The Patrician APRIL 2020
The Victoria Flying Club ~ Aviation Excellence Since 1946
Many thanks to our public health, front line, and emergency workers. www.flyvfc.com
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The Patrician
HANGAR SPACE
“To promote flying and aviation in general, and to teach and train persons in the art and science of flying and navigating and operating all manner of heavier-than-air aircraft.” (Victoria Flying Club Incorporation Bylaws, 1946)
Contact Marcel at the Club to see if a hangar spot is a good spot for your plane and to get on the waitlist.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRESIDENT Colin Williamson
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News Around the Club
SECRETARY Jennifer Zadorozniak
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President's Message
TREASURER
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Flight Schedule Pro
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Bringing Context to the Complexities of the COVID-19 Pandemic Contributed by Greg Matte, GM
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AGM Deferred, Letter from the President
VICE PRESIDENT Don Devenney
DIRECTORS Iain Barnes John Ainsworth GENERAL MANAGER Greg Matte CHIEF FLYING Mike Schlievert INSTRUCTOR
CONTACT 1852 Canso Road Sidney, BC V8L 5V5
www.flyvfc.com info@flyvfc.com
P: 250-656-2833 F: 250-655-0910
8 VFC Aircraft, New Twin Coming! 10 Complacency Contributed by Captain (Ret'd) Stephen Klubi 12 Thanks for the Share!
Editor: Katy Earl flyvfcmarketing@gmail.com The Patrician accepts unsolicited submissions. This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part, with prior permission of the publisher or author. The opinions expressed are strictly those of the authors.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
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PARKING
flyvfcmarketing@gmail.com http://flyvfc.com/subscribe-to-the-patrician
If you’re interested in prime paved parking spaces for your aircraft, we want to hear from you!
PHOTO CREDITS
Secure, pull-in/pull-out, easy access.
Front cover photo: Hearts from the Dakota Cafe. Thanks to the many public health, front line, and emergency workers for putting their lives on the line for us.
Please call Dispatch to arrange a spot, or get on the waitlist for hangar spaces at 250-656-2833
APRIL 2020
VFC | Aviation Excellence Since 1946
News Around the Club NEWS and EVENTS
CHANGES AT CLUB DUE TO COVID-19
NEWS and EVENTS ON HOLD
COPA Flight 6 meeting and social
ON HOLD
IFR / IMC Round Table
POSTPONED AUG 24-31?
PrepAIR YYJ at VFC "Maid in the Shade" visit
Is your aviation-related event not listed? Let us know at flyvfcmarketing@gmail.com
Life as we know it has changed, and the Club is experiencing these changes:
1. The B-25 Mitchell bomber visit has been deferred to 24-31 August. 2. The VFC open house that had been scheduled for Saturday, 20 June 2020, has been postponed indefinitely. 3. PrepAIR YYJ, which was going to be held on April 18 at our Club, has been postponed until the sometime in the autumn. 4. Although the COVID-19 restrictions have led to a significant reductions in VFC operations, we seem to have achieved an interim / indefinite "new normal" as follows: a. Daily open hours 09:00-17:00, with selfdispatch after hours (on a pre-arranged basis). b. All PPL and School District 61 ground school has been suspended. c. All ab initio training has been suspended. d. All Redbird simulator training has been suspended. e. All dual multi-engine/IFR training has been suspended. f. AMO maintenance operations continues. g. AMO will undertake a rebuild project of a Beechcraft Travel Air 95 during the lull in operations. h. Recreational rentals continues. i. Sightseeing flights have been discontinued. i. Solo advanced training / rentals on the Cessnas (i.e. to build CPL hours) continues.
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j. Support to VFC members (parking, towing, refueling, etc.) continues. k. Dispatch services (09:0017:00 daily) continues.
NEWS and EVENTS
l. Take-out services with the Dakota CafÊ restaurant continues (Monday – Friday, 09:00-16:00). 5. The AGM, which was to be held on March 26, has been deferred. See the 'Letter from the President' article on page 8.
