AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2015 - 120
P&E
120 |
NEVER AGAIN
came over me as I realized I had made the
wrong decision. With new confidence I
announced to John that we would stay in
the pattern and return to land. He argued,
but I wasn't flexible anymore. The trip
around the pattern was jolting, and the final
approach was a fight. I was flustered and
conducted the worst landing I have ever
made. But we all walked away safely and
sat through one of the most severe thunderstorms I've seen.
After the storm passed, our flight home
was calm and beautiful. It was the last time
I ever flew with John. I now knew that he
was one of those pilots you read about, with
a lack of respect for the true importance of
caution. I regretted my decision to initiate the return flight with John, and I knew
that as PIC it was ultimately my responsibility. But I had not yet learned my second
lesson: It never occurred to me to report
the incident to the flying club. I followed
the lead of someone I perceived as a more
experienced pilot, assuming that his experience correlated with better judgment. It
could have ended very differently. Although
I made the personal decision never to fly
with John again, I didn't have the confidence to be sure he was wrong; I wondered
if my apprehension was simply caused by
my inexperience.
About a year after that flight, I took
some friends on a flight for lunch. It was a
beautiful flying day with clear skies, calm
wind, and great visibility. It was my last
time in the 177 before I moved out of town.
The flying club later called because the next
pilot to take the 177 out discovered a subtle
rippling of the wings during his preflight,
only noticeable when the line of vision was
placed right along the top of the wing. It
was estimated that the aircraft had undergone several Gs of force consistent with
thunderstorm-related turbulence. The 177
was totaled. Our flight had been smooth, so
I had missed the damage on my preflight.
I learned that the last person to fly the aircraft before me was John, and at that point
I told the story that I should have told
months earlier.
John soon resigned from the flying club.
We know the airplane had been flown past
its structural limits. The irony here is that
by remaining silent about my concerns with
John, I may have put myself and my passengers at risk a second time, despite my
decision never to fly with him again. Second
lesson learned.
AOPA
ROLLIN J. "TERRY" FAIRBANKS is an emer-
gency physician and director of MedStar
Health's National Center for Human Factors
in Healthcare and MedStar SiTEL in
Washington, D.C.
DIGITAL EXTRA Hear this and other
original "Never Again" stories as
podcasts every month on iTunes
and download audio files free
(www.aopa.org/never_again).
http://www.aopa.org/never_again
http://www.EquipIt2020.com
http://www.EquipIt2020.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2015
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