Flight Training - October 2013 - 6

RIGHT SEAT

By Ian J. Twombly
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SAFETY IS A CHOICE

WHAT MATTERS IS YOU, THE PILOT

lying is as safe as you want it to be. This should be the
answer to the inevitable question we all ask when we first get
involved in aviation.
Admittedly, that answer is as much a cop-out as it is accurate. There are statistics that could prove the case that we’re generally
safe, and those that could say we have a lot of work to do as a community.
Which is to say the statistics don’t matter. What matters is you, the pilot.
We’re all guilty in this activity of a bit
of fear mongering. I wish I could say
Flight Training is immune to talking at
length about accidents, “what ifs,” and
other thinly veiled references to death,
but we’re not. So it’s understandable that
nonpilots just assume flying is a savagely
dangerous activity where any wrong
move punches the Direct-To button to
Six Feet Under Regional. The reality is
a much more complicated picture that
almost always comes back to the pilot
and his or her decisions. Those pilots
who approach flying with the right mind-

The concept of the accident chain—
the idea that accidents are the result of
a bunch of otherwise unrelated little
actions that link together—has always
been very powerful to me. It’s probably
for that reason that I now make decisions
based on a catalog of evidence weighed
against my current abilities (not certificated privileges). A recent trip to visit
family in New York is a great example.
The weather varied between 600 feet and
200 feet overcast at the departure airport.
I was trying to beat a line of rain. The
XM datalink weather wasn’t working,

THOSE PILOTS WHO APPROACH FLYING WITH
THE RIGHT MINDSET CAN REDUCE THE RISK
TO A STANDARD THEIR MOTHERS WOULD
APPROVE OF.
set can reduce the risk to a standard their
mothers would approve of. Or you could
treat it like a 150-mph motorcyclist and
get the same, inevitable road rash. For
new pilots the difficulty is in figuring out
precisely how to reduce that risk.
It’s clear that if we’re smart, plan
ahead, and don’t attempt to fly in conditions beyond our ability, we will be just
fine. This month we feature a story about
different ways one can approach this process in “Many Tools, One Box,” on page
32. It’s a story I wish I could have read
when I first started flying. It certainly
would have saved me from learning a
lesson or two the hard way. The piece
covers something I’ve come to use on
a consistent basis, even though I don’t
usually approach it in the systematic way
presented in the article.

FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

and I was with my family. And I really
wanted to get home. On the ability side, I
had completed an instrument proficiency
check three days prior, was familiar with
the airport and the airplane, and have a
moderate amount of experience in the
conditions. I began linking the chain, and
making the decision to stay was easy.
We talk about personal minimums as
though they are obvious and set in stone,
but that’s rarely the case. What’s more
practical is that you’ll weigh all the factors against your ability at that moment.
Risk versus reward is a common tactic
in life, and it works surprisingly well in
flying too.
Email Editor Ian J. Twombly at ian.twombly@aopa.
org; Twitter: ijtwombly; and visit Flight Training on
Facebook.

Publisher | Craig L. Fuller
Senior VP, Media/Editor in Chief | Thomas B. Haines
Editor | Ian J. Twombly
Editor at Large | Thomas A. Horne
Managing Editor | Julie Summers Walker
Technical Editors | Mike Collins, Jill W. Tallman
Senior Editors | Dave Hirschman, Alton K. Marsh
Editorial and Production Assistant | Sylvia Horne
Administrative Assistant | Miriam E. Stoner
Contributors | Pete Bedell, Greg Brown, LeRoy Cook,
Budd Davisson, Rod Machado, Walter Miller, Dan
Namowitz, Wayne Phillips, Bob Schmelzer,
Jack Williams, Kathy Yodice

Design Director | Michael E. Kline
Art Directors | Elizabeth Z. Jones, Jill C. Benton
Senior Photographer | Mike Fizer
Photographer | Chris Rose

eMedia Managing Editor | Alyssa J. Miller
eMedia Editor | Sarah Brown
Web Production Manager | Lezlie Ramsey

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email: flighttraining@aopa.org
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Flight Training - October 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - October 2013