airmanship

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!

Quick thinking airmanship saves the day

By Dave English

    Quick thinking airmanship saves the day. What would you do if the windshield become completely unusable, covered in sea salt? The Irish Independent has the amazing full story: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-pilots-save-plane-and-46-passengers-during-landing-aaiu-31186623.html

Planes without pilots?

By Dave English

If you put more technology in the cockpit, you have more technology that can fail. ~ Amy Pritchett, Professor of Cognitive Engineering at Georgia Tech. Quoted in the New York Times article Planes Without Pilots. The same piece also quotes the normally enthusiastic Professor Mary Cummings, a former fighter pilot and currently director of Duke University’s Humans and Autonomy Lab, as saying: You need humans where you have humans. If you have a bunch of humans on an aircraft, you’re going to need a Captain Kirk on the plane. I don’t ever see commercial transportation going over to drones. What … Continue reading Planes without pilots?

Matt Hall on not judging an accident from the outcome

By Dave English

Matt Hall is a former fighter combat instructor and international unlimited aerobatic competitor who now competes in the Red Bull air races. His latest airmanship blog post takes a look at the recent Harrison Ford and SpaceShipTwo crashes. It’s worth reading. Don’t judge an incident or accident based on the outcome. We always need to look deeper…the preparation, the planning, the routine and the overall situational awareness of the pilot at the time of the event. ~ Matt Hall