After reading about Neil's harrowing experience
http://www.cirruspilots.org/forums/p/25493/83937.aspx#83937 , the idea struck me to pass around a basic list of which emergency checklists pilots ought to have memorized. We send the attached list to many of our clients as an aid for wading through the "red section" of the checklist. I also want to comment for a second on what I commonly see happen during training so as to give folks a cross section of what's going on out there, skill-wise.
As most of the instructors reading here will probably agree, emergency procedures are often found to be quite weak during currency training. We normally try to give plenty of time and room for our clients to remember what to do in each scenario but more often than not (and I'd say a good 70% of the time) find that folks have to pull out a checklist and read through it to find out what they should have had memorized. Certainly it is a good idea to pull a checklist if you don't know what to do, but think of all the precious time/altitude lost during that frantic search. More on that in a bit.
Let's put a spotlight on Neil for a moment and use his experience as an example of what happens to a pilot when things get serious. I do this knowing he has an impervious internet ego and also because I think he did an awesome job. I don't have to tell regular readers that Neil is both a pilot of considerable experience and one who trains very regularly (ie: well above and beyond annual currency). This is important to consider when comparing ourselves to how we would have handled this situation.
In reply to:
It took me longer than I would have liked to admit this was a real problem. after that I trimmed for best glide and had a descent rate of roughly 1000 fpm. I found it difficult to keep it right at best glide. I declared an emergency and ATC said Santa Maria was available for the ILS, but was at minimums. I said sure, vector me there. By now I was 5,500, about 2 miles from Santa Maria, and about 4000' above the fog bank.
Neil thought and acted fast here but his point is still a good one: It took about 2500 feet (~2.5 minutes) to get this process done and that's a long time. I've found that when I ask people beforehand, many drastically underestimate how long it would take them to complete emergency checklists in a given situation.
In reply to:
My plan was to do my emergency checklist (now that I was pointed in the right direction and at best glide) while being vectored. If I got power back I would shoot the ILS. If I didn't, well then I would have a choice. From past calculations I knew that if you hit the FAF at double the GS intercept altitude you can glide to the field. I decided I would set-up and if I had ANY doubt I would pull the chute. I knew from experience that fog changes quickly in these parts, so I would check as I got closer. But, no power and a field at minimums would be a chute pull. I figured landing in the ILS approach path was not a horrible idea -- perhaps a better chance of finding open ground.
I wonder if I would think so clearly were I in a similar situation. The truth of the matter is partially that Neil didn't *have* to think about everything he mentions, much of it had been decided long before while he was sitting on the ground. He knew what kind of descent rate best glide gives him, he knew (roughly) how high he'd have to be to follow a glideslope down, he also had preconceived standards about pulling the chute.
The point: Chair flying, thinking critically about scenarios, and having enough familiarity with what the airplane actually does during a situation is what makes better decisions possible.
Finally, the reality of an emergency is something a lot of people can (and should) imagine how they would handle but normally have very little experience with. It is very common for people to lock up, to fixate, or to do the wrong thing as a knee-jerk reaction. I see it in the simulator on a regular basis, and those folks are EXPECTING something to go wrong. Now imagine the confusion of knowing something is wrong, trying to diagnose that, trying hard to remember what you're supposed to do, and trying to make intelligent decisions that include more factors than a 5 page COPA post could cover. Now do all that with your spouse/girlfriend/boyfriend/children on board (who may well be quite vocal). Also imagine your hands are shaking and it's difficult to thumb through a checklist.
My point with the previous section is this: Getting those emergency procedures spring-loaded into your subconscious will free up a lot of mental bandwidth. Also, the act of rehearsing will lend a great deal of confidence during the real thing... and confidence brings clarity of thought.
Recommendations:
As I mentioned above, study the emergency procedures. A technique that many CFIs teach is to go over 1 emergency memory item each time you climb into the airplane. Pull the checklist and review it while touching each of the items mentioned. This 30 second exercise will keep you quite sharp.
Evaluate your normal flying and consider what is a CAPS pull for you. It's extremely unlikely you'll be able to critically analyze the situation with all the distractions an emergency brings so get the analysis done on the ground; program it into yourself.
Set up personal minimums to help preclude emergencies that would necessitate very short response times. Follow those minimums, don't bend, alter or otherwise reduce them on the go.
Come to Vegas or Indianapolis and have us torture you in one of our sims for a while. We have a lot of practice with setting folks up with scenarios that are both realistic and challenging:
http://www.theflightacademy.com/simulator/emergency.html
As I mentioned above, I've attached a copy of our minimum emergencies list. It is meant to be used as a non-exhaustive guide to what should be memorized at the very least.
Safe flying everybody. Let's make this the safest Cirrus year yet.
-John
Chief Pilot of The Flight Academy www.theflightacademy.com
Posted
2 Sep 2008 9:19
by
John Fiscus