AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2010 - 28

PROFICIENTPILOT

BY BARRY SCHIFF

FITS gives me fits

ince retiring from TWA in 1998, I have made it a point to submit to an instrument proficiency check almost every year. In each case, I have used an

the nose but the throttles remained closed, resulting in a speed bleed. When the stick shaker finally activated at 109 knots, one pilot moved the throttles forward slightly, but an anomaly in the system caused them to close again. By the time the pilots began to recognize the problem, full power was added and the nose lowered, but there was insufficient altitude from which to recover from the stall. A pilot not relying on such automation likely would have firewalled the thrust levers earlier in the airplane equipped with analog gauges. This year, I scenario and flown away safely (or have avoided the used a Cessna 172SP equipped with a Garmin G1000. speed bleed in the first place). Barry Schiff was honored as the An MD–11 captain was returning to the cockpit Much to my chagrin, the instructor, Mike Lozano General Aviation of Channel Islands Aviation, required me to use after attending to a physiological necessity during a Journalist of the the autopilot during almost the entire flight. This, flight from Tokyo to Dallas. After closing the cockpit Year in 2003. I was told, was part of the curriculum spelled out door, he heard the overspeed warning. Both pilots in FITS, the FAA-Industry Training Standards used (one was the relief pilot) began punching numbers to train people “flying” glass cockpits. The only times I got to into the flight management system to “tell” the autothrottles to hand-fly the airplane were during the takeoff and landing, the slow the airplane. The loud aural warning continued. The capinitial phases of missed approaches, and when Lozano simu- tain finally yelled, “Pull back the [expletive deleted] throttles.” It lated the failure of the primary flight display (by pulling a circuit was as if neither of the seated pilots had thought of that. breaker). Hand-flying an instrument approach without the PDF During a session in a Boeing 767 simulator, the instructor is much easier than using only “needle-ball-airspeed” in an programmed another airplane to present itself for a potential airplane equipped with “steam” gauges. After all, the backup midair collision. Upon seeing the intruder, the student captain instruments when flying glass include a conventional attitude called for the first officer to roll the vertical-speed knob, which indicator. Duck soup. didn’t work because another vertical mode was in use. He finally I had begun to experience the evolution in general aviation called to change the vertical mode but not in time to avoid the from hands-on flying to developing a reliance on automation, collision. Why didn’t one of the pilots simply disconnect the and I wasn’t particularly enthralled with it. autopilot and maneuver the airplane away from the threat? It When I first checked out in the Boeing 767, it contained so is the result of automation complacency and dependency, a much automation that new pilots joked that someday a single mental condition that is becoming increasingly more pervasive. pilot would step aboard a jetliner and be allowed only to peer A single-pilot jetliner might seem far-fetched but there are into the cockpit through a glass barrier. On the barrier would those already making the suggestion. Initially the two-man crew be a sign that would read, “Break Glass in Case of Emergency.” would be replaced by a single pilot and a dog. The pilot would He would then take a seat in the cabin and read his newspaper feed the dog, and the dog would bite the pilot if he touched anyuntil and unless he was needed. thing. Don’t laugh. Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, is calling for Many of today’s general aviation airplanes have much more single-pilot aircraft. (He has suggested pay toilets on jetliners, automation than did the early edition 767, and many new air- so his judgment is in question.) liners have more automation yet—so much so that pilots are Some believe that we will someday have pilotless airliners. becoming secondary methods of control. It gives me cause for Since pilots are the cause of most accidents (in both airline and concern that “automation complacency” will lead to a steady general aviation flying), would not eliminating pilots improve erosion in pilots of what we broadly refer to as airmanship. safety? Some point to the success of unmanned aerial vehicles An example of how automation (UAVs) (see page 87). Extra layers of sysdependency and complacency can kill is tem sophistication, redundancy, and Join the fun reliability would make such a scheme illustrated by last year’s crash of Turkish Barry Schiff will present “Engine Airlines Flight TK1951. While approaching plausible. After all, pilotless vehicles have Failure After Takeoff” on Saturday, Amsterdam’s Runway 18R, the pilots of the been successfully sent to Mars. Why not November 12, at AOPA Aviation Boeing 737-800 descended at above-norfrom San Francisco to New York? Summit. He will also be a host at mal airspeed to intercept the glideslope When that happens, you can find me the meet-the-editors Dine Around on Thursday, November 11. Visit the from above with the autothrottles closed. flying an Aeronca Champ with hardly website (www.aopa.org/summit) for When the aircraft intercepted the glideany instruments over the backwoods in more information. slope, the autopilot appropriately raised an attempt to avoid falling debris. 28 • NOVEMBER
2010

AOPA PILOT •

http://www.aopa.org/summit

AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2010