Van's Air Force
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Good Judgment
- Thread starter Ironflight
- Start date
Peter.Fruehling
Well Known Member
Set Personal Minimums
My instructor, Doug Weiler, taught me early on that I needed to not only define but write down and follow a set of defined personal minimums. I use this on EVERY flight I make...or don't make.
Taking the emotion or the extraneous factors OUT of the decision and basing it on facts that you have pre-defined as "good-to go" is one of the keys to good judgment.
The easy way to do it is at home when you have time to build your list, not at the airport when the bags are loaded and everyone is waiting for you at the other end. It's simple and can be used for everything from weather conditions / ceilings to stress or sickness...even alcohol. (24 hours bottle to throttle) My list is comprehensive and I trust it.
I highly recommend making your own list. You'll likely enjoy putting it together and living by it as a pilot.
- Peter
My instructor, Doug Weiler, taught me early on that I needed to not only define but write down and follow a set of defined personal minimums. I use this on EVERY flight I make...or don't make.
Taking the emotion or the extraneous factors OUT of the decision and basing it on facts that you have pre-defined as "good-to go" is one of the keys to good judgment.
The easy way to do it is at home when you have time to build your list, not at the airport when the bags are loaded and everyone is waiting for you at the other end. It's simple and can be used for everything from weather conditions / ceilings to stress or sickness...even alcohol. (24 hours bottle to throttle) My list is comprehensive and I trust it.
I highly recommend making your own list. You'll likely enjoy putting it together and living by it as a pilot.
- Peter
Safety thoughts
There was a post on this subject from a F-4 Tactical Manual that stated,"The only way to know your limits is to exceed them." I am not sure what the purpose of the post was. There are alot of pilots, military and civilian, who did this once (exceeded their limits or the a/c's limits) and did not live to fly another day.
Unless when you look in the mirror in the morning and you see somebody wearing a Nomex flightsuit and a helmet with the words "TEST PILOT" under your name, trying to find your limits by exceeding them will likely cut your RV flying days short. As an RV pilot I think it best to stay well within the "edges of the envelope". My favorite aviation axiom that I think of every time I go flying is "A superior pilot is one who uses his SUPERIOR judgement (decision making) to avoid situations that will require the use of his superior flying skills."
There was a post on this subject from a F-4 Tactical Manual that stated,"The only way to know your limits is to exceed them." I am not sure what the purpose of the post was. There are alot of pilots, military and civilian, who did this once (exceeded their limits or the a/c's limits) and did not live to fly another day.
Unless when you look in the mirror in the morning and you see somebody wearing a Nomex flightsuit and a helmet with the words "TEST PILOT" under your name, trying to find your limits by exceeding them will likely cut your RV flying days short. As an RV pilot I think it best to stay well within the "edges of the envelope". My favorite aviation axiom that I think of every time I go flying is "A superior pilot is one who uses his SUPERIOR judgement (decision making) to avoid situations that will require the use of his superior flying skills."
Peter - Your "list" is exactly what we do in the space business...well, not "exactly", (ours is a little bigger) but similar - our Flight Rules are essentially premade decisions that fill a couple of volumes, made in the cold light of day, to be used in the heat of the night. Making decisions in the middle of a bad situation is asking for trouble - implementing decisions you made while you were thinking comfortably is a much better idea, as you said!
Many good ideas here on how to "gain" wisdom....and a few good old aphorisms thrown in as well.
Paul
You're right - and actually, that post was made by a former Navy jet jockey.....with a fair amount of testing under his belt.....
rv7boy;278216[SIZE="3" said:
Disney has a management institute and they teach the same thing in a different way.
"We judge ourselves based on our intentions and others based on their actions."
Does anybody "intend" to crash? Therefore when we look in the mirror we see a safe pilot. Other see us flying and doing this, or that, ( you fill in the blank) and say, "that guy is gonna get hurt someday."
There is much more to getting old in aviation than just not intending to crash. Getting old comes from acknowledging that our's is a high risk business and working hard to mitigate the risk.
The "blank" might be formation, aerobatics, buzzing, hard IFR, flying over hostile terrain, or flying over cold water. There are numerous risks and they're different for different people. But all of them are risks and rather than blindly just doing them, a consicous decision about the risk versus reward, and developing strategies to make them as safe as possible can tip the odd.
