A Little Hangar Flying: Always Have a Plan, and Use Good Judgment at All Times

I started my flying in Alaska. One thing about Alaska Flying is most of the time you’re flying, you’re on your own. No one around to see or care about what you are doing or going to do. You’re on your own to make decisions and make the correct ones. It’s darn quiet on the radios.

The FAA said training for judgment is one of the hardest things to do. The problem with most aviation accidents is that often times the accident can be attributed to poor judgment. That’s the reason The Gold Medallion Program was developed.

The Alaska Airman’s Association got a simulator all decked out with the latest GPS terrain data available. They took the simulator across Alaska training the Air Taxi Pilots and anyone else who they could hold still for a bit. They put Pilots into situations where they had to make critical decisions. If they pushed into the weather too far they were given further instruction. The Airman’s Assoc. was training pilots how to use good judgment and reinforcing the correct decisions. By participating, the Air Taxi Companies got a Gold Medallion Plaque for the wall in the passenger check-in area for everyone to see.

The other hard thing to do is execute a “Go Around” prior to landing. We could train for that on our check rides and reinforce the action right at the moment. But turning around and the long flight back is REAL hard. Here’s why: you are going to second guess your decision all the way home. What’s my boss going to say? (your boss pays you to make correct decisions.) What are the passengers thinking? (The passengers are on vacation, RIGHT? They want to vacation, not die.) Or what are the guys at the other end you were going to pick up, and are out of food thinking? (The guys were hunting; they get to hunt harder and longer.)

The turn around

I developed a really good way to deal with that: “Hey folks, we turned around because the weather is getting worse. Mean ol’ Mother Nature is keeping us from our destination.” (I diverted the reason to Mother Nature). “We’ll try later when the weather is better.” Remember, flying is fun, and when my palms are sweating and my mouth is dry and I’m leaning forward 6 inches to see further out the front window or the side window because I can’t see out the front, Guys, it ain’t fun no more… It’s time to turn around! Do it! Don’t wait! Where you came from is good, You just came from VFR. TURN AROUND NOW!

One other thing. You must stay focused on what you are doing at all times. Remember the old saying? Flying is unforgiving.. We airline guys always say, a well planned approach is a small price to pay when the alternative is a smoking hole in the ground.

Have a Plan

Always have a plan, but be flexible. Always have an out. Fly like your family is with you at all times. Don’t have your “personal” minimums when flying alone, then use FAR Regulation minimums when others are flying with you. You owe it to everyone around you to plan and do the right thing at all times. Why on Earth would you jeopardize yourself in a situation, but not with your wife with you? If you continue breaking the regs, you will one day have a really bad day. A year or so ago I had a load of guys in the airplane and we had just eaten lunch at the Spruce Goose in Port Townsend. We all piled in the airplane and taxied out. Lots of distractions as usual…lots of laughing, talking, jokes, etc. But when it comes to flying I hold up my hand and the laughter stops.

I’m getting close to the runway for departure. I looked at the fuel indicators…guess what? The fuel indicator is just above the “Red Zone” or in the red zone. The fuel was bouncing around in the tank and I couldn’t really tell if the fuel was above the line where it says: “Don’t Take Off” or not. Ah heck, I thought to myself, you could try and justify the situation and say, its only a 10-minute flight to Sequim.

Nope…I haven’t taken off like that yet and and I don’t care if I look like a fool for not getting gas before I taxied out. I’ll look like a bigger fool if I survive the engine failure due to too much air in my fuel tanks. Then, if I do survive the guys will probably kill me. So I told everyone we have to go back and get some gas.

We taxied back to refueled. We had a great flight back. We got to fly all over the place with no worries about the fuel. Not a word was said. In fact, they helped me refuel.

I mention this because we have had two water landings this year and one land crash a couple of years ago. All the airplanes left the airport where fuel was available; the land plane flew by at least ten airports with fuel, supposedly to get home where he had cheaper fuel. All fuel mismanagement accidents. Fortunately no one was really hurt bad.

There is absolutely no excuse for leaving a refuel station without more than enough fuel to make it to destination and back or to your alternate. There’s FAR’s that cover this. I don’t care how much fuel costs when I’m out of fuel. I was in Port Allsworth, AK. last year on floats with fishing buddies and my son. I tanked up the airplane at 8.00 a gallon. Expensive!!!! Heck ya!! But you know what? I had to turn around in the pass and go all the way back and spend the night. In 36 years of flying that pass I never got into that situation. But I was prepared for it when I did. We didn’t like it much, cause Don really snores bad, but flying in the mountains with less than a mile visibility is not cool or fun. We had a great breakfast and flew out no problem the next day. The Lodge also froze our fish solid for us.

Oh! I fueled up again before I left. Now what kind of an example would I be if I hadn’t taken more than I needed on the fuel? That was some expensive fish I tell you, but we are here to talk about it and we didn’t interrupt anyone’s evening looking for a plane that crashed in Lake Clark Pass.

Fly Safe everyone and be careful.

Mike Radford