By Wayne Fischer
This month I would like to talk about attitude. Not the reference point of the airplane toward the surface of the earth, but the reference point of the pilot toward the safe operation of the airplane. One of the dictionary definitions of attitude is; "the position of a person showing or meant to show a mental state, emotion, or mood". Attitude is with us every moment of the day-we have attitudes towards politics, religion, values, and virtually every aspect within our being. We are even capable have having an attitude about a subject of which we know nothing. History is replete with commentary from a wide variety of "experts", who in fact knew very little of the subject on which they were expounding. Copernicus was excommunicated for proposing the world was round, because that proposal didn't fit the attitude of the church leaders at the time. It took 300 years to the change their attitudes! Some attitudes can be extremely dangerous, e.g., the attitude of a violent dictator toward the citizens of his country, and the attitudes of certain cultures towards those who look different.
Another potential dangerous attitude is our mental state as we prepare for a flight in our Mooney. I know of no one who would say "I'm planning a flight to Kerrville and plan to run out of gas over Fredericksburg". While the destination and point of fuel exhaustion might change, we continue to demonstrate a consistent penchant for getting it done. I'm sure the pilot of the Piper that collided with the AeroMexico DC-9 didn't wake up one morning and say "I think I'll plan to be over Cerritos, CA at 11:00 AM and see if I can make contact with AeroMexico". And yet mid air collisions continue in spite of VMC, flight following, TCAS and all of the fancy new technology designed to prevent the mishap. Just recently we witnessed the tragedy of a Cheyenne and a Cessna 172 meeting over the metropolitan area of Denver in day VMC while being watched by Denver TRACON.
The pilot who successfully (lucky?) flies through a thunderstorm will probably develop an attitude about thunderstorm avoidance that eventually will do him in. Just as certainly, the pilot who lands successfully with an ice-encrusted airplane will also develop an attitude that says, "What's the big deal? I've done it before and my airplane can handle the ice". We'll read about him/her in the morning paper or see the bloody details on the evening news.
What is the proper attitude for safe flying? I believe the answer is many faceted, but one of the essential ingredients is a healthy respect for all of the elements involved. A healthy attitude is probably made up of a combination of experience, judgment, and maturity. Fear is not to be feared! Fear is one of the elements involved in a healthy attitude. For example, I don't think we need to fear crosswind landings if we have trained and are proficient in the maneuver. Healthy respect might even go so far as not flying on a windy day. Fear does play a role in my attitude about thunderstorms. I'm really afraid of their awesome power and I'll do anything to avoid them. Their external beauty hides a deadly potion for our airplanes, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm afraid of thunderstorms. Fear is also the motivating factor in my attitude towards freezing rain. I have the privilege of selling new Mooney airplanes, and I enjoy one of the best anti-icing systems available to general aviation-TKS! Our Mooney's are the only general aviation TKS certified known ice airplanes today. In 50 years of flying I've used enough of a variety of anti-ice systems to come to the conclusion that I'm afraid of freezing rain. In my judgment thunderstorms and freezing have only one option available to us, and that's to stay the hell out!
Acknowledging that there is risk, and then managing the risk to our favor, even if it means canceling the flight, might best sum up a healthy attitude. I often fly my 252 from Carefree, AZ to Denver Front Range airport, and have a healthy respect for mountain terrain, particularly strong wind at mountain top level. There is no way I'm flying my Mooney to Denver with 50 KT winds at 12,000'. I'll resolve the risk management equation by staying home and try again tomorrow.
If we can truly say we are aware of the risks involved, analyzed the options, and apply the options to manage the risk to our favor, only then are we anywhere near the right attitude. Dismissing any element of the risk as not important will soon identify a glaring weakness in our management of the risk.
A good attitude is essential to Safe Flying.
Fly Safe!
