Stick A STEM On It - AVweb

News Discussion
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I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I know exactly where I was on July 17, 1999. I was standing on the ramp at Waterbury-Oxford Airport in Connecticut pre-flighting an F33 one of my students had loaned me. I was flying down to Cross Keys, New Jersey, to go skydiving. A lineman approached me and asked if I had seen a Piper Saratoga and he gave me the N-number. I hadn’t seen it and gave it no further thought.

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/insider/stick-a-stem-on-it
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According to CNN she has an impressive 80 hours logged

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I can’t understand why age is even relevant.

A pilot must meet certification standards and testing. Either you meet those standards, or you do not. If you meet those minimum standards, age is not relevant.

Perhaps this is why Federation Aeronautique Internationale and the National Aeronautics Association–the certifying officials for international and U.S. records–has no category for “youngest.” Those who believe it IS relevant have to go to unofficial sources–like Guiness Book of World Records–a source designed to adjudicate bar room bets. Interesting–according to Wikipedia, with falling sales of books in the internet age–Guiness went to the would-be record setters themselves to provide the revenue for the 50 staffers employed. They list the fee for researching and publishing the “record” as “between US$12,000 and $500,000 for help in finding good records to break as well as suggestions on how to do it…”

I have several FAI and NAA records myself. Perhaps I should look into setting a “record” as the “OLDEST” for Guiness–but first, I have to come up with their fee! (laugh)

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80 hours total time–no instrument rating–flying a complex aircraft over oceans to remote countries around the world. What could possibly go wrong?

I wonder if she had a flight planning service do the flight plans, weather, and ground handling/fueling arrangements? With a few exceptions, we’ve always done it ourselves–I always joke that “It takes more time to make the flight planning arrangements, landing fees, weather fees, customs fees, etc. than it does to make the flight!” (that is NO JOKE!)

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Aviation in general, along with the government doesn’t point out risks to aviation because in the past the idea was to promote aviation. Government encourages flying, using statistics to justify that argument. If passengers were to have to sign a waiver like skydivers do so that the risks are plainly pointed out in writing, aviation in general would probably be mostly military with very little civilian airplanes flying. Especially with the risk averse society we have today, not to mention the greedy tort lawyers who would pounce on any crash.

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Haha…Government encourages flying…

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At the time of Miss Dubroff’s accident, I marveled at how her parents or any flight instructor could think it was a good idea to let a child attempt such a stunt. Doing any such activity in the name of STEM education is, frankly, hypocritical. The basic tenant of STEM education is to LEARN how to do something; understand what is involved and work to develop a safe and practical way of achieving a result. Doing some ill-conceived stunt without fully understanding the risks and hazards is the actual antithesis of what STEM represents. Unfortunately, as you said, this sort of thing is catnip to the news media, and whatever it is will be swallowed up in the next news cycle. Not a good reason to risk life and limb for 15 seconds of fame. If we really want to use flying as a good application of STEM learning, we should be highlighting activities like Angel Flights, disaster relief, Pilots 'n Paws or sea turtle rescues and how those things are possible because the pilots got a good education that allows them the freedom and knowledge to do such things. If you just want to get into the Guiness record book, try blowing the largest bubble gum bubble or lining up the best dominoe maze. A whole lot safer and about as useful.

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Wisdom, life experience and just plain having had time to make more mistakes and learn from them. Thats the age difference. As the author of the article stated in an earlier piece, you can teach a monkey to standards (I’m paraphrasing but his point was similar when discussing flight training).

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Don’t really see the connection between the flight and getting young “iPhone text neckers” to consider STEM coursework. But I think it’s a typical GA cheap shot from some to sarcastically whine “she has an impressive 80 hours logged” or “what could possibly go wrong?”

What could go wrong? Multi-tens-of-thousands-hour pilots of different stripes and experience have flown their logbooks into mountains or created fiery holes of death for themselves and others, proving the point from the blog that this defying gravity thing can bite anybody at any time.

She may have the necessary skills, maturity and good fortune to complete this flight and I’d wager will never find herself uttering such drivel about another pilot in her lifetime. Now that’s a pilot we need in GA. Such an adventure and experience builder she can look forward to with this flight- I hope she ignores the judgements from the GA peanut gallery of their fears and biases. What a wonderful young woman to represent GA!
But STEM coursework, may remain unaffected…

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As a now retired school teacher, I did work with students in the STEM program and I don’t see how a young, inexperienced pilot would serve as a motivator to get more girls involved in STEM. I am sorry I don’t see how any of this is anything but a news producer at the expense of a life. I would not give this story as a “victory” for STEM even if the pilot had been successful.

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Well said, as ever Paul. I followed Travis Lulow and now I’m following Zara. Travis is an exceptional young man, bright, cool-headed and well trained. He made numerous good calls and diversions during his trip - a careful instrument pilot in a capable aircraft loaded with avoinics - which he knew how to use. I am concerned for the safety of this VFR attempt - it seems wildly reckless to me and I fear she is unaware of the grave risks. I advised her to get some instrument training - she got precious little but replied “it shouldn’t be needed, but you never know…” Where are her parents and mentors? She was already forced very low over the N Atlantic in the crossing from Scotland to Iceland. I’ve made that crossing at 21,000’ in a much more capable Mooney, flown by an experienced instrument pilot. We had some challenges, but we were well prepared in a well-equipped aircraft. We still got arrested in Reykjavic, but that’s another story…

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It matters because a) the brain continues to develop until nearly the age of majority, and b) while it it possible to teach judgment to some degree, there is no substitute for time and experience. If age is not relevant, then why IS there even such thing as “age of majority?” Well, because experience - there’s that word again - has taught civilizations that it is necessary.

