56. Fuel management and flying the U-2, with Tim Decker

Tim Decker’s flying career includes almost every segment of aviation, including military, fractional, airline, and even airshows. He applies safety habits from each of these jobs to his flying in his Cirrus SR22, and shares some of those in this episode. He explains the difference between minimum fuel and emergency fuel, when it’s smart to declare an emergency, and why instructors must embrace scenario-based training. He also talks about the concept of factored landing distances and shares how to calculate them in ForeFlight. In the Ready to Copy Segment, Tim tells us what it’s like to land a U-2 in a crosswind, two key lessons he learned from flying airshows, and the key differences between a career as an airline pilot and fractional pilot.

SHOW LINKS:

- FAA guidance on minimum fuel: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/media/atb2012-1.pdf

- U-2 landing video: https://youtu.be/txVHB8k0rTI

- Sporty's Pilot Training+ membership: https://www.sportys.com/sportys-pilot-training-plus.html