Some of the activities that some of us do can't be justified and we should quit. In almost every activity in an airplane, with some effort, we can think of ways, by ourselves or with peers to improve the odds of these highrisk activities.
An Example:
Engine failure is a high risk in flying a P-51. Is it worth the risk? I say yes! How can we reduce that risk? One way is to have a functioning and charged O2 bottle. What does 02 have to do with engine failures you ask?
The Mustang has a 15 to 1 glide ratio. That means cruising at 17,500 the area that you can land a P-51 in after an engine failure is bigger than the Presidents TFR. Can you find an area that large in the lower 48 without 4000 feet of runway?
Sit down with peers and tear apart the your high risk activities and search for ways to reduce the risk without impacting the "fun factor." And when assessing the fun factor, factor in how much fun it is going to fellow aviators funerals. I have been to too many.
Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal
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Andrew M
Well Known Member
how not to jump to delusions
My student pilot friend called me yesterday to ask "Would you go flying in this stuff?" He wanted to make a 10 minute jump to go fishing. My response was would you go fly just to go fly? (No) There's your answer. I had him call flight service and the lady told him there are not enough fish to get her in an airplane today. Working as an A&P in many different shops over 20 years I have found there are so many different levels of judgement. How I resolve conflict about how to do something is go with the more restrictive criteria or action that produces a more sound system. The proper use of pride is to feel good about being open to correction and be willing to do as I'm told when it will produce a safer situation.
Andrew
My student pilot friend called me yesterday to ask "Would you go flying in this stuff?" He wanted to make a 10 minute jump to go fishing. My response was would you go fly just to go fly? (No) There's your answer. I had him call flight service and the lady told him there are not enough fish to get her in an airplane today. Working as an A&P in many different shops over 20 years I have found there are so many different levels of judgement. How I resolve conflict about how to do something is go with the more restrictive criteria or action that produces a more sound system. The proper use of pride is to feel good about being open to correction and be willing to do as I'm told when it will produce a safer situation.
Andrew
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The_CaptKirk
Member
Keep up the good examples!
I just want to thank all you experienced pilots for sharing both your insights and lessons-learned on this site. Yeah, encouragement for bucking rivets and sanding fiberglas is great for a while (maybe years), but enjoying flying and the fraternity of pilots is forever. The more we share this kind of insight, the better pilots we become, the stronger our community.
I just want to thank all you experienced pilots for sharing both your insights and lessons-learned on this site. Yeah, encouragement for bucking rivets and sanding fiberglas is great for a while (maybe years), but enjoying flying and the fraternity of pilots is forever. The more we share this kind of insight, the better pilots we become, the stronger our community.
Fuel
Thinking to myself out loud, near a mechanic I respect, I said "I wonder if I should top off my tanks".
His reply was "The only time you can have too much fuel is when you are on fire".
Excluding weight considerations I believe this was pretty sound advice.
Thinking to myself out loud, near a mechanic I respect, I said "I wonder if I should top off my tanks".
His reply was "The only time you can have too much fuel is when you are on fire".
Excluding weight considerations I believe this was pretty sound advice.
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I been thinking about the weather that has been talked about here. I thought back about 2 years when I was leaving Arlington, Wa after the airshow. Seems there were about 7 planes wanting to leave going east, so was I. They were talking about going through Stevens pass. Well I just turned off my radio where Boing field had a cover of 4200ft. I quickly knew what I was going to do, go through snoqualmie pass to go east. They, despite the fact that Stevens has an altitude of 4061 and Snoqualmie 3022, was bent on going Stevens, I walked away and got in my airplane and started home. Going through Snoqualmie pass was a little further, but I didn't care. I landed in Clealum for a quick stop for the wife, bucking winds in the 20's. Still no problems. As I approached Ellensburg the weather there was reporting 35mph winds. I looked on the GPS and saw Wenatchee 15miles north, so we decided to take another brake and go there and get breakfast. When we were about 7 out we heard the bunch that were going to go through stevens pass. Yup, they made it, I later learned they scud runned it. But what I'm getting at, I may have used a little more gas, but I was safe. I didn't have to scud run. If I was given a choice like that for Snoqualmie, I would have waited it out or flew down to portland and than up to spokane. I fly for fun. Putting myself at this kind of risk is not very sensible.
