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Richard Bach on flying’s core

By Dave English

New Richard Bach words on flying! He’s owned 41 planes, flew jets in the USAF, and as West Coast editor of Flying magazine saw loads more. I asked him what’s core to flying them all? “Flying all these aircraft is based on one single prayer that will never come true: Please let me become the sky. From 10 mph in a paraglider to Mach 2 in an F-106 waits the same feeling. Surrounded by forever in the center of the sky, we yearn to become that foreverness, ourselves. Some say that’s so, that our spirit lives forever. Flying is the … Continue reading Richard Bach on flying’s core

Doing something uncomfortable

By Dave English

An aerobatic glider instructor I respect a lot counsels pilots wearing parachutes to do one tandem parachute ride. To eliminate a lot of unknowns. To be safer pilots. To experience the fall, the rush, the wind, the brain overload — so that if you ever need to bail out you will not freeze; rather you will orientate and have the headspace to pull the cord. All good sense. Only I didn’t get to be 52 years old by jumping out of airplanes. I’m scared of heights. Petrified really. I’m busy. Maybe next month. For sure next year. Maybe. Well, I finally got serious and … Continue reading Doing something uncomfortable

Aviation Human Factors — 1932 paper

By Dave English

Clicking around research rabbit holes, reading papers cited by other papers, looking for something else entirely, I came across something in one of the world’s premier medical journals, The Lancet: Preventive Medicine In Its Relation To Aviation, by E. Goodwin Rawlinson (full PDF). From nineteen thirty-two. Yes, 1932. Lots of great quotes: “It must always be an axiom that the pilot (apart from the machine) is the paramount factor of flying.” For the design team, he observes: “The maker of the machines, in his engineering enthusiasm, unconsciously adds to the pilot’s troubles by altering or adding controls, changing what has … Continue reading Aviation Human Factors — 1932 paper

A superior pilot uses . . .

By Dave English

A superior pilot uses superior SOP to avoid situations which require the use of superior CRM.   I think this is true. If I’m disciplined, if I follow standard procedures, it certainly doesn’t solve everything — but it means I have less need to involve the whole team and get creative. Saves that for the really hard stuff, the really important stuff.   What do you think?   It’s a simple riff on the great line, “a superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.” Sometimes attributed to astronaut Frank Borman.