It Breaks My Heart
11/17/2015
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Flight Training
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It is the applicant who has no plan for an emergency on takeoff that breaks my heart. Or the one who can’t demonstrate to me how to properly recover from a stall or perform an effective emergency descent or other safety related tasks. A lack of knowledge or abilities results in a letter of disapproval. There is no shame in failing a test, but training is required and must be taken seriously. My job, as is the job of the instructor, is to do our very best to keep the student from making the headlines. Not to crash or have an incident.
It Breaks My Heart
Written by Marc Nathanson DPE, CFI, CFII, MEI, Retired Lt. Colonel USAF
The FAA is investigating the crash of a Piper multiengine aircraft that crashed in Kentucky. There was only one survivor, the young daughter of the pilot. Everyone else in the aircraft perished and my heart is broken. How could this have happened?
As a former Chief of Flight Safety for a command in the Air Force, on too many occasions I have had the unenviable duty of informing my commander, a general officer, that he lost one of our pilots. In one case I reported that the search party found the remains of the young man who perished in the crash of his single engine jet aircraft. I told the general that I was sorry. He asked me if I expected a better outcome to which I admitted that, although I was hopeful, I did not. He said, “It breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”
As a Designated Pilot Examiner, I am able to gauge how and what flight instructors teach. For the most part instructors do a good job. But, in some cases, I wonder if they can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience if he or she has not looked at the requirements of the Practical Test Standards (PTS) and made certain their students met these standards before letting them fly solo or apply for a practical test (check ride).
It is the applicant who has no plan for an emergency on takeoff that breaks my heart. Or the one who can’t demonstrate to me how to properly recover from a stall or perform an effective emergency descent or other safety related tasks. A lack of knowledge or abilities results in a letter of disapproval. There is no shame in failing a test, but training is required and must be taken seriously. My job, as is the job of the instructor, is to do our very best to keep the student from making the headlines. Not to crash or have an incident.
It breaks my heart to think that, due to an instructor just building time, a key element is missed. Or that they hope their student will “figure it out”. I downed a fellow because his instructor admitted that “we would give it a try to see if he could pass”. This instructor also admitted that his student did not always fly to the required standards.
It is incumbent upon all instructors to make certain our students fly maneuvers consistently within the PTS-safely. We know that they won’t be able to fly to these standards until they have had the opportunity to practice the maneuvers and we, as instructor, must be patient guiding them. We must expect our students to prepare for each lesson. They must understand that the process of earning their pilot certificate will take longer and be more expensive if they are not doing their homework.
I’m done preaching... so, let’s talk about some accidents that could have been avoided. I’ll caveat my comments by saying that it is impossible to know what the pilot was thinking or what influenced their decision(s) that resulted in their accident. Accident investigators are taught not to speculate, but to base their investigation on the facts.
Our first accident, one that I investigated, was in South Korea in the 70s. The pilot flew a Cessna 150 with a passenger to look at a power plant he was involved in building. He ran out of gas a few miles short of his airport of intended landing. The passenger was severely injured, but later recovered. This broke my heart as this accident was avoidable. But… there was a trap that the pilot fell into. This older Cessna had a chart in the aircraft flight manual that was used to determine how long the aircraft could fly. In this case, it showed that the aircraft could remain airborne for over 3 hours using a specific power setting flying at the altitude they used. The chart did not have any numbers showing how much fuel was used to taxi, run-up and climb to altitude. If they could have air refueled, the numbers would have worked. They ran out of fuel by exactly that much.
Most modern Pilot Operating handbooks (POH) now tell you how much fuel is used during these operations. For example, the Cessna 172S POH tells us to add 1.4 gallons used for the engine start, taxi, and run up. In addition the POH includes a chart that tells us how much fuel will be consumed during the climb to our planned altitude(s) as well as the time and distance (you must figure in the effects of the wind) to climb. Examiners will test applicants on how to use these charts and determine if they are used correctly during the flight portion of the test.
The second accident occurred in the 60s. My student owned an Aeronca Chief which is a side-by-side Champ. The day I soloed him, I wrote in his logbook that he was to stay in our traffic pattern to practice landings and not to leave the traffic pattern. I included wind, ceiling, and visibility limitations as well. I also included a statement that required him to ask an instructor permission to fly his aircraft if I was not at the airport that day.
Instructors should do the same as their written limitations are treated as a requirement which must be adhered to by the student. My student ignored what I wrote in his logbook and briefed him to do and what not to do and flew his Chief to a neighboring airport to visit with friends. Upon his return, the winds increased beyond the limits I imposed. As a result, he could not handle the aircraft on landing and ground looped this beautiful aircraft-this broke my heart.
The FAA took a look at his logbook and exonerated me. Although I was relieved I was more heartbroken because my student’s disregard for my rules resulted in the crash of his aircraft. I was happy he was not injured.
Many instructors hold to the code that dictates that they are there for their students by providing the most complete training possible. Some, I’ve found are not as dedicated. It is up to the instructor to guide their students down the path that results in consistency and safe flights. It is the students responsibility to follow that path and do the required work. I hope that your heart is never broken.