Earlier this year, I found myself in a task saturated situation. While it was at no point we were in danger, as it was an instructional flight, it did leave something for myself to reflect on…
Background
This is a night IFR flight. It was a club right seat checkout in a Piper Warrior. I have never flown the warrior before and this is one of the first few time I sit in the right seat. I rarely fly 6 packs so this also introduce a new avionics setup for me. Fortunately, it does have a capable GPS (Garmin GNC 355) and I had played with a simulator app on my iPad earlier that day to get familiar with it.
On-Set
We’re on an ILS approach and we received a vector to final from the approach. This approach also have a HILPT at the IAF. (For the curious, this is KFAT ILS Y RWY 29R.) As we received the inbound vector to final, skipping the IAF, GPS got stuck in the hold and I could not for the love of aviation god, figure out how to UNSUSP it. If it was a G1000, I would instinctively know where to push, but I have not used this GPS before! (Turns out, you need to leave the map view and go to default nav view for the unsusp button.)
My CFII probably see my GPS is not configured properly, throw in a question: How are you going to determine the FAF?
Now my stress level shoot straight up: I’m trying to fly a stable approach, managing the radio and try to solve this new puzzle, for which I fumbled through my iPad to look at the plate for the answer which makes flying just a little bit more harder.
I did manged to land the airplane safely, at no point it was out of ACS tolerance for a precision approach so it was a successful checkout and we went home.
Debrief
To my own credit, I think what I did well is prioritization and knew my fallback option well. When I decided that I could not find the UNSUSP button, I immediately give up on the GPS and rely on the CDI to track and land. Since we’re flying ILS, I don’t really need to see the GPS, I just use CDI and altimeter to determine where I am on the approach and cross-reference on ForeFlight to verify my position.
My CFII later told me that he’s asking the FAF question because he saw my GPS is not sequencing the FAF point and he wants to make sure I know how to make the approach. What he’s looking for is really just “When we’re on the localizer and 1800ft.” but me under stress, overthinking it, and spent extra time on the plate to figure out “okay it’s DME 6.1” which added to my own stress as I need to hand-fly the airplane at the same time.
Finally, I think what I can do better is to get more familiar with the avionics. I practiced loading procedure and check flight plan on the unit but now I know UNSUSP button is equally important to know where it will be.