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It takes a while to assess the situation, figure out what happened, and accomplish the proper corrective action. Adrenaline starts to flow, and the focus narrows. Bottom line, you won’t be as good as you think you’ll be in an in- flight emergency. I’m not sure how long it took for me to correctly assess the situation, but I know it felt like it took me quite a while.
This airplane has a combination of steam gauges and glass in the panel. So, all the pitot static and vacuum instru- ments still worked, but which ones are which? I know the flight instruments well and could give a detailed hour-long block of instruction on any one of those instruments on the ground outside of an emergency in flight, but in the fog of battle, everything is confusing. When I lose a whole panel, I’m loathed to trust anything for everything is suspect. The mind can only work so fast.
I got the generators and battery back online and promptly hit the avionics master switch. But, it takes a while for the avionics components to reboot. So, for what was probably an eternal two minutes, I had plenty of time to mentally kick myself in the rear for being so stupid to create such a hazard that could cause a single point of failure. Of course, the PT6’s in the cowling hummed along nicely, and I climbed above the cumulus to the clear and smooth above. All was well, but it could have been much worse.
Fortunately, no one else was on board this particular flight, so no one else knew – until this confession. My job was safe and my reputation unscarred. But what would have happened if I had a crew onboard? What if I had a load of clients? What if it had been IMC? What if it had been at night? What if it had been IMC at night? Yes, it could have been much worse.
What are the lessons learned? There are many. For start- ers, developing a good plan for cockpit organization is critical. I think the cellphone is one of the most important tools in the cockpit, so find a good place to put it where it won’t cause a single-point-of-failure but where it can be a supportive tool. I see clients mount it on the yoke, put a suction mount on the side window, or have some nifty pouches sewn in their interior specifically for the phone. Be intentional. Find a good spot where it can be your friend.
Also, where are the other items needed for flight located? I’ve seen Velcro used prolifically to hold pens, pencils, and flashlights. Where do you put that cup of coffee or tea? I dislike the taste of coffee but love hot tea on cold mornings. Have you ever spilled hot tea in the airplane? Trust me, you don’t want to do that in a critical phase of flight (yes, I could write another article on that experience!).
When ATC says, “N , I have routing, advise when ready to copy,” do you have a plan for writing that clearance? Is there a pad of paper and a pen in close prox- imity? I’ve got large “yellow stickies” (5 in x 8 in) that I use for writing clearances. It is far and away my most popular “giveaway” to clients. The pad is great for writing clearances, but it is also great for sticking on the window to block a sun glare blinding you off one of the wings.
But, most importantly, this experience gave an object les- son on the fact that not all abnormal situations are written
in the “emergency checklist.” That’s right, there’s no “idiot shuts off the avionics, battery, and both generators check- list” in the POH for the airplanes I fly, and I doubt yours has it either. The abnormal (or emergency) checklist is a really good guide when you are in a jam in flight, but it is not exhaustive. It simply cannot illustrate every situation that can go wrong.
Even some emergencies that follow a seemingly well- traveled course of action are situation-dependent. Not all engine failures are identical. Some engine failures are simple failures, but some shoot shrapnel into the fuselage, some pour oil all over the windscreen, some cause a loss of pres- surization, and some cause a fire in the cowling. Multiple emergencies can happen at the same time.
Sometimes, when dealing with an emergency situation, the only thing that will save the day is a pilot with a quiver full of experiences and knowledge of the systems to synthe- size a response that is appropriate and best. Chuck Yeager was adamant that the best pilots knew the airplane systems extremely well. I think he is right. When the chips are down and you are in a precarious phase of flight with red and amber lights illuminated on the panel, you had better know what turns those lights on and how other systems in the airplane are adversely affected. Every real pilot has seen the movie “Apollo 13” as they should. It is a wonderful movie in every respect, but it shows how knowledge of the systems and resourcefulness of a whole team (both in the aircraft and on the ground) saved the crew.
And what about those experiences? I believe the best pilots are the ones that are “good at most things, but a master of
The left side of the panel with the PopSocket holder.
March 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 13