Page 16 - TNTMay18

(charter) operations but also when on positioning f lights between passenger- carrying gigs.
This brings us to the second takeaway from this example: personal minimums are only useful and valid if we adhere to them all of the time, not just when it is convenient. The charter operator’s SIC rating session is essentially the same as a personal minimum any operator (or individual pilot) might put on him- or herself.
I’ve been tempted to land with 45 or 50 minutes of fuel remaining on board instead of my personal one-hour minimum. I’ve looked at a cloud layer just a little below circling minimums for the runway in use, and really wanted to take off. I’ve had to fight off a “go” mentality for a late-day departure when I’ve been awake for more than 12 hours. Yet, each one of these flights are perfectly legal. The limitations are my own – my personal minimums.
You probably have some personal minimums of your own. They come
from your own experience – something you did or did not do, and you learned better – or from reading or hearing the experiences of other pilots. Personal minimums are a very good thing. But you have to use them even when you don’t want to. In fact, that’s the whole idea of personal minimums. They’re the voice of reason and logic, when you’re most tempted to make decisions emotionally, often when you have insufficient information with which to choose.
I’m pretty sure the Learjet pilots’ employers would have made its “0- 4” rating rule clear to the pilots in their new-hire training and when upgrading to Captain. The pilots probably knew better than to do a lot of what it appears they did that inexorably led to their deadly loss of control. If the crew had only followed the two limitations, one regulatory about maneuvers below MDA, the other personal, the company OPS- SPEC requiring the Captain to fly the approach, that decision might have been enough to save their lives and prevent all that destruction.
Accident causation has been likened to a chain of decisions or a chain of events. It has also been modeled as layers of Swiss cheese: Each layer is the chance to block an accident path, if the “holes in the cheese” don’t line up. All it takes is to break a critical link in that chain or to move the cheese: to make and act on a decision that manages the risk to prevent a crash. Personal limitations a•re your means of reversing trends that might lead to an accident. Just follow the rules – the FAA’s and your own – and you probably won’t get hurt. T&T
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14 • TWIN & TURBINE
May 2018
Thomas P. Turner is an ATP CFII/MEI, holds a master's Degree in Aviation Safety, and was the 2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year. Subscribe to Tom’s free FLYING LESSONS Weekly e-newsletter at www.mastery-flight-training.com.