He then explained that he agreed that it was unfortunate that it happened but that i need to understand that when working in a real airline environment, there will be many of screw ups and mishandlings that will cause me as a pilot to wait on the ground longer or rectify to them as soon as possible. The pilot will get yelled at, grilled etc….but once the task is complete then there are no hang ups. However a pilot must also exercise restraint in letting the frustrations of these events get under his skin and follow him into the cockpit.

When entering the cockpit, it is advised that all frustrations and problems of the world be left at the door of the aircraft, when in the cockpit, the pilot should only have his full concentration on the task of flying the aircraft. Once complete and he leaves the cockpit, he then picks up his mental baggage and continues on with his life. When a pilot does not leave his mental baggage at the aircraft door, he is inviting errors and frustration that will reduce mental and physical performance to a point which may cause and incident or accident that is not needed. It also invites bad interaction between crew that will break down crew communication and efficiency as a unit. This also inevitably leads to poor performance.

Once i thought about it, he was very much correct and i have no followed this piece advice ever since. And i hope other pilots do as well.

Thanks

dagger20

i was comfortable with ardmore area, airspace and traffic as i had previosuly flown there for a year before starting training at massey. so there was no problems for me, however after planning for return trip. from the point of getting into the aircraft, things were about to go somewhat lop-sided. we shut the hatch and were already somewhat running late on getting back. the pilot in command who was my other class mate, started his taxi, the first thing i did wrong was shut the door without securing my shoulder harness on, i said i was "going to put it on before the line up". as we taxied out to the run up area, it was a prefectly sunny way in which all the training schools were out and the run up area littered with about 6 aircraft in a line running up in some orderly fashion. as my mate was new to this aerodrome he had no idea what to do. I myself had no idea either, as this was somehting new that i never seen in my time before. so we found our own bit of turf to run up on. i didnt know this but it had made the PIC nervious and ended up being a a rush of a run up and pre take off check, as he just wanted to get out of there ASAP, in doing this quite fast, i had overlooked my shoulder harness being secured and i called "secured" when he asked for "hatches and harnessesd". he lined up onto the runway, already nervious at the ammount of traffic and started his take off roll, he rotated the aircraft and their suddenly became a large knocking sound on the airframe.

you guessed it, it was my shoulder harness that was not secured, i had shut the door with the harness strap left hanging outside. when asked what it was, i told the pic it was my shoulder harness, a couple of expeltives came out but lo and behold infront of him was a aircraft, who was simulating an EFATO, this caused the pilot to be further stressed with the banging sound and not being familiar with the airport surroundings and operations. luckily i helped him out with the aircraft simulating but the banging sound stopped. the result of this rush, was the metal buckle of the shoulder harness making it way up to the corner of the right side, rear widow, and blowing a hole in purspex window where the buckle became wedged. once we reliased what had happen, i assured the pilot that we are unpressurised and that all its going to expierence is abit of extra air conditioning. (which was needed for that day, as the vents were not adaquate). we continued on our journey south of ardmore in which once we were clear ot the area, we cunducted the door decuring procedure from the QRH and retrive the buckle and continue flying back to palmerston north unevenful.

moral of this story - first would be don;t fly with me :P, no but really it is a lesson that we are always warned about in our studies and take for granted when you have been flying long enough. this is not to rush things, no matter how routine or how simple it is, it will catch u out one day. and this day it did. we were stressed about the new enviroment we were in, the ammount of traffic, the fast pace of the operations in and out of ardmore, put us in abit of a shock and awe on the ground which made us in the end hurry just to get to the saftey of the air in which we could get away from it all so we can get home. i did take responsability about what happened with my shoulder harness but the pic who to this day will never fly with me again(jokingly :D), did get copped as well for not visually checking and somewhat rushing the pre-take off checks. so in the end do not rush your checks, and also when operating in a new enviroment or aerdrome that is unfamilillar i should have taken the time out to brief the my fellow class mate on the ins and outs of ardmore as this was his first time there. this would have been good airmenship and would of allowed for a much safer and less risker flight.

By now I forgot the unusual clearance that was given to me. There was a/c coming towards me to land therefore the tower advised me to turn left and track towards the city and to South onwards after that. That clearance would ensure me to be well cleared from that a/c. I did start turning left but it was not fast enough as tower was expecting me to. The biggest mistake I made was not telling ATC to stand by when he gave me long clearance on short finals. I was not 100% sure where exactly Napier city was( that is where ATC cleared me to track to start with). After EFATO, I should have asked ATC to read back my clearance again and ask where exactly Napier City was. I did not do either of them thus failing the test as there was a/c coming to land. Although I had the aircraft in site, I failed to follow ATC instruction.