A TRIBUTE TO AIRMANSHIP
Now that GINH has been
deemed a "write-off", our insurers allowed the VFC to keep the propeller. In turn, it was decided that the propeller should be donated to Ryan McCall as a tribute to the outstanding airmanship and flying skills he demonstrated on the fateful day that GINH's engine seized in flight. Ryan has already shared his expereince with the VFC Flight Instructors, and will share it with you all in next month's edition of the Patrician. Have news or a story to tell? Email us at flyvfcmarketing@ gmail.com for a chance to have your news or story published in The Patrician.
Dakota Cafe shares their appreciation for public health, front line, emergency workers.
VFC donates GINH's propeller to its last pilot, Ryan McCall.
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APRIL 2020
VFC | Aviation Excellence Since 1946
Flight Schedule Pro Simple to Use
News from Dispatcher Jamie Wellbourn
The staff at VFC have taken this opportunity to review options from other providers to find a solution that works for both members and staff. Through this research we chose Flight Schedule Pro (FSP), a system in use at many schools and clubs across Canada and around the world. At its most basic, Flight Schedule Pro is a schedule for VFC’s resources (aircraft, simulator, and Instructors). Beyond that it features statistical reports, flight history,
NEWS and EVENTS
For many years VFC has used GenAv Flight Office (GFO) for aircraft and Instructor scheduling. While it has served us well, it is certainly showing its age. North Orca Technologies, creators of GFO, have decided it is time to phase out GFO and bring in a more modern solution. We appreciate the years of service provided to us by North Orca Technologies but found their proposed replacement would not meet the needs of our staff and members.
upcoming reservations, it’s mobile friendly, has an optional iOS app, and more. More importantly, it’s simple to use, has a modern interface, and offers flexibility to add expansions in the future for more features. Flight Schedule Pro will fully replace Gen-Av Flight Office on April 13th. Prior to that we will be migrating bookings from GFO to FSP for all bookings on or after April 13th. Once that is complete you can expect an announcement on our social media channels, website, and via email which will include a link to sign up for an FSP account. A how-to guide for FSP which may answer some of your questions will be shared along with the announcements. Anyone with bookings currently scheduled in GFO will be sent a direct email invitation to sign up as your bookings are added to FSP. Access to creating new reservations will be restricted until the migration is complete. We are doing everything we can to ensure a smooth transition, but if you have any concerns please contact us.
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Bringing Context To the Complexities of the COVID-19 Pandemic
GM Corner
VFC Manager BGen (Ret’d) Gregory C.P. Matte, CD, PhD
The sudden and rapid escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak has led us all into unchartered waters. The increasing impacts on the lives and welfare of the human population are unprecedented. The economic consequences on stock markets, the economy, businesses, and our individual personal finances have already proven highly consequential. During the rapidly unfolding circumstances of the past month, the leadership team at the VFC have been closely monitoring the directives, restrictions and precautions that are being announced by federal and provincial informed authorities, namely Dr. Theresa Tam and Dr. Bonnie Henry. We’ve also been receiving updates from Transport Canada, Nav Canada, ATAC and COPA. As such, during the seemingly daily changes, the leadership team has worked diligently to adapt our operations and processes to remain compliant with the directives, restrictions and precautions announced. We also undertook a half-day contingency planning meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to examine the VFC’s finances, go-forward cash flow, what would need to be done if the VFC was completely closed, and how the Club would return progressively to "normal" operations. Part of this meeting included a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) assessment, an outcome of which was the recent approval by our Board of Directors for the AMO to proceed with a rebuild project on a Beechcraft Travel Air 95 (see Colin Williamson’s article).
