Alan Shepard: Dear Lord, please don't let me eff* up. Gordon Cooper: I didn't quite copy that. Say again, please. Alan Shepard: I said everything's A-OK. From the movie, The Right Stuff (*he did not say "eff")
Thank you Kevin !!!
Ditto⌠great essay!
It always aggravating when some clueless armchair aviator on one of the âidiot with microphoneâ news networks makes wild and careless claims regarding an accident or incident. Even worse are those who are actually pilots analyzing (OK, guessing) about âwhat went wrongâ when they donât know any more than the rest of us.
Again, very refreshing viewpoint by KevinâŚ
Nice points Kevin. Thanks for the article.
All that, and Iâll do anything to avoid two lines in my obit: âhe was a great pilotâ (apparently not) and âhe died doing what he lovedâ (staying in bed and watching NFL is what I love doing).
I was briefly the pilot hiring guy, z(20 years ago)accompanied by an HR Rep at my outfit. I was supposed to ask the tech questions, so I did. You know, âwhat happens when you pull the fire handle on your current aircraftâ and stuff like that.
My interview questions today, with 5 months left 121, would involve getting an just an inkling that âthe most important part of being an FO at Brand X is the trust the hundreds of people are placing in you to conduct yourself to the best of your abilities, even when bored at cruise, you should know the left engine vibration number without looking, after all , those 250 people all have thousands of loved ones, and theyâre all trusting youâ Alas, the Rogaine bills are piling up, and my attitude has changed dramatically.
Truly spoken. When working for the local airline pilotsâ association we constantly got asked after accidents and incidents and carefully tried to give statements in support of safety and the pilot profession without second-guessing the crews but media that start the evening news with a statement that the cause of the morning crash âis still unknownâ rarely want a serious discussion.
Thereâs another line to âitâs better to die than to look badâ: âbut you can do bothâ
Naval Safety Center published (still does?) weekly âfunniesâ along the lines of âthe senior officer was balancing on one foot from the top of a ladder with a chainsawâŚâ it was a reminder as you stepped past the warnings on your ladder that you could also make the âfunniesâ.
The somewhat brutal warning in that line is that aviation has enough pitfalls without adding stupid risks of your own creation.
Letâs hope every AVWEB reader reads this. Thanks Kevin.
Amen to both of those.
Kevin- So well said. The way you describe what happens during the situation - and what happens afterwards - is right on target. And as for those âcommentators,â I couldnât agree more! Thank you for what writing about what most of us silently think.
While I donât agree with âarmchairâ analysis that makes headlines or social media clicks, what I do appreciate is a discussion of the facts and potential reasons for a situation, configuration, or circumstance by knowledgeable people in a forum like this.
Itâs helpful to hear from a pilot with time in type to explain the systems, what theyâve experienced in their career and their opinions. Itâs helpful to hear about airport/runway configuration rules. Itâs helpful to hear about what was observed in a video that may have gone unnoticed. I hope a forum like this is geared to that type of discussion.
To me, itâs like âchair flyingâ. What might I have done or done differently given the situation faced? What could have led to that decision or outcome?
If posed the right way, discussion of the facts, with a healthy dose of âwe donât know yetâ, even when all the conclusions arenât able to be discerned, is a good exercise. But, letâs keep it out of the general media.
âseriously killedâ - got a chuckle out of that!
I once read an article about a psychological study where the researchers wanted some insight into the thoughts and actions of a person who believes he is about to die.
There are ethical challenges in setting up a laboratory study like this, so they turned to a different resourceâcockpit voice recordings from aircraft accidents.
The researchers concluded they could not get anything meaningful from this study, because what they heard was two professionals analyzing, discussing, and doing all they could to rectify the situation. No panic, no freezing up, no thought of their own personal fate.
Just trying to understand and fix the problem.
As one of few pilots in my circle of friends, Iâm often asked, âwhat do you think happened?â I learned a long time ago to respond, âI really donât know.â For one thing, my half century plus of experience is all in small airplanes, so I have no clue what happens in airliners, and for another and more important thing, I wasnât there. Iâve lost friends in aviation tragedies, and I lost my own father in one. I wish I knew what happened in each case, but the best answer is still, âI really donât know.â
Many people feel the way you do, but I still see it as wrong. Why not wait until the NTSB report and then armchair fly the problem when you know the facts? Anything else, in my opinion, is voyeurism.
I like you addition to the saying and will include that from not on. thanks, kg
I was teaching the DC9 to a group of Alaska pilots a few years ago. They said they were approached by a Reality TV producer to do a show on their company. After flying with them for a few days, the producer said he could not use them because they never fought or freaked out in the cockpit or on the groundâboring for the TV audience.
Sometimes, repressing your emotions is a good thing