Analyzing the Risks
Last week I heard an oldie but goodie. A couple of veteran pilots were talking to a new pilot about flying single engine planes over rough terrain at night. One of the high-timers said “If the engine quits, you pick a spot, turn on the landing light and if you don’t like what you see you turn it off again.” We all know the risks of flying, and the stats say that recurrent training and good maintenance help mitigate those risks. If we were – as the ad says, “stupid rich” – we’d have a team of mechanics check the airplane after every flight, like a Formula 1 team, and pronounce it ready for the next flight. The next best thing is to look at the engine data. Usually in a puzzler we use an example where the data identified a problem and suggested a remedy. We’ll get to that, but before we do I want to spend a little time on questions we can’t answer, or won’t answer. Even if the team of mechanics performed their post-flight inspection and gave a thumbs-up, we’d still perform a thorough pre-flight inspection before yelling “Clear prop!” FAR 91.013 says we have to, […]