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Patience is an Important Part of Being a Pilot

Sometimes I forget how much patience is required when being a pilot.

Like so many others, I went out a few weeks ago full of excitement and ready to attack my CFI.  Then the weather decided otherwise.  All it took was some pretty good wind, and I was grounded.  Wind gusts in the 30s are manageable in a C-130, though not always fun, but in a 172 in the mountains, that is not only not fun, it is generally unsafe.

This was reinforced the day after my cancelled 172 flight when I was flying for work in the C-130.  We heard a guy on the radio talking about encountering mountain wave turbulence and being unable to maintain altitude.  Apparently he got through it and reached his destination, but that is the type of scenario that no pilot wants to encounter.

The Sierra Nevada Mountains around Lake Tahoe are stunning with their views, especially this time of year with the snow caps and everything turning green.  But, they are unforgiving when it gets windy.  The very first time I ever flew in the area in a C-130 I experienced an instantaneous drop of 300 feet.  Having only really flown in low terrain in the Central USA it was not something I was familiar with.  It can be easy to underestimate mother nature, but she doesn’t care what you are doing, she is going to do her thing.

I am scheduled to fly again tomorrow morning, and it is forecasted to be windy by the afternoon.  Here’s hoping I am able to beat the wind and get a flight under my belt.  I am super excited to be getting back in a small plane and moving one step closer to my CFI and starting my flight school.

May 1, 2022 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

Night Flying Tips From a Military Pilot

I gotta say, it still feels weird saying I am a military pilot, but I guess I need to better embrace what I am in a lot of aspects of life.

Anyways, after flying a couple of nights ago I thought it might be useful to mention some of the things I have learned about flying at night that may be useful to others who don’t do as much night flying.

One obvious difference between what we do in the Air Force and most, if not all, civilian flyers is that we use NVGs when we fly at night.  We do still practice approaches and landings at night without them, but if we are doing low levels or airdrops at night, we always wear them.

If you ever get the opportunity to try some NVGs I would recommend trying them out on the ground because it is cool, but DO NOT try to fly with them unless you have been properly trained.  There may be this idea that they make it almost like daytime, but that is not the case.  They do dramatically improve your ability to see at night, but they also completely change your depth perception and how your straight ahead vision interacts with your peripheral vision since one is using NVGs and the other is not.  Again, do not try and do anything with NVGs unless you have been trained.

So what are some things you can do to make flying at night more safe?

Physiologically, make sure you are well rested when flying at night.  It can be easy to have a normal day and then head out to the airport to get some night flying done, but be very cognizant of how you feel physically.  During the summer you may try to fly more in the evenings when it starts to cool down so you need to be honest with yourself about how tired you are.  Especially if you are going out after the sun has set because it sets so much later in the summer.

Here in Arkansas right now it doesn’t really get dark until after nine o’clock so to get some night time in you have to stay up much later than in the winter when the sun sets around 5-6.  If you typically stay up until midnight or later this may not be a big deal, but if you are an early to bed kind of person you need to be honest with yourself about how tired you are, and may want to consider an afternoon nap to give yourself a little more pep when the sun goes down.

It is also common to use some sort of stimulant like coffee or energy drinks to give you a little boost at night, but be careful with how much of that stuff you use.  Too much can make you jittery and effect your night vision, which is obviously pretty important.  There is also a chance of having that big drop off when the effects wear off, and you don’t need that late at night.

Next, it is really important to get to know the airport and area you will be flying in.  Even if it is an airport you use regularly, it will look different at night than it does during the day.  Having a clear picture in your mind of where you will be on the ground and what to look for in the air will help to alleviate some of the confusion that is inherent with flying at night.  This is especially true when you are flying as the sun is setting because you will start to get strange shadows that can mess with your head in terms of depth perception and things looking unfamiliar.

For that reason I recommend getting night practice on a regular basis so that you add to your mental picture of how things look in all different light conditions.  Three landings every 90 days is not enough to be safe flying at night.  Now if you just choose not to fly at night at all, that is your decision, but you do miss out on some amazing sights and peace that can only be experienced at night.  You also never know when you may need to fly at night and you don’t want to find yourself unprepared, and in turn, unsafe.

Part of getting to know your airport is learning the important altitudes around it.  Outside of pattern altitudes, a lot of other altitudes seem to be more related to instrument flying, but as you will learn, there is a lot of crossover from night flying and instrument flying that will keep you safe.

Understanding what the highest obstruction to flight around your airport is can be vital information.  There is so much peace of mind when you have an emergency of some sort in knowing that if you climb to a certain altitude you are safe from hitting anything while you diagnose the problem.  There could be buildings or towers or even a mountain near your airport that you don’t want to be worrying about while you are troubleshooting.

This also applies when flying at night away from your airport.  I recommend you stay as high as you feel safe at night, within reason, because it eliminates many of the risks of terrain and towers that can be lower.  Your depth perception at night is also not the same as during the day, so having that extra buffer is a huge blessing.  Looking at your route of flight on at least a sectional before you fly will help you to know what a safe altitude is.

This may seem like it is more important in mountainous areas where there are more obstructions, and that is a valid point, but I have seen 1000’+ towers in relatively flat terrain that will ruin your day just as fast as a mountain if you aren’t aware that they are there.  We always try to see and avoid whether day or night, but it is more challenging to do so at night, so understanding the hazards along your route will always keep you safer.

Even though we fly on NVGs in the military, we still prepare all of our charts with safe altitudes, factor obstacles that may still be dangerous if we are low to the ground, and study them as a crew to make sure we are safe.  If we have any kind of an emergency, or even just an unexpected situation that requires extra attention, we always climb to those safe altitudes so we can safely divert a little attention to whatever the problem may be.

