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Countermeasures are procedures you may use in addition to all of your other good habits. They do not replace FAA or manufacturers recommendations for the operation of your aircraft. Countermeasures are procedures that have been found by other operators including airlines that help reduce human error. Human factors studies and cockpit resource management studies tell us there are many reasons why pilot error is so often the cause of aircraft accidents. Human Factors studies have gone beyond just a label of pilot error. We all know that there maybe contributing factors explaining why a pilot had an accident. As we are addressing the needs and concerns of our senior pilots on this web site (age 65 and older) we address health as a primary factor to be considered. For example you will see that the use of a quality headset may enhance your hearing by eliminating outside noise. If you hear the clearance correctly you avoid an accident relating to not following a clearance. If you can use progressive eye lenses in your glasses, you may see the cockpit switches and their labels more clearly and you will not turn off the wrong aircraft system when responding to an emergency. These are simple examples of how your health plays into safety. Other countermeasure techniques are developed by airline and professional flight departments to overcome problems of altitude busts, runway incursions, and things of that nature. Many articles are written about the safety of flying single pilot in instrument conditions. There are many tips and ideas that make that operation safer and easier. Many of those same tips will be found here.
Don’t even think of beginning if you know you need new eye glasses or a new headset to help you hear better. Get with your doctors and make sure you have done everything medically sound to help yourself before you fly again. It may be hard to admit that our senses are not as keen as we would like them to be, but to fly without the proper tools is just foolish.
Below we will start a list of countermeasures. We invite pilots, CFIs, DPEs, MD.s, AMEs, PhD.s, A&Ps, ATCs, and anyone with an interest in Human Factors to contribute to our arsenal of countermeasures. CONTRIBUTE to : seniorsflysafer@aol.com
What we need are your actual experiences. From pilots age 65 and above, we need to know your specific challenges and frustrations. From CFIs and DPEs we want to hear your actual experiences with applicants for ratings, aircraft checkouts, flight reviews, IFR proficiency checks, and any observations from the right or back seat that you think will shed light on this discussion. ALSO it is very important that you write us about your specific use of any countermeasures and the results from using the countermeasures. We are not forgetting any input from military instructors teaching in any kind of aircraft. Please participate. THE SUCCESS OF THIS WEBSITE DEPENDS ON YOUR INPUT. Remember, the goal is to help older pilots fly safer and longer. We all age and we all must participate.
Send contributions to seniorsflysafer@aol.com
Straighten us out if anything I have written is not 100% correct. I do not want to disseminate bad information. Write: seniorsflysafer@aol.com
Consult a CFI before changing how you do things.
Countermeasures to overcome short-term memory problems.
Use it or lose it!
Review your handbook once a week. In time you will be able to quote it chapter and verse. If you forget an important number, you will know you need to review it more often.
Sit in the cockpit and review the emergency checklist for all emergencies at least once a month or more until you feel like they are second nature to you. Then do it some more.
Use you PC with a flight simulator program to help maintain instrument proficiency. If your program is PCAD approved, log it; if not it still helps you maintain your scan.
Do not start to taxi until you have confirmed verbally to yourself out loud that the after start checklist is complete and that the navigation equipment is programmed and ready for takeoff.
Use cross- wind taxi technique as soon as you start to taxi out. You wrote it down from the ATIS, or AWOS, now find it on your Heading indicator and follow it as you taxi out. You will never be surprised about the wind when you use this technique.
Brief yourself and your co-pilot or passenger out loud every important phase of flight.
Before takeoff, state at the very least, your first altitude target, heading and checkpoint/waypoint. As an example, I state out loud “ I have my fuel on board, my first heading is 090, my first altitude is 7500 feet and my first fix is ORL. If I have an engine failure below 500 feet I will continue straight, above 500 feet I will turn into the wind and return to the airport.”
On final your briefing might be: “ In the event of a go around, I will add full power smoothly, adjust my pitch to 5 degrees up, retract half of my flaps and proceed straight out”.
