Flight Training - October 2012 - 46

CAREER PILOT»

themselves. So put your ego aside, get your story together, and practice it. The story should be truthful, have a clear setup of the scenario, an explanation of what happened and why—and the important part, what you learned from it. One thing the interviewer is looking for is how you react to the incident in question. Let’s say you entered Class B airspace without a clearance on a training flight and you were the instructor. When asked about the incident, you don’t want to get defensive and blame your student for letting his course wander, for example. You as the instructor were the pilot in command (PIC). All you’re doing is implicating yourself for not adequately monitoring your student’s flying. Likewise, if you

are the student in the same situation, you don’t want to blame the instructor just because he was the PIC and “should know better.” If I were the student, I would tell the interviewer that I became fixated on holding altitude (for example) and my course wandered. My instructor failed to notice the course deviation as well, since he was providing me instruction on how to best hold altitude on this bumpy day. This explanation shows that you’re taking responsibility for the incident and not placing direct blame on your instructor. And then relate how you learned not to blindly trust that your instructor would keep you out of trouble. After all, he’s human too. You also learned to be skeptical—even somebody with

vast experience can screw up just as badly as you. As the hypothetical instructor in this scenario, you could explain that you were distracted by the student’s altitude deviations and while providing instruction in how best to correct it, the aircraft deviated laterally into the Class B airspace. Again, you’re not blaming the other guy and admitting that you got distracted to the point that your situational awareness became diminished. You learned to multitask and not lose awareness of navigation while providing instruction. You should also relate other methods you now use to keep tabs on your position, such as using a moving-map GPS or noting ground landmarks that coincide with invisible airspace boundaries.

CAREER ADVISOR

Can a prior accident hurt my chances?
» By Wayne Phillips

NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
Section 44709. Such a reexamination reassures the FAA that you are qualified to fly and is not an enforcement action. I would wager that most aviation employers will understand, ask what you learned about the experience, and move on. Now, about your suggestion that you want to fly “different types of aircraft with different missions.” Just what does that mean?

» Q: I am a low-time private pilot planning
to get my certificates through CFII later this year. I am 30 and not necessarily interested in flying for the airlines, although I would like a chance to fly different types of aircraft with different missions in addition to CFI work if possible. At 200 hours, I ground-looped a Cessna 140. Will this have serious negative consequences on my future possibilities?—T.J.

fixed-wing Cessna Citations. You might consider law enforcement in EC-155 helicopters. Flying King Air 300s for a large charter company might be a real possibility. How about flying banners in Super Cubs? Once you settle on a particular career destination, then you can do the due diligence. Talk to pilots who work for Air Methods air medical transport to see what the company position is on previous accidents or FAR violations. Research your local state police to determine what the requirements are for flying law enforcement and whether a previous accident is a deal breaker. Visit area charter companies

» A: Some employers have a zero-

tolerance policy: no accidents or FAR violations of any sort in an employee’s history. However, most employers understand humans make mistakes and have accidents (see "Explaining Accidents," page 45). In your case, a ground loop in a tricky airplane with no injuries would probably earn a “pass” by most employers, particularly if there was no FAA enforcement action. I suspect the FAA response was a simple reexamination under 49 USC

NOT HAVING A CAREER PLAN WITH A CLEAR OBJECTIVE IS LIKE TAKING OFF ON A CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT WITHOUT A DESTINATION.
Not having a career plan with a clear objective is like taking off on a crosscountry flight without a destination. Without a defined point “B,” just how will you know which way to go when launching from point “A”? Let’s think about the possibilities. You could be flying medical transportation in to learn of employment criteria. Start your own banner-towing company and set your own hiring standards.
Wayne Phillips is an airline transport pilot with Boeing 737 and Falcon 20 type ratings. Send your career questions to careers@aopa.org and we’ll answer the best ones here.

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Flight Training - October 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - October 2012