In a similar vein it is also important to check the NOTAMs for your route of flight.  These can help you identify significant towers, and maybe more importantly towers that may be unlit.  These are not extremely common, but not being able to see a tower that you will be flying towards is incredibly unsafe.  They could go out for any number of reasons, and you want to know that before you go.  Also bear in mind with towers that they may have wires sticking out from the sides for support that you will never see at night, so just stay far away from them.

Tools like ForeFlight can also be invaluable at night, but do not just use them as a crutch.  Learn the proper skills and do the proper preparation which will allow you to operate safely. Those tools can be used on the ground for all of the things I mentioned.  Then you can have all of that information in one place and they will be the asset they can be instead of just a crutch or distraction.

Outside of all of the preparation I have mentioned, you need to fly at night regularly to stay proficient.  It’s not enough to go knock out your three takeoffs and landings and then have your friends jump in to go for a flight the same day.  You may technically be legal, but you are not proficient.  The only way to get good at night landings is to practice them regularly, just like landings during the day.

The sight picture is so much different, that only experience can really prepare you.  Your depth perception and peripheral vision are such important parts of flying, and they are dramatically affected by operating at night.  It’s also important to go to different airports if you have the option.  They all have unique lighting on the runways and surrounding areas that allow you to learn even more and expand that tool bag of knowledge that you build with each flight.

It may also be worth mentioning that one of the most common misconceptions about flying at night is that airports are really bright places, when in actuality they are generally the darkest patch of ground in an area because runway and taxiway lights are not very bright, and they don’t need to be.  So if you are having trouble finding an airport at night, look for the dark areas with straight lines of lights running through them.  If it is a smaller airport, pilot controlled lighting can also be a game changer with finding the airport.  That many lights turning on at the same time is pretty hard to miss.

Flying at night is such a fun and unique experience.  During the summer it is great because it is cooler and the air is generally a little smoother.  It gives you a unique view of the places that you see regularly, because everything looks different at night.  I find it to be more peaceful because not as many people fly at night.  I also really enjoy being at the airport late at night because they are unusually quiet.  There is something really calming about sitting in the darkness of an airport with only the runway and taxiway lights on.  It’s probably because there is often so much noise around an airport, but at night it is just peaceful when not many planes are around.

So get out there and fly at night.  Experience something different for a change.  If you aren’t proficient then take another pilot with you who may be more proficient, because flying with friends is almost always better anyway.  It really can be an underappreciated part of flying, but one that requires extra vigilance on your part to be able to enjoy it safely.

June 24, 2021 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

Some Thoughts on Aviation Safety

Recent events have led me to spend some time thinking about aviation safety and how lucky we are to live in such a safe time for flying.  Regardless of how some people want to sensationalize the events near Denver, it was not as big of a deal as some have made it out to be.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a significant event, and deserves adequate attention from the NTSB, FAA, United, Boeing, P&W, etc. but rather than creating fear, it should instill confidence in the aviation industry.  The fact that such a catastrophic failure of an engine led to nothing more than an emergency declaration and delaying the passengers’ arrival in Hawaii is a testament to all of the safety measures we take in this industry.

It was mostly a non-issue because of the ridiculous amount of training that crew has received in their careers.  I can’t speak to the specifics of the flight attendants training, though they play a vital role, so I will focus on the pilots.

In the course of their careers they have likely done hundreds of landings in the simulator with one engine out.  They have done them in good weather, in bad weather, right after takeoff, right before landing, and a hundred other different scenarios to make sure it would essentially be a non-issue should that day ever come.

In my own personal training in the C-130, which admittedly has been very short, I would venture to guess that I have done more landings with one engine out than I have with all of my engines operating.  That’s because we train for the unexpected and spend far less time in the simulator doing “normal” things.  Even prior to becoming a pilot I had been with pilots that practiced hundreds of landings in the plane with a simulated engine out.  It is part of every single one of their checkrides that they do about every 17 months.

Beyond that, I have been on the plane at least half a dozen times, and probably more, when we have actually shut an engine down in flight.  This isn’t as big of a deal when you have four engines as opposed to two, but in every single one of those instances, it was really not a big deal.  The crew worked together as a team, they assessed the situation, and we all landed safely.  Twice I had it happen over the ocean, and in both cases all it did was delay us to our destination by a couple of days.

I do not mean to undermine the fears of the passengers on that plane, or even those who were reading about it after the fact.  I would not expect them to feel the same way as me or anybody else who has thousands of hours in airplanes and has trained extensively for those situations.  Even those of us that are well trained have moments where our stomachs drop or even a little fear crosses our minds.  We are all humans after all.  I would hope though, that people will look at this as the endorsement of our safety culture that it is, rather than an indictment of it.

One last thing worth mentioning is how this incident will contribute to the continued safety of our industry.  Any time an event like this occurs an investigation will take place.  They will look at the plane and the engine and try to determine what the probable cause of the incident was.  They will talk to the crew and analyze their actions pointing out the good and the bad of how they handled the situation.  They will look at the air traffic controllers and see how well they handled their part.  Maintenance practices will be analyzed and critiqued.

All of this information will then be brought back to people all over the world who will receive training on what happened, what was done well, and how it can be improved upon.  Briefings like that can be incredibly humbling experiences where they were not as fortunate to have no casualties like they did here.  But they are a vital part of our industry and keeping us safe.  We often say the rules and regulations are written in blood because many of them came as a result of injury or loss of life.  In this case we were very fortunate that no injuries occurred, but we will still reap the benefits of lessons learned, and the industry as a whole will be safer for it.

If incidents like this make you scared to fly, the best way to get over that is to learn more about how it all works.  So if you have any questions about the process or how we have made aviation so safe please reach out.  Leave a question in the comments below, or send me a message and I will gladly discuss it with you.  There is no reason for someone to stay scared of something that is so ridiculously safe.

