My wife getting scared

In a previous article, Jay Honeck said:
2. Mary and I could be killed driving on the highway any day of the
week.

Statistically, that's true. In human terms, though, my wife knows maybe
25 pilots, and 2 of them have died in airplanes in the last couple of
years. She knows hundreds of drivers, and none of them have died in car
crashes recently. (Ok, one of them was kidnapped, raped and killed by a
guy impersonating a police officer who stopped her driving, but that's
another fear of hers regarding our four teenage and early twenties
daughters.)



--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
There are two ways to write error-free programs. Only the third one works.

Statistically, that's true. In human terms, though, my wife knows maybe
25 pilots, and 2 of them have died in airplanes in the last couple of
years. She knows hundreds of drivers, and none of them have died in car
crashes recently. (Ok, one of them was kidnapped, raped and killed by a
guy impersonating a police officer who stopped her driving, but that's
another fear of hers regarding our four teenage and early twenties
daughters.)

Fear can paralyze people. If you read the papers, you'd never leave
your home, for fear of catastrophe at every step.

We've lost 3 friends to two flying accidents this year. One was
probably fuel exhaustion, the other was probably flying VFR into
IMC. These are the kinds of accidents it is easy to explain away
("That will never happen to me!") but in both cases the pilots were
known to be meticulous, skilled operators. So what can you do?

The kinds of crashes that REALLY scare me are the ones where a control
surface fails, or a wing comes off in flight. There was a Cherokee
235 that crashed last year after the wings departed the fuselage, thus
far for reasons unknown. Did the pilot yank the yoke back in his lap
at redline? Or was it just metal fatigue in our old fleet, like the
Grumman seaplane in Florida?

Second scariest (to me) are mid-airs, but that's not too worrisome out
here in the wide-open spaces of Iowa. Still, it happens, and it's (of
course) the one you DON'T see is the one that gets ya.

We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Jay,

I for one am sold on the idea of a BRS. Lots of pilots poo poo the
idea, but I have seen lots of fatals that could have benefited from a
BRS, especially mid-airs that take off wings and tails but leave the
fuselage intact. The BRS is a last resort option for things that
might happen outside your control as a pilot.

Being conservative as a pilot is the best thing you can do, and I am
firmly in that camp. There is still a lot of fun to be had as a
conservative pilot.

Dean

As just a bit of food for thought, how conservative are you?

Are you conservative in that you limit the size of the box of aviation
activities and behaviors that you expose yourself to?

This is the normal definition that most pilots apply to
being conservative. The down side is that it can also limit your
abilities as a pilot. So the box of abilities that you carry with you
as a pilot can deteriorate down to size of the box of activities you
limit yourself to. I don't think this is being as conservative as most
people think it is.

How long should a conservative pilot go without doing any of the
following?
Stalls
Spin Recoveries
Slow Flight
Short Field Landings
Simulated Engine Failures
Simulated Control Failures
Flight by reference to the Instruments
An Instrument Approach
Reviewing specific aircraft emergency procedures.

The truly conservative pilot won't do these with passengers aboard or
maybe even by himself. He may insist on having an experienced
instructor with him while he practices these kinds of procedures
frequently. But if a pilot only does these things once every two
years for his flight review is he really being conservative? Is he
even safe if he hasn't done any of this for nearly two years? He may
be safe as long as nothing bad happens that puts him outside of his
"conservative" box.


To really be conservative you would be expanding your piloting
abilities rather than limiting them. The challenge here is to expand
you abilities without creating undue hazard doing so. So go get that
Instrument, Commercial or tail wheel rating. Go get a good instructor
and practice emergency procedures every few months. You don't need to
expand the box of activities you do normally, but you will be ensuring
that your abilities stay larger than the box you normally fly in.

This way when you are forced to inadvertently fly outside normal
personal limitations, there is a fair chance you will have the
abilities to deal with it.


Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
you carry with you as a pilot can deterioate down to size of the box
of activities you limit youself to.

On Oct 1, 4:47 pm, Brian wrote:
As just a bit of food for thought, how conservative are you?

Are you conservative in that you limit the size of the box of aviation
activities and behaviors that you expose yourself to?


Brian,
Great advices. Thanks.

Hai Longworth

Jay Honeck wrote:
....
We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
I always say "boring flying is good flying" when it gets exciting it
usually means you did something stupid.

Margy

Margy Natalie wrote:
Jay Honeck wrote:
...
We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
I always say "boring flying is good flying" when it gets exciting it
usually means you did something stupid.

Margy


.......................oh, I don't know........... :-))

--
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote:
Margy Natalie wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:
...

We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I always say "boring flying is good flying" when it gets exciting it
usually means you did something stupid.

Margy



......................oh, I don't know........... :-))

Well, fun flying can be fun (but I tend to deposit my breakfast on the
neighbor's shrubbery soon after) but exciting, sucking in the seat
cushion flying is NOT fun. I'd much rather leave my plane in Richmond
or Lancaster (done both this year) than have an exciting flight home.
Avis loves us. Of course when the duputy director of the museum informs
you that you can "take whatever time you need" to go retrive your plane
it helps. I love having a job where I'd be in more trouble if I scud
run home to get to work on Monday than if I didn't show up :-).

Margy

Margy Natalie wrote:
Dudley Henriques wrote:
Margy Natalie wrote:

Jay Honeck wrote:
...

We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I always say "boring flying is good flying" when it gets exciting it
usually means you did something stupid.

Margy



......................oh, I don't know........... :-))

Well, fun flying can be fun (but I tend to deposit my breakfast on the
neighbor's shrubbery soon after) but exciting, sucking in the seat
cushion flying is NOT fun. I'd much rather leave my plane in Richmond
or Lancaster (done both this year) than have an exciting flight home.
Avis loves us. Of course when the duputy director of the museum informs
you that you can "take whatever time you need" to go retrive your plane
it helps. I love having a job where I'd be in more trouble if I scud
run home to get to work on Monday than if I didn't show up :-).

Margy

This just shows that you're a first class pilot Margy. It's like Kenny
Rogers says, "You gotta know when to fold up" :-)

--
Dudley Henriques

Jay Honeck wrote:
There was a Cherokee
235 that crashed last year after the wings departed the fuselage, thus
far for reasons unknown. Did the pilot yank the yoke back in his lap
at redline? Or was it just metal fatigue in our old fleet, like the
Grumman seaplane in Florida?


I know the final report isn't out on that accident, but the preliminaries
showed obvious signs of overstress failures to both the wings and the tail.
It is not unusual for wings to come off of a GA plane when control is lost
(as seems to be the case in the Cherokee 235) and the recovery is done
improperly ( which is often the case if the pilot has had no aerobatic
training or extensive unusual attitude recovery training).

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

--
Message posted via http://www.aviationkb.com