Speak up

He said he wouldn’t be paying said “safety pilot” in cash, but that they’d build valuable flight time and get to fly with a more experienced aviator. Who wouldn’t jump at that chance, right?

Obviously the older, more experienced me sees many problems with that scenario, but the young, hungry (and yes, a little bit naïve) version jumped off that couch and picked up a weekly, albeit non-paying, gig. You can probably imagine how those flights went. The pilot—let’s call him Ralph—would be practicing various maneuvers and having a grand old time while I sat there silently, holding onto my seat and telling myself to be grateful for the “free” flight time. He had thousands more hours than me; surely he knew what he was doing, right? He frequently flew what I thought was too close to clouds or to the ground, and I would speak up in my careful-not-to-offend way that perhaps we should make an altitude correction or remember that we needed to stay at least 500 feet below those clouds. He would make corrections, but then repeat the same behavior on the next flight, making me think he had little respect for either the rules or the pilot sitting next to him.

The final straw came on a flight into Charles Baker Airport (2M8), a quiet field, roughly 15 miles north of Memphis International (MEM). Next to Baker sits a racetrack (as in NASCAR) with a straightaway that lines up roughly parallel to Baker’s 18/36 runway. When Ralph lined up on a long final for the racetrack and repeatedly brushed off my concern about the mistake until he got close enough to see for himself, making a hard bank to sidestep to the actual runway, I decided to stop flying with him. Did I slam the door when I got out and give him a piece of my mind about how my pilot certificate was on the line, and he was jeopardizing it every time he flew like a cowboy with me on board? No. I just became suddenly too busy with flight instructing to do any outside flying. Like I said, young and people-pleasing. Not a proud moment, but I’m certainly proud of how far that girl has come.

The old model of aviation used to be that the senior pilot was the authority, no questions asked. But aviation history has taught us that two heads in the cockpit are often better than one, even if one person has less experience than the other. It’s extremely unlikely that both pilots in any given cockpit will have a similar experience level. For example, in a commercial cockpit, a captain typically flies with a first officer, and in general aviation, a student flies with an instructor.

Several months ago, at our flight school, two students who were both instrument-rated pilots were out time-building together and flew closer to dangerous weather than was probably safe. The student’s justification? “My friend had an instrument rating, and I thought maybe he understood something about the weather that I didn’t. I wasn’t sure if I should speak up.” Man, did I understand that old feeling.

So what do you do if you’re ever in that position, flying with someone more senior who is making you feel uncomfortable with his or her aeronautical decision making?

Two things might help: First, make sure you are at the top of your game. In other words, keep studying so that you are confident in your knowledge of what is safe and legal, and what’s not. It’s hard to challenge another pilot’s actions when you can’t quite remember what the Airplane Flying Handbook said. Was it 2 or 20 miles that we are supposed to stay away from thunderstorms? Does the pilot’s operating handbook recommend flying this slow on final? Second, when you do speak up, realize that it doesn’t have to feel like that all-dreaded confrontation you’ve been avoiding since your playground days. You can be cool about it with something like, “Hey, man, the POH says 70 knots for final. I’m not too comfortable with anything much slower than that.” If the pilot with whom you’re flying is competent and professional, then he or she will respond positively with respect for your personal minimums, or explain why they made that choice in a way that makes sense and is grounded in a legitimate knowledge of aviation. If, for some reason, the response you get makes you feel unsafe, then you probably don’t need to fly with that individual again.

Remember, in the cockpit, every viewpoint is valuable. Even if you have less experience, know that you still have something to bring to the table.

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