February 22, 2021 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

In Aviation, Small Differences Can Have a Big Impact

I am always amazed by how much difference there can be in very small distances.  As I was watching my favorite college football team last night, I was reminded of that fact once again.

As the game was coming to a close our team was down five points and driving towards the endzone.  The quarterback threw a pass near the goal line that was caught, but the receiver was tackled about  a yard short of the goal line that would have won them the game.

Once I got over the heartbreak, which came much later in the season this year than I am used to, it really hit me how often in life a relatively small distance can make a very big difference.

In this case the receiver has over 1,000 yards receiving this year.  He is on watch lists for major national awards.  He has been hands down the team’s best receiver, but he came up one yard short of winning the game for his team.  It had to be heartbreaking for him and his teammates, and I know it was rough for me and all of the other fans across the world.  All because of three feet.

In the flying world, these small distances can be far more critical.

I knew of a crew that clipped the top of a wall near an airfield and carried 80 feet of concertina wire on to the next base they landed at.  Three feet lower and the crew probably doesn’t get to tell the story.  Three feet higher and there is no story to tell.

It can be easy at times to take these small distances for granted.  Does it really matter if we run takeoff and landing data for an airfield we have used a million times in a plane we are very familiar with?  Is it the end of the world if I am a few knots slow on final?  Does it matter if I land a little long on a runway that has plenty of distance?

The vast majority of the time, the reality is that none of the things I mentioned above are going to kill you.  Tons of people do all of these things regularly without any bad outcomes.  At the same time, people have died from every single one of the things I mentioned, because those small differences can be the difference between life and death when flying.

The biggest reminder of this to me is a friend I lost because of a small Pelican Case probably less than six inches in size that got placed behind the yoke.  Six inches of plastic literally cost him and his crew their lives.

Whether it’s six inches, a couple of knots, or three feet, all of these small amounts can make a huge difference in being safe, or at great risk.  It is our job as aviators to keep ourselves on the three feet high and a couple of knots fast side of the situation so that we can not only continue to enjoy this thing we love, but to keep ourselves and those around us safe.

The real challenge with flying is that we also can’t err too far on the safe side, because that can be just as unsafe.  I heard a CFI talking about the dangers of adding too much of a safety margin to our flying that really hit home with me.  It’s acceptable to be a couple of knots fast when you are landing, but say it’s a little windy so you decide to carry a few more knots.  It has also been awhile since you flew so you decide to carry a few extra knots to feel safer.  Before you know it, you are more than ten knots fast on landing which is also not a safe situation.

Despite some of the inherent risks of taking people into the air inside of a metal tube, flying is a relatively safe endeavor when we follow the rules.  All of these small differences are manageable when we put in the proper time for training and experience.  We must settle for nothing less than perfection as we improve our aviation skills.  That doesn’t mean that every single approach will be on speed at exactly the spot we were aiming for on landing.  But when we aren’t on speed and we land long or short we should analyze why it happened.

We should take a moment to think about what we did and what the result was.  Did we pull the power a little early?  Was their a gust of wind right at the flare?  Did we fly speeds for a different flap setting than what we actually configured?  There could be dozens of different causes for our mistakes, but if we never take the time to analyze what we did, we can never fix those mistakes.  More importantly, we increase the likelihood of exceeding the safe limits and having an accident.

I think this constant pursuit of improvement is one of the reasons I love flying so much.  You can fly thousands of miles and after all of that, it comes down to just a few hundred feet of accuracy to end the trip safely.  There is also always room for improvement.  There is no such thing as the perfect flight or the perfect pilot.  There is always a new skill to learn, or a new type of flying to try out.  And there is always an opportunity to make sure we are staying on the safe side of these small differences.

December 6, 2020 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

We Lost a Great Friend Yesterday

Flying is an inherently dangerous business.

I have often heard, and experienced, that the longer you are in this business the more likely you will lose a friend.  For what was unfortunately not the first time, I lost a friend in an airplane accident yesterday.

Ian McBeth was one of the pilots on the Coulson Aviation plane that crashed while fighting fires in Australia.  Ian was a consummate professional, and one of the best pilots I ever had the opportunity to fly with.  He was an expert in his craft and one of the most respected pilots in the firefighting community.

On top of working for Coulson, Ian was also a member of the Montana National Guard and before that the Wyoming National Guard, also flying the C-130 as an expert on the MAFFS mission.

I got to know him because over the last year or so he regularly flew with us in Reno as we continue to get spun up as the newest of the MAFFS units.  He was an exceptional instructor in what is arguably the most dangerous mission the C-130 executes.  He was always calm and collected as our pilots learned this dynamic and essential mission.

I will always remember his cool demeanor, and his ability to mould our pilots into even better pilots.  Ian was always a pleasure to be around and he will be truly missed.

This whole thing frankly sucks, and is a good reminder to all of us aviators that what we do is dangerous and unforgiving.  We will all learn from this tragedy and improve the safety of this mission in any way we can.

As I talked with my fellow classmates here at UPT Icame to realize one of the amazing characteristics of pilots, and more specifically Air Force pilots.  We have an incredible amount of resiliency.  We have terrible tragedies like this, we take the time to mourn our friends, and we will certainly never forget them, but then we get back to work and take care of business.

That is what our friends would want.

Ian was doing what he loved, and that is a great example for all of us to commit ourselves to something as important as fighting fires, and more importantly to commit fully to whatever it is we do.

To all of our friends that have gone before…a toast.

You will be missed Ian.

January 25, 2020 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

Overcoming the Mental Side of Flying

It has been an interesting week of flying here in beautiful Del Rio, TX.  The weather was forecast to be pretty crappy, and the forecast proved to be quite accurate.

