You are the boss!

News and Announcements.

Moderators: Rick, Lance Murray

User avatar
krellis
4 Diamonds Member
4 Diamonds Member
Posts: 339
Joined: Fri Apr 29, 2011 10:42 am
First Name: Keith
Aircraft Type: OTHER
Aircraft Registration: N853DF
Airports: GA04
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 63 times

Re: You are the boss!

Post by krellis »

CFIDave wrote: In many ways, the bigger the aircraft, the easier it is to fly. Landing a light-sport aircraft in gusty crosswinds is far more demanding than landing an airliner (one of the reasons too-confident experienced pilots coming from larger, more-complex, higher-performance aircraft sometimes have accidents in LSAs). My DA42 is easier to fly than my DA40 was, and my DA40 was easier to fly than the DA20 in which I soloed and got my PPL.
I could write a small book on how much I disagree with this statement. I believe you are confusing "better handling qualities" with "easier to fly". I have about 20,000 hours now, most of it in transport category (Part 25) aircraft. If they were truly easier to fly, then we should be allowing Private pilots to fly them. I've got a couple hundred hours in a DA-20 (the smallest aircraft I've flown) and a DA-40 plus thousands in airplanes weighing 150,000 pounds or more (up to about 400K for a B767-300ER). I don't know how much experience you have in large airplanes, but I suspect it's minimal.

I agree that transport category airplanes generally have better flying qualities and certainly are better equipped, but landing a C-141B in a 35 knot gusty crosswind (high wing, outboard ailerons only and no roll spoilers) is every bit as (I would argue more) challenging as landing a DA-20 in a 12-15 knot crosswind. I've done both. I've had multiple simultaneous systems failures - hydraulic failure, which caused a bleed trip, which in turn caused loss of pressurization - failures that would never occur in a small plane. Yes, we have a crew to help deal with these failures, but there was nothing "easy" about this emergency.

I also have a degree in Aerospace Engineering with work experience in Stability and Control and Flight Test at both Boeing and Lockheed. But I recognize my limitations. I am not fully qualified or comfortable in the G1000 on our DA-40, so I will not fly in low IFR in the 40 without someone with more G1000 experience.

No, airline pilots are not superheroes, we are not infallible and we all make mistakes. Hopefully we all learn something each time we fly and we fly within our own and the airplane's limitations, regardless if it weighs 1320 pounds or 1.2 million.

Krea Ellis
DA20-A1
DA40-XLS
User avatar
rwtucker
5 Diamonds Member
5 Diamonds Member
Posts: 1283
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:24 pm
First Name: Rob
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: N831BA
Airports: KFFZ KEUL
Has thanked: 100 times
Been thanked: 110 times

Re: You are the boss!

Post by rwtucker »

I agree with Dave's perspective but, for me, one factor needs emphasis.

In my flying, there has been a pretty good correlation between the size of the aircraft and its complexity and speed. True enough, the Eclipse was one of the easiest aircraft I have flown but I was constantly aware of how many more things could go wrong . . . and how much faster problems could develop, maybe faster than I could react to them. I even see a difference between the DA40 and my old PA28-201T. In my PA28 I generally work the pattern faster than Dave probably does in his DA42. When I touchdown at 72 kts indicated, with 100 OAT and 10,000 ft. DA, it is scary fast for a weekend pilot like me. A blowout cold be fatal.

On Dave's main point, I had an uncle who left WW-II with 10,000 plus hours in bombers, running back and forth to Africa. After the war, he went commercial, starting with DC-3s, DC-6s, and Connies and finally retired flying Hughes' pretty yellow banana jets. Most of the time he also flew a series of personal Cessnas and an old Waco. (One time he and the Waco brought an injured hunter out of the back-country on a moonless night. He organized a ground crew with trucks and flashlights to land and take off near the campsite. One of the last of the barnstormers!)

The point: In spite of the many different kinds of missions he flew over his long life, he always said that flying single pilot IFR in his steam gauge 182 could be the most demanding of missions. It is hard to believe it was more difficult that navigating over the ocean by stars to a target in Africa. His opinion, like Dave's, was that the second pilot in a well trained team reduces the perceived workload by a lot more than half.

Antoine: I had a similar experience entering the Grand Canyon corridor a few years ago. I was struggling to keep the greasy side down and not doing a very good job of it. The turbulence had thrown my DG off and the LA controller was shouting at me that I had to talk to him because I didn't respond quickly enough as I was struggling to reset the DG with a combination of knees and hands on the yoke and the DG knob. All he managed to do was make things worse. Had he glanced at the Wx portion of his display, he would have understood the situation. Most of these controllers are great. A few can ruin your day or worse.
Antoine
5 Diamonds Member
5 Diamonds Member
Posts: 2043
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 11:00 pm
First Name: Antoine
Aircraft Type: OTHER
Aircraft Registration: N121AG
Airports: LSGG
Has thanked: 87 times
Been thanked: 220 times

Re: You are the boss!

Post by Antoine »

I will try a stunt to get this thread back on topic:
In a multi-person crew, the pilot can do the flying while the copilot is handling comms. This, I believe , is one reason why controllers do not always grasp the workload of a solo pilot doing an IMC approach.

My original message was: whenever things get rough, WE are the boss and WE should make the decisions pertaining to the immediate safety of our flight. By using the "Emergency" trump, we have the authority to turn the table on controllers. They then become a resource to us helping execute the plan and deal with its impact (no pun) on other flights. The mental switch is sometimes very hard to do, especially when the going is already rough (hypoxia, icing, systems failure, sick passenger).
It can help to be mentally prepared the same way we prepare for an engine failure at take-off. Do you still silently say your "prayers" before lining-up?
User avatar
rwtucker
5 Diamonds Member
5 Diamonds Member
Posts: 1283
Joined: Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:24 pm
First Name: Rob
Aircraft Type: DA40
Aircraft Registration: N831BA
Airports: KFFZ KEUL
Has thanked: 100 times
Been thanked: 110 times

Re: You are the boss!

Post by rwtucker »

Antoine wrote:I will try a stunt to get this thread back on topic:
What's the fun in that Antoine? Oh . . . stunt pilot. I get it. :D
Antoine wrote:In a multi-person crew, the pilot can do the flying while the copilot is handling comms. This, I believe , is one reason why controllers do not always grasp the workload of a solo pilot doing an IMC approach.
For me, there is something else that is hard to quantify. Having a pilot in the right seat makes me fly better and more comfortably at the same time. It seems more than a pure workload issue. Does anyone else have this experience?
Post Reply