In The Cannibal Queen, author Stephen Coonts recalled a Cessna 172 he used to rent in Boulder, Colorado. Its panel had a placard reading, “Don’t do anything stupid.”
It’s a compelling operating limitation, but less specific than “Intentional spins prohibited.” How do you know whether something is stupid? In the air, at least, if you have to ask, it probably is.
Unfortunately, too many of our fellow pilots never seem to ask. You have to wonder how far up the track the train of thought derailed when you hear about decisions such as these:
- Trying to take off from a 1,200-foot grass strip with a quartering tailwind in an E35 Bonanza—then trying again from the hayfield where the airplane went down.
- Filing an instrument flight plan and taking off into a low overcast without any instrument-flying experience. (Hey, how hard can it be?)
- Landing to get fuel, then taking off again because there wasn’t any available. (Think about it.)
Failures to engage the gray matter aren’t confined to takeoffs. The thought process can stall in any phase of flight. In just the past two years, certificated pilots have chosen to:
- Fly straight into a mountainside on a clear Nevada afternoon.
- Attempt to teach themselves aerobatics—in non-aerobatic airplanes—while carrying passengers.
- Try to make a five-hour flight on three hours’ worth of fuel.
None of these escapades came out well. And even reaching your destination doesn’t prevent a short between the headphones. The greatest share of GA accidents happen during landings, and if many are more-or-less ordinary lapses in skill, some reflect breathtaking lapses in judgment. The spiritual brother of that E35 pilot tried to land his RV-6A on an 1,100-foot grass strip with a 20-knot tailwind. The results were about the same.
When in doubt, you could do worse than remember the wise words of the chief flight instructor: Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want your mother to read about in an NTSB report. The challenge for the student is to remember that this is real; if something goes wrong, you can’t just change the channel. Whether things go wrong is largely up to you. The instructor’s challenge is to instill that necessary seriousness without inhibiting the natural joy of flight.
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