That really sucks when it comes to pilot training, because a lot of the things we do require VFR conditions.  Outside of the training arena, the weather would not have been that big of a deal, but for all of us newbies it was less than ideal.  It was also a great learning experience for me of just how important it is to keep your mind ready when it comes to flying.

Early this week I was scheduled for a simulator session in the morning, and a flight in the afternoon that was not looking real promising when the day started due to crappy weather.  As the day went on I started to check out on flying because most of the flights had cancelled for weather.  I got my paperwork ready to fly, but I was really just going through the motions and wasn’t putting in the effort that I should have.

We got to brief time and I sat down with my IP already convinced we were going to cancel, but even then I knew better.  I personally said we should probably still brief because you never know what will happen with the weather.  We went through the brief, and as we did we heard updates that the weather was improving and it looked like we would be able to fly.  I now found myself in a bad spot because I had already started to checkout, and now needed to go fly.

I won’t go into all of the details of the flight, but suffice it to say it was not a very good flight.  I missed a handful of small things that were not terribly critical, but were things I should not have missed.  I got behind the plane, and while I eventually caught up, I wasted training time because my mind was not in it.  I also got spatial disorientation, which did nothing to help the situation.

By the time we landed I was pretty down on myself, with only myself to blame.

Fast forward two days and I was in almost an identical situation.  I had a simulator session in the morning, followed by a flight in the afternoon.  Pretty much everyone had cancelled their flights due to weather, and right up until the brief I thought we would cancel too.  The difference yesterday was that I forced myself to stay in the game mentally.

As I prepared my paperwork the weather actually kept getting worse but I just kept telling myself that I was not going to let the same thing happen again. We were still going to fly and I was going to be ready.  With the weather as crappy as it was I was honestly at a loss of what I was going to do even if we did take off.  It had been cloudy for days and the people who had flown did not bring back great reports that would allow for the aerobatic training that I really needed.

But I just kept running through ideas in my head.  I could just go and do some instrument approaches, but then the nearby airports were also below minimums.  I could also go up into the MOA and practice some of the instrument maneuvers in actual IMC.  That would be better than nothing, but I really needed pattern work, and that just wasn’t going to happen.  I also didn’t want to get stuck in the air and have to divert to San Antonio for the long weekend, but that was just my mind trying to find reasons not to fly.

It came time to brief and my IP wasn’t even in the room so I was further convinced we would not fly, but I just kept telling myself we were going flying.  Even after we sat down to brief another student walked in and my IP told him he would likely have to weather cancel, so I was sure I wasn’t going flying.  But we kept briefing.

Halfway through our brief an announcement came out that the T-38s would not be flying as long as expected so there was a larger time slot for us.  What happens here when the weather is marginal is a status referred to as alternating instruments.  Essentially, when the weather is bad we set specific times for the T-6s and T-38s to recover.  Because we fly at such different airspeeds this is simply a safer situation when the weather doesn’t allow for a VFR pattern.  The fuel capacity of the T-38 also makes this a smarter solution.

It wasn’t until that announcement was made that my mind finally started to convince the rest of me that I was actually going flying.

We finished our brief and got suited up before going to the step desk.  That is the last stop before we fly and the last chance for someone to stop us.  Because of the weather, we were the only ones up there waiting to fly.  Even the other flights that had been scheduled from my class had cancelled for weather.

While we waited to get approval to go my IP made the comment that, “When I’m the only one stepping to fly it makes me question my decision of whether I should go or not.”  This is a very true statement, and is something every pilot should remember, but ultimately proved to be not true on this day.

After some reassurance for the weather shop, the Operations Supervisor cleared us to go and fly.  We got out to the plane not in a rush as the weather was only supposed to improve at this point.  We taxied out to the center runway, which is not what we normally use, but had much less water and was thus safer.  We ran our pre-flight checks, and took off, going into the clouds within the first few hundred feet.

We ended up climbing to near the top of the MOA in the hopes the sun had burned off some of the clouds because they were not super dense, but as we got to 21,000 feet we were still in IMC.  Instrument maneuvers it would be apparently, and that is just what we did for the first fifteen minutes or so.  We had noticed some VFR layers on our climb up and decided to drop down and see if we couldn’t find a gap.

A brief aside on the super fun capabilities of the T-6.  Needing to descend about 10,000 feet my IP suggested I try an idle/speed brake descent just to see how fast this plane can drop when you need it to.  It sounded like fun to me, and I pulled to the PCL to idle, extended the speed brake and pitched the nose down.  I can’t tell you what our actual descent rate was because our VSI pegs out at 6,000 ft/min.  Let’s just say about a minute and a half later we were at 10,000 feet and that was with pulling in the speed brake a few thousand feet early because we broke out of the clouds and seeing the ground rushing towards me that fast was intense.

As luck would have it, there was actually a pretty substantial area of VFR conditions, and we were able to get a bunch of good training in.  I did my first split-S and aileron roll.  I also made great progress in some of my other VFR maneuvers.  I was shocked at how much we got done on a day when I didn’t think we would even take off.

To cap off the flight I also got to hold because there was so much traffic coming back in at the same time, and then flew an ILS (poorly), back home to a pretty nice landing if I do say so myself.

All in all it was a much better flight than earlier in the week because I forced myself to stay in the game.  Even as I looked for safety concerns and reasons why we wouldn’t be able to fly, I just kept telling myself we were going to fly, and it paid off for me in the end.  I got fantastic training, and continued to move towards the ultimate goal of getting my wings.

I expected the physical action of flying to be my biggest challenge at UPT because I already have a lot of experience in the air, but this was a great reminder of just how important the mental aspect of flying is.  I didn’t do much that I hadn’t already seen, but I did it so much better because I was mentally ready for it instead of quitting like I did earlier in the week.

