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It’s Not About Split-Second Skills

By Dave English

You never know when it will happen. It could be your first solo. It could be after 42 years of flying. As Captain Gann titled a book: Fate is the Hunter. Best be ready. BA Captain Chris Henkey was. The press has praised his ‘split-second’ skills in aborting the takeoff on the runway. But I think the more praiseworthy airmanship is measured in long seconds not fractional millisomethings. All airline pilots practice rejecting takeoffs, and there is little decision making ‘process’ when an engine quits. Good stick and (lots of) rudder skills to decelerate straight ahead. But what was telling … Continue reading It’s Not About Split-Second Skills

Incredible reply to pride in airmanship question

By Dave English

On the Facebook page of Inner Art Airmanship, a reply to my last post about pride in airmanship was posted that deserves a wider audience. The original AOPA Flight Training magazine article ‘The Art of Airmanship’ closed with this thought: In the end, airmanship really is about pride-pride in learning as much as you can about the history and pioneers of aviation, developing your knowledge and skills to the best of your ability, honing your command qualities, and fully accepting the duties and responsibilities that come with exercising the privileges of your certificate. There’s a lot of reasonable stuff there, … Continue reading Incredible reply to pride in airmanship question

AOPA article: The Art of Airmanship

By Dave English

This is an interesting article: The Art of Airmanship, from AOPA’s Flight Training magazine (Aug 2006). A nice read, but I do have some comments. Like why oh why is the word Art at the start of the title but never mentioned in the article! The author states “Airmanship used to be about basic stick and rudder skills.” I disagree. The earliest use of the word (7th of July, 1859 in the New York Times) mentions resource management, and the basic FAA definition includes “exercise of sound judgment.” The article claims: In the end, airmanship really is about pride-pride in learning as … Continue reading AOPA article: The Art of Airmanship

Learning from seamanship definitions

By Dave English

The preface to the book Seamanship by Peter Kemp starts with two definitions. One from the Oxford English Dictionary: The art or practice of managing a ship at sea. and one from the Encyclopaedia Britannica: The art of sailing, maneuvering, and preserving a ship or boat in all positions and under all reasonable conditions. Notice how they both start. Seamanship is an art. And so is airmanship. Let’s go paint the sky!

Murphy was deeper than you guessed

By Dave English

“It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later.” This was written by Alfred Holt in 1877, in an engineering report on using steam engines at sea. The phrase has become known as ‘Murphy’s Law’ for reasons unclear. But the original report is deeper and more insightful than I ever would have guessed. The same paragraph also says, “Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity.” “The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery.” “It is almost as bad to have too many parts as too … Continue reading Murphy was deeper than you guessed