What are best? Landings or take-offs? A new NYT article

[Garfly]

Are the NEW certificated Pilots fully aware of the fact they are NOT able to fly a plane near It's limits at that stage of their "career".? 

 

I would guess that, in general, yes, they are aware of that.  And, maybe (aside from a minority of "types") all too aware of it. 

 

I've always thought that timidity at the stick is as dangerous a condition as overconfidence.

 

That's why I think that follow-up, post-grad courses precisely in the handling of aircraft near their limits would be a positive thing for safety.

 

 

[M61A1]

You only have to look at the standard of driving in the country to see that people often do not do what they were taught to do. Don’t see why that wouldn’t carry over to aviation.

 

That said, I believe the standard of driver training to be considerably worse than flight training. 

 

 

[facthunter]

You shouldn't be overconfident, (deceive yourself about your abilities) but on the other hand you should have enough confidence to input the right control movements to make the plane do what you intended it to do. This assumes you have been taught something similar or have a thorough knowledge of aircraft behavior to do a freestyle  maneuver or series of  them watching for height loss and other traffic considerations. You should not lose control of a 3 axis aircraft at any time or you are really missing something. . or something has gone really wrong with it.( equipment failure,, loading etc).

 

     As an instructor one thought always at the back of my mind was to have the student to a standard where He/she would be able to cope with all normal situations  likely to be encountered and possess the judgement to avoid ones that are beyond his or the planes limits.  Nev

 

 

[kgwilson]

And you shouldn't become complacent. I usually fly on my own but took a friend who had just got his RPC for a flight as he was not confident about joining the circuit from different directions & wanted some advice. He added 105kgs to my TOW. I did all my checks etc & was talking through it all & began my rotate at 40 knots as I would on my own. We struggled in to the air with too high an AOA & I then dropped the nose quickly & gained some speed before climbing out. I don't think he noticed but I had failed to allow for the additional weight & should have added another 5 knots or more  to my rotate speed which is what I usually do.

 

 

[facthunter]

 I admire you putting this  up and I've witnessed a crash where the pilot was accustomed to lifting off at a pretty well defined point and then took a passenger up (prospective purchaser) and hauled it into the air and it staggered for a while and mushed onto a fence. Lucky  people weren't seriously injured.

 

  When you do most of your flying in  particular Plane with the same load at the same place a lot of what you are doing is just pure repetition, and you take short cuts with the amount of mental effort you put in to Manage the situation. as you have become familiar. It's what you have become used to. . AS they say familiarity breeds contempt.. As you line up (if not before ) just ask yourself what's different today? What aeroplane?  What winds? What weight?  What's different to usual?ie THINK aeroplane . Some people fly 5 or more types in day. When you do things like that familiarity must not come into it to the extent it did when you had only 12 or so hours up where you are building a base  to a complex skill from a position of little knowledge. Does that make sense? Nev