Chester County Medicine Winter 2019 - 32

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Local Pilot Ophthalmologist
Brings Aviation To The Classroom
BY STEVEN SIEPSER, MD

to having the pilot manually push on the door, cap, cap
refers to checking the gas caps. Flaps, flaps means the
cowl flaps are open and the wing flaps are in take off
position. Pulse, Pulse refers to having the pulsing strobe
lights on and the pulsing of the transponder that identifies the airplane for the controllers. Ice, refers to putting
on the de-icing equipment in bad weather, lights:
proper lights for takeoff and navigation. Trim, refers to
the placement of the leveling assistance for takeoff. Whew that's
a lot! It is always quite easy to miss something if rushed or not
disciplined in doing a check list every time. In fact I use the same
processes in the operating room to assure safety through check lists
and redundancy.

was invited to be a guest author at Charles Patton Middle
School Writers' Day in Unionville, PA. My focus was to be
how to start a writing project. My goal was to inspire creative
thinking through the fantasy of flight as well as inculcate within
the students the fun, excitement and utility of flying. The "back
story" is being a physician is fun and there are so many things a
doctor can do and writing stories is just one of them.
We began by creating a compelling event to be fleshed out with
consequences and outcomes. Generating a story like this gets the
action going, without the tedium and effort to "start at the beginning." The approach incited active class participation.
I asked students to invent an adventure. One of the students,
who had been a passenger in my airplane, eagerly suggested his
own experience of having the airplane's cabin door pop open. I
told them that the pilot must have forgotten to use his checklist!
Students were incredulous, asking "How could a pilot forget
that?"
In my airplane, I explained, "Before takeoff, I usually recite
a mnemonic verbal checklist: doors, cap, cap, flaps, flaps, pulse,
pulse, ice, lights, trim." That day, the pilot (me) overlooked a
critical component, and the very first: the door. The door refers

32 CHESTER COUNT Y Medicine | WINTER 2019

To understand an airplane's safety mechanisms, I presented an
analogy with which they would be familiar:
"In your family minivan, the beep-beep and warning lights
indicate a door is open. Your Mom or Dad asks you to close the
offending door and off you go. Believe it or not, in little airplanes,
there are no lights; no warning that a door is open. This is due to
complex airplane safety regulations."
I explained that pilots are not involved in making changes to
regulations. For example, if pilots want to have a light added to an
airplane to warn the pilot a door is open, we have to apply to the
government for that change. The warning light must not create
malfunctions in other plane operations. The light must work from
-30 degrees to 120 degrees F and be stressed to destruction. All
this involves expensive testing environments, equipment and time.
Eventually making a $1 sensor cost $5 for an airplane and possibly
taking a year to get approved. No airplane company wants to
make those types of small changes as even at $5, there are not
enough sensors sold a year to be economically feasible. It would
cost approximately $20,000 to do all the tests, write them up and
file a myriad of forms. 4,000 switches need to be sold just to recoup the costs of certification. For example there are only 13,000
flying models of the particular airplane that I fly and many need
that important sensor they will never get. Forgetting to firmly

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Chester County Medicine Winter 2019

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