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APRIL 2020
I’m well aware of the potentially negative impact of the daily media attention to the COVID-19 crisis, including a mounting "death toll," and how this has been raising fears as people worry about their personal security. The mass purchasing and hoarding of toilet paper is a seemingly irrational outcome of the primitive survival instinct programmed into our DNA. In the United States, some media have reported that a similar phenomenon has occurred for guns and bullets. While the disease has raised grave concerns pertaining to Canada’s limited capacity to deal with an increased number of acutely ill patients, there are greater concerns that informed authorities and our elected representatives have to deal with. Clearly, the "health" of the economy is one issue, and we’ve seen the increasing efforts to avoid a complete shut-down of the economy through a series of measured and reasoned decisions. In addition to ensuring the continued operations of the flow of goods and supplies by road, rail, air and sea networks, a detailed evaluation of essential and non-essential operations was established, along with the associated directives, suggestions and precautions to be applied for those businesses that can continue to operate within all of this. Fortunately, both the VFC and the Dakota Café have been able to continue operating, albeit with significant reductions in operations and services. However, an even greater, unspoken fear is that of an unraveling of civil society into anarchy… Perhaps it might be helpful to share with you some insights into how this
pandemic is being handled, based on my own personal involvement in the previous H1N1 pandemic in the fall of 2009. At that time, as a Brigadier-General in the Canadian Armed Forces, I was highly focused on the final preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. My role as the Chief of Staff of Canada Command was to oversee the coordination of military support to the entire bi-national air, land & sea security apparatus required to support first responders (police, health care, etc.) in the event of a terrorist attack and a mass-casualty outcome. However, for nearly a month, I was drawn into a daily meeting of senior federal bureaucrats (Deputy Minister/ Assistant Deputy Minister level) of an emergency, "whole of government" steering committee that reported directly to the Prime Minister, key federal ministers and cabinet. My role in representing the Department of National Defense had to do with the distribution of the limited supply of vaccines to remote domestic communities, to our deployed troops abroad, as well as to our diplomatic diaspora in embassies and consuls around the world. However, the key participants in these daily meeting were Dr. David Butler-Jones (Chief Public Health Officer of Canada), as well as the representatives from the Office of the Solicitor General (SolGen), Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS), Privy Council Office (PCO) and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
VFC | Aviation Excellence Since 1946
Another challenge had to do with the coordination of federal activities, including “external” communications with the public through the media, with our counterparts in the provinces and territories, and “internal” communications with public servants. In addition to ensuring daily updates on the progression of the pandemic, there was a concerted effort to ensure the public was aware of how the government was planning, preparing and responding, including the logistics for the distribution of the vaccines (which needed special handling) and inoculation of the chosen minority. However, the elephant in the room was how to
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manage fear, hysteria and potential unraveling of civil order into chaos if people began to panic. This is where the PMO and PCO came in for “internal” communications with public servants (including the military), coordination of announcement with provincial and territorial authorities, and of course, the “external” communications with the general public.
politicians at all levels of government continue to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, I have confidence that behind the scenes, the “team” effort is working well, and that we are fortunate to live in Canada. Stay informed, continue to abide by the directives, restrictions and precautions being provided by our informed authorities, and I’m confident that we will get through this!
GM Corner
Dr. Butler-Jones typically started the meetings, and I recall his continued emphasis on "following the science," as the assumptions, bizarre reports in the media, and doomsday scenarios were numerous in the early days. Although there was a vaccine, there were only enough vaccines in Canada to vaccinate a minority of Canadians, which immediately meant that decisions had to be made as to who would be vaccinated…and who wouldn’t. Another challenge that quickly arose was how to deal with federal employees who refused to continue their work responsibilities for fear of becoming infected. This in turn became linked with the need for the Steering Committee to quickly establish a descending list of “essential” services, and the minimum number of employees that would be required to provide a minimum acceptable level of such services. Both of these discussions were interwoven with the underlying legal considerations, starting with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and how that needed to be squared with someone’s right to refuse to work and their responsibilities to the broader needs of society for the provision of essential services. The lead on establishing the ways and means to manage this employeeemployer challenge across the federal government was PWGSC and TBS.
