A Note on General Aviation Safety.
We're an arrogant bunch aren't we? Pilots in general I mean. And while Mr Tom Skerrit may admire arrogance in a fighter pilot, the simple fact is that it breeds complacency in the rest of us and, whether we realize it or not, complacency is our number one enemy.
Complacency is insidious because it creeps up on us so slowly we don't even realize it. We pull off the same hop time and time again and pretty soon we start thinking things like: Ah, I've got that checklist down pat, no need to haul the thing out and actually look at it. And then after a while, items on our new mental checklist start to drop away after subconsciously or otherwise being deemed "not that critical" for this or that particular flight. And then before you don't know it, one or more items fall away completely. If you've never been guilty of this scenario, I commend your vigilance. Keep it up!
And then along comes enemy number two: Distraction. BMW did a study a number of years ago on what causes motorcycle accidents and the number one thing, by far, was rider distraction.
Distraction can be thrust upon us in a heartbeat, and while in and of itself, shouldn't be a big deal in an aircraft cockpit, save for those moments when you're operating close to the ground, if some degree of complacency has crept in on you, the combination of the two can easily lead to disaster.
Consider the case of a float plane tour operator in a resort town near a beautiful lake that snakes off 50+ miles up into the mountains.
Let's call him "Dick" to protect the innocent, as it were. Dick has been flying a nice beaver on floats up and down said beautiful lake for years without incident. He's got a perfect safety record and in my imagination Dick's got to be pretty happy about that. Also in my imagination, he's maybe even become a bit cocky since he's obviously one of the top dogs in town, but as I said, that's just speculation on my part.
Then one day Dick gets a new beaver on floats only this one has retractable wheels on the floats. A short while later, at the local airport, Dick picks up a load of people for a hop uplake. It's approaching 100 degrees outside and one of his passengers is a 19 year old girlie. Again, I'm just speculating because I wasn't there, but my bet is she's rather skimpily clad, maybe even in a bikini. I'm also guessing that Dick puts her in the right seat, so she can have a pilots view of the flight, of course. Who among us hasn't done something similar?
Dick takes off, flys uplake and from his point of view in the cockpit of that new beaver, everything looks the same, he's pulled this hop off thousands of times without incident, and in his mind is absolutely certain he'll pull it off again today, if he even gives it a thought. So, he visits for 30 minutes or so with his new co-pilot and then lands on the water with his wheels down. The bird flips, sinks, and two people drown.
The point here is not to lay any more guilt on Dick than he's already enduring, but rather to present for consideration by the rest of us, and perhaps especially for those who have a number of flying years under our belts, to be aware of a potentially deadly combination that we may not have considered before.
