Page 28 - Demo

26 • TWIN & TURBINE October 2017
my discomfort with change. The process is fatiguing and promotes confusability in those with a saggy derrière.
Our airplanes, avionics, the airspace system in which we operate and a myriad of corporate and governmental regulations are constantly changing every 28 days at a minimum. Pilots must recognize, remember and comply with changes to equipment and procedures. Resistance is futile and a head-in-the-sand approach will bite us in that saggy place every time. Should an 80-year-old pilot fly single-pilot in a high-performance airplane or in difficult conditions such as low IMC amongst all these changes?
Where’d We Park?
We certainly don’t want to be seen at cruise altitude with our turn-signal blinking or caught dawdling up to the plane on a scooter, especially if we’re the PIC. Hanging up the flying spurs is a painful move, but no one wants their age to be a “contributing factor” in an NTSB report. Giving up the crown by voluntarily stashing our pilot’s license next to the Hai Karate (or Evening in Paris) is an eventuality we all will face. I have friends and acquaintances that could no longer afford to fly, those that lost their medicals, and some that encountered an unaffordable or unjustifiable maintenance expense. Some lost their desire to fly due to an insurance claim or unmanageable terms and some were directed by their family to quit. You don’t usually hear a pilot admit poor memory as the reason that they stopped flying, but it would be a hilarious excuse: “I landed somewhere
and can’t remember where I parked the damned airplane, so I just stopped looking.”
That excuse wouldn’t work during AirVenture of course; nobody can find their airplane after opening day. If you don’t think people will believe your lost airplane story, or you don’t know what Hai Karate and Evening in Paris are, there’s
a couple of alternate plans.
Several solutions are common: continue flying in challenging conditions aboard a complex airplane while another pilot assumes the responsibilities of PIC. You’ll probably need to pay them; transition to a much less sophisticated machine and fly only in day, VMC; fly with a pilot observer or instructor in your day, VMC machine; or you can stop flying altogether, sell the airplane and buy a paddle boat. In order to empathize with
Doesanyone rememberwhereI parked the jet?
Banyan
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