Use your auto-pilot when ever you need it. That is what it is there for. Select it on and select your mode. If you select heading hold, make sure it is holding your heading before you take your eyes off of it. If you select altitude hold, make sure your VSI is zero and is staying there before you move your eyes away from it or let go of the controls. If you use “NAV, start with the needle centered as much as possible and make sure the NAV is engaged before you go to other duties. If you have a mode annunciator or mode monitor, be sure the mode you selected is engaged and confirmed.
When you fly with a rated and current pilot in the right seat, take advantage of him or her and put on the hood. This is the best time to practice partial panel as well.
If you have a glass cockpit, this is a great time to practice using the back up gauges.
Know how to program that GPS inside and out. Do not venture out unless you have the route in the route page. Do not program it while the aircraft is moving unless someone else is doing the driving. If flight, use the autopilot. If you do not have one, use the rated co-pilot. If you do not have one of those, program it while in the lowest work phases of flight as much as practical. Always plan ahead and have the VORs and ILS pre tuned as backup. Backup GPS with raw data and back up raw data with GPS.
Read back all of your clearances. The act of reading it back will reinforce it. Then make sure you have jotted it down. A new course should be set with a heading bug if you have one. A new altitude should be set with an altitude bug on your altimeter. If you don’t have one, buy one from Sport’s. Write it down as well. When you get an altitude change, read it back, verbalize it to yourself out loud and point to it when have set it. Then always remember to remind yourself when you are 1000 feet prior to the assigned altitude. Verbalize out loud, 5000 for 6000. This helps to remind you to monitor your vertical speed so you will not overshoot. IF YOU HAVE GLASS AND OR AN ALTITUDE ALERTER make sure what you have selected is reflected on your glass.
Fill in your flight log as you pass each checkpoint or waypoint. Time, fuel, altitude and eta to the next checkpoint and make sure you or the autopilot has turned to the appropriate heading after passing the checkpoint. If you need to know if that fuel gauge is accurate, or the winds are not as forecast, you will be happy you kept that log. You know mental notes last about 10 seconds and then you start doubting yourself.
Discuss all information with a CFI or medical Doctor if you have any questions at all. Do not endanger yourself trying out new things. A CFI can help. I am here to help you fly safer, lets not become careless. BE safe. Consult a CFI.
COUNTERINTUATIVE
This maybe the hardest thing to accept; what use to be a task we could do blindfolded now seems overly complicated or frustrating. How can countermeasures help?
The checklist is perhaps the best way to return to efficient way of accomplishing the task. Perhaps you know that raising the flaps on rollout is good for destroying lift and slowing the aircraft. You found yourself reaching for the gear handle by mistake. Then do not do it anymore. Use the checklist at the appropriate time and phase of flight.
Have you ever turned off the Master Switch automatically as you shut the engine down and upon your next pre-flight you find it on with a dead battery? You know you did not forget to turn it off. What the heck is going on? What I have seen is someone turning off the switch. Then they get out the checklist and when is says to turn the switch off, you turn the already off switch back on. That is not impossible. It is something you may never have thought could happen to you, but actions and tasks that were intuitive such as proper switch position may not be intuitive now. The answer is to perform the action only once when it is called for on the checklist. You can’t go wrong that way.
IMPROVE YOUR USE OF THE CHECKLIST by doing what the pros do. Read the checklist item or task out loud, respond that the action has been accomplished and then verify again that it is accomplished. This is called Challenge, response, response. It is not just for older pilots. It works for everyone and adds one more level of safety.
Many professionals use flow patterns and then follow them up with the checklist. If you still want to use this technique, then make sure that you point to each switch and light as you read it out loud and verify to yourself or your co-pilot that the light and switch are in the proper position and illuminating the proper color. VERIFY to yourself or the other pilot.
What do you think? seniorsflysafer@aol.com
LET’S CORECT ANY INACCURACIES IN ANYTHING YOU HAVE READ BY WRITING IN TO: seniorsflysafer@aol.com We don’t want any misinformation going out. Consult with a CFI before changing procedures. If it ain’t broke-Don’t fix it!!
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