Why I like flying

[Ned Gravel]

Had dinner with two couples yesterday.  In both cases, he is the pilot and she is the right seater.  One of them flies an Arrow and the other just got his PPC on a King Air C-90 (with a Garmin G-XXXX (XXX) in the panel.  Our dinner conversation was a real eye-opener.  My friend who recently passed his checkrides on the C-90 has about 7,000 hours, mostly in GA and is one of the absolute best instructors I have ever met.  Not so hot on Mooney's, but one of the best for ab-initio, commercial, instructor and instrument training.  He is currently a DE (designated examiner) in Canada and works for a Federal Government agency that wanted him to qualify on the C-90 as part of his job.

So he does it all on the simulator (ok so far) and then he passes two checkrides in the simulator, one as PF and the other as PM (??? = Pilot Monitoring - New designations to me).  His training has emphasised the following (autopilot engaged and flying from 400' on takeoff and disengaged at 200' on the approach).  Huh?  OK, got the idea that there is very little room to do other than to follow the procedures - and there are a ton of those.  When one of the warning lights in the warning light panel goes off, they are told to do nothing for 30 seconds and determine what it may mean.  Out comes the checklist. PF tells PM to go through the checklist and PIC decides what needs to be done - include telling PM what to do if the PF is busy flying the airplane (aviate, navigate, communicate). 

Their training goes so far as to sound like a knuckle gets rapped if something is touched without significant (my emphasis) purpose and outside of a checklist.  During his PIC (PF) ride, he had to demonstrate, amongst other things, his ability to monitor the systems, react appropriately to situations (including system warnings), call for the PM to initiate checklists, and decide on appropriate actions from options provided in the checklists.  There were three in the simulator.  Him, the instructor playing PM and the DE.  When he finished (and passed) that ride, he did his PM ride.  Same people, but now he is in the right seat and his instructor let nothing go without calling for the examination of a checklist whenever an issue came up - here it was him selecting, reading and recommending the options.  

He passed obviously, but it seemed kind of sad to me.  

I am not bemoaning our adherence to checklists, or following the magenta line because we now have the ability to do that, or letting George do a lot of the work (because George is reasonably good at that), or not immediately reacting when an issue arises, or adhering to procedures that ostensibly call for pilots to trust their systems to do the flying job for them.  What saddens me is the apparent impediment to "fiddle" with things when we want to do something better, faster, higher, stronger, etc.  I am a "fiddler."  Lean of Peak, CHTs, EGTs, trim to help my STEC 50, RPM and power to set for 65%, or 70% when considering the "Red Box."  

Flying is a technical activity, wrapped up in an artistic package of just plain loving the feeling of being airborne.  I fly a Mooney and I already have bragging rights because of that.  Having to sit on my hands in the cockpit to keep from touching things because the procedures call for me to do that - seems sad to me.  Just not me.  

My Mooney deserves to be tweaked while flying.  That activity enhances the enjoyment of the motion transmitted from the wings to my backside.  I may not be "flying,"  with the same hands-on approach we use in formation training, but it is still flying.  

Oh well.  Now if the weather can just clear enough for me to shovel the snow from in front of it, and get it airborne for an hour or two. 

[M20F]

There is another thread here about cars.  All sports cars are leaving the clutch for automatics.  Why?  Because the computer does it better.  GA is about flying.  Commercial aviation is about business (hence the word commercial).  I helped a lot of folks become airline pilots and a few didn’t understand the distinction.  One is a passion the other is a job.   It isn’t fair to compare them. 

[Ned Gravel]

I'll take that.  I accept mine is a passion.  I would not be very good at that job.  

[Tim Jodice]

30 seconds seems like a long time to do nothing. Any idea why they found that to be the safest thing to do? 

[Hank]

16 hours ago, airtim said:

30 seconds seems like a long time to do nothing. Any idea why they found that to be the safest thing to do? 

From a safety seminar once upon a time:  "Don't just do something! Sit there!"

I've also heard when something goes wrong, stop and wind your watch. [I've not worn a windable watch since elementary school . . . ] The whole reason is to not quickly do something wrong, like kill the working engine when one conks out. Be deliberate, think things through and verify each action. Things in flight rarely require immediate action [thankfully!!].

[MooneyMitch]

“Things in flight rarely require immediate action [thankfully!!].“

My opinion..... an exception...... engine stoppage on takeoff.   Immediate action required in order to prevent a stall. 

That would come under the “rarely” part ! 

[steingar]

The way I heard it, something goes wrong the first thing  you do is wind your watch.

And you want to talk about gizmos in vehicles, look at motorcycles.  They're getting everything from ABS to full blow automatic transmissions.  To me it's all a lot of crap i have to pay for that'll only break anyway.  But the younguns' really like this sort of kit.

