Two things have occurred that I find somewhat amazing. This month’s “Insights” completes 20 years of writing for Flight Training magazine. When I began—thanks to my friend, Rod Machado, who talked me into it—I agreed to do it for only one year. Time does fly. Furthermore, I retired from aviation on December 17, 2010, the 107th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first powered flight. My 51 years of accident-, incident-, and violation-free flying encompassed almost half the duration of aviation itself.
I sincerely thank the magazine editors and staff. It’s been an enjoyable education and a rewarding association with AOPA, which I joined 50 years ago.
How old am I? Old enough and smart enough to listen to that little voice in the back of my head that said, “It’s time to let others occupy the airspace that you’ve been hogging.” All pilots should heed my thoughts that follow, and when that little voice in the back of your head reminds you of them, pay attention and act accordingly.
When flying, assume that everything that can go wrong will go wrong, and evaluate your options for those events. That mental posture is mandatory—and ironically, when maintained, it’s quite likely that nothing will go wrong. To do otherwise, however, is just asking for trouble. That’s the best aviation insurance you can obtain—and it’s free.
If you become uncertain about your location, weather, or fuel consumption while flying, don’t hope that you’ll be OK. Land! Reassess the situation on the ground.
Validate, validate, validate, and don’t blindly trust information that you obtain from humans or instrumentation. I’ve flown airplanes that were manufactured with unbelievable safety enhancements. “Complete failure is impossible” was often heard. It did seem that way, but as time passed, those airplanes or systems did fail in one way or another. Use your in-flight resources and back-up instrumentation to validate all information.
Be thorough. I remember the time when I was about to fly one of 20 or so gliders that were waiting for a tow on a busy weekend. The towplane developed a problem, so the pilot parked it and walked over to the back-up plane. I watched as he did a very thorough, time-consuming preflight inspection, even though he knew that everyone was anxious to take off. When I heard a few pilots complain about the delay, I thought, I’ll bet that tow pilot is an excellent pilot.
You must have in-depth knowledge about your airplane and avionics equipment—knowledge that must be frequently reviewed, particularly with glass-cockpit airplanes.
To maintain proficiency, you must fly regularly. We all know the FAA requirements, but the Army, with all its light-airplane experience, had the best rule: If you don’t fly four hours a month, you don’t get flight pay.
Stay well clear of high-energy weather and widespread low visibility conditions when flying light airplanes. You don’t have the power or range to beat the bad stuff—icing, convective weather, fast-moving frontal systems, and strong winds whether on the ground or in the air. If winds aloft are in excess of 25 knots and you’re faced with high terrain, don’t go unless you can be at least 50 percent higher than the highest terrain. If the terrain is 7,000 feet, you need 10,500 feet.
Complacency is the number-one pilot killer. You’re pressed for time or fuel considerations, so you fly a route that takes you over rugged terrain or open water in a single-engine airplane. You do this several times, decide that it’s not too bad, and continue doing it. That’s when the engine quits, the fuel selector jams, or some other rare event occurs.
If you have not drained the fuel tanks of the airplane you’re flying and then had it refilled when it’s on level ground so that you know their exact capacity, and if you do not know the exact fuel consumption when at cruise power, land for fuel when you think that you still have one hour of fuel remaining.
Many individuals and entities constantly attack general aviation and elements thereof. Remember, airports and airplanes were here well before those cannibals were born. Just be thankful that you have AOPA as your first line of defense. Past president Phil Boyer turned AOPA into a first-class organization, and President and CEO Craig Fuller is most certainly enhancing that posture.
Fly smart, fly safe—take every moment you can to enjoy the wonderful world of flying—and thanks for all your kind responses to my articles. The airplane is now tied down permanently, and I’ve completed my last postflight inspection. Do you conduct a postflight inspection of the airplane you’ve just flown? I certainly hope so.
