It isn’t every day that I can say
that I had a chat with an airline pilot. But yesterday I did. While waiting in
line with my wife to vote early, I saw a gentleman in a pilot’s uniform just
ahead of me. Rather timidly I tapped him on the shoulder, just below his first
officer’s epaulets, and introduced myself.
I was wearing my EAA ball cap, purchased at Oshkosh several years ago,
and it served to introduce me as another pilot (although not an ATP flying for
the airlines). We exchanged pleasantries, including when we had been to
Oshkosh. Then he asked what type of planes I had been flying and so on. When I
mentioned the Baron, he shook his head in approval, a great plane he thought.
Then I found out he was flying Airbus 320’s, the big boys. I was very
impressed. Next he offered that he didn’t think he could fly the small private
type planes anymore. Not only was flying a large airliner totally different,
but the Airbus in particular was practically all automated. To quote him “once
you advance the throttles for take- off it is all automated”. That brought back
the memory of the Airbus over the south Atlantic that had autopilot failure
associated with severe turbulence. Those pilots were not familiar enough with
hand flying the big bird and ultimately succumbed, with a total loss of plane
and personnel. My new acquaintance then offered that his airline was insuring
that their pilots had training to deal with the situation of autopilot failure.
I was very pleased to hear that.
All this ties in with one of my
concerns, discussed in an earlier article. What if your EFIS goes blank? Are
you prepared to take over with the old analog instruments? If not you had
better get some retraining on those techniques. It is just a matter of when,
not if you might experience a partial or complete failure. I was glad to see an
ad for a small glass HSI type instrument that had its own lithium battery. A
nice thing to have when the big screen goes blank.
Several days ago, while out on a
walk, I happened to look up and see what appeared to be two airliners on a
collision course. They were converging on what seemed to be the same altitude.
Maybe they were 500 feet apart vertically with some lateral separation, no way
to tell from my position on the ground. I thought of TCAS, certain it was
buzzing in both cockpits, warning the pilots of both planes of danger ahead
(see article written last month).
Finally, I want to touch on the
topic of planning ahead. Whatever the task, you must be ahead of the airplane.
The tasks that require the most pre-planning are instrument approaches and low
IFR take-offs. Being ready for an ILS approach in low IFR requires that you
know the procedure well in advance. Even if you have an autopilot coupled
approach capability, you’ve got to know certain things ahead of time. All the data is located on your approach
plate. I swore by Jeppesen charts, (Jeps), as opposed to the government brand.
So study the chart well ahead of time. Know the entry altitude and heading of
the approach, as well as how to identify the outer marker,the details of a “missed”
etc.
As an example of what can happen,
let me relate a flight from the past. I was in the right seat of a Cherokee 6
inbound to Burke Lakefont in Cleveland. In the left seat was a distinguished
cardiologist, but I was to find out on approach, non IFR rated pilot. The
weather was moderately low IFR with light snow falling. He became flustered as
the approach neared, finally fessing up that he didn’t really know how to shoot
the approach. As I had studied the approach plates, and had a few real IFR
flights under my belt, I said “Let me have the controls, I can get us in”. Well
we made it ok, in spite of having to look sideways at the gages from the right
seat. If I hadn’t studied the approach ahead of time it could have been a
disaster.
I’ll just touch on IFR take-offs.
Before you shove the throttle/s forward, ask yourself what if I lose power or have
some other serious problem on take-off? What are my options? Obviously if just
off the ground and in the clear, try and land straight ahead. Once you are in
the soup however, it is a different matter. If you can stay airborne, and the
weather is above minimums you can go for an approach at the airport you just
left. If the field is really socked in, you may have to find another airport
with better weather. This is where planning ahead comes in. You had better do
the research on the ground ahead of time, before the sweat is pouring off your
brow and time is running out.
So, plan ahead and be prepared, to
help you stay out of trouble. A few minutes of pre planning can save you from
making a life threatening mistake later.
