rubik101
31st Mar 2002, 11:08
Have we got it right?
Our long and expensive training leads us, after an in flight 'event' of a fairly serious nature, to land at the nearest suitable airport.
At what point should we decide that the better course of events would be to throw the aircraft on to the ground on any half suitable surface?
Consider the Souix City 'crash'. Many regard the pilots who put the aircraft down as almost heroic. I am afraid I regard them as misguided and bull headed. Consider what might have been the outcome if they had landed, power off, in a gentle, controlled glide, into an open field.
When does our pilot's instinct to return the aircraft, with no further damage, to an airfield, become blinkered stupidity? What does it really matter if we have to admit that we could no longer control the situation, and our decision is to abandon any idea of return to a safe landing and put the aircraft down in a field somewhere?
Consider also the fact that the tragic Concord had its remaining engines at full thrust at almost inverted impact, better surely to have glided straight ahead and 'crashed' upright. The outcome may well have been the same but the chances are that it would not. Does our training and inbuilt sense of survival sometimes lead us to push on when the situation has become extreme, beyond our control.
We need to reflect that there may come a moment in our carreer when we will not be 'in control' of the situation. We must learn now what sort of event that might be and be prepared to say, enough!
It is a little like the sailing adage about when is the right time to reef a sail? Just as soon as you first think of it. So it is whith us, we must change our decision in spite of our training, not because of it.
Any thoughts?
Our long and expensive training leads us, after an in flight 'event' of a fairly serious nature, to land at the nearest suitable airport.
At what point should we decide that the better course of events would be to throw the aircraft on to the ground on any half suitable surface?
Consider the Souix City 'crash'. Many regard the pilots who put the aircraft down as almost heroic. I am afraid I regard them as misguided and bull headed. Consider what might have been the outcome if they had landed, power off, in a gentle, controlled glide, into an open field.
When does our pilot's instinct to return the aircraft, with no further damage, to an airfield, become blinkered stupidity? What does it really matter if we have to admit that we could no longer control the situation, and our decision is to abandon any idea of return to a safe landing and put the aircraft down in a field somewhere?
Consider also the fact that the tragic Concord had its remaining engines at full thrust at almost inverted impact, better surely to have glided straight ahead and 'crashed' upright. The outcome may well have been the same but the chances are that it would not. Does our training and inbuilt sense of survival sometimes lead us to push on when the situation has become extreme, beyond our control.
We need to reflect that there may come a moment in our carreer when we will not be 'in control' of the situation. We must learn now what sort of event that might be and be prepared to say, enough!
It is a little like the sailing adage about when is the right time to reef a sail? Just as soon as you first think of it. So it is whith us, we must change our decision in spite of our training, not because of it.
Any thoughts?