From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Subject: Re: Locked on the Controls (was GLiding instruction)
Organization: Geoffrey G. Peck, Consultant, San Jose CA
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 05:20:15 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.204218.9950@microsoft.com> t-dougf@microsoft.com
(Douglas Fields) writes:
> What about unlocking a CFI from the controls? The other day I was flying
> over Puget sound near the canadian border over water at 6500, when all of
> a sudden I see a floatplane on a perpendicular course not 20' above me
> and perhaps 500' away. God knows why we didn't see him, but I let out a
> suprised something (it was incoherent) and slammed on the controls to
> dive out of the way. My instructors reaction was to stop looking out the
> window and pull back just as hard on the controls. ARGH!

Hmmm.  Well, did the instructor see the floatplane at all?  If he saw it, did
he offer an estimate as to how far away it might have been, and whether or
not it was actually on a collision course?  Did you two talk about what had
happened afterwards, on the ground?  Such a conversation might have been
most enlightening.

GA cockpits do have a nasty tendency to have obstructions which can interfere
with effective scanning, and either or both of you might not have been moving
around enough to have seen around some of these obstructions to see the
floatplane.  If you both can remember what you were doing, you might be able
to figure out what blind spot the floatplane came out of.

One of the sad statistics which instructors should know is that a
disproportionately high number of mid-air collisions occur during dual
instructional flights with a CFI on board.  This is because such flights
frequently operate in high-traffic areas, and instructors unfortunately have
a tendency to focus on the student, inside the cockpit, rather than on
scanning for traffic outside.

While your quick evasive maneuver is to be applauded, "slamming" the controls
is in general a bad idea.  You may just have chosen the wrong word here --
prompt action *is* a good idea, but slamming controls can actually cause
control linkage and/or airframe failure.  If indeed you slammed the controls,
perhaps it was this to which your instructor was reacting adversely?

> So, after I regained my composure, about 500 feet down, and spoke
> coherently that there was a seaplane not 20' above us, he said, "You
> have a lot to learn about crew concept."

As another poster said, your instructor, too, might have something to learn
about cockpit coordination, or, if you prefer, cockpit resource management.
You were the pilot flying.  You took whatever actions you felt were necessary
at the time.  He, the pilot not flying, should have queried you as to your
actions, and should only have taken over if you did something which was
potentially threatening to the safety of flight.  ("Slamming" controls would,
in my book, count as such a life-threatening action.)  In any case, if he
felt that a life-threatening maneuver had just been initiated by you, he
should have said "my airplane!" as he took control from you.  There are many
sad stories of ex-airplanes which tried to pay attention to two pilots while
landing.  Airplanes aren't too good about sorting out conflicting inputs.

However, you, too, can learn from this.  You said that you uttered a
surprised, incoherent something when you spotted the traffic.  Clearly, it
would have been better for you to have said "traffic two o'clock," or just
"traffic!" while pointing in the right direction, as you began your avoidance
maneuver.  Then the instructor wouldn't have been alarmed, and you, too,
might have been slightly less alarmed.

> But seriously, who would think of meeting a floatplane at 6500' in the
> middle of nowhere? :)

Always expect the Spanish Inquisition.  Oops.  I mean always look for
traffic.  It can come out of Nowhere.  (Is that Nowhere, Illinois?  Or
was that Normal, Illinois?  Nevermind.)

						Geoff
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