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Have you ever been running a flight plan and been interrupted by a phone call, email or text and had to start over? How about when you were driving to the airport, or pre-f lighting the plane, or boarding your pax? Did you forget to duck while texting and hit your head on part of the plane? Did you forget to remove a protective cover or the chocks because you were distracted? Forget to close or lock the hangar door? Maybe one of your pax took a call, answered an email or text while you were giving them a brief- ing on the doors, environmental sys- tem or how to communicate in-flight. Our new information sources can be attention grabbers, and we must learn how and when it’s appropriate to ignore them to ensure the safety of our flights.
Sterile Period
At the airlines, the “when to ig- nore” is a well-defined point: when we begin required duties or run the first checklist. And if that fails, the
“sterile” period, engine start to 10k, is a line in the sand – the time at which all communication and activities are strictly related to the operation of the jet. In GA, the beginning of the before starting engines checklist is a good point to turn off the phone, reader and non-EFB tablets. You may even add “non-essential electronics off” to your on-screen checklist or write it on your old-school paper ver- sion: PED’s...Set and Off. Personal electronic devices set in airplane mode or off.
Before flight isn’t the only time that our electronics may beckon to us. In the middle of the cruise segment, particularly if the flight is longer than a couple of hours, our minds will drift or we may indulge in non-flying activities. Call it boredom, daydream- ing or complacency, but whatever it is, your head is in the clouds and you’re not paying attention. You may catch yourself, ATC may ask you if you copy center, or they might call
you on guard. This is your heads-up, your black screen with white letters telling you that you’ve been placed in safe mode. Remember, safe mode isn’t so safe after all.
If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs
but the push-
button finger. – Frank Lloyd Wright
22 • TWIN & TURBINE / June 2021
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