VFR MASTERY SCENARIOS
This month's scenario Look Out, Dear #99 | OCTOBER 2026 You and your spouse are flying your V35 Bonanza into the private strip at Windsock Village, NH to meet another couple who are based there. After an overnight stay you’ll all continue to Owl’s Head, ME for the weekend. On arrival, a miscommunication involving the words “gear” and “deer” leads to a late go-around … and a direct hit on a deer. You climb away safely, but you’re unsure what damage, if any, was done to the prop, nose gear, or engine. The couple on the ground confirm the deer strike, but say that the runway is clear, and that there’s no obvious damage to your (still down) landing gear. As the sun sets, you weigh your options: try to land here again, or head elsewhere for bigger runways and better services.Start scenario →
Accept the Spacing?
You’re cleared to land following a stop-and-go training airplane. That airplane does its “stop” when you turn final, but appears unhurried about conducting the “go.” Now you’re on short final, and it seems you’re the only one concerned that there could soon be two airplanes on the same runway. Is this a problem you need to solve?
Start Scenario
A Diminishing Emergency
Sometimes it’s obvious you must land right away...like today when your turbo normalized engine rolls back to low power without any input from you. The less obvious choice comes when the problem seems to go away. Do you stick with your plan to divert, or do you press on tentatively, ready to land as needed?
Start Scenario
Surprise in the San Juans
The plan was for a relaxing day and a bit of celebration. The reality was a melee of light airplanes, all converging on an island airport with less than 3000 feet of runway. Is there a safe way to join the fray and keep your schedule, or should you divert even though it means disappointing everyone?
Start Scenario
Oshkosh from the East
You’ve been to Airventure at Oshkosh more than once and you never worried about crossing Lake Michigan. However, that was back when you owned a twin-engine airplane. Now that you’ve retired to an LSA, you’d rather not take the risk. But is it any riskier than the remaining options when the weather isn’t ideal?
Start Scenario
Unsafety Wire
What do you do when you discover a mechanical oversight that’s probably not a safety issue but leaves your airplane technically unairworthy and there’s no one around to fix it? Can you remedy the situation yourself? Or is it better to act as if you never noticed it in the first place?
Start Scenario
Angel Fire Departure
It’s time to leave the New Mexico high country, but a flat tire means a delay while you wait on the repair. Meanwhile, the temperature on the ramp just keeps climbing. Will your turbocharger alone be enough to counteract the high-density altitude, or will you adjust your plan for a safe departure?
Start Scenario
In the Turn
You’re out practicing some maneuvers, and ATC gives you a heads-up about traffic. You roll out of the turn and what do you see? There’s an airplane with no relative motion heading straight for you—close enough that you have only seconds to react. What will you do to avoid the collision?
Start Scenario
Rejected Takeoff Practice
Practicing for emergencies is core to aviation training. Creating realistic preparation for a potentially deadly event sounds like a great idea. But is it worth it when the risk of the event may be lower than the risk of an insurance claim from the practice itself? Maybe sticking with more conventional training is better?
Start Scenario
Lending a Hand
It’s a simple fact about aviation that what seems like a dangerous action to one pilot is a routine operation to another. Part of expanding your experience, and the tools in your kit, is learning new techniques from experts. Is hand propping a piston twin one of those situations or just excessively risky?
Start Scenario
Tiger on Fire
It’s a beautiful day and a routine flight over the open fields of Kansas. A minor instrument glitch seems to have resolved itself, leaving you to contemplate the scenery. That’s until “fire in flight” changes from a POH procedure into an immediate reality. You must get much closer to that scenery right away ... but how?
Start Scenario
Holding Short of Jet Blast
Everyone knows that the jet blast from a big airliner can upset small airplanes. LSAs can get tossed around by even a turboprop taxiing past. But does the pilot of a 3800-pound airplane need to leave extra room just because a jet is taxiing by? What if he must ask the jet to stop and wait while he repositions?
Start Scenario
Gliding in the Dark
Things were going well: You flew your airplane to an airport few GA pilots will ever see, you rocked a two-day demo for an important work project, and you got a tailwind whisking you toward a steak dinner with family. Then your only engine failed, over unfamiliar territory and at night.
Start Scenario
Spot Landing in Tacoma
This power-off landing is just for bragging rights at a local spot landing contest. You could win it if you adjust for the headwinds, yet an early error makes the target seem just out of reach. But maybe there’s a way if you can make the right correction.
Start Scenario
Powerless in the Bravo
It’s been a storybook flight home with your new airplane. You even got a clearance into Class Bravo airspace to see your favorite baseball team from above. Then an electrical issue forces you to turn off the master. How will you balance safety, compliance with the regulations, and following the last instructions you received from ATC?
Start Scenario
By Land or By Sea?
Flying a floatplane has inherent risks, one of which is your landing site might be impossible to use if the winds are wrong or the water is low. Amphibious gear gives you the best of both worlds—until it fails and leaves you searching for the least bad solution to a multi-headed problem.
Start Scenario
Undercast at Bean
Your destination airport is just on the other side of a broken cloud deck, and there’s at least one big hole right below you, right over a lake that’s obviously free of obstructions. Is there a safe way to get in from above? How about from the valley on either side? Or, is this just a trap for suckers?
Start Scenario
Misrigged Out of Maintenance
Seconds after rotation, the airplane has a mind of its own: It climbs; it descends; the controls seem all wrong. You get a moment of stability and have to decide what’s worse: Turning away from airlines approaching O’Hare—and risking renewed loss of control—or busting through the final approach of one of the world’s busiest Bravos.
Start Scenario
The Siren Song of University Park
The LSA you’re flying isn’t equipped for legal flight in the clouds, but its autopilot doesn’t know that. That’s why you trained yourself to turn it on and do a 180, if you ever went IMC accidentally. But that’s not working out as planned, so what’s the best way to get back to visual conditions?
Start Scenario
Truly Short Trip
There are few emergencies in aviation that require immediate action without time to think. One of them is an engine failure at low altitude. What will you do when faced with four options, given your actual view out the window? Or, will you use the airplane’s parachute—even though you’re so low it might make things worse?
Start Scenario
Is There Anybody Out There?
It’s a checkride, so you took a long time in the runup area making sure you didn’t miss a thing. Now, it’s time to depart but you can’t see the other end of the runway. The winds are calm. Is there a chance someone else is down there or is that less likely than winning the lottery?
Start Scenario