Rote vs Real Flying: RUAC in the Cockpit

Claire Brooks

...is defined as a rapid, rapid decrease in lift caused by the, the, the separation of airflow from the wing's upper surface, which occurs when the wing exceeds its critical angle of... of attack! I- I- I am reciting Chapter 5, page 12 of the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge verbatim, Captain Bob! Verbatim!

Oliver Hart

That is, uh... that is truly a touching recital, Jimmy. Truly. Now, would you mind, perhaps, looking out the front window and telling me why the windshield is currently entirely filled with clouds, the airspeed indicator is reading thirty-eight knots, and the control yoke is shaking like a wet retriever?

Claire Brooks

Because we are... we are experiencing the physical manifestation of the... the aforementioned aerodynamic stall! Which, as I noted, is characterized by the... the...

Oliver Hart

Push the nose down, Jimmy. Push. The nose. Down.

Claire Brooks

Oh! Right! Applying forward elevator pressure! Reducing angle of attack! Re-attaching boundary layer airflow!

Oliver Hart

And add some power before we plunge into Mrs. Gable's alfalfa field. There we go. Nose on the horizon. Recovered. My god, my blood pressure. Jimmy, you just demonstrated the absolute classic, textbook definition of the lowest, most useless level of human learning. Rote. R-O-T-E. You can repeat the words, but you have absolutely no idea what they mean in three dimensions.

Claire Brooks

But- but the FAA examiner! I- I have the flashcards, Bob! I memorized all of Chapter 3 of the Aviation Instructor's Handbook! RUAC! Rote, Understanding, Application, Correlation! Rote is the foundation!

Oliver Hart

No, Rote is the basement. It's the sub-basement. It is the damp crawlspace under the foundation where the spiders live. Rote just means you can spit back the facts. You're like a parrot. If I tell a parrot 'stall,' it says 'stall.' But the parrot doesn't realize it's falling out of the sky at nine hundred feet per minute because it has its wings folded. You need to move up to level two: Understanding. Actually comprehending *how* those pieces fit together.

Claire Brooks

Understanding. Right. Understanding is... uh... is when the student comprehends the nature of something or the... the meaning of... of...

Oliver Hart

Stop. Stop reciting. Explain it to me like I am a normal human being, not an FAA PDF. Why did we stall just now?

Claire Brooks

Because... because I- I kept pulling back on the yoke to... to climb, but we didn't have enough engine power to maintain that climb angle, so the air stopped flowing smoothly over the top of the wing and just... kind of turned into a swirling mess of lift-less garbage.

Oliver Hart

Yes. Exactly. See? No textbook jargon. You understood that pulling that yoke back increases the angle of attack, and if you go too far, the wing stops winging. That's Understanding. But knowing it is only half the battle. You have to actually *do* it. Which brings us to the third level. Application.

Claire Brooks

Application! Yes! Application is the physical execution of the task! Which I just did! I pushed the nose down! I applied the theory to the... Oh my gosh, wind! Wind! We are sideways!

Oliver Hart

Calm down. It is a crosswind gust. We are turning onto the base leg of the traffic pattern. Keep flying the airplane.

Claire Brooks

But the runway! It's- it's drifting to the left! The line! The runway centerline is supposed to be straight, but it's crooked! What is the checklist for a crooked runway? Is there a checklist? Section 4? Section 5?

Oliver Hart

There is no checklist for 'crooked,' Jimmy. This is where your Application falls apart because you are treating every flight maneuver like a isolated little box. You can apply a stall recovery when I say 'do a stall recovery.' But now we have a crosswind, we're descending, we're in ground effect, and your brain is short-circuiting because you can't connect the boxes.

Claire Brooks

I- I- I can't put them together! The wind is pushing us! Do I use the ailerons? Do I use the rudder? If I use the rudder, do we slip or skid? The book says skidding turns near the ground are... are...

Oliver Hart

Jimmy, look at the wind sock down there. Where is the wind coming from?

Claire Brooks

From the... the right! At... looks like ten knots!

Oliver Hart

Right. So if the wind is pushing us left, you need to tilt the wings *into* the wind to stop the drift, and use the opposite rudder to keep the nose pointed straight down the runway. That is Correlation. The absolute summit of RUAC. It's taking what you learned about slip-and-skid dynamics, what you learned about wind drift correction, what you know about ground effect, and fusing them together instantly to solve a real-world problem. It is the ultimate goal of Scenario-Based Training.

Claire Brooks

Fusing them... fusing them together. Like... like a puzzle? I am... I am banking right into the wind... and stepping on the left rudder... and... oh! The runway is lining up! We aren't drifting anymore!

Oliver Hart

Look at that. Correlation in action. You aren't just reciting definitions or doing isolated maneuvers on command. You are actually *flying* the scenario. But... uh... you're still pointing us slightly toward the airport beacon tower, so let's adjust that slip.

Claire Brooks

I am correlating! Captain Bob, I am actively correlating at a high level of cognitive proficiency!

Oliver Hart

Terrific. You're a regular aviation philosopher. Now correlate your hand to the throttle and bring us in for a landing before I have a stroke. Actually, you know what? I have flight controls.

Claire Brooks

You have flight controls.

Oliver Hart

I have flight controls. We are landing, we are parking this tin can, and you are buying me a triple-shot espresso. My nerves are completely shot.