Flying is challenging under the best conditions, but it is even more important to be completely on your game when the conditions are not ideal.  There is a time and a place to call it and not fly when the conditions are bad, but I am grateful I listened to my IP and pushed through (the second time this has happened with the same IP) because I would have missed some good fun, and some valuable training.  There is just so much to learn in this industry and I am grateful for all of the lessons I continue to learn every day.

January 18, 2020 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

What I Learned in Pilot Training: Crew Resource Management

Crew Resource Management (CRM) may be one of the most important, but least talked about topics in aviation.  This is not to say that it is not talked about at all, but that I think many people underestimate the value it provides to every single person that is flying in the world.

To their credit, I am pretty sure every airline out there now talks about CRM as part of their initial and recurrent training.  There are more than enough accident investigation reports out there that could have been completely avoided, or made much less worse if CRM principles had been embraced.  So this principle has been widely adopted, though possibly under a different name.

Amongst the many examples out there, the worst would have to be the Tenerife tragedy.  If you are not familiar with it, and work in aviation, I would strongly recommend doing some research into it, because there are a lot of great lessons to be learned.  Unfortunately, more people died in this accident than in any other accident in history, and it was 100% avoidable.

Just to give the condensed version, two 747s collided when one tried to take off before the other had vacated the runway during reduced visibility conditions.  The first officer of the plane that was trying to take off tried to stop the captain from doing so more than once, but the captain ignored him and tried to take off anyway.  This is obviously a massive shortening and simplification of a complex situation, but will do for our purposes today.  The point is that hundreds of people would not have died if the captain had listened to the other pilot.

So what is CRM?

The best way to describe CRM is utilizing all of the members of your crew to safely and efficiently operate your aircraft.  This reinforces the idea that every crew member is vital to the safe operation of an aircraft, and that only when we work as a team can we operate at our best.  While there are plenty of accident investigation reports that could have been prevented with better CRM, there are countless reports that were never written because the crew properly utilized CRM.

When we get into an unexpected situation, which in most cases means an emergency, it is essential that the crew work together to get the plane safely back on the ground.  This could be asking other crew members what they are experiencing, or seeing around the plane, or even on the instruments, that both pilots can generally see.  On the C-130H, it is often the flight engineer who is first to notice issues with the engines, that is because they have the best seat in the house for such a diagnosis.

A pilot who ignores the input of their crewmembers has no business being in the air at all.  There is no room in the air for ego and arrogance.

To their credit I have had great experience with pilot’s and their willingness to listen to their crew.  That does not mean that the aircraft commander or captain or pilot in command is giving up their responsibility or authority, because that is equally important.  After listening to the feedback from the crew, it is essential that the pilot in command take decisive action.  This may mean that someone isn’t happy with the decision that is made, but that is the responsibility that you accepted when you took command of that plane.

But, what about single pilot flights?

I don’t have any official data, but I would be willing to bet the number of flights with only one pilot exceeds the number of flights with more than one, or a crew of some sort.  In those cases, the acronym CRM still applies, but instead the C changes to “Cockpit” Resource Management.  Even as a single pilot you have tools at your disposal to get back on the ground safely.

This starts with understanding what you have in your cockpit.  This varies if you are flying a single seat F-16 versus a 172 by yourself, but the principle is the same.  Know what equipment you have and know how it works.  This could be GPS, radios, or even ForeFlight on your iPad.  For that matter, it could be a cell phone that will work if you are low enough.  When an emergency hits, the priority is getting back on the ground safely, and you want to use all of your resources to make that happen.

Even when people fly by themselves, they are rarely alone.  Radios provide an opportunity to seek help outside of your airplane.  This could be ATC, or it could be another pilot flying in the area that can help you get back on the ground.

Here at UPT, we have had a couple of classes about emergency procedures and they regularly refer back to contacting people on the ground  to help you get back safely.  To be clear, the priority is always aviate, navigate, communicate, but once you get the situation under control, and you are headed in the right direction, you should reach out for help from outside sources.  These people then become a part of your crew.

They can read checklists, or make sure you have considered all of your options to make the right decision.  They may even just be able to calm you down and provide some reassurance that you are doing fine.  In many cases, people do a pretty dang good job handling bad situations, because we learn how to handle our planes, and all we may need is some reassurance that it will be okay.

CRM will not prevent every emergency from happening.  There are so many factors involved in flying that inevitably the unexpected will occur.  But, when it does happen, the most valuable resources you have are the people in the plane with you, and in the aviation community, that all want the same thing as you, and that is to get back on the ground safely.

October 27, 2019 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

What I Learned in Pilot Training: Hypoxia

I realized I have not been holding up my end of the bargain when it comes to all of the things I am learning at pilot training, so I am going to do my best to start to remedy that.

For the first two weeks of training the vast majority of what we talked about was the physiological aspects of flying airplanes.  I talked about some of this in my last post, but there is one area that I feel warrants its own separate discussion, and that is hypoxia.

A quick Google search tells us that hypoxia is a “deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the tissues”.  This definition is pretty general, but that is because the effects of hypoxia can vary dramatically.  That is one of the scary things about hypoxia is that it is different for everyone, so there is no way to give anyone a surefire way to know it is happening.

Maybe even scarier is that some of the potential symptoms can be exact opposite.  Some people will feel euphoric, or extra happy.  Other people will feel sick and miserable.  Some of the other symptoms are tingling in the extremities, headache, feeling warm, decreased visual acuity, cyanosis (blueness in the lips), and loss of mental capacity.

The last one may be the biggest threat to pilots, but if you are struggling to think clearly, how likely are you to notice it?  Your brain isn’t working well, but somehow it is supposed to realize that it isn’t working well?

