Accident Analysis: What rust?

Question your skills after some timeaway from flying

February 12, 2018 By David Jack Kenny

There’s extensive literature on preparing an airplane for winter storage if it won’t be flown at least once a month, and how to bring it back to life in the spring. There’s also ample advice on how to approach an airplane that spent the winter tied down outdoors without preparation. (Hint: Activate your paranoia circuit. Assume there’s water in the tanks, corrosion inside the engine, rusted pulleys guiding the flight-control cables, and frayed insulation in the wiring. Balance the cost of a couple of hours with an equally suspicious airframe and powerplant mechanic A&P against the prospect of an accident, and challenge the aircraft to prove you both wrong.)

As for yourself, why worry? You can tell the ailerons from the elevator, so why not jump right back into the cockpit?

Well...maybe. If you’re the one in a thousand whose skills don’t degrade with disuse, pleasedonate DNA for research. Most of us, regardless of length of experience or level of expertise, find that the principle of improvement with practice has a direct and opposite corollary that is exactly what you’d expect.

Most of us, regardless of length of experience or level of expertise, find that the principle of improvement with practice has a direct and opposite corollary.Still not convinced? Then put yourself to the test. (And if you’re based at a short, obstructed, high-elevation, or otherwise challenging field, please team up with an instructor or active, experienced pilot.) Look at the airman certification or practical test standards applicable to your certificate and see how close you can get.

Start with the basics. Can you at least hold altitude and heading? Can you land within 200 feet of a spot you picked out on downwind? Don’t lie to yourself—you’re the one who loses. Even if you’re VFR-only, you ought to be able to track a VOR radial with no more than a half-scale deflection. Most important, can you hold airspeed? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” remember that there’s absolutely no penalty for starting a flight review before it is required.

Why hold yourself to test standards? Aside from not wanting to accept being worse than you were, they establish benchmarks for the proficiency needed to provide some reasonable margin of safety. If you can’t meet them today, that should define your most urgent aviation priority. FT

Airline transport pilot David Jack Kennyis a freelance aviation writer.

Accident Analysis: What rust?

Question your skills after some timeaway from flying

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