My wife getting scared

Shirl wrote:
Jay's wrote:
"Sadly, I have to admit that our fear of harming our engine
has far outweighed our fear of an engine-out landing. There
is simply nothing you can do to your engine (in normal use)
that is worse than simulated engine-out landings, so we do
them very rarely."

I called the overhaul shop that just did a major engine overhaul on my
Lycoming O-320. First, these guys have been there for years and came
highly recommended by several independent sources in my search for a
reputable place to take the engine. I posed the question -- "How harmful
to a healthy engine is simulated engine failure practice?" I told him
that it was said that simulated engine-out practice is the worst thing
you can do to your engine.

He said he disagrees and assumed your concern was probably about shock
cooling, but said that while everyone needs to be aware of that, it is
of much greater concern with high-performance, turbo-charged engines
where people chop power and dive for the ground. With the 0-320, he said
in colder areas (I'm in AZ), you would use carb heat, and of course he
recommended what all CFIs I've ever flown with have done -- "clear" the
engine by adding some power for a few seconds one or two times during
the power-off glide/descent. Yes, that takes a little of the "reality"
out of the drill, but it is, in fact, practice/simulated.

He went on to say that if it were THAT easy to damage the engine by
pulling the power back to idle, how about when you pull the power abeam
the numbers and the hot engine is at idle through the rest of the
approach, landing and taxi and then is shut down completely (standard
practice every time for some)? He commented that it would be tricky to
just shut down a hot engine without damaging it if pulling power back to
idle is all it would take to do so.

You may not agree, and maybe your mechanic doesn't agree ... but as said
in an earlier post, if you think about all the airplanes in flight
schools that are doing simulated engine failures far more frequently
than we would (some much more powerful than an 0-320 ... I can't
remember what engine you have), there would be many more engine problems
in rental/school airplanes than there are if there's nothing worse for
an engine than simulated engine-outs.

I'm just the messenger on this one, not a mechanic, and being a girl, I
did not grow up tinkering with engines. But I dealt regularly with the
mechanics when I worked at the flight school, and I never heard them or
any that have worked on my airplane(s) say anything about simulated
engine failures being potentially dangerous to the engines.

Your mechanic is a wise man (or woman!).

Matt

Dudley Henriques wrote:
Dallas wrote:
On Mon, 1 Oct 2007 02:58:02 +0000 (UTC), Paul Tomblin wrote:

Three years ago, the DE who passed me on my private and instrument
tickets
died in a stupid accident.

Sorry, but you've peaked my curiosity a bit. I'm wondering how a DE, who
should in theory be very familiar with aviation safety, could died in a
stupid accident.

Can you tell us what happened?


Happens frequently. I'm working with an accident right now that involves
a highly experienced demonstration pilot who suddenly and for no
apparent reason began a Split S at an altitude below that required for a
recovery.
Any pilot, no matter how experienced, can suffer a "brain fart" for lack
of a better term. The study on how to prevent this from happening both
to myself and to others has occupied a great of my time for the last
fifty years or so.


What are your preliminary conclusions as to how to prevent this?
Obviously, ruling out the "stupid acts" is fairly easy, but I also
wonder about the pilots who really and truly seem very careful and
meticulous yet someone succumb to an apparent moment of weakness.

Matt

On Oct 1, 12:42 am, (Paul Tomblin) wrote:

She flies with me if we're going somewhere she wants to go. But 90% of
the time if I'm just going for the sake of flying, she doesn't want to go.
I used to drag her along, and she'd read a book or fall asleep.

Paul,
I have a similar situation after two local plane wrecks in two
consecutive weekends. My wife met both of the pilots a few weeks
prior. I liken General aviation to driving a sports car or riding a
motorcycle, we do what we can to mitigate the risks, but in the end we
accept certain inherent risks because of the reward (To us anyways).
This does not hold true for our families ! I would sugest that if your
wife doesnt enjoy flying you should not drag her along but find a
pastime the two of you enjoy and just go flying on your own time. The
reason that I bring this up is because I have met two women over the
course of my flying career who lost their families (Spouse and kids)
to GA accidents. Hope this helps ,
K Baum

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
"I've gone through over-stressed to physical exhaustion -- what's next?"
"Tuesday."
-- Simon Burr and Kyle Hearn

In a previous article, said:
On Oct 1, 9:55 am, Mxsmanic wrote:
What was the actual cause of his accident?