Although the Steering Committee was thrown into this unexpected challenge with only a few “lessons learned” from the SARS epidemic of 2003, I was impressed with the manner in which the challenges were tackled with rational, methodical, and pragmatic prioritization and implementation. As with the COVID-19 pandemic, for several weeks in the fall of 2009 we were dealing GA Heli Lemo with a barrage of new information coming in from the WHO and other countries, from reactions of public servants, from updates from provincial and ANR BT territorial authorities as well as inputs from the general public. Ultra-light and Strong Despite the fluidity of Crystal-Clear Communication the rapidly changing Proven Quality circumstances, the pressures of limited resources, and the RFID Pilot need to “get ahead Passport Leather of” the situation, it all Wallet came together rather effectively. In hindsight, it was a remarkable experience for me personally, but also very reassuring as a fellow RS Designs aviationheadsets.ca Canadian.
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AGM Deferred
President Corner
Letter from the President
Dear VFC Member, Due to the continually evolving COVID-19 Pandemic situation the Victoria Flying Club Board of Directors has decided to defer the Annual General Meeting that was scheduled for March 26, 2020. Canadian and BC Health Authorities have reduced the size of allowed gatherings from 250 people down to 50, which is about the average number of attendees at a VFC AGM. We will reschedule the AGM after the COVID19 situation has improved to the point that our Health Authorities state that it
is safe for groups of 50 or more people to meet. At present we have no indication of when that will be. We will also provide Club Members with at least 35 days notice of the rescheduled AGM as per our By-Laws. The current Board of Directors has volunteered to continue to serve the VFC until a new AGM can be scheduled and new Directors elected. Our By-Laws do allow for this contingency. Please note that the Flying Club and the Dakota restaurant are still open and operational. We are continuing to take additional
cleaning and wipe-down measures both in the aircraft after each flight, and high touch areas around the building in accordance with best COVID-19 practices. We hope to see you at VFC soon. We wish you and your loved ones all the best during this difficult and unprecedented time. Regards, Colin Williamson President Victoria Flying Club
VFC Aircraft New Twin Coming! Contributed by Colin Williamson, VFC President
No doubt that you are all acutely aware of the horrible toll COVID-19 is taking on humanity, but also of the drastic impact it is having on the economy, businesses, employment and everyone’s personal finances. The pandemic has also severely impacted VFC. As you know from the updates we’ve been providing, the VFC management team have been adapting its operations
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APRIL 2020
and personal precautions in accordance with the increasingly tighter restrictions directed by our federal and provincial informed authorities. As such, we’ve had to cease in-house ground school, simulator training, ab initio training and multi-engine/ IFR training in compliance with the 2-metre "social distancing" requirement. Unfortunately, this has dealt a crushing blow to most
of our Flight Instructors as well as to our many students, particularly those who were tantalizingly close to completing a phase, rating or test. As a result, some of our Flight Instructors have had to seek Employment Insurance on a "shortage of work" basis, and we had to lay off a couple staff members due to a reduced operating schedule of 09:00 to 17:00 daily.
VFC | Aviation Excellence Since 1946
The reduced pace of activities has also allowed our staff to get caught up on several different projects (such as a more streamlined process for accepting new students), as well as a couple new ones. One of the more exciting developments has to do with our strategic planning for "fleet renewal." The highest priority aspect of the renewal process has always been to have a succession plan to replace our worn out Piper Seminole (HDP). For those advanced students who are seeking to complete their multi-engine/IFR ratings, the past couple years have been frustrating due to the unreliability of HDP, and the unusually long periods of downtime for maintenance... sometimes measured in weeks and months. Your Board of Directors and the VFC Management Team have reviewed a number of options for replacing HDP with a reliable aircraft that is suitable for MultiIFR training. We gathered input from a number of stakeholders including: • Multi-IFR Students • Multi-IFR Instructors • Maintenance shop staff The tricky bit was to try to find a solution that balanced the needs for a modern, reliable aircraft with our students strongly expressed desire to keep rental rates down.
