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| Volume 3, Issue 8 |
September, 2004
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THE ERROR OF MY WAYS Hello to all you soaring enthusiasts!! As some of you are aware I completed my Private Pilot check ride last month. During that check ride an interesting phenomenon (OK, maybe not so interesting depending on how harry a situation you can visualize) occurred that caused me to select a course of action which could have had resulted in an unsuccessful completion of the maneuver. I would like to take this time to relate to you my experience and provide some brief information on errors and show how relatively easy it is for any of us to fall pray to committing an unintentional error. Overall the flights were going well. Most of it was pretty much as expected though there were two surprises. A simulated Tow Plane Emergency a few hundred feet before release altitude and the Rope Break. It was the Rope Break that became very exciting and gained most everyone's attention on the ground! I was expecting the Rope Break somewhere above 200 feet and straight out 9 from the field on the second flight. On the second flight I was just about thinking to myself that "Oh, I guess it will be the next fl....." when Mike pulled the release and called simulated rope break……. After we had turned on crosswind. As always, during the pre-takeoff checklist I had briefed a turn into the wind above 200 ft (which in this case was a right turn) if there is a rope break. Soooo, when Mike called the rope break I made the turn to the right. Needless to say by the time I made the turn back to the airport we were getting low. As I continued the approach the view of the corn field was no longer a light brownest/green mat but instead a field of vary distinct corn rows. Some say we were 5 feet off the corn as we crossed the road. Good news was it was the smoothest touchdown of the three landings. IF, Mike had not briefed the tow pilot to keep the crosswind turn in tight to the field (Not that he intended this little bit of trickery ahead of time of course) and IF, I had not pushed the nose down and kept the speed above 50 - 55 kts all the way to the field we were probably in real jeopardy of not making it. Anyway, I am sure by now you have detected my error in all this. On the rope break I should have turned left toward the airport. I had lost my situational awareness as to where I was in relation to the airfield and I allowed my pre-conceived plan (A turn to the right into the wind) to determine my response to the rope break. So, now I would like to take a minute and have a brief discussion about errors and how they relate to the situation I just described and those you may find yourself in one day. There are two Basic Error Forms (from internet article)
1) Skill-based Errors. Skill-based behavior is best described as those “stick-and-rudder”
and other basic flight skills that occur without significant conscious thought. As a result,
skill-based actions are particularly vulnerable to failures of attention and/or memory. In
fact, attention failures have been linked to many skill-based errors such as the
breakdown in visual scan patterns, task fixation, the inadvertent activation of controls,
and the miss-ordering of steps in a procedure, among others. Consider, for example,
the pilot so intent on putting bombs on target that he disregards his low altitude warning
only to collide with the ground.
Closer to home, have you ever locked yourself out of your car or missed your exit
because you ere either distracted, in a hurry, or daydreaming?
These are all examples of attention failures that occur during highly automatized
behavior. While on the ground they may be frustrating, in the air they can become
catastrophic.
The bottom line is that skill-based errors are unintended behaviors. That is, individuals
typically do not choose to limit their scan patterns, forget a boldface procedure, or fly
poorly. Some outside component affects the task they are doing.
2) Decision Errors. The second error form, decision errors, represent intentional
behavior that proceeds as intended, yet the plan proves inadequate or inappropriate for
the situation.
Often referred to as “honest mistakes”, these unsafe acts represent the actions or
inactions of individuals whose heart is in the right place, but they either did not have the
appropriate knowledge available or just simply chose poorly. Regardless of the
outcome, the individual made a conscious decision.
Decision errors come in many forms, and occur for a variety of reasons. However,
they typically represent poor decisions, improper procedural execution, or the
misinterpretation or misuse of relevant information.
The bottom line is that for good or bad the individual made a conscious choice and
elected to do what was done in the cockpit – unfortunately, in the case of mishaps, it
didn’t work.
Mine was a Decision Error that day. Though yes, I have locked my keys in the car and I have been driving
down the highway, see an exit and think to myself…… how did I get here so fast?So, let’s look back and try and determine where my Decision Error began. During every student flight I had, I briefed the rope break the same way. I’d look at the wind and say a “Right/Left Turn back to the airport.” On every simulated rope break conducted with me and the few others I have observed they always occurred straight out from the runway. Also, Being afraid of getting out of position on tow I had also gotten into the habit of putting all my attention on the tow plane and not looking around very much and was not aware of where the airport was. I never looked for the airport until off Tow. My mindset became; that the break is going to occur straight out on departure and I would turn in the direction that I briefed Looking back now, I know that this repetition set an expectation for me and since I had no awareness of my position to the airport when the break occurred on crosswind I flew what I had briefed!! Even though our relationship to the airport had changed and I knew that the closest way back to the field was to turn towards it. Yes, I feel that I shouldn't have fallen into this trap. But, it also impressed on me how strong having a preconceived mindset (expectation) is and when something happens how easily you follow that mindset even, when it should have been obvious that it wasn’t the best course of action. Think about how this situation would have been compounded many times over if the emergency had been real and sudden. I feel it is our responsibility to take care of each other and help make each other better pilots. So, I have written this in the hopes that someone may learn from my mistake to help prevent them from falling into the traps I had set up for myself. Remember, “A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid stressful situations which might call for the use of superior flying skills.” Craig Bixby |
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