He died doing what he loved.

I’m sure we have all heard this before. I was watching the evening news the other night and they had a story about an avalanche that killed one of the snowmobilers. A friend of the deceased made comment along the line “He died doing what he loved” and said what a waste. We have come to expect “He died doing what he loved” as acceptable when really the thought should be “He lived doing what he loved and died of old age”.

I want to remind everyone that while there are risks involved in this hobby-sport that we are involved; we all need to do our best to make it as safe as possible. I have heard it said that some people think of our light airplanes as motorcycles of the sky and instead of giving the machines the respect necessary. They have a “good enough” attitude. Keep in mind that good enough usually isn’t and good enough can quickly get you into all kinds of trouble. While the certified world has AD’s, checks, annual inspections and maintenance schedules by the book. In the Amateur-Built and Ultralight world we are solely responsible for the maintenance of our craft. (Editor’s Note: It should be noted that Amateur-Built airplanes are subject to annual inspections as layed out in CAR 625, Appendix B & C). I am sure we all do our best to inspect our planes and make it as safe as possible but sometimes the eye does not see what is right in front of us. I have my pre-flight inspection that I go through before every flight, checking nuts and bolts that are critical to flight safety but I must admit that there are possible things that are right in front of me that I might be missing. Recently I was helping a friend with his airplane and noticed a critical nut missing from the motor on his plane. It was the type of thing that would have gone unnoticed for some time and possibly caused an engine failure.

Other people have mentioned the idea of having someone else do your pre-flight the odd time, and after this experience I can see the wisdom in doing that.

When you do a pre-flight check of your plane, do you have a list that you check, or do you do it from memory? Do you do a check everything before every flight or do you go with, I’m sure it is ok?

A friend recently related the story of someone going to a fly-in and filling his fuel while there. The weather deteriorated while he was having breakfast and visiting with friends and the decision was made to call his wife for a ride home and leave his plane tied up for the night. The next day he returned to retrieve his plane and enjoy one of those magical morning rides home. Quick pre-flight and off into the wild blue yonder. About ten minutes into the flight, everything went quiet and the big fan at the front of the plane stopped spinning (you can sure start to sweat in a hurry when the big fan quits). The pilot was a well experience aviator and a dead stick landing was a non-event. Inspection revealed the most common fault in aviation dead sticks, a fuel problem. But this fuel problem was a little different. Problem was there was no fuel.

Because he had filled the fuel the day before at the fly-in he did not check the level. Unfortunately, while it was tied up overnight someone wanted some free fuel and decided the plane was an easy mark for a siphon hose.

Again, a thorough pre-flight would have caught the low fuel condition.

Another area of safety is how we scan the horizon for traffic. Recently Glen Bishell sent an email that spoke to this. If you haven’t seen it I am including it below.

This is frightening! It works exactly like it says and is one major reason people in cars can look right at you when you’re on a motorcycle or bicycle—AND NOT SEE YOU.

From a former naval aviator: “This is a great illustration of what we were taught about scanning outside the cockpit when I went through training back in the ’50s. We were told to scan the horizon for a short distance, stop momentarily, and repeat the process. I can remember being told why this was the most effective technique to locate other aircraft. It was emphasized repeatedly to NOT fix your gaze for more than a couple of seconds on any single object. The instructors, some of whom were WWII veterans with years of experience, instructed us to continually “keep our eyes moving and our head on a swivel” because this was the best way to survive, not only in combat but from peacetime hazards (like a midair collision) as well. We basically had to take the advice on faith until we could experience it for ourselves because the technology to demonstrate it didn’t exist at that time.”

Keep in mind one of the things that needs to be done is to get the pledge out and make sure the windshield is free of dots that you have to look around, part of the pre-flight.

So, in closing let’s all live doing what we love and die of old age.

This week’s meeting, your executive is presenting the recency self-study test. After the meeting you will be able to put this test in your logbook and fulfill the transport Canada requirement. We are printing the test and will have a discussion and learning session.

Till next time I wish you Good Lies and Smooth Skies