As part of our training, we go into an altitude chamber to experience the effects of hypoxia, and determine what our own individual symptoms are.  It is invaluable training and helps you to recognize how you respond so that should it ever happen in flight, you are more likely to notice it.  To add to the challenges of hypoxia, your symptoms can change over time.

When I did the altitude chamber in navigator school, my only symptom was a very slight headache across my forehead that took forever to appear.  When I did it this time it was tingling in my fingers and feeling warm.  You may notice that most of these symptoms are things that could happen for dozens of different reasons.  Lots of people get headaches when they fly because they are dehydrated or a little sick, or because they had too much fun at the bar the night before.

Which brings me to some of the different reasons that you can experience hypoxia.  There are four general types of hypoxia: histotoxic hypoxia, stagnant hypoxia, hypemic hypoxia, and hypoxic hypoxia

Histotoxic hypoxia is the type that would be created by having too much fun at the bar the night before.  Substances like alcohols, narcotics, and other drugs impact the cell’s ability to accept oxygen and even though there may be enough in the air, it can’t get into the cells to do work.

Stagnant hypoxia happens when the blood is not flowing to the tissues properly.  In the military world this is usually driven by pulling G’s which causes the blood to pool in the lower extremities and thus not flow to your upper body.  It can also happen when you get cold and your circulation decreases.

Hypemic hypoxia is similar to histotoxic, but instead of the cells not accepting oxygen, it relates to the blood’s inability to carry oxygen.  In aviation this is most often caused by the inhalation of carbon monoxide either from a bad heater, or even just the exhaust on the ground before you get in and takeoff.

Hypoxic hypoxia is when the air simply does not have enough oxygen for your to breathe, which happens at higher altitudes.  Clearly an issue for flying an airplane.  It is also the most common type of hypoxia experienced in aviation.

We can all agree that hypoxia is a bad thing as it prevents us from thinking clearly and from using our body to safely operate an airplane.  So what can we do to prevent it, or recognize it when it does happen?

First, prevention because it is ALWAYS better to prevent a bad situation that it is to deal with it after it arises.  Being physically prepared to fly is the simplest way to prevent hypoxia, and a host of other issues.  That means that if you have not gotten enough rest, or you have been feeling sick, or you are hung over, or drunk, then you should not be flying.  We all want to fly as much as possible, but you have to know your limits and never cross them.  Even in the military we regularly talk about how there are almost no flights that cannot wait until another day if the crew is not physically fit to fly.

Another part of prevention is ensuring that you have the proper equipment for the flying you will doing.  If your flight is going to be mostly around sea level hypoxic hypoxia is not very likely, but if you have a broken exhaust system, or a cabin heat system that is not working properly, you put yourself at very real risk of hypemic hopxia, and that is every bit as dangerous.  Hypoxia is not only a matter of flying at high altitude!

Generally speaking we talk about oxygen deficiency starting at around 10,000 feet MSL.  So if you are planning to fly anywhere near that altitude for very long you need to have the right equipment.  That could be a pressurized cockpit, or it could be supplemental oxygen.  If you will be flying at night, some people push that altitude as low as 5,000 feet MSL.  Once again, everyone is different, and has different tolerances.  If in doubt bring along the extra oxygen because it may save your life.

I realize that going to an oxygen chamber is not realistic for most people, nor is it really necessary for someone cruising around in a 172, but if you get the opportunity I would highly recommend it.  That being said, there is still plenty of education and experience you can get to learn more about the effects of hypoxia and how it can affect you.

My only experience with hypoxia, other than in the controlled environment of an altitude chamber, was actually on a hiking trip.

I was climbing Mt. Fuji in Japan, which only goes up to about 12,300 feet, not that much above 10,000.  As we got to the summit it was rainy and cold and I was miserable and I had a headache.  But, I didn’t even realize it until we were on our way back down and I started to feel better.  Sure I recognized that I was tired, but it wasn’t until I headed lower and started to lose my symptoms that I realized I had even had symptoms.

The odds of this happening in aviation are not very high, at least if it has become a critical issue.  If the symptoms are minor then descending may be enough to clear your head and fix your symptoms, but descending may not always be an option, and if it has to do with poor equipment, it is not likely that the equipment will just fix itself.

So how do you recognize that you are having issues?  The key to this is not waiting for extra signs.  At the first indication that you may be hypoxic you need to take action.  Some people can go hours with symptoms before it becomes life threatening, but for others the symptoms may come on and only minutes later the person will be incapacitated.  So if you even think there is a small chance you might be hypoxic, try to fix it immediately.

If you are fortunate enough to be flying with someone else, ask them how they are feeling, or if they see anything different with you. Sometimes just bringing it up will key the whole crew off that something is not right and you may save everyone.  Maybe it is just you having an issue though, and they can help you remedy the situation and get back to normal.  The point is to not keep it a secret if you don’t feel right.

Many people do most of their flying alone so what can they do?  In many cases, you can still tell someone, whether that be ATC or anyone else that may be on frequency with you.  Again, just mentioning that something doesn’t feel right can help key off your mind that something isn’t right and can help you down the path to fixing it.

If there is legitimately no one around then just say it out loud to no one.  The brain is pretty amazing and just vocalizing it may be enough.  Most importantly, if you are by yourself, don’t hesitate to take some action if you feel even the slightest possibility that something isn’t right because you have no idea how far you are from just passing out.

This ended up being way longer than I expected, but I would argue that I didn’t even scratch the surface on the topic, or at least on aerospace physiology.  There are people whose entire career is in that field.

Hopefully what I have done is given you some things to think about when you fly, and encouraged you to spend some extra time thinking about how your body is performing when you fly.  We spend a lot of time checking on the plane, and our equipment but most of us don’t take enough time to check on our physical ability to fly.

