AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 152) NEVERAGAIN BY DON L. TAYLOR AOPAPILOT I lived through a graveyard spiral 50 years It’ll never happen to me! In 1958, Don L. Taylor’s “I Lived Through a Graveyard Spiral” was the first “Never Again” story to be published in The AOPA Pilot. At that time, Taylor wrote AOPA, “For several years I have listened politely but unresponsively to your advice concerning the AOPA 180° Rating. I thought: With my wonderful attitude on safety, it will never happen to me! It did. Having had what I consider a miraculous escape from a seemingly inevitable crash, I am of the opinion that my testimony might well be used to help save the lives of other pilots. Therefore, I have written an account of my flight, and I donate it to you to use as you see fit. I hope that my experience may be of benefit to others.” That premise has been the foundation for AOPA Pilot’s “Never Again” series throughout a half-century. It has also spawned numerous AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) courses, including the famous early “AOPA 180° Rating” to which the author refers. (The 180° rating taught noninstrument-rated pilots how to safely get out of instrument conditions by performing a 180-degree turn using the rudders only.) ASF named a seminar after “Never Again” and recently launched “Real Pilot Stories” of a good flight gone bad (www.aopa. org/asf/pilotstories). “Never Again” struck a chord with pilots who wanted to learn how to stay out of trouble, and in October 2001, AOPA introduced “Never Again Online,” featuring a previously unpublished lesson each month. Today you can even join an online discussion (http://forums.aopa. org) when you select the Never Again message board, or provide comments and submissions to neveragain@ STEVE VANCE B efore you read this account, you should understand that the author is definitely not a daredevil, tomorrow-be-dammed, reckless flyer. Trained by an ex-Navy instructor, and skilled in many phases of VFR weather, I have always conscientiously maintained what I believed was a wide margin of safety in all aspects of flying. I have an unmarred safety record in my hundreds of hours of flying in the Midwest, South, and a part of Mexico, and up to now I have passed the final and absolute test of a pilot’s flying ability: I am still alive. This is not an attempt to boast, but to prevent the reader from shrugging off the implications of the story as it unfolds. The event, which I shall relate from personal experience, can also happen to you, you VFR loggerhead, even if—and especially if—you are the most confident VFR pilot in the world. When you read this story, you may just as readily place yourself in the starring role. It was a promising dawn, with a clear August sky above and the first hint of sun streaking across the sky. I hitched my shoulder harness and taxied slowly across the lonely field to the end of the long paved runway. Sky Harbor Airport, at Indianapolis, seemed like home to me. It was home, at least, to my pampered two-seater, although I doubt if she were thinking those thoughts as she purred through her mag check. She was a sleek Cessna 140, named Carol’s Angel because of her unfailing habit to carry me gently and safely at every opportunity to my fiancée in Milwaukee. Heading northwest at 2,000 feet, to use the best available winds, my thoughts turned to the vacation ahead. Nine days of leave from the U. S. Army! And this lieutenant would start them off right. A brief stop in Milwaukee would be enough to embark the young lady for whom the Angel served, and then we would be flying to a week of glorious outdoor fun at Onaway Island in Central Wisconsin. The first signs of low-f l y i n g c l o u d s a p peared as I crossed the familiar Wabash River. Autom a t i c a l l y, I cranked up my Lear VHF aopa.org). —Machteld A. Smith AOPA PILOT • 152 • MARCH 2008 http://aopa.org/asf/pilotstories http://aopa.org/asf/pilotstories http://forums.aopa.org http://forums.aopa.org
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