High-Risk Professionals

How can business professionals, who use general aviation for travel, confront the obvious aspect of schedule pressures to assure safety prevails?

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Each month IFR Refresher highlights an accident involving some aspect of IFR flying that an unfortunate pilot failed to respect. All too often, the pilots are professionals who have achieved considerable success in their career fields.

The question often asked is; how persons with such a high personal performance standing can allow themselves to be caught short by some aspect of the IFR flight operation? Actually, that is relatively easy to answer at the highest level—we are all human.

Over the years, I have been privileged to know, and instruct, many persons who have attained a position of prominence in some business or profession. This is particularly true in my role over the past two years as editor of IFR Refresher, as I interact with many of our subscribers. In my conversations, I often probe a bit to find the pilot’s rationale for some of their perspectives and traits that have enabled them to avoid some of the pitfalls that can ensnare the unsuspecting or careless pilot.

Is Time The Enemy?

Perhaps the greatest problem that these people have is that their profession places high demands on their time. Of course, this is one reason why they have chosen the airplane as a timesaving form of transportation. But, this also places yet another demand on their time—to stay current with both knowledge and skill levels.

Many pilots are selective in their reading habits to ensure that they are getting the highest density of information for the time invested. Likewise, they seek out instructors and recurrency programs that have proven track-records for providing the greatest return on their time (and money). They recognize that there are no shortcuts in some aspects of piloting.

Often these professionals love flying as much as their vocations, but balance mission requirements against economics and risk to choose the best mode of transport. Because they are frequently in the upper income bracket, they can afford high-tech, high-performance aircraft. This places an added burden for proficiency.

Often on-the-run between appointments, they must understand the high-risk that fatigue represents. Fatigue clouds judgment, and judgment is the pivotal foundation of virtually all piloting tasks. They need to know when to call ahead and postpone or cancel even the “most important” business meeting when they perceive that they have used up their physical and emotional reserves. They must not be too proud to admit that they have limitations.

High performance professionals can make this assessment rationally if they truly understand and respect the risk elements in flight operations. Professionals who cannot make this call responsibly are the ones who may be the subject of an article in the not too distant future.

One of our subscribers is a medical doctor with several modes of airborne transport available to him. He notes, “I have a great respect for flying and the risks associated with it. I am concerned that they say surgeons make lousy pilots (get-there-itis) and because we ‘think we can’ and often feel the need to take calculated risks. That generalization bothers me, but I recognize that it has some truth. I have cancelled flights, but less in the JetProp [Piper PA-46] than in the SR-22 that is non-FIKI.”

Recognizing Limitations

While most professionals live in a world where stress is a way of life, flying is a two edged sword. The beauty and inspirational aspects can quickly turn ugly when the unprepared fly into that dark foreboding mass ahead. Understanding what weather to challenge is the essence of the problem.

Our surgeon continues, “I know many pilots that I have encouraged to get their IFR rating and then not use it (very sad to me).” Perhaps they recognized that they do not want to make the commitment that piloting in IMC requires. “I love flying in the soup on instruments. It amazes me every time I get to do it. I realize that one wrong button push—without recognizing the error—can be my last. So, I remain focused on what I am doing—verify, verify and act. My instructors say it is “okay” to push a wrong button, but self-check to recognize errors quickly and break the error chain.

With respect to maintaining skills, our MD responded that he typically hand-flies about a fourth of each flight to keep his scan and muscle memory honed for various phases of flight. He avoids going more than two weeks without flying and on occasion, will seek an experienced pilot in the right seat for missions that might present fatigue factors.

“When the president of the TBM association, with more than 5000-hours in type, goes down due to a pressurization failure at FL 270—I am concerned, as we train for this. This should be a rote response—fly the plane, get on oxygen, power to idle, gear down, pitch down, and descend at 4000 fpm. Plan a descent to 12,000, then declare the emergency and communicate to ATC. However, if it happened slowly and the pilot did not recognize it—became ‘giddy’ and did not do the right thing—that is sobering.”

The insidious nature of some problems, such as gradual hypoxia, is often what causes the accident chain to add new links. These kinds of problems are not restricted to any category of pilot.

Recurrent Training

The doctor adds, “I have a commercial certificate—SMEL with Instrument ratings and hire someone who knows the JetProp inside-out. Every six months we do a full day of ground school—going over systems and emergencies procedures—and then two days of flying.

“I practice steep turns, engine-out simulations, manual gear extension, decompression issues, and power-on/power-off stalls. I get an IFR proficiency check every six months. I have several flight instructors that I fly with on occasion—just because I know they can teach me something.”

Recognizing how important it is to expand his knowledge base, he recently completed the ATP written (to beat the August deadline). “I am trying to decide how I want to get the ATP, I am thinking a type rating, but that is expensive—but don’t want to get one in a Seneca either.”

“We train and fly many missions. About 85 percent of my trips are (thankfully) work related, to give talks etc. I was just working in Houston on Friday, returned Saturday (did not fly our JetProp—way too expensive). On Sunday I was in Minnesota and flew home today (again did not fly the JetProp as my Delta ticket was $300 and that trip would have cost $1500 in the JetProp). It’s a challenge to justify the cost, but the ability to come and go as I please and occasionally take one to three passengers is priceless. I also did not fly these missions as I thought I would be a bit fatigued from all the traveling (so I read IFR Refresher and left the flying to someone else).”

While our MD quoted here is in a financial position to afford a quality training/recurrency program, he too has limitations. For others, the dollars may be much more restrictive and therein often lays the problem—how to balance an effective proficiency program with the costs and time available. What is your life worth?

Ted Spitzmiller is the editor of IFR Refresher and author of the recently released e-book ATC And Inflight Emergencies.

This article originally appeared in the January 2015 issue of IFR Refresher magazine.

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