What will you sacrifice?

By Dave English

Newall Hunter is a 53-year-old communications contractor and IT engineer, who has climbed 7 of the world’s highest peaks and trekked to both poles. He gets honest about what it takes in this Red Bulletin magazine article. What will you give up to do what you really want?

“If it doesn’t feel right, you should turn around. You can come back and do it again. If you get it wrong, you won’t be coming back.”

It’s cool to post inspirational memes. And any of us can be the best pilots of old-rental aircraft or in our employers planes — but to do some feats you have to be willing to sacrifice more than a mocha latte a day.

This hits close

By Dave English

A new episode of the National Geographic Air Crash Investigation TV show, titled  Killer Attitude is hard for me to watch. It describes the crash of a perfectly good Northwest Airlink Jetstream 31 from MSP to Hibbing, MN, on 1 December 1993. I was flying out of MSP that night, same airplane type, same airline. I knew the captain, Marvin. I remember the grief counselors in the MSP crew room for two weeks after the crash.

 
 And one of the presenters, Craig Railsback, is a friend. We met 25 years ago, as young first officers in Jetstream 31 training at this airline.

So I’m biased. But also intimately knowledgable about this crash. The video is very accurate (with the exception of EFIS instruments in the J31); technically, historically, and in covering the human factors psychology. Marvin had a bad attitude, an extreme reaction to poor management and working conditions. It’s a powerful reminder that CRM training will save lives. Certainly worth your time to watch Craig and other airline experts explain what happened:

Stream online free: Air Crash Investigation: Killer Attitude. (S17E01)

Jimmy Chin on the perpetual pursuit

By Dave English

Legendary climber Jimmy Chin lives the perpetual pursuit so well that,

“I think I’d be really sad if I ever found out what my potential was.”

He has climbed (then skied down) Everest, and recorded his historic assent of Meru in the amazing 2015 film Meru. It’s a close and personal look at what risk-management and perseverance look like when lives are on the line in the Himalayas.