Page 18 - March 2016

16 • TWIN & TURBINE MARCH 2016
From the Flight Deck
Rules
by Kevin R. Dingman Rules are made for people who
aren’t willing to make up their own. — General Chuck Yeager
Having slipped through the audits, reviews, simulations, tests and safety nets, a gremlin laid in wait.... for years. Waiting for the paths of a cavalier pilot and an obscure catalyst to intersect. One that would allow demonstration of its dominance over physics, geometry, thermodynamics, aerodynamics and luck. When the impossible happens, the bean counters will not be aboard. As the ground or icy waters approach, when the face of the boogeyman fills your windshield, the designers, engineers, attorneys and sales team are in their cozy cubicles. Having done their honest best with the available data, they will be shocked that a shifty little variable festered into such an issue.
It’s not in the manual because it’s never happened, and it can’t happen. A statement claiming an absolute should raise an eyebrow – and the hairs on the back of your neck. Predicted results. Maximum demonstrated values. Forecast pressure-vessel cycles. Wing attach bolt lifespans. Hypotheses, educated guesses, historically-based predictions, metallurgical test results and safety factors. Weather minimums, currency requirements and flight physicals. Rules are based on a compilation of calculated risks, probabilities, past occurrences and expectations. Test pilots and astronauts know that unforeseen variables are constantly introduced into our lives. And that some of them will be well outside of the tolerances and safety factors from which we based the rules. And that those rules are, therefore, only as good as the results they produce. As the pirate/ philosopher
Captain Barbossa
espoused: “The code is more what you’d call guidelines than actual rules.” If the rules will produce an unsafe result, we are authorized to modify them, deviate from them or ignore them all together.
Flawless
The thing about breaking rules, however, is that if you decide to deviate, it had better be a flawless performance; one that brings a tear to the eye of women, children, dogs, cats, bean counters and the Feds. “In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency.” That’s from the FAR’s of course, but you could justifiably add most other non-aviation related rules to the list that we may find necessary to break. And the “immediate action” part is a bit misleading. Immediate decision would be more accurate. When we lose an engine at 25k and need to land gear-up... on a private beach... twenty minutes later... that’s not so much an immediate action as an immediate decision. And perhaps the words ‘in-flight’ should be removed from that FAR altogether. Are they saying that we can’t violate FARs during a fire on the ground, while not in-flight? It takes knowledge, experience, courage and confidence to break rules. Remember, not all the rules were written by non-pilots that may have never resolved a life- threatening, in-flight event. In fact, most of the rules came from folks like you and me that have seen things happen, been through bad
things, have survived and then, afterward, while at zero airspeed in the comfort of their homes, have come up with ways to prevent the bad things from ever happening again (there’s an absolute) or ways to execute a better plan when they do, in fact, happen again (and there’s the more-likely reality).
Save the Day
As the PIC, breaking rules to save the day is the last thing we want to do. Even following the rules to save the day is near the bottom of our fun-list. That’s because we know that saving the day is never a sure thing. We could easily mess it up, screw the pooch – become the squirming hatch-blower. Wandering outside the box by breaking rules is a gutsy move. We’d much prefer a smooth, uneventful and pleasurable flight. One in which we can enjoy the act of flying the airplane, the pleasure of our companions, and the view. Please Lord: no ice, no thunderstorms and no issues with the machine or passengers that require me to break the rules. Let it all go according to plan. But, we know that things happen. So we spend every flight paying close attention to the instruments, the sounds of the airplane, the weather and the millions of “what-ifs” as each potential landing zone passes out of range or our destination weather deteriorates.
We keep track of everything: our location, the time, fuel, weather and the condition of our passengers, crew and cargo. Thinking logically, calmly and intuitively. Creating the best outcome under the conditions presented. Understanding what the machine needs and both the how and the why of procedures and rules. That’s what we do in order to stay safe. Is it sometimes difficult? Yes. Does it distract from daydreaming and looking out the window? You bet. Does it make our passengers think we are anal? Probably. The variables when flying an airplane are almost infinite, so we give it our full attention and we make decisions. We