He crashed.

Failure to maintain separation from the ground.


--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
Frankly, your argument wouldn't float were the sea composed of
mercury.
-- Biff

He crashed.

Failure to maintain separation from the ground.

C'mon, guys. Don't respond to the bozo, even with glib remarks. Everyone
has been doing pretty good on refraining, lately.
--
Jim in NC

In a previous article, said:
Can you tell us what happened?

A Piper Navajo has a very complex fuel system, and you're not supposed to
take off or land on the outer tanks, nor are you supposed to use them in
maneuvering flight if they're less than half full. His plane was at a
nearby airport for service on one of the engines. The mechanic who worked
on the plane noted that the fuel selector on the plane was set to the
outer tanks, and the fuel gauges were reading empty.

After the service, both the mechanic and the line guy offered to call the
fuel truck, but the pilot said he was in a hurry because he wanted to get
out on his boat.

On the flight back to his home base, he reported that an engine had failed
(the one that had just been worked on) and he was returning to the airport
he'd just departed. A few minutes later he reported that the other engine
had failed as well, and he was going to try to land at a near-by airport,
then he reported he wasn't going to make that airport and he was going to
try for a field.

The plane crashed, he died, and one side burned. The other side had
nearly full inner and middle tanks. The fuel selectors in the plane were
still set to the outer tanks.

As far as anybody can speculate, he must have thought the first engine
failure was due to problems with the new engine, not a fuel problem, but
nobody can explain why he didn't switch tanks when the second one failed.


--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
Ahhh, the permie offer. The "Please sign up with us clueless fsckwits
so you can spend all your time digging us out at a pittance" offer.
-- Dan Holdsworth

"Paul Tomblin" wrote in message
...
As far as anybody can speculate, he must have thought the first engine
failure was due to problems with the new engine, not a fuel problem, but
nobody can explain why he didn't switch tanks when the second one failed.

A very sad story.
I'm only a new pilot, but I reakon that the first thing my eye would go to
if I had an engine failure would be the fuel gauges. It just seems like
common sense or instinct to me. Maybe when you're faced with an engine
failure, common sense can sometimes go out the window in the panic.
Crash Lander
--
Straight and Level Down Under.
http://www.straightandleveldownunder.net/

In a previous article, "Crash Lander" said:
common sense or instinct to me. Maybe when you're faced with an engine
failure, common sense can sometimes go out the window in the panic.

That's why as a student pilot you're drilled on the emergency checklist
until you know it without thinking. I don't know about the plane you fly,
but on mine it's
1. FLY THE PLANE
2. Pick a landing spot
3. FLY THE PLANE
4. Everything forward (throttle, prop, mixture)
5. FLY THE PLANE
6. Everything up (flaps, gear)
7. FLY THE PLANE
8. Fuel pump on. Switch tanks.
9. FLY THE PLANE
10. Carb heat or alternate air
11. FLY THE PLANE
12. Make emergency radio calls
13. FLY THE PLANE
14. Prepare to land.

--
Paul Tomblin http://blog.xcski.com/
God is real, unless declared as an integer.

Paul Tomblin wrote:
little club is pretty scary for her.

At one time, I thought when the kids were finished college I'd finally
have enough money to buy a share in a float plane and we could have some
adventures together. Now I'm not even sure she'd come flying in a club
plane.


You're right honey, those rentals can be dangerous, we'd better buy our
own plane :-).

Margy

Jay Honeck wrote:
....
We'd all like to believe that we are superior pilots, possessing
superior judgement and skills. In fact, as private "hobby" pilots,
we're probably at the bottom of the skill heap, simply because we
don't fly often enough to get/stay really good. Once I accepted this
fact, not long after obtaining my ticket, I found myself becoming a
much more conservative (some might say "boring") pilot.

Conservative seems to be the best approach to longevity. It's the
strategy I'm planning to use so that I'm still around to fly with my
grandkids...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"
I always say "boring flying is good flying" when it gets exciting it
usually means you did something stupid.

Margy