- Joined
- Feb 25, 2021
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- 3,138
The human brain is a bit of a weird thing. Under stress the thinking doesn't do so well. Rote actions work well in this case.
I was a flight instructor for a while, and all of this was readily apparent watching other pilots dealing with things. You made them "do" the actions when practicing emergency procedures. If not actually moving the lever/knob/button (not always practical in non-emergencies), you made pilots put their hand on that lever and say aloud what they would do.
I jinxed myself once. Taking off from Decorah, Iowa heading for Altanta, Ga. The Cessna T210 has a fuel tank in each wing, and a fuel selector that will select OFF, Left, or Right tank, no "Both" position like some have. It also has a poor history of accidents due to "fuel starvation", a fancy way of saying the engine died even though there is fuel in the other tank. So you normally alternate fuel tanks to keep the plane balanced, right tank from 0 to half past the hour, left tank from 30 minutes past to the next hour, i.e, whichever thank the minute hand points to on a dial clock. And I always noted the actual time, calculated the estimated fuel burnt in each tank. And since the fuel gauges where notably inaccurate, a dip stick was used to check the fuel level before flight. Anyhow, on that particular flight, on a nice clear day all the way, I wanted to calibrate my fuel stick, by burning one tank close to dry. That meant not doing the routine flipping tanks and noting fuel after the initial tank swap. The result was while on downwind to land at PDK in Atlanta (home base), the engine started sputtering. Fuel boost pump on, flip tanks, mixture full rich, prop to high rpm and throttle forward. I landed Ok although a bit shook, and after taxiing and and shutting down I realized I'd ran one tank empty with almost full tank on the other side. I should have kept track of the fuel every half hour even though I wasn't switching tanks, but that *wasn't* the routine, so by not switching tanks I just lost track. Bad pilot. Lesson learned. But at the same time it was gratifying to see that the engine "loss" procedure was nearly automatic. I didn't figure out the why of it until shut down.
So, long story short, I agree that you need to practice what you're going to do, or you won't do it when things go awry, or worse yet that is why things will go awry.
I was a flight instructor for a while, and all of this was readily apparent watching other pilots dealing with things. You made them "do" the actions when practicing emergency procedures. If not actually moving the lever/knob/button (not always practical in non-emergencies), you made pilots put their hand on that lever and say aloud what they would do.
I jinxed myself once. Taking off from Decorah, Iowa heading for Altanta, Ga. The Cessna T210 has a fuel tank in each wing, and a fuel selector that will select OFF, Left, or Right tank, no "Both" position like some have. It also has a poor history of accidents due to "fuel starvation", a fancy way of saying the engine died even though there is fuel in the other tank. So you normally alternate fuel tanks to keep the plane balanced, right tank from 0 to half past the hour, left tank from 30 minutes past to the next hour, i.e, whichever thank the minute hand points to on a dial clock. And I always noted the actual time, calculated the estimated fuel burnt in each tank. And since the fuel gauges where notably inaccurate, a dip stick was used to check the fuel level before flight. Anyhow, on that particular flight, on a nice clear day all the way, I wanted to calibrate my fuel stick, by burning one tank close to dry. That meant not doing the routine flipping tanks and noting fuel after the initial tank swap. The result was while on downwind to land at PDK in Atlanta (home base), the engine started sputtering. Fuel boost pump on, flip tanks, mixture full rich, prop to high rpm and throttle forward. I landed Ok although a bit shook, and after taxiing and and shutting down I realized I'd ran one tank empty with almost full tank on the other side. I should have kept track of the fuel every half hour even though I wasn't switching tanks, but that *wasn't* the routine, so by not switching tanks I just lost track. Bad pilot. Lesson learned. But at the same time it was gratifying to see that the engine "loss" procedure was nearly automatic. I didn't figure out the why of it until shut down.
So, long story short, I agree that you need to practice what you're going to do, or you won't do it when things go awry, or worse yet that is why things will go awry.
