TAA Ruin Your Scan

Situational awareness is critical when youre on the gauges, right? Few of us will argue that with a good EFIS its childs play to maintain that situational awareness, regardless of the quality of your scan. So far, so good.

Frank Bowlin

Friday, July 14, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Modern EFIS and autopilots, while providing enhanced situational awareness, do not eliminate the critical need for a diligent instrument scan to maintain primary flight parameters.
The author experienced a degradation of his instrument scan due to over-reliance on the autopilot and complacency with integrated displays, highlighting this common risk.
To prevent scan deterioration, pilots, especially those with advanced avionics, must intentionally hand fly more often and actively practice scanning all PFD data elements.
Maintaining a disciplined instrument scan is crucial for all pilots, regardless of experience or equipment, to avoid complacency and preserve fundamental flying skills.

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Situational awareness is critical when you’re on the gauges, right? Few of us will argue that with a good EFIS it’s child’s play to maintain that situational awareness, regardless of the quality of your scan. So far, so good.

But, situational awareness is supplemental to the primary tasks of instrument flying—maintaining course, altitude and airspeed. For that, you need to be constantly cross checking your three primary instruments. It doesn’t matter whether those three are discreet instruments each more than three inches from its closest neighbor, or whether they’re clustered together over a background of a synthetic view of the ground on your primary flight display. You’ve still gotta keep an eye on your heading, your altitude and your airspeed. Of course, including attitude in that scan will help you keep the other parameters in check.