Roy Smith wrote:
(Michael) wrote:

Yup. In fact, I've started to believe that what we (private operators
of IFR-capable airplanes) do is so different from what the airlines
do, that there is precious little for us to learn from the airline
procedures.


I don't know about that. I had the pleasure a while ago of checking out
a 737 pilot in our club's Archers. Not surprisingly, I learned a lot
more from him than he did from me.

The most illuminating thing was his attitude towards safety. Before our
first takeoff, he gave me a CRM briefing, including procedures for
positive exchange of controls. He told me that even though he had many
more hours and ratings than I did, I was more current in Archers and
more familiar with the local area, and thus if we had an emergency, he
would expect me to take charge.

Before each and every takeoff, he gave me a full briefing about what we
were about to do. This didn't just include procedures and airspeeds,
but a summary of wind conditions, nearby terrain, and a plan for
emergencies immediately after takeoff (taking wind and terrain into
account). Then he would ask me, "Do you have anything to add?"

Most of the guys I fly with want to just get in and go. I think we've
got a lot to learn from airline pilots. Maybe the specific procedures
don't translate well to spam cans, but the attitude should.

I learned to fly from an old-timer, but he did much the same thing. I
learned to fly at an airport that is surrounded by mostly unfriendly
terrain (N38, Grand Canyon State). Early on we discussed the "what
would you do if the engine failed RIGHT NOW" question at many stages of
departure and arrival. We didn't verbally brief it after a few hours of
instruction, but he expected me to have mentally briefed it and to have
the answer at hand as he quite often asked the "your engine just failed"
question, or pulled the throttle if we had safe altitude to do so.

To the best of my knowledge, he never flew anything larger than a light
twin, but he'd made something like 11 emergency landings after real
engine failures, and walked away from every one so I figured he knew
what he was talking about. If you wonder how he was so unlucky to have
had so many engine failures, I'd say it was two reasons:

1. He has something north of 50,000 hours of flight time and,
2. He delivered a lot of new airplanes (the most dangerous kind, he said)

Matt