Page 30 - April 2017 Twin & Turbine

It Can Blow At Any Seam
There’s no stopping Father Time, but next chapter of your flying career can be as a
rewarding as your last.
by John Loughmiller
In 1979, Tom Wolfe published his epic recounting of the life and times of military test pilots and Mercury astronauts. Wolfe’s chosen title, “The Right Stuff,” set the tone for his story of personal bravery, unparalleled skills and an overriding desire to “climb the pyramid,” which was military
pilot-speak for showing their fellow Air Force and Navy pilots the answer to the question: “Who is the best of the best?”
The book also exposed a version of Murphy’s Law in the phrase uttered at one time or another by many U.S. Navy test pilots: “It can blow at any seam.”
The phrase is a truism that filters down to mere mortal pilots as well. For some, the seam that blows is an accident that is an aviation career-ender compliments of the FAA or, more likely, the not- so-friendly insurance company. Or, maybe the pilot does something stupid that fractures the rules and statutes that govern the profession of flying or the military’s operational orders.
The action can be a life ender, too, for an unfortunate few that cause an event where the aircraft is rolled up in a ball of aluminum with predictable consequences to the occupants.
There is one variant of the phrase however that happens to every pilot, and it can’t be avoided regardless of how careful you are or how good a pilot you happen to be. The seam that will eventually open is old age.
The exact date when the seam will blow is unknown but like an oncoming storm, its approach is noted. As the years roll by, the inevitability of what’s going to happen is first denied outright or put out of your mind. In the next phase, it’s considered, but postponed; it’s something to be reckoned with “sometime.”
That “sometime” will become reality by your sixth or seventh decade depending on company policy, the insurance company, or your health.
A single-engine aircraft capable of safe ight in moderate IFR conditions can bring back the exhilaration of ight, as well as allow you to pay it forward to a new generation.
28 • TWIN & TURBINE
Here’s how it works: Along about midway through your fifth decade, it dawns on you that pilots can’t fly forever but still, the day when you have to pull the condition levers to cutoff for the final time is deemed to be far, far away. You continue to ply your vocation or avocation albeit with a nagging feeling in the back of your mind that things aren’t like they were just a few years ago.
You’re mindful of little things like bothersome aches and pains when you roll out of bed in the morning or maybe you find that all those years spent in noisy piston airplanes have taken a toll on your hearing. You try to ignore it but your wife or husband begins to rebel at having to constantly repeat themselves. You find yourself either cranking the com volume control 30 percent farther than you used to or simply mumbling to ATC, “Say again.” It happens more and more often than was the case back when (to quote Billy Joel), “You wore a younger man’s clothes.”
Your visit to the AME becomes an event where the best you can hope for is to break even and get your chit signed for another year. As time parades by, the AME visits become more and more a cause for consternation as you worry that the dreaded epithet “Special Issuance” will be delivered to you by the steely-eyed M.D. that holds your fate in his or her hands.
Your short-term memory becomes a problem and reflexes slow down. Sim recurrent training involves more times when
April 2017