discipline

81% of ERAU pilots bust IFR minimums

By Dave English

OK, this might be a bit of a ‘one weird trick nobody knows’ clickbait avgeek troll headline — but this is a real paper on real research in a real journal. It’s in Safety Science, titled ‘An analysis of a pilot’s adherence to their personal weather minimums’, written by Professor Scott Winter et al.. Full citation at the end of the post. They studied certificated instrument pilots (who were also ERAU students) and how they adhered to both personal and FAA minimums while flying an ILS approach. The results were quite astonishing: “The findings demonstrated 96.4% of participants descended below their … Continue reading 81% of ERAU pilots bust IFR minimums

Just row

By Dave English

The siren birds look cool, flying around free in the sky. Odysseus is the hero we hear about tied to the mast, getting to listen to their siren song. But better to be the oarsmen. Heads down, doing the work, no distractions. Sometimes we have to ignore the sights and sounds out the window, or in our head, and just row! The vase is an Attic red-figure stamnos from Vulci c. 480-450 BCE depicting the myth of Odysseus tied to his ship’s mast in order to resist the enchanting song of the Sirens. It’s in the British Museum collection. The … Continue reading Just row

Dear Prudence

By Dave English

The sun is up, the sky is blue,it’s beautiful and so are you.Dear Prudence, won’t you come out to play? This song first appeared on The Beatles famous White Album, the lyrics by John Lennon are about actress Mia Farrow’s sister, Prudence Farrow, who became obsessive about meditating while practising with Maharishi Mahesh in Rishikesh, India. She’d stay in her room meditating all the time. This all has little to nothing to do with a super cool airline pilot research paper I recently read, but it’ll sorta make sense in a couple of minutes. The paper is Character Strengths of Airline Pilots: Explaining Life … Continue reading Dear Prudence

A superior pilot uses . . .

By Dave English

A superior pilot uses superior SOP to avoid situations which require the use of superior CRM.   I think this is true. If I’m disciplined, if I follow standard procedures, it certainly doesn’t solve everything — but it means I have less need to involve the whole team and get creative. Saves that for the really hard stuff, the really important stuff.   What do you think?   It’s a simple riff on the great line, “a superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.” Sometimes attributed to astronaut Frank Borman.