[Oldguy]

3 hours ago, Hank said:

I've also heard when something goes wrong, stop and wind your watch. [I've not worn a windable watch since elementary school . . . ] The whole reason is to not quickly do something wrong, like kill the working engine when one conks out. Be deliberate, think things through and verify each action. Things in flight rarely require immediate action [thankfully!!].

I think the one thing that must be done quickly is determine if immediate action is required or if there is time to think.

• Engine fails on takeoff? Like @MooneyMitch says, push now, think next.
• Engine fails at cruise altitude? Think about what to do next.
• Autopilot decides to make a turning full power dive in IMC? Yep, one of those do/think situations. BTDT.

It seems to me part of our training is to have the instinctive muscle memory to take those immediate, required actions to give us the next few seconds to be able to do the thinking, because once the adrenaline kicks in, those thinking cycles seem to get a lot slower.

[Hank]

40 minutes ago, Oldguy said:

I think the one thing that must be done quickly is determine if immediate action is required or if there is time to think.

• Engine fails on takeoff? Like @MooneyMitch says, push now, think next.
• Engine fails at cruise altitude? Think about what to do next.
• Autopilot decides to make a turning full power dive in IMC? Yep, one of those do/think situations. BTDT.

It seems to me part of our training is to have the instinctive muscle memory to take those immediate, required actions to give us the next few seconds to be able to do the thinking, because once the adrenaline kicks in, those thinking cycles seem to get a lot slower.

Yes, the altimeter unwinding, wind whistling and nothing but gray out the windows does require some quick thinking and actions. BTDT, drank the bourbon when I got home. But it was simple, basic IFR procedure--look at AI, altimeter and ASI, and correct. Still not much fun . . . .

[ilovecornfields]

I think there is sound reasoning for the “don’t just do something, stand there approach.” I recall one of my mentors in the emergency department saying the same thing. In an emergency, the desire to do “something” had to be balanced by the need to do the “right thing.” We train for those situations where the “right thing” needs to happen right away.

Again, I’m going to recommend “Thinking fast and slow” by Daniel Kahneman. It goes into great detail to explain why our immediate response is not always the correct one.

[MooneyMitch]

2 hours ago, steingar said:

The way I heard it, something goes wrong the first thing  you do is wind your watch.

And you want to talk about gizmos in vehicles, look at motorcycles.  They're getting everything from ABS to full blow automatic transmissions.  To me it's all a lot of crap i have to pay for that'll only break anyway.  But the younguns' really like this sort of kit.

For myself, an Anti-Lock Brake System is an excellent safety technological advancement in preventing tire (s) from losing traction during motorcycle braking.

I believe it’s much better to have cohesion with the surface for the best control of the motorcycle, rather than losing traction, as in a skid.  

I believe this is true for a 4 wheeled vehicle as well.

[Ned Gravel]

22 hours ago, airtim said:

30 seconds seems like a long time to do nothing. Any idea why they found that to be the safest thing to do? 

Seems like an arbitrary time lag.  Obviously not for a real emergency as perceived by the crew, just for a light going on that would otherwise not do so.  As my Senior NCO's used to tell me:  "Take the time to suck back and reload instead of jumping into action."

[steingar]

15 hours ago, MooneyMitch said:

For myself, an Anti-Lock Brake System is an excellent safety technological advancement in preventing tire (s) from losing traction during motorcycle braking.

I believe it’s much better to have cohesion with the surface for the best control of the motorcycle, rather than losing traction, as in a skid.  

I believe this is true for a 4 wheeled vehicle as well.

I've had ABS in my car for the last 20 years.  I've yet to use it except once on purpose just to see what it did.  I don't need no stinkin' ABS!  Now get off my lawn!

[Hank]

49 minutes ago, steingar said:

I've had ABS in my car for the last 20 years.  I've yet to use it except once on purpose just to see what it did.  I don't need no stinkin' ABS!  Now get off my lawn!

My ABS went off several times driving around Columbus in the snow. She doesn't slow down much, but the steering continues to function well. Beats an uncontrolled slide / spin into a ditch, tree or oncoming traffic.

Since I moved back South 6 years ago, nada.

[rbridges]

3 minutes ago, Hank said:

My ABS went off several times driving around Columbus in the snow. She doesn't slow down much, but the steering continues to function well. Beats an uncontrolled slide / spin into a ditch, tree or oncoming traffic.

Since I moved back South 6 years ago, nada.

when we had that whopping 1/2" of snow here a few years ago, it went off in my wife's Lexus.  I'll chalk that up to inexperience in ice/snow, but it did get my attention.

[steingar]

1 hour ago, Hank said:

My ABS went off several times driving around Columbus in the snow. She doesn't slow down much, but the steering continues to function well. Beats an uncontrolled slide / spin into a ditch, tree or oncoming traffic.

Since I moved back South 6 years ago, nada.

