AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2024 - 12

LETTERS
Recovering
People Pleaser
Listening to your gut
Kudos to Natalie Bingham Hoover's " Recovering
People Pleaser " article (August 2024 AOPA
Pilot). I have been stung by that bee before
speaking out, but softly.
As a new co-pilot (years before I found the
confidence to speak louder), I witnessed certain
captains making not-so-great decisions. While
we survived them without incident-just frayed
nerves-a particular nail-biting flight recently
came to mind. As a TV news correspondent,
I was reporting on the 30-year anniversary
of USAir Flight 1016. In July 1994, this crash
claimed 37 lives when the DC-9 encountered
violent microburst-induced wind shear during
a go-around attempt on a stormy approach into
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT).
The jet slammed to the ground in the blink of an
eye, breaking into three pieces.
Just weeks after that crash, I was flying copilot
in a Beechcraft King Air on the exact same
approach to CLT. The accident was still fresh in
the news-and here we were, in an eerily similar
situation. A thunderstorm staring us down,
facing us, on the far end of our runway, racing
toward us (we were in blue sky VFR with
dark clouds and heavy rain speeding our way).
I spoke up, but apparently not loud enough,
because the captain chose to continue the
approach anyway. We managed to touch down
safely, but within seconds, a wall of rain swallowed
us. I'm thankful we were already planted
on the ground or who knows how this would
have ended. Back in 1994, wind shear detection
wasn't what it is today. USAir 1016 led to significant
improvements in predicting storms and
wind shear detection with Doppler radar, better
pilot training, and decision making.
So, like Hoover wrote, beware-just because a
pilot is more experienced than you doesn't mean
you should trust them. Listen to your gut, and
don't be afraid to speak up before it's too late.
MayCay Beeler
Charlotte, North Carolina
Return of New Cuyama
What a joy to read about the successful
reopening of a GA airport in Southern California
12
AOPA PILOT / September 2024
( " Return of New Cuyama, " July 2024 AOPA
Pilot). Too often the reports are about efforts by
city councils, airport neighbors, and developers
to close or restrict use of these airports.
The efforts of the L88 Circle, particularly
those of Steve Sappington and Nancy Schunke,
are gratifying to me personally. They are my
closest and dearest friends and have been
for nearly 30 years. I worked with them both
during a 17-year career and know firsthand of
their commitment and dedication. Steve, as
an accomplished program management and
manufacturing executive, is the exact person
needed to make this project work, and his
wife Nancy, a skilled chief financial officer, is
the perfect partner to realize the achievement
of a volunteer-funded project (in addition to
whacking weeds and painting rocks for the
traffic circle). Although I live on the East Coast
and no longer fly for medical reasons, I have
followed their efforts from their first day at L88
clearing weeds and making temporary repairs.
Thank you, AOPA, for publishing this
success story. Reading of the L88 Circle's
achievement should be an inspiration to the
GA community.
David Garvis
Eldersburg, Maryland
Mojave Air and Space Port
I hope I'm not the only pilot to have read the
otherwise excellent article, " Mojave Air and
Space Port, California " (July 2024 AOPA Pilot),
I would like to
add to the Mann
Gulch article
( " Remembering Mann
Gulch, " July 2024
AOPA Pilot) that the
DC-3 mentioned
was unveiled and
christened Miss
Montana at the
2018 AOPA Fly-In
in Missoula. That
aircraft joined in the
D-Day Squadron's trip
to Europe for the 75th
anniversary of D-Day,
as chronicled in the
book Every Reason
to Fail. An amazing
effort by the museum
and all the volunteers
to pull it off, which
they did, but barely.
Randy Sachs
South Huntington, New York
FLYING LIFE
Recovering
people-pleaser
Stand by your margins of safety
BY NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
AV I AT ION IS ONE of the last great apprenticeship fields. Once
upon a time, all skills were handed down from a master craftsman,
like a seamstress or blacksmith, who would gradually teach a
younger person all the tricks of the trade. Although many of those
professions have largely been replaced by machines, pilots still
learn by supervised experience, flight instructor to student, captain
to first officer. Oh sure, we have our books and training courses,
but the real business of flying, the day-to-day decision making,
you learn that in the air from the person sitting next to you. So,
what happens when that person isn't an expert, or they're a less
conservative decision-maker than you? How is an inexperienced
pilot supposed to know the safest way to operate?
