Flight Training - March/April 2021 - 13

ASI NEWS

BY ALICIA HERRON

NEVER GIVE UP

PREPARE FOR EMERGENCIES AND LEARN FROM ONE PILOT'S JOURNEY ACROSS THE ATLANTIC

THERE'S NO WAY TO BE TOTALLY READY FOR EVERY EMERGENCY, BUT THERE ARE WAYS TO

significantly improve your odds of surviving one. One key is preparation. During your flight
training, you and your instructor will walk through and practice a variety of emergency
scenarios-hopefully to the point where you feel ready to handle one on your own. Often, a
checklist, such as the ones you use for preflight or engine start, will help guide you through
what to do.
There isn't a checklist for every abnormal situation, though, and many emergencies
can be preventable because they're set in motion by pilot error. Too often, pilots fly into
avoidable scenarios like in-flight icing, thunderstorms, fuel exhaustion, and VFR into IMC-
sometimes leading to an accident.
Avoiding those flight conditions will be up to your aeronautical decision making. You
can't control the weather, but you can choose your route or stay on the ground. You can't
significantly modify your fuel burn in unexpected headwinds, but you can control when and
where you land to refuel. Practice good ADM: You'll be less likely to have an emergency and
more able to cope with one.
Here are some key points to consider before each flight to help you stay safe:
* Brief every flight to cover emergency contingencies and critical checklist items. Commit
immediate procedures to memory-and practice them!
* Route selection: Are you flying over water, high terrain, or a forest? What's the weather
like on the ground along your route? Have a plan for an unscheduled off-airport landing.
* Equip for redundancy. Carry backup radios/GPS equipment, and batteries.

* Pack a survival kit appropriate to the flight and number of
people on board.
* File and activate a flight plan
to help with potential search and
rescue operations.
* Never guess with fuel-
always know how much you have
available and plan to land with a
reserve.
Other critical factors in surviving an emergency are attitude
and a commitment to never give
up. In the summer of 1994, Kerry
McCauley, an international ferry
pilot, now with more than 30
years of experience, was flying
over the North Atlantic to Paris
in a new Bonanza F33 when he
discovered an issue with his auxiliary fuel tank. The problem? No
ram air-the fuel wasn't moving.
The solution? Pressurize the tank
via lung power. For eight straight
hours McCauley was alone, over
the ocean, in a single-engine airplane, with only his will keeping
him aloft and alive.
McCauley's commitment to
his own survival kept him alive
when he could have given up. His
grit and determination are good
lessons to all pilots that even
in a seemingly hopeless situation-like flying solo over the
Atlantic-there can be a positive
resolution.
airsafetyinstitute.org/RPS/atlantic
alicia.herron@aopa.org

THERE I WAS...: GEAR-UP LANDING
In this episode, Todd Clark, a 700-hour pilot
based in beautiful Kalispell, Montana, experienced
a gear-up landing in his Mooney M20J.
He talks about the day's events that led up
to the incident.
airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas

AOPA.ORG/FT 13

http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/RPS/atlantic http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/thereiwas http://www.AOPA.ORG/FT

Flight Training - March/April 2021

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