It doesn’t have to be a huge drawn out process, but even taking the time to stop before you step to the plane and just ask yourself how you are feeling may be what saves your life.  I would also encourage you to spend some time learning more about aerospace physiology.  That could be through articles, or YouTube, or seminars, or other classes.  No matter where it comes from, understanding how our bodies work when they are in the unnatural state of flying will only make you a better aviator.

October 12, 2019 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

Setting Personal Limits for Flying May Save Your Life

It is interesting that I have been thinking about writing this post for almost two weeks now as I have seen numerous people post comments or tweet about this exact subject.  No matter how many times I see this message though, I will always keep repeating it, because the concept may very well save your life.

If you have read the last few posts that I have written (if you haven’t, you should go read them now) then you will know that I had a week chock full of flying about two weeks ago.  When I started the week I was planning to fly six times in three days; three flights each for work and towards my private pilot certificate.  It was a little ambitious, but the weather was good and I wanted to take advantage of it after a bunch of crappy weather.

The first two days went very well and I got a lot of good stuff done, including my very first solo, which I am still pumped thinking about.  When the third day rolled around I was still planning on a third doubleheader in a row, especially with as motivated as I was after my solo.  However, as I went through the next few hours of flying I felt my body starting to wear down.  I was still able to fly at work safely, but as we landed after the sortie, I just knew that it wasn’t a good idea to push for another flight again that night, especially considering we were planning to do a three-hour night flight to knock that out.

I sent a message to my CFI telling him I would need to cancel for the night, which he totally understood and agreed with.  As soon as I sent the message I started to regret it a little because I am so anxious to get this thing done, and like I said, I was still pretty jacked from my solo the night before.  But as I got back to my desk and started to wind down from my flight and take care of some paperwork I knew I had made the right decision.  I could feel the effects of five flights in three days, and my body needed to take a break and recover.

I ended up having to wait a few weeks to get that flight in thanks to a family vacation and a busy schedule, but I am even more convinced now that I made the right decision.  Would I have had any problems getting through that flight, probably not.  Even if I was struggling my CFI would have been there to make sure we got back safely.  But, why would you want to risk it?  The only thing I would have gained is maybe finishing my certificate a little earlier, and the only thing I would have been risking is my life.  Seems like a fair trade-off, right?

The point is that many of us love flying and are anxious to spend as much time as we can in the air.  Whether we have been grounded for a while due to bad weather, work, or even just anxious to finish a rating or upgrade that you have been working on for ten years, none of us would rather be on the ground when we could be in the air.  Which is why it is smart to set personal limits for yourself above and beyond the limits the FAA sets.

In the Air Force we fill out a risk management worksheet before every flight that accounts for things like fatigue and health of the crew as well as the type of mission we are planning to fly and weather.  If the score is too high we have to get approval from leadership who checks to confirm that we have properly mitigated the risk and that we are safe to fly.  Sometimes the number is just too high and the risk isn’t worth it, so we don’t fly.  That may mean missing out on rare training opportunities, or even delaying a mission, but nothing is worth risking your life.

So what kinds of things can you set limits for?

Weather is an obvious one.  Maybe you set a ceiling and visibility limit that you will not fly with less than.  Similar to weather mins for an instrument approach you may set a limit for both VFR and IFR flight that you won’t bust.  As you get more proficient, especially as an IFR pilot you may lower those mins, but understanding your abilities and comfort level will go a long way to keeping you safe.  You may also have wind limits, or certain types of weather you won’t fly with.  One example for us is that if we have severe turbulence forecasted we don’t fly, period.  Maybe for you it is fog, or rain, or some other weather that you just don’t want to mess with.

Rest is another important one to consider that can be very easy to overlook.  The Air Force, as well as airlines, have rules on crew rest that delineate how much time to rest you must have before a flight.  In the Air Force we also limit what types of flying we can do a certain number of hours into the day.  Things that are more challenging are restricted to early in our duty day because we want to make sure we are sharp in those high risk situations.

You may opt to only go to fields with certain runway lengths, crosswind limits stricter than the plane can handle, length of flight, or any other limits that you feel are important.  The point is to keep yourself safe, no matter how experienced you are.

I would never suggest a specific limit for anyone else, because each of us know how proficient we are, and what our limits should be.  If you aren’t sure what your limits should be set something conservative and roll with that for a while.  Then as you feel more comfortable change the limits to match your skill level.  However, don’t change your limits as you are stepping to fly.  Find a time when you have no pressing concerns to sit down and honestly assess how you feel about the limits you have set.  This way you won’t feel inclined to lower your limits just to meet a deadline or take that trip you have been planning for months and get into a risky situation.

While I mentioned lowering your limits, also don’t be afraid to raise your limits if your situation reflects the need.  If you haven’t been flying for a while, or if you are in a new type of aircraft, or if you have gotten into a few situations that were more uncomfortable than you would like, be honest with yourself and raise those limits to keep yourself safe.

Now thinking of every possible variable that could happen during a flight and creating a limit for it would be an incredibly daunting task, so I would say start with the basics.  Set some weather limits for yourself, and some sort of rest limit as I see those as two of the simplest protections that will keep you out of the vast majority of unsafe situations.  Then as you get more experienced and start trying new things spend some time in your mission planning to set limits for yourself as well.

Maybe most importantly, write your limits down so you don’t forget, or try to fudge on them later.  The whole point of this is to keep yourself safe so make sure you are clear about it.

Lastly, don’t ever budge from your limits when it comes time to fly.  I mentioned this briefly before, but it bears repeating.  Limits are there to make the decision for you when you may put yourself in a questionable situation.  They allow for a good level-headed decision when the stress and temptation are not part of the equation, or in other words, way before you are going to go fly.  By all means change those limits when you are not in your flying bubble, but never do it in the heat of the moment because you set those limits for a reason and that is to keep you safe.

