In short: Step two of Rod Machado’s three-step instrument scan is the radial scan: start at the attitude indicator, glance at a primary instrument, then return to the attitude indicator to adjust. Because picking the primary instruments is the hard part, Rod suggests labeling each instrument with the flight conditions where it’s primary for pitch, bank or power.
Video: “Step 2 of the IFR Scan” by Rod Machado, from his YouTube channel.
What you’ll learn
- The three steps of Rod’s instrument scan and why step two is the hardest
- What makes an instrument primary for a given maneuver
- How the radial scan works, with the attitude indicator as the hub
- Why there are always three primary instruments: one each for pitch, bank and power
- Which instruments are primary in straight-and-level flight, turns, climbs and descents
- Rod’s labeling trick for learning the primary instruments without rote memorization
Three steps, one tough one
In this excerpt from his instrument scanning eLearning course, Rod describes a technique he developed decades ago and has used with primary students, instrument students and ATP candidates. Step one is selecting the attitude, power and trim for the flight condition you want. Step three is a monitoring scan once that attitude is established. Step two, the radial scan of the primary instruments, is where most pilots struggle.
Primary instruments are the ones that show whether the attitude you selected is accomplishing the maneuver. They let you fine-tune the attitude and also help confirm that the attitude indicator is reading correctly.
How the radial scan works
Every scan begins at the attitude indicator, which Rod labels start because that’s where every attitude change happens. Your eyes move out to a primary instrument, read it or note its movement, then return to the attitude indicator to make any correction. Drawn on the panel, the path looks like spokes radiating from a hub.
Rod stresses that skill on instruments comes less from looking at everything and more from knowing which instruments deserve your attention at a given moment. There are always three primary instruments: one for pitch, one for bank and one for power. Knowing them saves you from wasting time on redundant information.
Label the panel until it sticks
Rod’s suggestion is to tape small labels under each instrument naming the conditions where it’s primary. In straight-and-level flight, the heading indicator is primary for bank, the altimeter for pitch and the tachometer for power. In any turn, the turn coordinator is primary for bank. In constant-airspeed climbs and descents, airspeed is primary for pitch. On a constant-rate descent at a specific airspeed, such as an ILS, the VSI becomes primary for pitch and the airspeed indicator primary for power. Once the relationships feel natural, the labels come off. You can practice all of this on a flight simulator.
Go deeper with Rod Machado
This video is an excerpt from Rod’s instrument scanning eLearning course, which walks through all three steps of the scan in much greater detail. Learn more in The Art of the Instrument Scan eLearning Course.
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