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Our PRM (Person Responsible for Maintenance, i.e. head of our Maintenance shop) Murray Palmer came up with an unorthodox, but brilliant and creative solution. Murray has not only maintained aircraft for several decades, but he has also restored numerous wrecked aircraft to like new condition and on occasion even been given a “zero time” (i.e. the equivalent of a newly built aircraft just rolled out of the factory) condition by Transport Canada. This gives us confidence the project will go ahead smoothly and have a good outcome. Murray has offered to put these skills to work for us. Your Board and Management Team worked closely together to develop a Business Case that looked at five options, including: • Brand new Diamond DA-42; • Newish Used Diamond DA-42; • Newish Used Piper Seneca; • Rebuild an Old Beechcraft 95 Travel Air to Like New; and • Keep the Seminole and do nothing. We worked out a 10 year cost of ownership for each option, and evaluated the pros and cons of each option against our stated requirements. Murray’s proposal to rebuild an old airplane to “Like New” condition easily won the evaluation and was approved by the Board by unanimous vote. When the project is complete our in-house Maintenance staff will have rebuilt the plane yielding the following benefits: • VFC will have a Like New Multi-IFR airplane that will: o Be very reliable providing high availability; o Have a completely refurbished airframe with
fresh paint; o Have zero time engines and propellers; o Be equipped with de-icing equipment allowing more winter flying; o Have a new interior including seats, carpets, etc.; and o Have new instruments and partial-glass panel.
President Corner
However, despite these many changes, the VFC has remained opened for rental flights for our many recreational flying members, as well as for our licensed pilots seeking to "build hours" solo towards their commercial pilot licence. We will also be able to continue with our fire patrol charter services (solo) once we get back into the dryer summer season.
• VFC staff will have completely rebuilt the plane in-house: o It can be easily maintained by our staff who will be intimately familiar with it; and o It uses the same engines as our Cessna 172s, facilitating in-house engine overhauls. • Cost VFC ¼ the price of a new airplane: o We expect to rent it at the same rate as HDP; and o The other options would have required a rate increase of at least $100/hour. By rebuilding in-house we have complete flexibility over many options of how to equip the plane. We had quite a discussion with our senior Instructors about the merits of all steam gauges, all glass, or half-glass. The decision was that half-glass is the option that most closely mimics what newly hired commercial pilots are likely to fly with early in their career, and therefore leaves our students best prepared for getting that first job in the working world. At the end of this project we will have a beautiful and reliable twin engine aircraft for our Multi-IFR students to use as we help them achieve their career goals. Stay tuned, we’ll provide some updates as we go along!
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Complacency Anecdotes from an Aging Aviator
Feature Article
Contributed by Captain (Ret'd) Stephen Klubi, Cathay Pacific Airways Editor's note: Many thanks to VFC alumnus (1973) Stephen Klubi for sharing his expertise after decades in the civil, military, and commercial aviation space. "Complacency: A state of self satisfaction with one’s own performance coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble or controversy." (Flight Safety Foundation) It was December 1987 and I was in my second year of my Corporate Flying Career. After leaving the Air Force in 1985, I had been hired by a large corporate jet management company based at what was then known as Montreal’s Dorval Airport. I was flying the Hawker Siddeley 125, 700 series aircraft. We operated this aircraft throughout North America and occasionally to Europe. Our bread and butter routes, however, were the cities of Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. We operated this route backwards and forwards, rain or shine, through blizzards, freezing rain, frontal weather, around monstrous thunderstorms sometimes doing up to seven sectors a day. We flew this route so often, we knew from memory every ATC and Navaid frequency, every airway track and every approach to all the runways. We had memorized the latitude and longitude for every ramp position that we would use when initializating the inertial navigation systems or the Omega systems. We kept track of our personal records for various sectors. My personal record from Toronto to Montreal (270 NM approximately) was one late night under ideal conditions, no passengers on board, strong tailwinds at altitude and a very cooperative ATC. Take off to touchdown was 39 minutes. On this particular flight we were to depart Montreal at 7 am, land in Toronto at 8 am, head to the hotel, depart at 5 pm for an arrival back in Montreal at 6. It was a fairly routine flight. A
