Page 4 - Volume 16 Number 1

2 • TWIN & TURBINEJANUARY 2012editor’sbriefingManaging Our AffairsAs pilots, we carry some pretty heavy respon- sibility in the course of our activity. Readers of Twin & Turbine fly relatively sophisticated equipment on some important business and personal missions, so we, better than most, understandthis obligation to our passengers, family and associates. That’s the reason we spend a lot of time and treasure maintaining our skills, as well as our airplanes, and it’s why we keep abreast of changes and innovation.These are, in case you haven’t heard, not easy times to balance personal affairs and business pressures, given the economic necessity to get more done, faster, with fewer tools and less expense. Everything is in flux and today’s success, it seems, is never destined to last. That said, one thing remains constant; the sky is still up there, and when we fly we have to deal with it. Weather, traffic, terrain and the schedule – always, the schedule – must be managed, no matter what else we’re leaving behind on the ground.We cannot lose sight of what we’re supposed to be doing up there. We’re there to make the correct decisions to get us back down again! I’m not going to speculate about the reason a Turbo Commander wound up impacting a mountain on a night departure out of Phoenix around Thanksgiving; accident investigations take time and there should be no rush to judgment. I do know it’s a wake-up call for us to review how we manage night VFR operations.At press time, FAA Administrator J. Randall Babbitt has resigned from his position, owing to some personal failings that would impact his ability to serve. I’ve listened to and spoken with Randy Babbitt on several occasions, and I consider him to be a good man, one of the better-qualified FAA Administrators we’ve had – and I’ve been administered by every one of them. I wish him well in his endeavors to extract himself from what we hope is a temporary situation. The takeaway from his predicament is that we need to manage our personal affairs so that we don’t carry them into the cockpit with us.We need to make good decisions, at the right time, in order to complete our trips as intended. David Miller tell us about his Thanksgiving morning dilemma and he’s to be applauded for playing the caution card; because he did, he’s here to tell the story, instead of being read about in another version.Similarly, Tom Turner’s advice about deflecting the danger of collisions between aircraft should be taken to heart. Equipment is only part of the answer; awareness and alertness are equally important. As columnist Kevin Dingman points out in this issue, it’s vitally important to maintain a good state of health, for best cockpit performance.The pilot within us demands that we never stop learning and improving; no matter what kind of aircraft we fly or where we operate, there’s always more to learn and a way to do our job better. That’s why Twin & Turbine is here – to share the collective experience.LeRoy Cook, Editor