Flight Training - August 2014 - 54

ADVANCED PILOT»

ACCIDENT CASE STUDIES

The Air Safety Institute offers a number of videos presented
to help pilots learn from the experiences of others. These
"Accident Case Studies" are approximately five to 15 minutes
long and some qualify for the FAA Wings Program credit.
Topics include Communication Breakdown, which connects the accident chain; Delayed Reaction, an accident in

the airlines, for example, there's
a high likelihood they will do all
of their training in a simulator. In
fact, it's not unusual for a pilot's
first flight in a real airplane to be
with paying passengers on board,
with a company check airman.
Because flight training is so
expensive, pilot candidates in
foreign countries are carefully vetted for the skills required to learn

a TBM-700; Everyone's Problem, a flight training accident;
Time Lapse, on datalink weather; In Too Deep, on fuel starvation; Rescue Gone Wrong, about a helicopter search and rescue; and Cross-Country Crisis, about an ill-fated VFR flight.
The lessons from these flights can help all pilots (www.
aopa.org/Education/Accident-Case-Studies.aspx).

struck fear in their hearts." The
instructor praised the Koreans for
being very intelligent and quick
learners, but he was "shocked
and surprised by the lack of basic
piloting skills shown by most of
the pilots."
You can read the account online
(www.powerlineblog.com/
archives/2013/07/on-crashesand-pilot-training.php).

THERE IS NO SIMULATOR THAT CAN TRULY REPLICATE THE
SIGHT, FEEL, AND SOUND THAT WE HUMANS USE TO GUIDE
AIRPLANES IN AND OUT OF THE AIR WITH NOTHING BUT A
WINDSHIELD FOR AN INSTRUMENT.
mountains of manuals as well
as psychological requirements
desired of any particular airline.
The result, is that most of these
pilots are very intelligent, psychologically stable, and quick learners.
But as we all know from school,
some people are book smart, some
are common-sense smart, and
others are both. Some of the booksmart people make it all the way
through pilot training and are the
types who can diagram an Airbus
electrical system from memory but
can't fly a visual pattern to a landing in the touchdown zone.
Following the Asiana crash,
an extensively circulated email
from an anonymous expatriot U.S.
flight instructor training Koreans
for Asiana and Korean Air was
not surprised at all by the accident. He wrote, "requiring them
to fly a visual approach literally

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FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

I have no doubt that most pilots
learning to fly this way have the
right stuff required to fly by the
seat of their pants while looking
out the windshield, they simply
haven't been exposed to it because
they are trained in simulators and
greatly encouraged to use automation rather than hand-fly. They
have become computer programmers, not pilots. And I don't care
how much reliability Boeing and
Airbus build into their systems,
sometimes they do fail. And when
they do, it's the pilots' job to get
the airplane on the ground safely
any way they can.
I would wager that putting
these carefully vetted candidates
in a 10- to 20-hour series of
flights in light airplanes focused
on basic airmanship would allow
them to learn these maneuvers
that many of us take for granted.

And it wouldn't hurt if all airlines
required pilots to get a few hours
in a basic airplane on occasion to
reconnect with seat-of-the-pants
flying. It's becoming progressively
rare to meet an airline pilot who
flies recreationally these days,
so an occasional romp in a light
airplane may not be such a bad
thing.
Perhaps it's time for governments around the world to rethink
the results of regulating general
aviation into oblivion. I have hundreds of hours in various advanced
simulators and can tell you with
certainty that there is no simulator
that can truly replicate the sight,
feel, and sound that we humans
use to guide airplanes in and out of
the air with nothing but a windshield for an instrument.
While flight simulators are a
beneficial and necessary tool for
advanced flight training, there's no
doubt to me that learning to fly in
a real airplane teaches you skills
that cannot be simulated. So if
you're learning to fly in a real airplane, consider yourself lucky. And
if you're reading this in a country
that still has an active general aviation industry, be thankful that you
live in a place that still allows its
citizens the freedom to learn to fly.
It's worth protecting for many reasons, among them to teach future
airline pilots the basics.
Pete Bedell is a pilot for a major airline and
co-owner of a Cessna 172 and Beechcraft
Baron.

http://www.aopa.org/Education/Accident-Case-Studies.aspx http://www.aopa.org/Education/Accident-Case-Studies.aspx http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/07/on-crashes-and-pilot-training.php http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/07/on-crashes-and-pilot-training.php http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/07/on-crashes-and-pilot-training.php http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG

Flight Training - August 2014

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