The discussion in the thread about the Front Royal accident had me thinking and I ended up writing a reply that got... longer than I originally thought it would. So... I thought I would share what I wrote here for those who did not see that thread.
My point, spun off from this accident, is that we need practice on the basics but also practice with our new safety technology. Without proper training on how to use those things, they won't save you when you don't react to them.
<Thanks to Brian Turrisi for his thoughtful comments (quoted) and Rick Beach for his continued research and passion for safety>
Brian wrote:
"1) The pilot used an improper departure for IFR. Runway 27 is NA for a good reason.
2) At night in this dark valley you better know what you are doing to depart at all. But this is a good case where STRICT adherence to a DP until you reach a safe altitude is manadatory. This flight totally blew that."
As Rick said, we've got some good training out there for autopilot use. I try to stay away from using a lot of words to describe the functionality of the thing. Years of teaching have taught me that I can spend an hour discussing a subject which my student *probably* gets, or we can sit in the airplane for 15 minutes with the power cart plugged in and then I can be confident they understand. I think most of the points about the autopilot have been made already (I've skimmed most of this thread), so I'll move on to Brian's worthy points.
This pilot was doomed before his wheels left the ground in my mind. He didn't notice that critical item #1 in Brian's list: This is not permitted.
Semi-unrelated to this accident but pertinent to the safety discussion, I'd like to talk about ODPs for a few minutes. Keep in mind, I'm not talking about charted DPs, I'm talking about ODPs that exist as text only with NO picture. More than half of my instrument rated clients have no idea what that is and are baffled when they can't find a picture. I have them flip to the airport page (Jepp) or Takeoff Procedures page at the front of the NOS charts and they tell me they've never been taught this stuff (which means it has been years since they've been taught this stuff). Oh hey, is that a soapbox? (It's Saturday and I'm a little bored, so...)
Take this, for example, out of Skagit (KBVS) a few miles from where I live:
"Departure Procedure: Rwys 4, 10, 22, turn right heading 280
Rwy 28 climb runway heading
All aircraft: climb to 2,500 then turn right direct BVS NDB to cross BVS at or above 4500. Aircraft departing on BVS R-145 CW R-330 climb on course. All others continue climbing in BVS holding pattern (NW, right turns 113 inbound) to cross BVS at or above 6800 before proceeding on course."
That's all you get! No picture. Nothing in your 430 when you select Departure Procedures under PROC. Just this text and you're supposed to get yourself to either 4500 or 6800 depending on your departure gate as described in the above. All ATC is going to tell you is "Climb via the published obstacle departure procedure, then...."
This isn't even a hard one and the terrain around Skagit is very open for miles.
Many pilots reading this hopefully can make some sense of that ODP. I'm guessing that half do not. Does this mean they're dangerous pilots who should have their licenses taken away? Of course not. They don't DO these things, thus it falls by the wayside. They do need to get in the air with a CSI and brush some rust off, but I would expect a pilot who is uncomfortable with an ODP to not use it and fly another day.
Brian wrote:
5) Lastly, not to stir up a new pot, but to all of you TAWS advocates, the TAWS failed to save this guy!!!
I had an opportunity at the last CSIP symposium in Duluth (about a year ago) to watch a video of a sim ride done by Cirrus' staff pilots. They were reenacting an accident scenario that I hadn't thought about yet... then I went out and put some of my clients and one instructor through this and they failed EXACTLY the same way. Here's what happened:
Dusk departure, VFR (can be done IFR too). It isn't totally dark yet but there is very little ambient light. Hilly but not mountainous terrain. Two pilots up front and after departure they engage the autopilot to climb straight ahead which is on course. Everything's fine and they complete the climb checklist, then begin to chat about something or another. About a minute goes by. TAWS begins shouting "Terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up" and they're snapped out of their conversation and into a very confusing environment. They don't know what's going on and it takes a few seconds for the warning to register. They can't see any terrain out the window... then the pilot looks down and says "Oh!" when he realizes that his VSI bug is set to 200 fpm. He reaches for the bug to crank it up and they die.
What we take away from this is that people have to be trained to use the technology (this should sound errily familiar). If they are not trained to do that, even experienced pilots will get caught looking and trying to figure out what's going wrong. They appropriate response to a TAWS warning is to disconnect the autopilot and execute a Vx climb immediately while attempting to gain situation awareness enough to know which way to turn. To date, nobody I have put into a scenario like this has done the right thing the first time I set them up for a TAWS warning. Normally I have to do it when they're under the foggles... but the situation and reaction is the same. Mentally, they're fighting with the fact that I just TOLD them to go here (like ATC would). This slows response time.
All that said, we do have one CAPS save that is attributed, at least in part, to a TAWS warning. I think that pilot did the right thing and I applaud his response.
Sooo... I guess this is me saying the thing that I keep saying over and over: get training on how to use your safety systems or they won't work for you. Get training on the basics. Use your personal minimums and don't bend them. There's a better day out there somewhere, make sure you're around to fly in it.
Safe flying,
-John Fiscus
Chief Pilot
The Flight Academy
www.theflightacademy.com 
Posted
21 Mar 2009 8:21
by
John Fiscus