TBM 700 Unrensposive

[Cris]

Cliffy- I completely concur. Understand your physiology, fly the plane, declare the emergency and live to fly another day.

[Steve65E-NC]

Sorry, there are just a certain number of things that are likely to go wrong.  A competent pilot should have an automatic response to each of them.  Examples are:  Engine quits making power, Electrical fire, Loss of Electrical power, plugged airspeed, failed landing gear extention,  Engine fire, and, (for altitude flyers) loss of pressurization/oxygen. 

 

Hypoxia is not new and too many accidents are happening.  These pilots, rest there souls, make us all look bad.

[WardHolbrook]

 

I know I'm going to get flamed for this but I think it's important enough to say it. 

 

For those of you who fly in the low 20s without pressurization, it's doubly important to PLAN on having an O2 failure and know what you are going to do because you have no "LOW CABIN PRESSURE"  light to warn you. If your O2 bottle system slowly fails it will sneak up on you and you won't know it. 

You are betting your life on your O2 system. I'm not saying not to do it. Just be real aware of the consequences and plan ahead.

Don't get caught by thinking "it'll never happen to me".  Complacency kills in airplanes. 

 

Here is what I sent to a young friend who is just starting out as a corporate pilot in an MU2. 

 

XXXXX,

I'm going to preach here so bear with me. 

In my career I've seen too many instances of pilots not "telling" ATC what they needed to do but just timidly asking to do something in a real emergency. It has cost them dearly. 

Here is a link to a current problem- 2 pressurization failures in 2 different airplanes recently that cost the lives of all on board. If you haven't heard of it or remember it,  Google up "Payne Stewart Learjet Crash". The same scenario. 

http://mooneyspace.com/topic/13023-tbm-700-unrensposive/

 

I have two issues here to pontificate on-

 

Hypoxia- You, I don't believe, have ever been through an altitude chamber ride to see how your body reacts to hypoxia. You need to do it. Until you experience it you really don't know how your body reacts to hypoxia. 

Hypoxia is insidious, it sneaks up on you, you feel like you are doing just fine and the next instant you are totally gone and don't even realize it happened, and now you can not do anything about it.  It will kill you and all who fly with you.

 

Serious Emergencies-   As can be seen in the TBM crash, the pilot knew he had a problem but didn't "fly the airplane first" he didn't TELL ATC what he was going to do  in a serious emergency. He was timid and it killed two people. I've have had 3 rapid decompressions in my career. 1 in the MU at 23000', 2 in jets up high. In all three as soon as I knew I saw a pressurization failure that could not be controlled I called ATC, declared an emergency and told them I was going down to 14000 (some training says to go to 10000' We can't do that out here in the west with the mountains. 14000 or 15000 gives you ground clearance and you can breathe there good enough for a few minutes to figure where you are and get lower)) I didn't ask for lower, I didn't ask "permission" to do something I just "did it" and at 4 to 6000' feet per minute. I wasted no time getting down. In the jets from up high as soon as a pressurization problem was noted the O2 mask went on. First item, no delay, get the F&^&)@#  mask on now. You can't do that in the MU as they are not quick donning masks like in jets. 

In the MU if you ever dump the pressurization (say a window breaks as it did with me in the MU, the window that is in the hangar) GET LOWER NOW AND THEN WORK OUT THE PROBLEM. Call ATC and YOU tell them what YOU are going to do and do it. NEVER ASK FOR PERMISSION IN A REAL EMERGENCY, JUST DECLARE AND DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO. LET THEM SORT OUT THE TRAFFIC ISSUES. 

Don't delay getting down in the MU while you dick around with the stupid O2 masks in the MU. If you can't control the pressurization get your butt down. AT 25000' you have maybe 3 minutes of useful consciousness,(the charts say 3 to 5, don't count on 5 it'll kill you) it will take you 2-3 mins to get down to 14 or 15000' by the time you diagnose the issue and get down there. So don't delay by playing with the pressurization problem. If it's on both bleeds open and setting the controller to a way lower altitude doesn't stop the pressure loss, GET DOWN NOW. 

 

I'm off my soap box now. Hope you have a good day.

 

 

 

As I said above, any delay in getting down fast can and will kill you. Delaying by "asking for lower" etc only leaves you up there longer. Time that you don't have. I stand by what I said, "NEVER ASK FOR PERMISSION IN A REAL EMERGENCY, DECLARE THE EMERGENCY AND DO WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. LET THEM SORT OUT THE TRAFFIC ISSUES" 

 

OK let the arrows fly. I can weave and duck. Just remember-

 

"You're not a safe pilot until you have been tempered and you're not tempered until you do something in an airplane that scares the living crap out of you and YOU know that YOU did it!"

 

Very well stated and I could not possibly agree more with that you wrote.

 

It's hard to believe, but you can go all the way to the top in this business only receiving the minimum levels of training. All the FAA ever does is establish the minimum standards. For many, that then becomes their goal - To achieve and maintain MINIMUM standards of skill, proficiency, knowledge and training. The problem is compounded when some of us confuse currency with competency. They are not equivalent.

 

Experience doesn't allow you to fly "better", it allows you to fly "smarter". The most experienced ATP on the planet won't fly an ILS any differently or any better than the newest instrument rated pilot would do it. Experience has little, if anything, to do with the way you manipulate the flight controls. It has everything to do with what you think about and the way you think about it. There are some things what will get you killed in an airplane. Hypoxia is one of those things, airframe ice and thunderstorms are some others. Like I said earlier, things like altitude chamber training and a small emergency back up 02 bottle are really nice to have regardless if they are required or not.

 

Flying like a pro has nothing to do with the grade of pilot certificate you have in your wallet or who signs your paycheck. It has to do with the way you approach the various hazards you will encounter. Additional training is always a good thing. There's not one pilot on this forum would not benefit from taking an altitude chamber and/or extreme unusual attitude recovery course or taildragger or glider training or whatever. It's all good and there is a carry over for any of it. 

 

Now, I too, will get off of my soapbox. Fly smart my friends.