AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2021 - 22

PROFICIENT PILOT
Deadlines
Making the grade even when grounded
BY BARRY SCHIFF
DURING A RECENT visit to the " body shop, " my orthopedic surgeon
told me in no uncertain terms, " Barry, your right hip is shot; it's
bone on bone. "
" How long will it last? " I asked.
" There's no way to know, " he shrugged. " I'm surprised it's lasted
this long. You really need to swap it out before it grounds you. "
I scheduled hip replacement surgery for 3.5 weeks hence,
the doctor's first available time slot. That would give me plenty
of time to meet some obligations, the most pressing of which
is always the deadline for my monthly column-the one you
are now reading. That evening I considered some topics about
which I might write, for me the most challenging aspect of creating
a column. Just as I was about to put some " words to paper, "
the pain increased dramatically-just as if it had been written
into the script of a soap opera. The pain became so intense that
I had difficulty crawling into bed. Writing something intelligent
was impossible. I was in trouble.
It seemed to take forever for the sun to rise and the doctor's
scheduler to finally answer the phone. My wife, Dorie, pleaded
with her for an earlier appointment. " You have the next available
time slot, " the scheduler said. " The doctor will be on vacation next
week. " Somehow, though, the god of compassion came to my rescue.
The surgeon agreed to delay his vacation and provide me with
a new hip a few days later, on Saturday.
It then dawned on me that this would cause me to miss the
deadline for my column. I'm a devout procrastinator and deadlines
have always been my nemesis. It appears that my archenemy
would finally have its way; I would miss my first deadline in more
than 58 years of writing for AOPA Pilot. Dorie and Tom Haines,
AOPA's editor in chief, however, crafted a plan that hopefully will
not disappoint. It involves my preparing this explanation and then
adding a condensation about something I had written a quartercentury
ago. Yes, I would plagiarize myself. This would enable me
to submit a column without having to craft something original. It
would be about something you likely never read in the first place
or forgot having read in the second. The following is from 1993.
It has been my good fortune to have known some remarkable
pilots. One of my favorites was Frank Tallman, an aviator whose
exploits as a movie pilot are the stuff of which legends are made.
One of his best-known " stunts " involved flying a Twin Beech
22
AOPA PILOT / November 2021
through a steel-rimmed billboard for the 1963 flick, It's a Mad,
Mad, Mad, Mad World. Moviegoers, however, never saw what happened
after the Beech popped out the other side of the billboard.
The dynamics of flying through thin plywood caused the propellers
to bend, necessitating an immediate forced landing.
I recall sitting once with Tallman under the wing of his North
American B-25 photo plane. His planned flight had been delayed
by weather, and he had time to hangar fly with some of his admirers.
We huddled in rapt attention, absorbing every word, pouncing
on every morsel of aeronautical lore. He told us, for example,
that weather causes him greater concern than the demands of
performing for the camera. He then told us about a fascinating
phenomenon that he said occurs when flying low in poor visibility.
When a pilot is scud running in gradually worsening conditions,
he might glance rearward to appraise this escape option. But
when looking aft, the pilot observes the landmarks disappearing
into the veil of limited visibility behind the aircraft. This creates
an illusion that leads him to believe that conditions behind are
worsening or " closing up. "
Contributing to this deception is the notion that conditions
ahead are improving. This is because the airplane's forward
motion allows progressively more of the landmarks ahead to come
into view.
As a result, a pilot can be lured into believing that continuing
straight ahead is his best option. He is reluctant to turn around
while there remains time and opportunity to do so. Such an illusion-coupled
with a pilot's natural mindset to proceed with a
planned course of action-likely is a factor in many scud-running
accidents.
This phenomenon becomes more deceptive as airspeed
increases. This is because the disappearance of objects behind
the aircraft and the emergence of those ahead occur more quickly.
Some years after our hangar-flying session, Tallman used an
object lesson to teach the aviation community more than he had
intended. He taught that knowledge and experience are worthless
unless put into practice. Frank
Tallman-one of America's
finest pilots-was killed while
scud running near his home
airport.
BarrySchiff.com
BARRY SCHIFF has been
barely meeting deadlines for
this magazine for more than
58 years.
http://www.BarrySchiff.com
AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2021

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