Power, Attitude, Configuration (PAC)
I was first introduced to the idea of “IFR by the numbers” in a book written by John Eckalbar. In his amazing book Flying The Beech Bonanza, author and pilot John Eckalbar dedicates an entire chapter to “IFR by the Numbers”. In this chapter he discusses what he believes is a critical failure in most IFR training.
“Too much attention is given to the legalisms of the FARs and the associated written test, and too little is placed on the stick and rudder basics of flying on instruments.”
He goes on to talk about the different phases of an instrument flight and presents a figure similar to the one below.
His argument is that most flights can be broken up into a small number of segments:
- Segment 1 - takeoff roll and full-power climb
- Segment 2 - cruise climb
- Segment 3 - enroute phase
- Segment 4 - enroute let down
- Segment 5 - maneuvering to the final approach fix
- Segment 6 - descent to minimums
- Segment 7 - level off at MDA (NP approaches only)
- Segment 8 - proceed to runway
- Segment 9 - missed approach
“Now imagine how much simpler your flying would be, if, instead of having throttle, prop, mixture, trim, gear, flaps, and cowl flaps, you simply had 9 buttons to choose from-one for each [segment]”
So what can we do with this revelation? We can make a PAC Profile. Here is one for the C172S.
Following a PAC specific to your aircraft will make the act of actually flying the plane much easier and will free up your mind to focus on other tasks related to piloting.