By Robert N. Rossier, EAA 472091
This story first ran in the November 2019 issue of EAA Sport Aviation.
In this season of thanksgiving, we often reflect on our good fortune. We’re thankful for our families, our health, our jobs, and all of the amazing opportunities that come our way. But when it comes to flying, they say that luck favors the well prepared. And that’s a lesson we learn repeatedly, through our own experience and the experience of others. Any steps we can take to improve our preparedness can help lead to a more welcomed or “lucky” outcome.
We all know the importance of good aircraft preflight inspections. This is where we take stock of the aircraft’s condition and look for signs that something might not be as it should. From fuel and tires to flight controls and instrumentation, we want to ensure that all the key parts are in play to assure our good luck in flight.
What some pilots might overlook is their own condition — their own personal fitness for flight. And, as it turns out, this can be just as important as the condition of the aircraft we fly.
Medical Fitness
One way we’re taught to assess our fitness for flight is the I’M SAFE checklist. This mnemonic provides us an easy way to remember medical and physiological factors that can affect our capabilities for safe flight. The “I” stands for anything related to illness — suffering from cold symptoms, dealing with digestive issues, and just managing the general malaise that puts us off our game. The “M” stands for any medication, including over-the-counter remedies that we might take to relieve nagging symptoms. Although such remedies may make us feel better, they might leave us in an altered state that is unsafe for flight. “S,” which stands for stress, is next on the menu. Stress comes in many forms, including physical, environmental, and emotional. It adds an underlying level of disability or distraction that limits our judgment and decision-making ability. The “A” stands for alcohol, which doesn’t mix well with avgas in any quantity. “F” is for fatigue. Whether chronic or acute, fatigue impedes our focus and sorely degrades our motor function and mental acuity. Last on the list is “E” for eating (nutrition). A pilot who has not eaten recently enough or who is otherwise nutritionally deficient runs no better than an engine with contaminated fuel.
Remember, too, that anytime we have a condition that would cause us not to pass an FAA flight physical, we are required to remove ourselves from flight status. One potential trap here is changes in prescription medications. Any changes to our prescriptions may require approval from the FAA medical branch to ensure our condition is favorable for flight. And while it might seem that those flight physicals are both frequent and annoying, failure to detect a problem can put us in a no-win situation.
Consider the instrument-rated private pilot of a Piper Archer (PA-28-181) on a daytime flight in VFR conditions from Mitchell Municipal Airport (KMHE) in Mitchell, South Dakota, to Marv Skie-Lincoln County Airport (Y14) in Tea, South Dakota, last January. It was somewhere in the sky over Salem, South Dakota, that the situation turned deadly. According to the NTSB report, the pilot reported to Sioux Falls Approach Control that he was experiencing chest pains. The controller was trying to convince the pilot to just land anywhere but lost contact with the pilot at 1425 Central time. Searchers later found the wreckage of the aircraft in a harvested crop field near Salem. Sadly, the pilot did not survive.
The report stated that the 2,200-hour pilot had received a third-class medical certificate in October 2016 and had flown some 50 hours in the six months preceding the exam. The report didn’t say if the pilot had received an EKG as part of a physical exam, but we can’t help but wonder if such a test might have given the pilot a critical piece of medical information upon which to act.
Proficiency
While the I’M SAFE checklist is a great tool for assessing our general health and fitness for flight, it’s really just the tip of a much deeper iceberg that can conspire against us. Another aspect of personal fitness for flight to consider is our flight proficiency. The regulations spell out the basics regarding currency, including completion of a flight review within the previous 24 months. In addition, before we can carry passengers, the regulations require us to have completed three takeoffs and landings within the previous 90 days for daytime flights, and recent night experience, including three takeoffs and full-stop landings in the past 90 days, for night. Instrument currency is also mapped out for us in the regulations. This includes completing six instrument approaches, holding procedures and tasks, and intercepting and tracking courses using electronic navigational systems — all within the preceding six calendar months.
While we might meet the letter of the law by meeting recency of flight requirements, we need to look a bit deeper into the question of proficiency. Like a set of steel brake rotors, it doesn’t take long for a coating of rust to form if our skills haven’t been exercised recently.
Such may have been the case for the pilot of a Beech A36 departing Colusa County Airport (O08) in Colusa, California, in early January on an IFR flight destined for Palo Alto, California. Conditions at Colusa at the time included a 500-foot ceiling and one-mile visibility, but nearby Yuba County Airport (KMYV) was reporting 10 miles visibility and 7,500 overcast. According to the report, the aircraft climbed to only about 1,000 feet after departure before it started a right turn followed by a rapid descent. The aircraft crashed into an irrigation pond, killing the pilot and his passenger. It is unclear at the time of this writing what caused the crash, but the pilot was clearly unprepared to deal with the situation.
Pressure
Another factor that’s easy to overlook is the pressures that can come to bear on a pilot. This trap has snared its share of unwary pilots. Whether the pressure is purely self-induced or brought about by external factors, pilots can feel the need to make or continue a flight even when conditions are unsafe or deteriorating.
The student pilot of a Cessna 172 who was completing a cross-country flight may have felt pressured to land when she arrived at Miami Executive Airport (KTMB) in Florida. Despite the gusty crosswind conditions, she continued a no-flap landing, even after the aircraft in front of her decided to go around. The pilot landed long and was unable to make the last turn turnoff from the runway. The aircraft veered off the downwind side of the runway and struck a windsock with the wing, causing substantial damage. Fortunately, the pilot was uninjured.
Completing a thorough aircraft preflight inspection is important, but it doesn’t give us a complete picture. By giving ourselves as pilots a thorough and objective preflight inspection, we can put ourselves in a little better position to experience good luck in our flying endeavors. And that’s something for which we can all be thankful.
Robert N. Rossier, EAA 472091, has been flying for more than 30 years and has worked as a flight instructor, commercial pilot, chief pilot, and FAA flight check airman. For more from Robert, read his column, Stick and Rudder, each month in EAA Sport Aviation.