Several years ago, two young men were renting a Cessna 152
from our flight school for time-building. One of the pilots had
his instrument rating, the other was a VFR private pilot. I was in
my office when a line of storms showed up on the radar moving
faster than expected. Sure enough, flight instructors started to
trickle back in, saying they had cut their lessons short. One of our
airplanes, however, didn't come back. Apparently our two time
builders had decided to take off in the face of the approaching line
and were going to skirt the edge of it before turning out toward
their planned destination. I'll spare you the suspense. They made an
uneventful (if bumpy) flight and landed safely back at Olive Branch
(OLV) later that day. Now, as a rule, I try to avoid sticking my nose
in other pilots' weather decisions. Everyone has different personal
minimums and comfort levels. But that day, considering the relative
youth and inexperience of those two pilots, I felt like I had to say
something. So, I intercepted them the following day when they
were heading out for their next time-building adventure.
" Hey guys, heard you took off near some pretty ugly weather
yesterday, " I said. The instrument-rated pilot blew me off with an
explanation that they had stayed VFR and broken no rules, landing
safely without incident. (The old " it ended well, so it was a good
decision " rationalization.) The other pilot, however, remained
quiet, barely making eye contact. I reminded them both about the
risks of flying too close to convective weather and suggested more
conservative decisions in the future if they wanted to continue
to rent our airplanes (and stay alive). While the instrument pilot
was obviously a defiant risk-taker, I recognized another dangerous
tendency in the quiet pilot, a reluctance to speak up for himself.
Once I got him alone, he explained that even though he wasn't
20
AOPA PILOT / August 2024
quite comfortable with their decision, his friend had more
experience, and so he just went along with the plan, unsure of
whether he was being too cautious and not knowing what to say
to get himself out of the situation anyway. As a recovering peoplepleaser
myself, I was happy to give him the words that have been
keeping me out of stressful flying situations for years.
Taking off in wind over 20 knots? " That's outside of my
personal minimums. "
Scud-running on a cross-country? " I'm not comfortable with
that. " You don't have to argue or make excuses. You simply refuse
to do things in an airplane that make you feel nervous. But it's not
just about weather decisions. There are lots of little choices during
a flight for which there is no black and white checklist guidance.
One rainy day, I asked a group of my bored flight instructors a
question. What are the ways you create an extra margin of safety
beyond what the books advise? Here's what they said:
I always take off with full fuel if we can, and land with more than
an hour of fuel reserve. Thirty minutes is scary.
I don't let anyone switch the fuel tanks or turn off the fuel pump
in the traffic pattern. We are too low if something goes wrong.
I don't fly with more than two pieces of inop equipment.
Managing all that just makes the workload too high.
I square off every turn in the traffic pattern. If you round
your downwind to base to final turn, you never get a chance to
look for traffic.
I don't fly lower than 1,000 feet agl unless I'm over a runway.
I don't let my students get outside of the white flap arc in the
traffic pattern. That gives us time to run checklists and to see
and avoid traffic.
These are great ideas from a group of safety-minded folks. But
just because it's a flight instructor or an experienced pilot with
thousands of hours doesn't necessarily mean he or she will make
decisions you are comfortable with. As the years go by, you're
going to see lots of different ways of operating an airplane. In this
aviation apprenticeship,
make sure you're learning
from a master craftsman
you can trust. And if you
realize you're not, speak up
sooner rather than later.
myaviation101.com
NATALIE BINGHAM HOOVER
began flying in 2004. After
corporate and airline work, she
now serves as an FAA designated
examiner and chief instructor of a
flight school in Mississippi.
http://www.myaviation101.com
AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2024