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snowstorm was forecast to start around our departure time in Montreal, continue throughout the day and into the evening for our arrival back in Montreal. In addition to operating the RCAF CC130 Hercules during the winter and in the Arctic, I now had the experience of flying the corporate jet through a couple of Montreal winters. From these experiences, I had developed a healthy respect for the hazards of winter operations but felt pretty capable about handling whatever Mother Nature threw my way. But the Aviation Gods had chosen this flight to teach me a lesson in complacency. My First Officer was an ex-Transport Canada First Officer in the time when Transport Canada operated a fleet of Jetstars as executive transport for Canadian Government Officials. After this role was taken over by the RCAF, he found himself flying a desk. He quit after a few years and came to work with us. He was a very capable pilot and a bit of a rarity. He was an academic and held master's degrees in both Engineering and Math. We flew a lot together and had spent many hours of discussions solving all the world’s problems. (As an aside, Corporate Flying is unique in that respect in that you flew a lot with the same people. Some of the bonds I formed with colleagues there led to some of the happiest flying days of my career.) We departed Montreal as the snow started to fall, arrived in Toronto and went to the hotel as planned. I checked the weather throughout the day and the snowfall, heavy at times, did not let up. We departed Toronto on time, descended into Montreal and conducted the ILS Approach to runway 06 left. We broke out on the approach at about 500 feet where I acquired the approach lighting and runway edge lights. The
runway edge lights were somewhat ill defined and it wasn’t until the landing lights started to illuminate the runway when I realized why, the runway was completely covered in very deep snow. At some point during the day the Airport Authority had given up snow clearing on the landing runway and had concentrated their resources on keeping the departure runway, 06 right, open. We touched down between the runway edge lights as there were no markings or centerline lights visible. Shortly after touchdown we hit the rut from a much larger aircraft that had recently landed. Immediately our aircraft yawed 30 degrees to the right and proceeded to skid sideways down the runway. I instinctively applied full left rudder and nosewheel steering and regained a track parallel to the runway lights. I suspect it had little to do with my input but was the result of hitting another large rut. We came to a rather abrupt stop on the runway and then commenced the very arduous task of taxiing clear of the runway and along taxiways that were covered in a significant depth of snow. We eventually held short of the departure runway awaiting clearance across at a taxiway mid way along the runway. While we waited, an Air Canada DC 9 roared past us like a giant snowball as they were in the process of rejecting their takeoff. I suspect the depth of the snow had severely affected their acceleration. Little did I know that the events of that evening had planted a seed in the mind of my First Officer. Years later, I contacted Transport Canada wishing to speak to someone who could answer my questions regarding a new section that was published in the Aeronautical Information Publication, entitled Canadian Runway Friction Index (CRFI) Application to Aircraft Performance. The person I was put in contact with was my First Officer from 15 years earlier who had gone back to
VFC | Aviation Excellence Since 1946
It takes some unique event or condition to cause a pilot to move to the professional level. It may be as subtle as exposure to a group of professional–thinking aviators or even one good instructor or mentor. It may be a realization based on events in the pilot’s non-aviation career or family life. Unfortunately it is usually the result of a frightening aviation experience, personally encountered or (less frequently) when a close friend meets his or her end in an air crash.
In an excellent article entitled "Complacency is the Hunter" in the October 2, 2017 edition of “Flightsafety Australia,” a publication by their Civil Aviation Safety Authority author Thomas Turner relates a conversation he had with a Royal Australian Air Force Wing Commander who described a predictable three phase path in the development of a pilot:
Certainly my arrival in Montreal that December evening was a wake up call.
"First is the learning phase, everything is new and the pilot is eager and impressionable. Learning pilots listen to others in authority but since they have no frame of reference of what good behaviour or bad behaviour is, it is up to the more experienced pilots to model and mentor the ‘Right’ attitudes and practices."
