Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network.

Aero-Tips 11.17.06

Technologically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) may tempt even some very experienced pilots to abdicate their authority as pilot-in-command.

Pilot 1

Last winter I attended a day-long FAA training session on the FAA/Industry Training Standards (FITS). The FITS philosophy acknowledges that there is a lot more to aviation safety than the stick-and-rudder skills emphasized by the Practical Test Standards. The training I attended consisted of a series of presentations on how to develop FITS-compliant lesson plans.

During a break I went forward to speak with the chief of training for a successful TAA manufacturer. In discussing his presentation he mentioned in passing that he had spent "most" of his time en route to Wichita, solo in the TAA, working on his laptop computer putting together the Powerpoint presentation he had just delivered. He hinted strongly that his airplane's autopilot system made "catching up on your work" in-flight a benefit of flying a TAA.

Pilot 2

More recently I spoke with the principal of an aircraft modification firm that does a lot of work with TAA. In flying the TAA up to Wichita, he said, he marveled at how well the autopilot was working, and how well the airplane climbed. He admitted to "getting involved" in some non-flight-related paperwork as the airplane climbed VFR, looking up as the airplane was climbing through 17,800 feet, still without an IFR clearance (required in Class A airspace that begins at 18,000 feet). He "scrambled" to turn off the autopilot and recover before busting the Class A airspace. He did not consider this to have been a potential problem.

Abdication of authority

Both of these pilots fell into the trap of expecting the autopilot system to perform exactly as the pilot expected. Both pilots abdicated control of the airplane totally to the autopilot, falling out of even the system monitoring mode that is at the heart of FITS. Trouble is an autopilot is a very good, but very dumb copilot-it does exactly what you tell it to do. Years of Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) reports tell us one of the most commonly reported in-flight incidents is an altitude or attitude deviation resulting from a pilot improperly programming an autopilot and failing to monitor its work. Further, although broken autopilots themselves are rarely implicated in accident reports, situations that can cause erratic autopilot functioning or total failure often are-gyro failures, electrical problems, and trim system failures.

Aero-tip of the day: Use autopilots as a workload-reduction tool, but monitor their function closely. Do not abdicate your authority as pilot-in-command to an unintelligent and unpredictable machine.

FMI: Aero-Tips