A 41 year Senior Captain clicks the door behind, entering his Airline’s crew planning area. Meeting him there early and eager is a young fellow, 30 years his younger, the first officer for the day- a lucky guy, having gotten on the heavy aircraft.
These days, the art of hand-flying seems to be a bygone era. Unfortunate as that may be, it’s the result of highly automated aircraft taking the flying opportunities from pilots. Catch 22 works in ironic ways, as the pilot is the one that has to turn on the autopilot in the first place, making him the creator of his own demise.
Flying is as dangerous as we make it, and by that I’m implying that pilots are generally the weakest link in the accident chain. The majority of accidents are often the result of pilot error. Now, I’m not implying that airplanes don’t break, (because they often do) but I’ve seen too many accident reports that could and should have been avoided based on how the pilot reacted to the situation.
This morning I had a sharp reminder of how un-rare great pilots are. Through a few videos, I was reminded of this simple fact: Rarely do we hear about great pilots. Generally we hear about the “horrible pilots”, and get the scewed news stories. But, that’s the news, isn’t it? If there aren’t blood and guts, they won’t report on it.
Our second AviatorPro webinar has turned out to be a great success. Mat and I taught an interesting lesson on Trim, which surprisingly ran an hour in and of itself. Quite impressive!
We got the grand idea several weeks ago to try a fairly new technology. We though, “Why not meet together and take questions live, do a lesson live, and so on?”
The environment that we operate in is constantly changing and as pilots, we often need more detailed information than what the weatherman typicality brings to the table in order for us to to safely plan for our flights.
Do you want a document you can continually refer to, not only to do the correct checks and procedures, but to do the flows correctly as well? That’s where the FlightWork Kneeboard comes in.
Like the visuals in the simulator, the add-ons we have greatly affect just how realistic the simulator will be. Of course there are the scenery add-ons, but what about utilities and tools?
A perfectly executed crosswind landing is a step-by-step process, but the steps happen in a short amount of time. Learn the steps here, and sharpen your skills in the simulator.
