I am in The Killing Zone

Here's a pilot profile

Between 50 and 350 hours
Does not file a flight plan
Gets a weather report from the flight briefer
has less than 100 hours in the model he is flying
has less than 20 hours of IFR training
Leaves the airport in VFR conditions

....

And never comes back.

He/she dies on the way. Among the many reasons: weather, fuel
starvation/exaustion, mid-air collisions, take off or landing accidents,
among others.

This is the killing zone and that profile fits me to a T.

The
Killing Zone: How or Why Pilots Die
By Paul Craig.

Between the hours of 50 and 350 you can find about 80% of all pilot-cause
accidents.

After 350 hours there's a SHARP drop.

I am smack in the middle of it. The highest rate is between 50 and 150.

I have 75.

I picked up the book out of curiousity at Barns and Nobles the other day.
Very interesting read ... I started looking at page 1, then 2, then 3
reading more and more intensely until it was time for bed yesterday and when
I closed the book I was at page 70.

I never devoured a book so intensely as I did for this. All I can say is
that by the time I put the book down I had to take a pretty good look at
myself as a pilot.

I am in the Killing Zone and I have a good 300 hours to go. 3 years in the
killing zone ...

Statistics indicate that pilots that fly less often, crash more often.

I am not done reading it ... So far this book has been a punch in the face
but not surprising.

Somehow now I know where that "sinking" feeling I have every time I am
preflighting the plane comes from. That "worry" that "knot in my stomach"
that doesn't quite go away until I am back from the flight and taxing back
to parking.

I think I mentioned before that I don't feel ready.

Well ... I am not ready. I don't why I am not ready and I don't know what I
am missing but at 75 hours I feel more uncomfortable than I used to feel at
50 or even 25.

At 75 hours I feel like crap in fact and the more I fly the more I see
things or think about things or consider things that I never thought about
before.

REmember that time that i was in poor visibility? 10 miles? What if I had
lost an engine then? My first reaction at that time was to get closer to the
ground so I could see more ... and in fact I did. It did help ... but by
getting closer to the ground (flat ground ... safe) I was also giving up
precious altitude to glide to a safe spot ... and under me there was nothing
but trees.

I did think about it at the time but the idea of hugging the ground and
getting more visibility was more of a priority for me ...

Then after the flight was over ... rational thought started creeping back in
and i started wondering what the hell was I thinking ... I had good
visibility anyway ... I was just uncomfortable in the haze and got
comofortable closer to the ground but traded safety for comfort.

Oh ... not a big deal I suppose ... the engine did work. The haze wasn't so
bad. I made it there and back.

But I dont' feel good about it. What I don't feel good about is that I let
my sense of comfort take over rational thought.

I had enough visibility at alititude (about 4000). I should not have
descended (about 2000). If the visibility had gotten so worse that I could
not fly safely without hugging the ground ... then it was time to do the
shallow 180 and head back whence I came.

Rational thought is what's needed here. If my Instinct are telling me to do
something Rational Thought can't shut up and let Instinct take over.
Rational Thought needs to ask WHY is Instinct telling me something. Is it
telling me something that makes sense?

Why am I uncomfortable? Is it because I never experienced so much haze and a
visibility less than 20 miles? then it's safe. Rely on your training. Keep
an eye on landmarks. Don't waste alititude. Check the ground frequently.
Keep an eye out for other planes.

Is it because now it's less than 10 miles?

Time to do that 180. Keep a constant eye on the outside AND the attitude
indicator, and the directional gyro. And get the hell out. But still keep
HIGH.

The ground is what hurts. Low level flying is NOT the answer. Plenty of
telephone poles to smack into.

So I land and one more cross country was over ... a few weeks ago. 4 hours
more on my log book.

only 294 more to go before I am out of the Killing Zone.

I am a paranoid flyer. I am sprouting eyes in the back of my head and I am
getting severly suspcious of anything out of the ordinary.

I think I may be a very defensive flyer in fact.

Here's an example.

This past weekend was beautiful.

But: the wind was 11 gusty 18 (which I can handle ... i handled 25 gusty to
35 direct crosswind at Linden. Nothign I want to do ever again ... but 7
knots of gust factor makes me mildly uncomfortable).

But: that weekend we were supposed to fly to cape may

But: I was supposed to fly with my wife and a friend of hers that I never
met before.

But: moderate turbulence on the way was forecasted

But: the plane we were supposed to fly (Piper 180) has a "limp" right shock
absorber and leaky breaks. Nothing I can't handle ... I can land without
breaks. I usually land well within 1000 feet of runway barely touching the
breaks.

All of the facts above, taken singularly would not present a problem for me.

I can take gusts. I can take turbulence. I can take a relatively long cross
country. I can take strangers in the plane. I can take limp landing gears
and leaky breaks.

One at a time.

Two of the above would make me think twice.

All of them togheter are WAY outside of my envelope.

Please keep in mind that none of the things were really THAT bad. I knew
that. 11 gusty to 18 is nothing. I have done it plenty of times and the
Piper 180 is VERY stable in crossiwinds (I used to do this in the 172 all
the time which is a lot worse). My wife's friend flies in puddle jumpers all
the time and according to her she can take any weather and she is not scared
at all.

The brakes are leaky but I don't generally use brakes other than if I am in
a hurry to get out of the runway in case people need to land.

I can land on one wheel (keeping the limp wheel off the runway for a bit)
and my landings are generally soft (especially lately).

But all of these factors just made me stop in my tracks and just say No.

I am reading this book and I am thinking: am I taking this too seriously?

Am I refusing to fly when it's perfectly safe to do so?

Am I being too careful?

But the most pressing question that is gravitating my mind is: am I
"damaging" my experience by avoiding danger and risk and thus never learning
how to deal with it? Is it wise not to push the envelope at all? Wouldn't it
be wiser to push a little bit more and just learn how to deal with the
problems? I mean ... you gotta see the problem and solve it in order to
learn anything and if I am too defensive of a flyer ... I will never learn.

Give all of the above considerations ... should I have flown last weekend
instead?

I am still thinking about this ... and i don't know that i have the answer
.... yet. And I don't know if I will have the answer out of the killing zone
.... at 400 hours. Or 1000.


--
Marco Rispoli - NJ, USA / PP-ASEL
My on-line aviation community - http://www.thepilotlounge.com