One last dynamic of this that I want to point out is that setting limits doesn’t mean you can’t still do something flying related.  In my case I spent my extra time studying for my written test, which I passed with a 100% this past week, so I guess that time was well spent.  You could do some work on your plane, you could better prepare for taking that flight the next day.  Maybe you have a local flight school with a simulator you could use instead.  Or maybe you could even just hang out at the airport for a little while and get to know your hangar neighbors and build some relationships for the future.

As much as it sucks having to miss a day of flying, there is still a lot you can do to not let the day be a waste.  Setting limits for yourself may keep you from flying, but it will also keep you safe so that you can have many more flights for years to come.

April 15, 2018 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.

There is No Black and White in an Aircraft Emergency

For better or worse, mostly worse, we live in a world today where many people take every snippet of news to extremes.  Much of this is driven by the 24 hour news cycle, and the obsessive need of every media outlet to be the first to break any news that might be even remotely relevant without checking for confirmation, or even the facts.  Sensationalism is the name of the game in the media these days, and it is causing many problems that really should not be issues at all.

There may be no sector of the world where this is more true than aviation.  Some of this comes from the relative ignorance of the public, the potential for major tragedies in flight, and the complex nature of what we do.  Unfortunately, many media outlets don’t even take the time to find real experts to support their stories, because, let’s be honest, the truth wouldn’t sell nearly as well as the sensationalism they opt to offer.  Instead they prefer to scare the public into thinking a situation is worse than it actually is.  That is exactly what happened with two recent emergencies that garnered a fair amount of attention.

The first was the engine fire of British Airways Flight 2276 in Las Vegas.  In short, there was an engine fire on the ground that caused the crew to abort their departure, and evacuate the aircraft.  They did a beautiful job of getting everyone to safety, and the aircraft was taken care of about as well as could be expected.

In this instance much of the extremism came from Twitter and other social media outlets where people completely shredded passengers who had taken their bags with them while evacuating.  While I agree that it was not the smartest move by these passengers, they certainly do not deserve much of the vitriol that has been thrown at them from the masses.  Rather than explaining further I would direct you to a piece written on the Airline Reporter website that does a far better job of conveying my feelings than I probably could.  Again, taking your bag in an evacuation is generally not the best idea, but there are certainly scenarios I could see that taking your bag could be justified, and you never know how you will respond in an emergency.

The second emergency that took place recently was the in-flight death of an American Airlines pilot.  While this is a terribly sad situation, the plane and the rest of the people on board were in no real danger just because one of the pilots was incapacitated.  For some reason the media is making a huge deal about the “co-pilot” having to land the plane by himself.  This is where ignorance and aviation colloquialisms come into play.  Again, I have been beaten to the punch by a much more qualified expert than myself so I would direct you to the writings of Cap’n Eric Auxier who very clearly and simply explains how the media has screwed up the reporting on this story.

Now I didn’t write this post just to direct you to other writers and their opinions, I have a point of my own to make.

As I alluded to in the title, there is no such thing as black and white in an emergency, nor do any of us know how we will respond in an actual emergency.  Because every emergency is incredibly unique there are always variables that will tweak the response of those involved.  The interesting thing about many of the extreme responses to this story is that not a single person I have seen respond has ever been in an actual emergency themselves.  They are surely out there, but I have not come across them.

In the military, as well as with the airlines, there are very clearly delineated emergency procedures and how to respond to them.  We refer to the first few steps of some of these emergency procedures as boldface in the military because they are written in bold and all capitals in our regulations.  All of these steps must be memorized because they are so important that there is no time to go looking through books for the procedure that you are supposed to follow.  Even with that being said, there are still situations where the best decision is to hold off on the boldface steps to return the plane, and its crew, safely home.

During my time in the C-130 I have been on board a handful of times when we had to shut down an engine, or perform some other emergency procedure.  Admittedly, shutting down one engine when you have three other good ones is not nearly as stressful as shutting down one of only two engines, but it is an uncomfortable situation nonetheless.  While each of these emergencies called for the same procedure to shut down an engine, not one of them was carried out in exactly the same way.

There is no black and white in an emergency, there is only an opportunity for a well-trained crew to make educated decisions that will ultimately lead to a safe outcome.  The safety record of the vast majority of aviation is a credit to the crews that have been well-prepared and have prevented many of these potential emergencies, and when they do happen, they have been mostly well handled saving many people a lot of heartache.  It is easy for armchair quarterbacks to question the decisions from the ground in the safety of their homes sitting behind their computer, but until you have been in an emergency you really have little room to talk.

Emergencies exist in every part of life in one way or another.  No matter how hard you try to prevent them they will eventually happen because that is just part of living.  We can mitigate them, and we can prepare like crazy so that we can respond appropriately when they do happen, but no matter how well we prepare we can never know how we will respond until an actual emergency is placed before us.

It is also important to keep faith in the pilots that safely transport us all over the world everyday.  If you don’t understand the terms we use in aviation and you are worried about what you hear on the news, ask someone who actually works in aviation and they can explain it better than the media.

The term co-pilot is merely in reference to the person sitting in the right seat of the flight deck.  It is incredibly common for us to fly with the most experienced pilot in the right seat, so that the less experienced pilot can gain experience in the left seat.  The reality is that no matter who is sitting in which seat, they are both qualified pilots that are perfectly capable of getting the plane safely to its destination.

So the next time the media or social media try to tell you that an emergency situation was handled wrong, or that someone in particular is at fault, take the time to do a little extra research and gather some more information.  The real information is out there if you will only take the time to find it.  No matter what you do find, never forget that no emergency situation is ever totally black and white.

October 13, 2015 I Written By

I'm Dave and I am a proud Avgeek. It goes way beyond liking airplanes. It is a passion that cannot be subdued.