I'll have to confess to being mystified the overwhelming appeal among pilots
of a jet jockey who hid out in the National Guard over a GA pilot like us
who had the conviction to put his ass in the line of fire.

I think it has a lot to do with response to emergencies and, boy, are the
Republicans ever beating that drum. If you watched the convention coverage
without knowing the background, you would think they knocked those towers
down themselves and were proud of it. No wonder many Arabs think that is
what happened.

We train for instinctive reactions to emergencies. If an engine fails on
takeoff, we admire the pilot who, almost without thought, can pull the
throttle, feather the engine, put the proper rudder pedal in, and set the
proper airspeed while chewing gum and telling the tower he needs to come
around for an emergency landing.

Bush projects exactly that kind of smoothness, assurance, and decisive
response. It comforts the voters and makes pilots, especially those who do a
lot of emergency drilling, say, "My kind of guy."

I read a profile of Scott Crossfield recently. It described the thoroughness
of his preparations for flying the X-15 to the edge of space for the first
time, the questions, the double checking, the consideration of possible
failures. Above all, he was aware that things could happen that he would
have to improvise and think his way through instead of producing a drilled
and rehearsed reaction.

If a pilot had approached Crossfield's flights as if they were flying a
commuter twin from A to B, Crossfield and most of the rest of us would have
considered him a fool. If a commuter pilot approached each flight like it
was an X-15, he would be looking for a job after the first one (which he
delayed three days to have the cable tensions checked again).

Let's face it. This election is about handling terrorism. The major
philosophical divide is not liberal vs. conservative but whether dealing
with this new evil in the world is like flying the twin commuter or the
X-15.

It was "Ho, hum, we trained, fighting the last war, We're ready for
anything.", thinking that let 911 happen. The blame there is bi-partisan.

The response however, has been like a commuter twin pilot hopping in the
X-15 saying, "No problem, I spent two weeks at Flight Safety." Right now, it
looks like it's zooming up great and everyone's cheering but the guys on the
ground know that it's way out of it's flight envelop and the problems just
haven't shown up yet. (Did you watch 60 minutes last night?)

I'm pretty sure we are all riding in an X-15 right now. Nothing is certain
but I'd rather switch to a new pilot who at least has the potential and has
declared the policy approaches to conduct the flight Crossfield style than
one who has proven himself a cocky an arrogant cowboy with a propensity to
take the easy way out of every situation.


--

Roger Long