Nerves of Steel book review

Remember the Southwest 737 that had an engine explode in cruise and a passenger die? The incident was much worse than we might have first guessed, much worse than a simple engine failure at altitude in the simulator. And turns out the captain has a wild backstory more interesting than most airline pilots. This new autobiography has all the details, and it’s a surprisingly great aviation read. When Tammie Jo Shults was growing up, girls didn’t become pilots. The inside story of what it was really like to be a woman in US military flight training during the ’80s is … Continue reading Nerves of Steel book review

ATP

The senior FO I flew with yesterday had a great acronym for what’s important to protect, and in what order, when flying: A Arse. T Ticket. P Paycheck. Keep me safe, keep me legal, and keep me employed. Sounds about right! And actually kinda follows our official flight standards priority philosophy of: 1 Safe. 2 Legal. 3 SOP. .

Always have a backup

So this happened today. My airline ID, FAA pilot certificate, FAA medical certificate, FCC licence, vaccination records for accident site access and more — hanging by a string. Without that secondary tie, I could have lost them all. Easy aviation lesson: Always have a backup. A secondary HF frequency, enough fuel for an alternative airport, a spare battery, another option. A second string on your ID. Take a look at everything you do, and eliminate the single points of system failure. Are you listening Boeing? . (Big thanks to my crashpad roommate for 16 years, Captain Earl the Pearl, for setting … Continue reading Always have a backup

The problem with pilots

Finished reading an amazing book that was published last year— The Problem with Pilots: How Physicians, Engineers, and Airpower Enthusiasts Redefined Flight, by former USAF U2 instructor pilot and dean of their school of Advanced Air and Space Studies, Colonel Timothy P. Schultz, PhD. It covers the history of automation in aircraft, the replacement and extension of piloting skills into faster, higher, more precise aerial machines. It’s a must-read for people interested in aviation history, human factors engineering, or understanding the history of automated flying. Full of original research, fully referenced, deeply academic yet written in easy flowing English. And … Continue reading The problem with pilots

The capability of the human pilot

The North American X-15 was a hypersonic rocket-powered experimental aircraft flown by the USAF and NASA in the 1960’s. The X-15 holds the official world record for the highest speed ever recorded by a manned aircraft, set in October 1967 when test pilot William J. Knight at 102,100 feet flew Mach 6.70. Clearly it was a hot rod rocket ride, and obviously important to the advancement of high speed and high altitude aeronautical engineering. But it was also important in understanding the role of the pilot in new highly dynamic systems, and what machine-human interfaces would be functional in those relms (see NASA history page). It’s a theme … Continue reading The capability of the human pilot