"Practice emergency procedures." I very frequently reviewed all the emergency procedures, limitations and profiles that I would fly in the event of an engine failure during take off, while in the cruise, and the actions and autopilot input required due to loss of cabin pressurization. Prior to every take off I would mentally rehearse every step and touch every control in sequence for the rejected take off procedure. Prior to every take off I would mentally fly every departure with an engine out, what profile would be flown which switch selections would be made, if fuel dumping was applicable and how and when the aircraft would be reconfigured.
"Second is the complacency phase. This is usually the longest phase of a pilot’s career, one in which the pilot feels he or she has learned virtually everything they need to know about flying. The complacent pilot believes they have achieved "safety" (as if risk management is a state, not a process), and that bad outcomes are something that can only happen to lesser pilots." "Finally, the pilot moves into the professional phase. In this context "professional" has nothing to do with being paid to fly. Professionalism is a mindset in which the pilot seeks out opportunities to learn and practice, and to actively look for gaps in their knowledge and proficiency. The professional pilot actively works to fill those gaps by taking classes, attending safety seminars, reading and doing self paced learning and engaging flight instructors to learn from their and other’s experiences." Unfortunately, according to this Wing Commander (but borne out by accident statistics) some general aviation pilots never make it past the complacency phase.
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Thomas Turner continues in the article outlining 4 ways to combat complacency: "Use checklists." Checklists are designed specifically to help recover from lapses due to distraction… or to complacency.
"Treat every flight like a training flight." Operate as if you are under scrutiny and watch indications closely as if you expect something to go wrong. “Fly precisely.” Always strive to fly accurately, so much so that it becomes ingrained, even a habit. If you accept being a little sloppy in your flying, perhaps a little fast on the approach, touching down off the centre line or a little long, the day you really need to be precise, you may find that those skills that are required may not be there. In a multi crew environment having a friendly competition requiring precise and accurate flying skills helps combat complacency.
There was always an underlying competition between myself and the other pilot when I was flying for the airline. The descent and landing phase of the flight were always the most challenging to execute perfectly. The competition began at top of descent when the thrust levers reduced to idle and ended at touchdown at 1500’ from the threshold and on the centreline. To add to the challenge, the thrust levers ideally did not advance above idle until just above 1500’ above ground level where, in accordance with our company’s stabilized approach criteria, the thrust had to be set at the approach thrust setting and the aircraft fully configured for landing. There is no opportunity for complacency to set in when you are managing the inertia of an aircraft that lands at close to 700,000 pounds. At these weights you had to be thinking miles ahead of the aircraft. On descent with a strong tailwind, you could be travelling at 10-11 nautical miles per minute. You quite often had height and speed restrictions to comply with on the arrival routing as well as a 10 mile deceleration distance to allow for when slowing down from the descent speed to the 250 knot speed limit below 10,000 feet. The larger Airbus and Boeing aircraft have very low drag profiles and the large bypass engines develop considerable thrust even at idle. During descent you learned very quickly the old adage amongst large aircraft pilots, "You can go down or you can slow down but you can't do both.”
Feature Article
Transport Canada and was involved with the team that did the research and published the data in that section. In our conversation, he made reference to our arrival and abrupt stop that December night many years earlier. I think back on that night and wonder why an experienced crew had decided to land in what were clearly marginal conditions. The lessons I learned that evening will be discussed in an upcoming article but for now I’ll discuss complacency and thoughts on how to avoid it.
Thomas Turner cites in his article that even high-time pilots have accidents, offering the reason that they become too comfortable flying aircraft, so complacent that they lose their edge and stop trying to catch small discrepancies before they become large ones. He mentions a quote from the aviation legend General Chuck Yeager: "I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my aeroplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." As you grow in your skills, do your utmost to overcome the tendency to be complacent.
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Thanks for the Share!
Pics from our members on Instagram who shared with us using the #flyvfc tag. From top, left to right: burtonader. Pilotguy_adam. burtonader, from the 2010 Royal Canadian Navy's Centennial. Pilot_martina, over Vancouver Island. burtonader, new angles of the Victoria Flying Club. Pilot_laura, advising getting a good grasp on paper charts. 12 APRIL 2020
VFC | Aviation Excellence Since 1946