Back in the flying school days, bragging and egoism was rife. While most are what we call the typical student pilot gaya kapten, some are just dangerous people. The safety mindset in aviation needs to be embedded in the head from the beginning. The problem is, what if the guys teaching at the flying schools are not safety minded?
I had a friend who once was a flight instructor, a skillful pilot but I must say he has a poor grasp of safety. When I started with an airline, I visited my friend who was at the school, and he invited me to join him for a ride (well, I paid for the flight). At the time he had way more hours than me, I didn't really want to fly with him but I thought I could do with some practice. There were 3 of us on the Cessna 172. Me, him, and a student coming along for the ride. It was unavoidable that he would brag about something.
So, predicting he would carry the "anything you can do I can do better" mindset as onboard baggage, after doing some touch-and-goes, he said, "OK, I want you to land on and stop at the numbers."
Oh boy, here we go. It was also inevitable that in such rivalry situations, we did not want to let the student at the back down. We called for stop-and-go.
I did the approach as well as I could and all I could manage was stopping a short distance beyond the numbers.
His turn was next. He literally hung the Cessna by the prop and the plane flopped on the runway and stopped on the numbers. Only the stall warning was louder than the propeller.
"Who taught you that trick?" I asked.
"My seniors, great huh? Look at our buddy back, pucet (pale) mas?
This isn't healthy.
"Let's go out to the training area, I want to try something different."
So off we went, and chatting all the way as usual. When we got there, I asked him to show me slow flights with full flaps claiming I want to learn that trick. Of course, his ego was well served and he was eager to show me.
We ended up hanging in the sky along at VS1, and when the stall warning sounded, I pulled my trick.
I looked to my left and said, "WADUH? APA ITU AT 8 O'CLOCK?" [what the? WHAT'S THAT AT 8 O'CLOCK?]
He looked to the left and the distaction was enough to reduce the pressure on the right pedal and YEEEHAAAA! We flipped over. He was distracted and disorientated.
"I have the flaps", raising them as he was still trying to figure out why we departed controlled flight, took control of the aircraft and flew back home.
After finishing everything off, we had coffee together. He was awfully quiet, together with the student. During the one of the lulls he finally asked, "Ton, what did you do?"
"Yah! Finally you asked. We were in the same configuration at 6000 feet that we were in at 50 feet on short final. All I did was give you a little distraction. Perhaps what happened should explain why we fly approaches at 1.3VS."
I did him a favour by telling the student to remember that distractions can come very easily and when you least expect it. Feel free to do tricks, but remember you can get distracted.
If I just given my friend a lecture on why we shouldn't pull tricks, he would have just put me down as a sore loser.
I hope I have prolonged my friend's life expectancy.
I had a friend who once was a flight instructor, a skillful pilot but I must say he has a poor grasp of safety. When I started with an airline, I visited my friend who was at the school, and he invited me to join him for a ride (well, I paid for the flight). At the time he had way more hours than me, I didn't really want to fly with him but I thought I could do with some practice. There were 3 of us on the Cessna 172. Me, him, and a student coming along for the ride. It was unavoidable that he would brag about something.
So, predicting he would carry the "anything you can do I can do better" mindset as onboard baggage, after doing some touch-and-goes, he said, "OK, I want you to land on and stop at the numbers."
Oh boy, here we go. It was also inevitable that in such rivalry situations, we did not want to let the student at the back down. We called for stop-and-go.
I did the approach as well as I could and all I could manage was stopping a short distance beyond the numbers.
His turn was next. He literally hung the Cessna by the prop and the plane flopped on the runway and stopped on the numbers. Only the stall warning was louder than the propeller.
"Who taught you that trick?" I asked.
"My seniors, great huh? Look at our buddy back, pucet (pale) mas?
This isn't healthy.
"Let's go out to the training area, I want to try something different."
So off we went, and chatting all the way as usual. When we got there, I asked him to show me slow flights with full flaps claiming I want to learn that trick. Of course, his ego was well served and he was eager to show me.
We ended up hanging in the sky along at VS1, and when the stall warning sounded, I pulled my trick.
I looked to my left and said, "WADUH? APA ITU AT 8 O'CLOCK?" [what the? WHAT'S THAT AT 8 O'CLOCK?]
He looked to the left and the distaction was enough to reduce the pressure on the right pedal and YEEEHAAAA! We flipped over. He was distracted and disorientated.
"I have the flaps", raising them as he was still trying to figure out why we departed controlled flight, took control of the aircraft and flew back home.
After finishing everything off, we had coffee together. He was awfully quiet, together with the student. During the one of the lulls he finally asked, "Ton, what did you do?"
"Yah! Finally you asked. We were in the same configuration at 6000 feet that we were in at 50 feet on short final. All I did was give you a little distraction. Perhaps what happened should explain why we fly approaches at 1.3VS."
I did him a favour by telling the student to remember that distractions can come very easily and when you least expect it. Feel free to do tricks, but remember you can get distracted.
If I just given my friend a lecture on why we shouldn't pull tricks, he would have just put me down as a sore loser.
I hope I have prolonged my friend's life expectancy.
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