Inner Art of Airmanship Blog

Remember the Southwest 737 that had an engine explode in cruise and a passenger die? The incident was much worse than we might have first guessed, much worse than a simple engine failure at altitude in the simulator. And turns out the captain has a wild backstory more interesting than most airline pilots. This new autobiography has all the details, and it’s a surprisingly great aviation read.

When Tammie Jo Shults was growing up, girls didn’t become pilots. The inside story of what it was really like to be a woman in US military flight training during the ’80s is eye-opening. Then the jerks continued to make life really hard for her in squadron flying (A-7s and F/A-18s), and even after getting a job at Southwest Airlines. She wasn’t the very first female pilot pathfinder, but her military and commercial flying life was widely different than if that sentence pronoun was his, not hers. The stories about surviving in that bizarro world are worth the cost of admission on their own.

Then there are the excellent insights into flying for the Navy, including a stint as an OCF (Out of Control Flight) instructor in the T-2 Buckeye. Inverted spins, departure stalls, high-energy departures from controlled flight, on and on. This deep understanding and experience with the edges of the envelope would come in very useful later, in a boring B-737.

Another element in the book is Tammie’s more personal story. A smoothly-written touching autobiography. She grew up on a farm, which seems a long way from going supersonic with your hair on fire, but coincidently I remember that’s the same home environment as many early astronauts, like Neil Armstrong. There is a strong religious story here too, she talks a lot about her strong Christain faith.

Now, the reason we’ve heard about Tammie is the April 2018 Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 engine failure. It was bad. The National Transportation Safety Board recently determined that the accident was caused by a cracked fan blade that broke off in flight, hitting the engine case at a critical location. Parts of the engine turned into shrapnel, striking the fuselage and causing rapid depressurization. One passenger was partially ejected from the aircraft and later died. The NTSB full report is now online. Here’s what was left of the engine:

Here’s what the wing looked like:

Thinking about these images reveals why this wasn’t the ‘run the checklists and land single-engine’ sort of event we all train for. There was a lot of drag from that mangled engine and its damaged cowling, and who knows what weird aerodynamic issues from the left-wing leading edge. The crew is on oxygen-masks, and have no real idea about the actual condition of the engine or the wing or the fuselage.

They diverted to Philadelphia. The safety board found that they didn’t perform every checklist for engine failure or fire, and they used unusual settings for the plane’s flaps because they were worried about losing control if they flew too slowly. This is airmanship of the highest order. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, on release of the full report, told the press the incident showed the value of well-trained and experienced pilots:

“Basically, she used airmanship, she used judgment, because she felt that was the safest thing to do.”

In the worst aviation incidents, checklists and SOP only get you so far. Qantas Flight 32 A380 engine explosion and US Airways Flight 1549 A320 dual engine failure over New York book were saved by pilots who know more than most, who flew beyond the standard procedures. In her book, Tammie explains where this superpower came from:

“Habits—good and bad—become instincts under pressure. In other words, the choices we make every day become our reflex on bad days.”

“In a crisis, adrenaline brings clarity, but it can’t expand your knowledge. It won’t change your reasoning. Your existing reasoning simply works at hyper speed. In the moment, you won’t experience an epiphany beyond what is already within you, what you have already taken time to learn of know.”

And having read the book, we understand at a deeper level the real story of how this master aviator acquired these qualities. It’s a testament to Navy training, hard work, and not giving up. Highly recommended.

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Nerves of Steel: How I Followed My Dreams, Earned My Wings, and Faced My Greatest Challenge, by Tammie Jo Shults, published October 2019.

I received the book for free from Amazon to review.