Safety Pilot Duty

April 2nd, 2005 •

1.2 hrs PIC
Last night I was safety pilot for a guy I met off the Plus One Flyers club forum. In order to keep current to fly on instruments the regulations say that you must perform 6 instrument approaches, holding patterns, tracking and intercepting radials every 6 months. These have to be done in actual or simulated instrument conditions. Here in Southern California we don’t get many days where you can practice in actual conditions so the only way to do this is to wear a view-limiting device to stop you looking outside, and a safety pilot who tags along looking out the window and stops you flying into other planes or mountains.

Santa Ana winds had been blowing all day and so the winds aloft were acting weird. Over the coast the winds were from the west but a little inland they were from the east, each time we flew near the coast we got a little light turbulence. Serge flew an excellent circuit of approaches at Oceanside, Carlsbad and back to Montgomery, even landing with no lights working on the plane.

My currency expired yesterday so I need to get up with Serge and shoot the full 6 approaches. Hopefully I’ll do that later this month.

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