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Paul, I remember well the day that JFK Jr. crashed, too. More specifically, I remember the weather. I was flying a trip as a corporate pilot to Teterboro, one of our regular runs from Richmond. The day was VERY hazy, more so than your typical hazy summer day. It was really IFR with no visible horizon. By the time JFK Jr. took off, he was committing himself to a night flight with no visible horizon partially over open water. That’s not something an experienced instrument pilot would want to do in a single engine airplane under VFR rules. Maybe he didn’t realize that just because it gets dark, the haze doesn’t go away.

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I am a solo circumnavigator. In 2017 I followed Amelia Earhart’s route on the 80th anniversary of her flight. The reason most people don’t know who I am is because my flight ended differently. Regardless, I mention this because I have the experience both of preparing and of flying the route so I can claim a modicum of experience.

During the flight my focus was always on that particular day’s activities, whether it was flying, maintenance, or resting. It was only afterward when I was able to look back and absorb the gestalt of the flight that I truly realized just how challenged I was.

A bit of my background. I am a CSEL/CMEL, Instrument, CFI/CFII, with 53 years, over 12,000 hours, and 90 different aircraft in my logbook. I am an aerobatic and UPRT instructor. I have flown in or over many different countries and have several long over-water crossings in addition to my circumnavigation. My planning and preparation for the circumnavigation spanned 5 years. I had excellent ground support. The key point here is that I have more experience than most, and yet I still found myself challenged, requiring every bit of aviation knowledge and experience I possess.

I have had several young people come to me wanting advice and assistance so that they can set some kind of record by circumnavigating. I point out that an arbitrary number like age has nothing to do with the accomplishment. I was 63 when I accomplished my flight. (I celebrated my 63 birthday in Chittagong, Bangladesh, with a $3 lobster dinner.) I encountered and managed mechanical difficulties – failed magneto, failed HF radio, and an engine failure over the Pacific. (It got better!) I encountered extreme weather – thundersnow over the Tasman Sea, landing in a haboob in Africa, and an upset in Myanmar that left my aircraft inverted while IMC, not to mention dealing with the myriad thunderstorms of the Inter-Tropical Convergent Zone. I still consider the flight the high-point of my flying career, so far.

I am now providing assistance and advice to two young people planning to do circumnavigations. They lack experience. (Understatement.) Hopefully they will give me a couple of years to work with them so that they understand and can deal with the potential challenges they will be facing. Yes, it is possible that everything will go perfectly and that 80 hours as a VFR pilot may be sufficient to complete the flight. My experience says that is unlikely and that one would be well served to spend some time trying to understand all the different ways that something like this could fail.

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Thanks for the comment. For those interested:

http://projectameliaearhart.org/

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Did you communicate directly with her?

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“Maybe he didn’t realize that just because it gets dark, the haze doesn’t go away.”

This was the source of my vicarious guilt. Somehow, the GA edifice didn’t teach him to understand this.

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Zara Rutherford is 19 years old. For better or worse, an adult.

For whatever yardstick you use to measure, seems we can’t imagine someone else doing something we ourselves can’t imagine at some age. For every person dismayed at a 19 year old flying around the world, I bet I could find 1 or 2 people dismayed that a 63 year old is still flying, much less around the globe.

At 19, Zara should be regulated to the YouTubes and the ticktocks. Heaven forbid someone, an adult no less, cares to take a peek over the horizon. And I’m sure for some, this gurl should be talking home economics classes vs. STEM.

For many, freedom and Liberty of the individual must be curtailed for as much and as long as possible. I posit, that of you treat a 15 year old as a responsible, functional, individual member of society, by 19, you’ll have a functional, individual adult.

Maybe, just maybe, Zara is really an adult. Maybe she has broken some molds. I hope so. And I don’t just hope so for her sake.

If she doesn’t complete her goal, AvWeb will surely inform us and we can sit back on our Lazy-Boy throne and fire as many “I told you so’s” as our thumbs will allow us to type. All the while rejoicing that this individual got what she deserve and in the least, was reeled back from making an effort.

If she does complete her goal, we might hear about it in passing, and yet we will still consternate that someone had the audacity to cross that line and join the living, instead of wallowing the the self-loathing world of the dead.

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And I suppose you can congratulate yourself for having the clinical distance to let anyone do what they want despite the consequence and then immunize yourself from any responsibility because the Aunt Janes are spoiling all the fun for the steely eyed adventurers who dare to be great.

Before I wrote this piece, I contacted two highly experienced ferry pilots whose opinions I respect for a sanity check. Both agreed with Brian’s conclusion above, but both also declined to weigh in as he has done publicly. The eye opener was the airplane itself, mainly, not much helped by an 80-hour, non-instrument pilot.

Day after day, week after week, year after year we write about fatal accidents after the fact, ostensibly to point to the errors to remind people not to make these mistakes, not to commit these errors of judgment, not to push their own envelope to the breaking point in the hopes of preventing another accident.

Here, we have an opportunity to perhaps do it before the broken body is pulled from the wreckage as the adults in the Dubroff crash failed to do. The only difference here may be the utterly irrelevant distinction of being the youngest person to do something, age of majority an equally irrelevant distinction.

As Brian pointed out, if you’re going to undertake a flight like this, you better have your s&^t in one sock and then some. Maybe that’s the case here, maybe it isn’t. If raising the question–which I think is fair game when something like this is placed on the international stage–brands me as a quivering Melvin, I’ll take the hit if it saves writing about another fatal accident.

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Robert Ore, I am not criticizing Zara for her age. The pilot’s age, sex, race, and/or nationality are not issues. Preparation, experience, and skill level are.