There is no doubt about it, aviation is expensive. If anyone ever told you that it wasn't, they were lying through their teeth to get you through the door and into that pilot seat. In the ten years that I have been flying I have seen more accidents due to cutting corners in both time and money than any other cause. Let's face it, 80% of all aviation accidents involve some type of pilot error that probably would have been caught if the pilot took his or her time. Safety costs time and money and if you are unwilling to contribute both, maybe a pilot seat isn't the right place for you. The rest of us are pilots and there is a lot more to being a pilot than flying an airplane. A chimpanzee could be taught to fly an airplane but that wouldn't make it a pilot. It takes excellent emergency prevention and troubleshooting strategies to be a great pilot. Shortcuts do not belong in either category.
Now in the years that I have been flight instructing I have heard it all. A situation just a couple of weeks ago promoted me to write this article. My student was out on the tarmac doing a preflight on a Cessna 182. I was observing him through the window as I noticed an older gentlemen approach him pointing and waving his arms in the air. By the time I got out there the man had walked away. I asked my student what that was all about and he said, "That man was the owner of the plane and told me that I should never put my flaps down during a preflight." I asked the student what the owner's reasoning was and the student said, "Well, he said that if I were doing a preflight in the northeast where temperatures are really cold, the battery would have quite a bit less juice than normal and that I would waste it putting the flaps down rather than starting the engine." I was stunned. I couldn't believe the hogwash that came out of that owner's mouth. Flaps are an integral part of the landing process and waiting until the landing phase of flight to find out whether they are working or not is just plain ridiculous. First of all, we were sitting on the ground in beautiful and sunny San Diego on an 80 degree day when the owner walked over. Secondly, if you were in Piedmont North Dakota in the middle of winter you would probably have to pre-heat your engine. This means you would need a generator; so put down your flaps and then charge the battery back up if it's really necessary.
A couple of weeks before that encounter, I had gone to a "club safety briefing," which interestingly enough was suppose to cover club safety. One of the topics involved landing lights and how "expensive" they are to replace. I knew what was coming at that point. It was recommended to the club members that we only use the landing light for takeoffs up to one-thousand feet AGL, and landings. This is again ridiculous. The FAA as part of their lights-on program recommends that landing lights be turned on any time operating below 10,000 feet. I wouldn't recommend going to this extreme because the lights generally last 100 hours and if you come up on that mark, you won't have one for takeoff or landing. However, on hazy days where the flight visibility just isn't up to par, light that plane up! I like to use a landing light for every descent no matter where I'm at and anytime the flight visibility is less than 10 miles. If anyone ever tells you not to use a landing light without good reason, politely instruct them that you are the pilot-in-command and that you will be making the decisions.
As far as saving money is concerned, these examples are just the beginning. I have heard owners reason with a flight instructor as to why they wouldn't replace a shimmy dampener, claiming that, "students just end up breaking them again." For the record, a shimmy dampener is a nose wheel device which prevents the nose wheel from vibrating or oscillating from side to side. If you have ever landed an airplane only to have the nose wheel violently shake like your landing on rocks, then you have flown with a broken shimmy dampener.
I have seen pilots put their test-drained fuel back into the wings and I have seen pilots who fly with charts that are five years old. Sometimes, the worst and most dangerous excuses come from the pilot with no time to spare.
High-time pilots are the biggest culprit here. Its not that they don't have the time, but instead that they feel they don't need the time. They have flown so many thousands of hours that they believe they "know" the plane and don't necessarily have to complete a full preflight. Well congratulations for being our single biggest accident statistic. 20% of all accidents involving pilot error are caused by running out of fuel. Now if the airplane isn't leaking like a faucet, how do you run out of fuel? Well not physically checking the fuel levels is going to be the biggest reason here. Many pilots trust those fuel quantity indicators that only have to be accurate legally "when the tank is empty." That means they don't find out that there isn't any fuel in the tanks until a hundred miles or so short of their destination.
The most dangerous excuse I hear is somewhat along the lines of, "I need to be at that meeting tomorrow morning. I know I haven't flown an approach in six months but this weather doesn't look too bad. Besides, American Idol is on tonight." This is also known as "Get-home-itis." More than sixty percent of those accidents involving pilot error are a result of an unqualified or non-proficient pilot flying into bad weather. If you think that you don't have the time to wait out the storm, think about how much time you will have if you don't wait out the storm.
The Budget-Minded Pilot should stick to flying in a simulator in the comfort of his or her home. If you have flown with a person like this then now you know who to avoid. Aviation is expensive and time-consuming especially when good safety is practiced. Taxiing at that brisk walking speed may burn a couple of extra dollars, but you'll be glad you taxied slowly should those brakes give out. Whether the excuse is time or money it has no business in the thinking process of a good pilot. The next time you step into a cockpit, think about whether you are being "safety-minded" or "budget-minded."
Articles
