Two Pilots Illustrate Why Airmanship Is a Matter of Survival

As attendees of Bombardier’s 2017 Safety Standdown focused on "intentionally safe" last month, they heard tales underscoring the importance of knowledge acquisition and airmanship and the fact that they can be a matter of life and death.

Most pilots gain knowledge, pass Federal Aviation Administration check rides, and then increase their knowledge with experience. This knowledge should grow over time, speakers told attendees. But if pilots don’t study their discipline, they might be meeting the minimums, but not be practicing good airmanship. “The FAA-regulated minimums are only 25 percent of capabilities [of flying],” one speaker pointed out.

A story of two pilots underscored this point.

One part of the story involved a check ride a check airman had given to a friend. During the oral part of the review, he quizzed his friend on several items, including new checklist procedures in the event of a dual-engine flameout. The friend did not know the procedures. When asked what he would do in such a situation, the friend responded that it was a one-in-a-billion event. 

The check airman then quizzed his friend on a number of other items. The friend could not answer several of those questions. The check airman was in a quandary. He had flown with his friend and knew he was a skilled pilot. But he was “severely disappointed” by the responses.

The check airman decided to go on the check ride with his friend to see how that went before he made a decision on how to handle the situation. The check ride went beautifully. "Good stick-and-rudder skills,” the check airman thought. 

After the flight, the airman pondered his next action. He decided against sending his friend back to remedial training. Instead, he opted to give him a thumbs up but tell him that he didn’t come close to meeting FAA standards and to never come back for a check ride like that again.

That was his friend’s last check ride.

The National Transportation Safety Board report said that as the friend flew over a lake, the fisherman in a boat below could see him wave to them. “How low do you have to be to be seen waving?” the speaker asked. The fisherman told NTSB investigators they saw the aircraft disappear over trees and then heard an explosion. Left behind were a wife and two children.

The check airman believes the NTSB should add a faulty check ride to the report, and wonders, “Do you think it would have made a difference if I had done my job that day?”

Not knowing a checklist is a symptom of a larger problem, the speaker said.

Skills in Practice

This is in contrast to a pilot who had encountered a dual-engine flameout. During this pilot’s check ride, not only had he learned the checklist but he also quizzed the same check airman for an hour about various scenarios and what he should do if they unfolded. The check airman was not the only one he quizzed. He also asked many others. He wanted to make sure he learned about every scenario possible. The pilot felt as if something was missing in his knowledge and persisted until he had learned as much as possible.

About 18 months later, that man, acting as an instructor pilot, was flying over northern Georgia with a pilot who had just five hours of experience in jet aircraft. 

They were discussing flying into IMC weather as they flew over lower convective activity. At 38,000 feet, they had received instructions for initial descent. After the thrust levers were pulled slightly back, the aircraft experienced a dual-engine flameout. The instructor pilot told his companion to take care of altitude and airspeed and “I’ll take care of the rest.” He went through the checklist, including three failed attempts to restart the right engine. As they descended, they lost the airspeed indicator. The instructor pilot found himself flying into rain, IMC for 250 miles around, no engines or airspeed indication—and with one pilot relatively unfamiliar with jet aircraft. The instructor pilot decided to synch the second hand of his watch with the “sweeps of the altimeter” to determine descent rate. 

Using airmanship and knowledge, he was able to land “dead stick” in Jacksonville, Florida.

“Who succeeds against all odds?” the speaker asked. “Sometimes we have to be perfect to survive.” But to be perfect, he concluded, pilots need the knowledge of how to address the situation and the confidence to do so.