Where do you put your phone when flying? In my ground-bound life, it goes in my front pocket. I, probably like you, have joined the river of people that do everything on their phone, so there is no doubt that I’ll have the phone in the airplane when flying. I mean, we all use Foreflight or Garmin Pilot on our flights, right?
But, where does that phone get placed when flying? In training, I see pilots balance their phone on a thigh, resulting in it almost always dropping to the floor at the most inopportune time. I have wedged it between my legs, but it seems that either my thigh or the seat (depending upon if the face is up or down) will make inputs to the phone face. I’ve taken hundreds of black pictures of the seat cushion and pocket-dialed more people in my Rolodex than the law should allow. It could go in a side pocket of the aircraft, but I tend to leave it there when I get out of the airplane, making that a high-risk spot. So, where does it go?
I figured I would get smart and install holders in all the airplanes we manage and fly. I use a “PopSocket” hand holder on my phone, and I love it. It folds up when you put the phone in your pocket and extends to allow you to insert the socket between your fingers. It is a neat gizmo. Plus, there’s also a PopSocket holder to hang the phone. I have holders in all my trucks and motorcycles and decided to put the holders in the airplanes I fly.
So, in one of the King Air 300s that I manage and fly, I found a nice piece of real estate on the left side of the panel. On a flat area where an old instrument had been removed, I installed the holder. That particular spot is on the left side of the yoke, above the array of switches near the pilot’s left knee. I loved the location because I could display approach plates for my flights. It worked great until it didn’t, and that is where this story begins.
I took off from Lufkin, Texas (KLFK) in the mighty King Air 300 and began to climb out south-
bound. It was a hot, humid day, and the sky was filled with towering cumulus clouds with good (but not great) visibility. I turned on the autopilot and picked up my phone to look at the next flight publication. Then, I put the phone back into the holder, but I missed the holder. It was supposed to latch in, but instead, it fell from my hand down to the floor. On its way to the floor, it hit several other switches on the panel…important switches.
As the phone fell, it first hit the avionics power switch and then bounced off the “gang bar” that guards the battery and generator switches. Effectively, the phone turned off four switches at once…quite the accomplishment for a single fall. It could not have misbehaved more had it an evil mind of its own. The phone promptly shut off all avionics and all electrical equipment in one fell swoop. I can’t tell you how disorienting it is for an entire panel to “go dark,” to lose the autopilot, and lose the ability to talk inside or outside the cockpit.
As any simulator instructor can advise, there is a great pause when a pilot is first administered an emergency. It takes a while to assess the situation, figure out what happened, and accomplish the proper corrective action. Adrenaline starts to flow, and the focus narrows. Bottom line, you won’t be as good as you think you’ll be in an in-flight emergency. I’m not sure how long it took for me to correctly assess the situation, but I know it felt like it took me quite a while.
This airplane has a combination of steam gauges and glass in the panel. So, all the pitot static and vacuum instruments still worked, but which ones are which? I know the flight instruments well and could give a detailed hour-long block of instruction on any one of those instruments on the ground outside of an emergency in flight, but in the fog of battle, everything is confusing. When I lose a whole panel, I’m loathed to trust anything for everything is suspect. The mind can only work so fast.
I got the generators and battery back online and promptly hit the avionics master switch. But, it takes a while for the avionics components to reboot. So, for what was probably an eternal two minutes, I had plenty of time to mentally kick myself in the rear for being so stupid to create such a hazard that could cause a single point of failure. Of course, the PT6’s in the cowling hummed along nicely, and I climbed above the cumulus to the clear and smooth above. All was well, but it could have been much worse.
Fortunately, no one else was on board this particular flight, so no one else knew – until this confession. My job was safe and my reputation unscarred. But what would have happened if I had a crew onboard? What if I had a load of clients? What if it had been IMC? What if it had been at night? What if it had been IMC at night? Yes, it could have been much worse.
What are the lessons learned? There are many. For starters, developing a good plan for cockpit organization is critical. I think the cellphone is one of the most important tools in the cockpit, so find a good place to put it where it won’t cause a single-point-of-failure but where it can be a supportive tool. I see clients mount it on the yoke, put a suction mount on the side window, or have some nifty pouches sewn in their interior specifically for the phone. Be intentional. Find a good spot where it can be your friend.
Also, where are the other items needed for flight located? I’ve seen Velcro used prolifically to hold pens, pencils, and flashlights. Where do you put that cup of coffee or tea? I dislike the taste of coffee but love hot tea on cold mornings. Have you ever spilled hot tea in the airplane? Trust me, you don’t want to do that in a critical phase of flight (yes, I could write another article on that experience!).
When ATC says, “N________ , I have routing, advise when ready to copy,” do you have a plan for writing that clearance? Is there a pad of paper and a pen in close proximity? I’ve got large “yellow stickies” (5 in x 8 in) that I use for writing clearances. It is far and away my most popular “giveaway” to clients. The pad is great for writing clearances, but it is also great for sticking on the window to block a sun glare blinding you off one of the wings.
But, most importantly, this experience gave an object lesson on the fact that not all abnormal situations are written in the “emergency checklist.” That’s right, there’s no “idiot shuts off the avionics, battery, and both generators checklist” in the POH for the airplanes I fly, and I doubt yours has it either. The abnormal (or emergency) checklist is a really good guide when you are in a jam in flight, but it is not exhaustive. It simply cannot illustrate every situation that can go wrong.
Even some emergencies that follow a seemingly well-traveled course of action are situation-dependent. Not all engine failures are identical. Some engine failures are simple failures, but some shoot shrapnel into the fuselage, some pour oil all over the windscreen, some cause a loss of pressurization, and some cause a fire in the cowling. Multiple emergencies can happen at the same time.
Sometimes, when dealing with an emergency situation, the only thing that will save the day is a pilot with a quiver full of experiences and knowledge of the systems to synthesize a response that is appropriate and best. Chuck Yeager was adamant that the best pilots knew the airplane systems extremely well. I think he is right. When the chips are down and you are in a precarious phase of flight with red and amber lights illuminated on the panel, you had better know what turns those lights on and how other systems in the airplane are adversely affected. Every real pilot has seen the movie “Apollo 13” as they should. It is a wonderful movie in every respect, but it shows how knowledge of the systems and resourcefulness of a whole team (both in the aircraft and on the ground) saved the crew.
And what about those experiences? I believe the best pilots are the ones that are “good at most things, but a master of one.” Note, I did not say a “master of none,” but a “master of one.” By this, I mean that the best pilots are true masters of the airplane that is their bread and butter, the airplane they fly the most. But, these stellar pilots will also have a breadth of experiences that are not related to their aircraft.
I’m convinced rebuilding a tractor and my 1968 Chevy truck many years ago helped me in aviation by broadening my mechanical aptitude. Additional ratings are an obvious way to expand your experiences, but so is getting a tailwheel endorsement, parachuting, upset recovery training, learning to fly an underpowered airplane, and learning about powered paragliding. The point is, when the chips are down, you need a wide body of experience. Sometimes an outside event causes an abnormal situation, and sometimes it is induced by our stupidity. On my day with the panel blackout, my carelessness was the cause. (I have since moved my PopSocket holder on my King Air to a place where it cannot cause me grief again).
Stay tuned for more “Pilot Confessions” in future T&T issues.