I have a rear wheel drive sports car, and I've yet to need the ABS in any condition.  I can easily tell when the vehicle is getting ready to slide.  I've never had  slide on any bike, except some scree in a parking lot at low speed.

[Hank]

14 minutes ago, steingar said:

I have a rear wheel drive sports car, and I've yet to need the ABS in any condition.  I can easily tell when the vehicle is getting ready to slide.  I've never had  slide on any bike, except some scree in a parking lot at low speed.

Coming up on a stop sign leaving my subdivision was the first time. Roads plowed but still snowing. must have been going all of 12 mph. Rear wheel drive Infiniti coupe. A few other times, but that one was memorable, it didn't slow down any and cars were coming on the crossroad. 

[Yetti]

I used to drive busses in Vail during the winter.   You have not lived till you can do a full 360 in a 10 ton bus with passengers.   With a meh expression on your face like "what are y'all getting all freaked for"

That said from the C5 Corvette on the Auto tranny does just as good as the manual

with the CV tranny in the Subie, they still put in shift points and paddles on the wheel to up and down shift, but everyone says that is pretty silly given it is a CV unit.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Yetti

[Hank]

1 hour ago, Yetti said:

with the CV tranny in the Subie, they still put in shit points and paddles on the wheel to up and down shift, but everyone says that is pretty silly given it is a CV unit.

Nissan has done that, too, apparently to please the automotive media and / or customers who miss the feel of gears shifting. My wife's 2011 Altima doesn't have it, just the smooth CVT pull, but my '17 model has several fake shift points added where the RPM drops then rises back again even though it ain't got nothing to shift.

The only time I notice this in my Mooney is when pulling back to 2300 on a burger run, or being fast on pattern entry and pushing my 3-blade airbrake up to 2700 (very noticeable even from 2500 cruise descent).  

Edited January 29, 2020 by Hank

[EricJ]

10 hours ago, Hank said:

My ABS went off several times driving around Columbus in the snow. She doesn't slow down much, but the steering continues to function well. Beats an uncontrolled slide / spin into a ditch, tree or oncoming traffic.

Since I moved back South 6 years ago, nada.

The main function of ABS on most ground vehicles is to maintain directional control during a panic stop or in low traction conditions.   With a little training most people can out-brake ABS to a stop distance-wise, i.e., you can make it stop more quickly than the ABS could if you know how.   However, maintaining directional control in a panic stop or in a low-traction situation is a huge safety benefit that ABS provides.    The newest modern high-end systems are hard for even a very skilled driver to out-brake, though.   They've gotten a lot better.

Even on a track almost everybody tries to keep their ABS functional.    It doesn't really get in the way if you're doing everything right, and it'll save ruining an expensive tire or two when things get janky.

I didn't think the ABS on my BMW track car was doing much until I disabled it once and discovered it had been working a lot harder than I thought it had.   It was just doing it very unintrusively, which is good.   On a previous FWD race car that I had the ABS had failed, and we had to crank the brake bias all the way forward, nearly turning off the rear brakes, to keep from flat-spotting rear tires too often.

At school we have a Lear 23 that has a very early (1963) Goodyear electronic ABS system.   I got to play with it quite a bit and it's a pretty simple analog computer that just compares the voltages generated by small DC generators in each main wheel hub.   If one of them gets much lower than the others it lets pressure out of that brake caliper.   There were some earlier (1950s) mechanical anti-lock systems for large aircraft that had a flywheel in each hub and if the flywheel outran the wheel too much it relieved some pressure out of the caliper.  

ABS is one of those technologies that was born in aviation and moved into ground transport.   The history is pretty interesting.

[steingar]

20 hours ago, Hank said:

Coming up on a stop sign leaving my subdivision was the first time. Roads plowed but still snowing. must have been going all of 12 mph. Rear wheel drive Infiniti coupe. A few other times, but that one was memorable, it didn't slow down any and cars were coming on the crossroad. 

Actually, I take it back.  I did have a slide, in an old Toyota Tercel.  We were headed to see Mama Steingar with Sister Joan.  We got onto a bridge, and saw a big white Caddy start spinning,  He spun into a wall, shed parts and kept going.  The guy behind him stopped, and I went to stop.  Nothing, I was on ice, and I was about to rear end the guy.  Mrs. Steingar was screaming "No, no, no" at the top of her lungs because it was her car.

I did what any self-respecting biker would do.  I dropped gears, gunned it hard, went around the guy in front of me, went around the still spinning Cadillac, and got off the bridge are and clear of the whole mess.  Mrs. Steingar was quite impressed, Sister Joan finally looked up from her reading to see what was going on.  Missed the whole thing.

My how time flies.  Mama Steingar is gone, as is Sister Joan.  The Tercel went years ago, a victim of a nice tax cut that emboldened me to buy Mrs. Steingar a new car.  I still have a  bike, though.