Safety Spotlight: This year’s model

John Coe, the pilot/owner flying the Baron, is an A&P/IA with two Stearman rebuilds under his belt and a couple thousand hours flying them. He picked up Stearmans after flying Pitts Specials in competition aerobatics on his days off from flying with UPS, where he’s logged more than 20,000 flight hours. But none of that experience comforts John on this flight. He is in his newly acquired Baron with dual Garmin G1000 displays, which John and his wife, Diane, bought in Southern California and ferried back to Wellington, Florida (FD38), just a few days before our flight.

Both John and Diane, also a UPS captain with more than 18,000 hours, insisted on a checkout and an instrument proficiency check in their new Baron. They alternated pilot-in-command legs for the ferry trip home and kept the CFI on board for half the trip. They again alternated legs for the remainder of the flight home, which included flying in instrument conditions and some approaches in low ceilings, breaking out near minimums. Both decided they wanted more time, more training, and, most important, more proficiency with the new panels before flying hard IFR single-pilot.

On our flight, John was a bit timid in the Baron. He’s used to mastering his work. The Garmin displays, though, are new to him. He had about 80 percent of the interface and controls down, but he had to think a few seconds longer to update flight plans, add an amended clearance, or proceed direct to a fix with an altitude restriction.

FD38 to Bartow, Florida (BOW), is barely 100 miles. Miami Center was busy. The controller was short with pilots who miscued. My instinct was to forget picking up an IFR clearance and head in VFR using ADS-B for traffic avoidance and pick our way under and around the scattered to broken clouds at around 5,000 feet.

But this busy flight was exactly the scenario John wanted. A complicated situation for GA IFR flying: Launch out of a nontowered field adjacent to restricted airspace and while hand-flying a complex, high-performance twin, pick up a clearance airborne, modify on-board navigation, set and confirm autopilot, and work radios—all in a new airplane with unfamiliar avionics. Add in flying single-pilot in instrument conditions and it becomes a heavy task that demands proficiency. John wanted the practice while in visual conditions with an experienced pilot in the right seat—a good example for all of us. A high-time pilot, highly qualified in multiple airplane categories and clearly confident in his skills, is respectful of the challenges of transitioning to a new airplane and new avionics.

In transitioning to new airplanes, small things can cause a pilot to get behind the airplane or lose situational awareness. A notepad may be in a different pocket than where you kept it in the other airplane. Or a Direct-To function on the nav panel requires a different button sequence than you’re used to. There’s no time to fumble for those when ATC is spewing an amended clearance while you’re clipping along at 180 knots. The effect is exacerbated in single-pilot IFR flying.

On our flight, I didn’t fully lock the cabin door, which is on the right side in the Baron. I checked it, as did John, because the locked indicator wasn’t completely visible. Hmm, oh, well, we both decided, looks locked, feels locked, can’t see daylight, must be the indicator isn’t quite calibrated. No, we learned once airborne, the door was shut but not locked and the wind noise was a distraction all during the flight—a little thing that causes annoyance with missed coms and diverted attention.

John consistently referred to his checklist; we discussed the nuances of a Baron runup and before-takeoff sequence. We paused for a pre-takeoff briefing, verbalized the VMC speed, then called our takeoff intentions and turned toward the runway, just as another aircraft lifted off from the opposite direction. The other pilot was at the far end and we were still clear of the runway, so there was no runway incursion or collision potential, but it bothered us both that we didn’t hear him. Why? New airplane, new routines, distractions with a new before-takeoff procedure, and unfamiliar right-seat pilot.

John’s stick-and-rudder skills were evident on our flight. His comfortable and astute radio coms exposed decades of flying in a professional environment. He hasn’t mastered the new Baron panel to his desired level of performance, and I admire his approach. In the safety business, it’s difficult to measure the accident that didn’t happen, but if more of us took John’s methodical approach to transitioning airplanes (or avionics), we’d surely prevent a few more accidents.

Go fly!

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