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Flying Stories (off-topic) was: Ask Marilyn



At 10:47 PM 12/15/02, John Denker, you wrote:
...
Example: I'm the flight instructor, giving
somebody a checkout for night-flying privileges.
Near the end of the flight I will turn off
essentially all the electricity in the airplane
(so that the gauges are inoperative and/or
unreadable) and require the customer to land
the airplane.
...
It is a character defect of high school teachers (and others)
who were pilots, that they may easily be pursuaded by a show
of student interest, to stray far from the curriculum, to a time when...

..and in my case, a light aircraft trip from Pueblo Colo, back to Tulsa OK
was terminated at sunset by the loss of the one instrument light
in the ceiling, despite the two pocket lights I carried.

I expected to spend the night at a motel at Alva, but it transpired that
the harvesters with their heavy machines were sweeping through the
local fields, on their long wave north to the Canadian border and
occupying all available hotel beds, so my son and I shared a jail
cell overnight (having misunderstood the suggestion we try for the
campus police at the local college, who apparently maintained a cell
rather more suited to unruly students than criminals).

Then again, Captain Al Haynes was kind enough to lunch with a small
group of blue-suit [AF] pilots, navs, a controller, and one or two odd bodies
like me, last week. The cause was worthy: military crews are ever-aware
of rank and its privileges, but perhaps no more so than crews of several
airlines of whom I have heard tell. When I asked, he mentioned that
he has given his presentation on the last 45 minutes of an all-hydraulic
airplane, with all hydraulic power lost, about 1500 times.

He does not accept payment. He does get some relief from
"survivor guilt" by talking about the events of United's flight into
Sioux City. His thrust was to relate a way of coordinating resources
so that all ideas were considered, from any quarter - a topic known in
these flying circles as CRM - crew resource management.
He made a point which sheds some light on John's training strategy.
Captain Al suggested, "Better to train with the most unpleasant
scenario - reality can be worse still."



Brian Whatcott
Altus OK Eureka!