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To Err is Human
...Unless You’re a Pilot
From the Flight Deck
err/er,ər/
verb peckerwood’s gotta get the thing up and some peckerwood has gotta
by Kevin R. Dingman
be mistaken or incorrect; to make a mistake
land the son of a bitch. And that peckerwood is called ‘a pilot.’” –Pancho Barnes, “The Right Stuff”
According to The Oracle of The Happy Bottom Riding Club, we are either pudknockers or prime pilots and all of us that take off and land airplanes are peckerwoods. But are pilots human? Of course we are, but after 100-plus years of manned flight, in the eyes of most people that are not pilots, the mystique of flying remains exciting, dangerous, difficult, romantic and sometimes a bit superhu- man. And they expect all of us pud- knockers and prime pilots alike to be error-free. When I was a silver-ref lec- tive-sunglass-wearing teenage private pilot (wow, that’s a mouthful), I had a T-shirt that said: “To Err is Human; To Forgive is Out of The Question.” The term for making a mistake in baseball is an “unforced error.” And I made one in MIA, felt like a pudknocker, and I’m having trouble forgiving myself.
Head Games
Other than the cost of learning to fly, the aforementioned exciting, superhuman mystique is likely the reason most pilot wannabes continue to be wannabes. And why some who become pilots are reluctant to learn to fly more complex machines or in
more challenging environments. No one wants to feel like a pudknocker by meandering too far from their comfort zone. It’s that mentality that kept me from becoming a professional baseball pitcher, applying to the USAF Academy and dissuaded me from any type of engineering profession because those folks are more disciplined, more tal- ented, smarter and able to learn much easier than me.
So, how did I get past that mental- ity to become a steely-eyed fighter pilot, airline captain and brilliant writer? I forced myself to become dis- ciplined and focused, which eventually gave me skill (if not talent). And by working longer and harder than my peers (I know, everyone says that), I slowly learned to fly airplanes and write magazine articles. And even though flying an F-16 gave me FPAS (Fighter Pilot Arrogance Syndrome), my occasional unforced errors in pilot- ing nowadays are an effective therapy in correcting this annoying personal-
piloting is only needed for the first and last ten minutes of a flight. Ask most travelers how we are able to fly from A to B while in the rain, snow and gloom of night from lift-off to touch down, and they will say that ATC, radar, GPS and autopilots are making all of the brilliant maneuvers and f lawless ap- proaches. Unmanned drones are not helping with this mindset. If it was a bumpy flight, if it takes longer than planned, or if we make a bad land- ing, then we must not have listened to ATC, we turned off the autopilot or we are simply ham-fisted pudknockers. With our modesty in check, we can do our best to clarify this perception and promote the piloting profession.
When I make a PA to the pax about the ride ahead, I always say that pilots above, below or out in front of us are saying it will be smooth or bumpy. Yes, we get that information from ATC and I’m grateful, but they got it from a pilot, not radar, GPS, an autopilot or their ride-forecasting Ouija board – they got it from a pilot. Whenever a passenger gives us a compliment on the trip, in-flight PAs or the land- ing, I’m grateful and contrite (FPAS notwithstanding) as I smile through
“We got your prime pilots that get all the hot planes, and we got
your pudknockers who dream of getting the hot planes...see, some
ity f law –
Over the years, the public has grown to believe that the superhuman part of
mostly.
Perceptions
August 2020 / TWIN & TURBINE • 27