Over the Airwaves
Passages
Gail Sheehy's landmark book titled, Passages, describes the unique personality changes we go through as we enter each new stage of life. Each passing decade brings with it new perspectives, values, and motivations. In many ways, these passages are predictable.
We pilots, too, have our own set of predictable passages. As flight students, we tend to be apprehensive. After our first solo, we enter a period of cautious timidity. New instrument pilots develop an adventuresome spirit, anxious to try out their new skills in the clouds. As we gain experience, we become more confident, more skilled, and more adept as aviators.
And so it goes with each passing flight hour, new pilot rating, or decade of flying experience, we enter and complete another passage in our life as safe and increasingly proficient pilots.
Like most people, pilots travel through these passages quite well. Others of us, however, falter along the way. Like mis-matched marriage partners who cheat on their spouse, some of us begin to drift off-course. We do not follow the predictable passages that produce increasingly skilled pilots like Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who successfully landed his disabled Airbus 320 in the Hudson River last winter.
Somewhere along our flying career, some of us embark upon a flawed passage that leads to an attitude of complacency, the taking of procedural shortcuts, that emboldens us beyond our skill level, and that eventually places us in the NTSB accident files.
What leads us into this flawed passage? What are the warning signs that we're about to depart from the predictable passages that otherwise and more prudent pilots pursue?
The signs are there . . . beware!
As most pilots have experienced, circumstances occasionally arise that cause us to reflect upon where we are and where we are going in our flying career. A bad weather flying experience, a near-miss with another aircraft, an FAA enforcement action could be that circumstance.
Those are the easy ones because they literally stop us in our tracks. They capture our attention. If we survive them, we take stock of who we are and where we are going as pilots.
There are other far less noticeable circumstances, however, that impact every pilot. It's these subtle circumstances that we REALLY have to worry about. I know because, like many of you, I've occasionally experienced each of these predictors to embarking upon a flawed passage.
Let's look at a few of these predictors . . .
The abbreviated weather briefing:
Okay, the weather looks fine, so why call Flight Service or boot up the computer? Failing to obtain a full weather briefing before every flight is one of the most common predictors of eventually going down the wrong passage. One day the weather will catch us by surprise and we could pay a terrible price!
The quick pre-flight inspection:
We know our airplane like the back of our hand, so we "kick the tires, light the fires," jump in and go! Anybody notice the burned-out landing light, the low vacuum pressure, the dripping oil, or precisely how much fuel we have in the tanks? Have you ever skipped doing a thorough pre-flight? If so, beware!
The skipped checklist:
Sure, we memorize the big stuff like doing a magneto check but do we run the full checklist before every flight? If you answered "yes" to this question, you're heading down the right passage!
The failure to check in with ATC:
Talking about the high cost of flying, ATC is the best bargain in aviation today, bar none! As such, it's a wonder why every pilot does not utilize these wonderful services on every flight. Talking with ATC is like having a second or third cockpit crew member watching out the window. Failing to establish two-way communication with ATC can quickly lead any of us down the wrong passage!