are many more measurements you can make of your proficiency and identify as little moments of mastery. Did you meet your estimated time of departure, or arrival, and time en route? Were you within 2 gallons of your estimated fuel burn? Did you confirm actions with a printed checklist after each transition from one phase of flight to the next? Did you avoid missing any radio calls?
You won’t be perfect on every flight. You can, however, look for those little moments of mastery as a goal to shoot for, a confirmation when you’re performing above standards, and a warning sign if you need more practice or instruction to be safe and proficient.
This feature first appeared in the September Issue 962 of the FLYING print edition.
