Flight Training - August 2019 - 48

ADVANCED PILOT ACCIDENT ANALYSIS

have satellite phones and instant messengers, but there are no air traffic controllers,
fixed-base operators, or nearby mechanics to help.
Pilot guides heft heavy gear between boats and airplanes, often in cold, rainy, slippery conditions. They untangle fishing lines, cook lunches for clients, and guard them
from the elements in a region where the weather can change quickly and violently. But
the rewards are sublime. Pilot guides fly iconic aircraft in some of the world's most spectacular natural areas, they make consequential aeronautical decisions every day, and
people count on them to make the right calls and fly with skill and precision.
"I've been doing this kind of flying for quite a while, and the wonder of it still
amazes me," said Strickler, 64, who has flown the same Beaver, N7283, about 4,600
hours in 16 years. "I love the challenge, and the fact that every flight is different. I
enjoy having to be on my A-game every time I get in the airplane." FT
dave.hirschman@aopa.org

DON'T BE THAT PILOT
YOU KNOW WHICH ONE
BY DAVID JACK KENNY

AOPA'S HOME FIELD IN FREDERICK, MARYLAND, has seen a lot of landscape engineering

over the past few years, much of it directed toward storm drains. The current construction zone is directly behind the run-up area for the preferred runway. One recent
morning, a 45-year-old Cherokee 140 taxied up and carefully parked diagonally so its
propwash wouldn't blow directly over all that bare dirt. Moments later, a sharp-looking
Mooney pulled up alongside and performed a flight-control check. From a distance
it wasn't possible to tell whether the Mooney's pilot also did a run-up and magneto
test, but if he did, his propwash blasted straight across the exposed earth toward the
guys working the backhoes. It's possible he never noticed the work crew because they
weren't part of the path from ramp to runway.
Awareness of your propwash is just one hallmark that separates thoughtful, experienced pilots from novices struggling to keep abreast of the basic airport environment.
Thoughtfulness doesn't require vast experience, and experience doesn't automatically
confer thoughtfulness-but if you've ever wanted to cultivate a reputation as a rube, there
are time-honored ways to achieve it:
Start at full throttle, especially in front of somebody else's hangar. Nothing says
"newbie" like blasting assorted ramp detritus, all your neighbor's deck chairs, and maybe a
puppy or small child into the side of a defenseless parked aircraft.
Taxi fast, then jam on the brakes-risking a nose-over in a taildragger and a runway
incursion (or collision) in any airplane if your timing or brakes aren't as good as you'd
assumed.
Ignore noise-abatement guidelines. True, they're just advisory. But the fact that
airports predate almost all the neighborhoods that have grown up around them never
inhibits residents from trying to get rid of "noisy" airfields-or elected officials from trying
to mollify the whiners. The strangulation of Santa Monica is only the beginning.
Cut off other traffic in the pattern. Enough said.
Scare your passengers, especially first-timers. Intro flights are about reassuring the
nervous and making friends, not demonstrating your brilliant airmanship. A few years ago,
footage of a miserable little girl vomiting in the back seat while her "mentor" did an aggressive series of steep turns and stalls was all over the internet. She's one more person who
might have become part of our community if a thoughtless "adult" hadn't found it more fun
to traumatize her instead.
If you're lucky, you grew up knowing people you admired so much that you wanted to
become more like them. Unfortunately, bad examples get quicker and wider attention. For
all our sakes, please don't become one. FT
DAVID JACK KENNY is an airline transport pilot and freelance aviation writer living in Maryland.
48 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2019

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