AircraftOwner Online

    I recently had the honor and privilege of being able to interview both the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Deborah Hersman, and the only professional pilot of the National Transportation Safety Board, Robert Sumwalt. Between the results of these interviews and recent public announcements made by the NTSB, it is pretty clear that a number of issues will become “hot button” issues in aviation safety issues, and probably regulations and enforcement issues, in the immediate future. Most of these issues have been lumped under the buzzword of “professionalism.”

    Perhaps the most immediate area of concern has to do with the intrusion of modern technology into the cockpits of aircraft (as well as the cabs of locomotives, the bridge of vessels, and tractors of 18-wheelers). In air carrier aircraft, the cockpit is supposed to be “sterile” during key phases of flight including taxi, takeoff, climb, descent and landing. Yet it is apparent that many crewmembers have been using cell phones, pda’s, and laptops during some of these phases of flight, as have long-haul truckers, railroad engineers, and the captains of vessels. A number of recent fatal accidents in all of these modalities have caused this issue to rise to the top of the pile for government agencies charged with insuring the safety of the public. The introduction of applications “apps” for PDA’s that are useful in flying has made the use of these devices a double-edged sword. On the one hand, these apps provide incredibly-useful information, in real time, at a cost significantly lower than the panel-mounted units that provide the same information, just prior to takeoff. On the other hand, they divert the attention of the crew from the view outside the cockpit, the checklists, and the instrument panel.

    Even worse, I have personally witnessed helicopter pilots speaking on cell phones in flight, telling their loved ones what time they would be landing, checking with restaurants for reservations, etc. Ignoring for a moment that such actions violate FCC regulations, to a fixed-wing pilot like me, trying to dial a cell phone, and holding it in one hand, while using another hand on the collective and a third hand (I guess) on the cyclic, seems a little like juggling at 110 knots. It is clearly unsafe. The fact that people get away with it regularly does not make it “safe”; and it sure as heck doesn’t make it “professional”.

    The other day, the NTSB made a public pronouncement that it was investigating the issue of glass cockpits in general aviation aircraft. In addition to issues about different “switchology” and operating procedures, the NTSB also noted that it seems that pilots upgrading to these systems often fail to obtain the training that they need to fully understand and utilize the features of the new technology. In larger aircraft, insurance companies, airlines, and regulators require initial training and regular recurrent training on complex systems.

    In smaller GA aircraft, we tend not to insist on such training. But to not understand the inner workings and total capabilities of the primary instrumentation in the aircraft you are flying is not only “unsafe”, it is most-certainly “unprofessional”. Even if we don’t fly for a living, if we want to keep living as we fly and afterward, we had better act in a professional manner when it comes to training. At a minimum, we need to know how to utilize the systems in an emergency. And we need to be able to take the initial steps from memory. We also need to be able to look up information, tune frequencies, identify named intersections and airports, and obtain our current position while in actual instrument conditions, in turbulence, during a busy radio procedure phase of flight, without losing situational awareness. We need to know if we can move information from one screen to another in case of a failure of the primary screen. We need to know what we can do in the event that all of the screens go black, and what we will not be able to do in such a situation.

    A third issue that has come up lately is fatigue. This tends to be much more of a problem in scheduled carriers than in personal aviation, but it is just as important that the operators of smaller aircraft are aware of the problem. Fatigue is insidious. As we travel across time zones at high speed, in a reduced-oxygen environment, punctuating routine boring cruise flight with high-intensity operations like shooting an instrument approach to a landing at the end of a long day, we, who don’t do this for a living, may not realize how tired we really are. And that may only be day one of a multi-day trip. The next day, after sleeping on an unfamiliar mattress, waking up at a different time than usual, and flying over an area that is not well known to us, we will be even more tired and more-likely to make mistakes. What do the pros do? They pay attention to the subtle signs. They make sure that they are well rested and that they understand the subtle symptoms of fatigue. They plan their flights meticulously when they are rested. They switch off “legs” if there are several pilots in the cockpit. They use their checklists religiously – reading them out loud and requiring the proper responses. They challenge one another if one thinks the other is not doing what is supposed to be done. They brief their takeoffs. They brief their landings.

    Just because flying may not be our profession does not give us license to be unprofessional about our flying.