Lessons to be learnt here are: Do not rush to do position report. You can always tell ATC to stand by especially when you are on critical stages of flights and are busy in cockpit. If unsure, ask for help and request them to read back the clearance and ask for assistance.

When John was very late downwind, he made an unauthorized descent to circuit height and continued approach as number 2 with the aircraft ahead on short finals. This was of course detected by ATC although no further calls were made by ATC.

A report was filed against John for the unauthorized descent he made and a written explanation was expected of him. This incident was clearly due to inexperience. John was unsure of ATC's instructions and chose to follow the practice which he has been used to. The lesson learnt in this experience is to always strictly follow ATC instructions. It is their responsibility to separate VFR traffic and tower personnel would definitely have a much bigger and clearer picture of the traffic and their associated heights within the aerodrome. Another key lesson to highlight would be the importance of a good read-back. Many a times, pilots read back ATC clearances acknowledging whatever instructions that have been issued, but not fully comprehending what is to be expected. Ab-initio pilots especially should make it a point to fully understand ATC clearances and not hesitate clarify with ATC should any ambiguities arise.

At the school where I was training for my PPL, I noticed that there were a many good airmanship practices, below are a few suggestions:

1. As the student pilots in the flying school were also students from another institution, there was a Risk Assessment System which calculated the fitness of a Student pilot to fly. It was the responsibility of the student pilot to plan his day before the flight to ensure that his fatigue levels are low when graded by the system. This creates a habit of resting and preparation for flight in the student hopefully which will become permanent.

2. The clearance to fly was the decision of the student, however a formal weather assesment tool was also provided, it took into consideration the outside temperature, the cloud base, the coud cover, visability and so on. this tool also trained us to make more accurate weather predictions as we had a system of evaluation. If such a system did not exist, we could have missed out certain important points which could be of danget. ( eg runway to hot to take off ( a phenomenon common in singapore ) I realise that now that i've graduated, I still evaluate the weather the same way as I did with the system, not just with "gut feelings".

3. Although we had the prerogative not to fly if we did not like the weather, we have to bear with the consequences. The slight annoyance with the cancellation of a training flight is definitely small compared to the reaction that we woruld receive should we cancel a flight of commercial value. I definitely agree that Faddy was right in cancelling his flights, however, for the sake of safety, he should take his instructor's words with a pinch of salt. It is good Airmanship to decide to cancel the flight for safety, regardless of the reaction of our bosses, customers or instructors.

4. The school also had a very strong climate of safety. Everything that is done revolved around Safety. the solos had a cover plane to ensure safety, safety meetings were held monthly, and every action had to be preceeded with the question, Is that safe? This had also stuck with me througout my flying career. Is it safe to land? Is it safe to go there? is the aircraft safe to fly in? This is not a form of paranoia. It is better to ask and check, then to assume that it is safe.

These and many more are just part of the culture that cultivates good airmanship. The school is where a normal person gains his wings, and the culture of the school itself determines the type of pilot the student becomes.

My analysis of why I forgot the lifejacket was simply because I was rushed by the instructor not making time for me.

A simple little checklist in my notebook would have prevented this on the ground and I could have completed the planned flight

POINTS TO NOTICE:

1. We want to fly too. We have wasted so many hours of effort and preparation for this flight.
2. The Duty Instructor ( B cat) had agreed on the decision we have made.
3. What could we say?

KDP (Key Decision Point) #1 is always Go/No Go. Good to know you now know everything is in your discretion, don't let anyone pressure you because end of the day if it goes right its ok, if it goes wrong its your fault.

On a marginal weather Saturday i was pressured to complete a back to back flight i didnt want to do until the monday. The DI called me up in the morning explaining that the flight should be done today so i could progress to the fligth exam in the following week. I decided to fly it, but was rushed throughout my planning so as to beat the weather moving in, in the afternoon. after a quick prebrief and preflight i was off with another student. Stress levels were high, to beat the weather, and to please the DI which was all being egged on by the moderate turbulence over each leg. All these "holes in the cheese" led to a busting of airspace. On return after nearly getting stuck at our destination, i was not happy to find a report waiting for me to fill out for busting airspace. All forms were filled out and report filed, but now ive learnt it is MY (PIC) desicion whether to fly or not and should never succumb to the pressures from ANYONE!!!!