A
Letter To My Former Coworkers
...a.k.a. my RV Safety
Culture Document / Creed / Personal Code ,etc.
[ed. If you've ever seen the movie 'Office Space', I worked
in a similar environment for over a decade. As a matter of
fact, ten minutes into the movie you can see the actual building
I worked in (pic). I've done this site
full time now since April of '07, and keep in close
touch with several of my former coworkers. They are great
friends, and some have become pilots. A few have even started building RVs.
This article is written with them in mind, but
could be appreciated by any person I
may have influenced into RVating over the years. ]
Rob, Scott, Steve and Shawn,
Being the
original 'airplane guy' in the I.T. Department was fun. I'm
honored you got your pilot licenses and started building
your own RVs after watching me build and fly mine. Since
you have the same computer/business background as me (non-military /
non-airline), and since I'm now about a decade further down the
road from you in flying experience, I'd like to take a moment to
jot down some thoughts on how my flying style has changed over
the last decade. How I have become much more conservative
and safety oriented in my flying.
As you
remember, I took a vacation day from the office to witness the
first flight of my RV-6. A few days later I flew it myself
and thought I was Bob Flippin Hoover. That was in
September of 2002. I may have come across as knowing it all there in the office.
Looking back, I now know that was just for show.
It turns out I didn't know what I didn't know. I've
learned so much over these last 1,000 hours in my 'experimental' taildragger that
I'd like to offer you some advice as a friend. I hope
you'll take it in the spirit it is offered. You are an
important part of my life, and I want to have you around for as long as
possible.
Over the
course of the last decade hanging around with ex-military types
and 30,000+hr airline pilots, and listening to how they talk,
fly and act, I have gravitated towards a more conservative
flying mindset. It is said the rules that airline and military
pilots fly by are written in blood. What I've come to realize
is that how I act around you might influence how you think about
flying.
How I fly around you will influence you, also.
Will some of
you be put off by what I'm about to say? I hope not, but
probably.
Will asking you to fly more conservatively save your life someday?
Probably not, but I tried.
So, on with
the list of my current personal limits....
Things I no longer do while flying small, single engine airplanes:
No single
engine night flying
The law allows it. My comfort level now doesn't.
A single engine dead stick landing in the dark isn’t
something I want in my (or your) logbook. I
have ex-military friends with hundreds of night carrier
landings that won't fly their RV at night. What do
they know that I, a simple cube worm, don't?
That 10,000' runway over at KAFW with high intensity lights
is a nothinburger at night. The tiny, barely-lit
runway back at my home field, the one I have to return to,
can be dicey.
No
flying in clothes that melt (polyester,
nylon, fleece) Due to the nature of this job, I'm inclined to
think I log more takeoffs and landings
than the average GA pilot. So, I'm around more avgas and
1300°F exhaust pipes than most. Most days since about
mid-2011 I wear blue jeans and a long sleeve Nomex racing
undershirt as my flying
uniform.
If the undershirt is in the wash a long sleeve cotton shirt
will do. Just as often I wear a Nomex flight suit with
various cotton things underneath. Nomex gloves on all
flights
and cotton or Nomex socks.
Leather shoes. When I get out of the plane I change back into normal
clothes, usually before the chocks are under the wheels.
The backside of the fingers on the gloves are useful for
wiping the dust off the EFIS screens. What I'm getting
at is it's not a hassle.
My flying clothes...
Cotton
long-sleeved shirt, Nomex gloves, long pants. Passenger
same....
Beats burning to death or needing a trailer load of cadaver skin
if I have to crawl through some flame to safety. Sorry to be so
macabre about it, but there it is, mate. Cold-blooded
arithmetic - the degree of damage to your skin vs. time
exposed to flame. Physics wins.
It has been my experience that passengers appreciate
the extra protection. Their thinking is "Hey, this
cat put all this thought into his outfit, he's probably
looking after the plane with the same mindset".
I went to college with a guy that was in a propane delivery
truck fire when he was younger. Couldn't get out of
the truck for about twenty seconds - lost four of his
fingers in the process along with most of the skin on his
arms. And his ears. Twenty seconds. One of my high school
friends died from burns received in a car crash when we were
seniors - was wearing a nylon jacket that melted to his
upper torso.
Playing guitar is a big
part of my life, and keeping my fingers means a lot to me. Make fun of me if
you want, but I'm wearing Nomex gloves. On. Every. Flight.
If you want to be my passenger, you're in similar gear or
you're staying on the ground. You want to fly
around naked noo noos with 40 gallons of avgas all around
you, be my guest. Go get your own plane.
I don't wear these clothes to pretend I'm Maverick or
Iceman
and I don't have patches or a name tag. Google '3rd
degree burns' and click on Images. While
you're at it, Google 'skin grafts' and click on Images. Yep, I've had more than one friend
burn to death or need massive grafts. This ain't the
Colleyville Women's Club playing bridge...it's life or death in a
heartbeat if things goes to shit.
Passengers are given a set of
extra gloves I keep in the plane and I have a spare
long sleeve cotton shirt in the flight bag. I don’t
sugarcoat things. "Those are fuel lines running under our
knees...and that one over there, just under your right knee,
is pressurized. I don't anticipate any problems, but
it never hurts to be better prepared."
Our son, 12-yr old at the time of the pic below, has 'flying clothes' that he keeps on the
shelf ready and waiting: long sleeve cotton shirt, long
pants, cotton socks, cotton baseball cap and Nomex gloves. He thinks they are cool. He's right.
My son
Tate doing it right.
My stance on fire-resistant clothing cemented itself during
2011 - a
blog
I followed on Amanda Franklin's recovery efforts really was an eye
opener. She was taken off life support on 5/26/2011,
after a two month long fight. Rest in Peace, Amanda.
No high
speed low passes down the runway I'm mortified to say I've done this a couple of times,
albeit around eight years ago. Never again.
I was an idiot. I've seen planes do it occasionally,
in the 1-2 foot range, scaring up
flocks of birds that missed the plane (and the pilot's head)
by inches. 50' is perfectly acceptable I think (for
scaring off deer, etc).
An A&P/IA
does my yearly inspection I'm not an airplane mechanic (and neither are you).
I’m no longer comfortable betting my life on what I think
looks right. While it is legal for
me to do these inspections…I now choose not to. I take
all the panels off, pull the cowl and give a good look using
the checklist, then my
A&P/IA comes over for a few hours. He always finds something I missed.
A few hundred bucks to have a professional look over my
shoulder is money well spent by this former cube worm.
My wife thinks so, too.
You guys were always higher up in the org chart than me and
have fewer kids, so
I know you can afford it.
An A&P/IA
supervises (or does) all my FWF work It’s the part of the build with the least amount of
documentation (as you are finding out), and I am legally
allowed to do 100% of it. However, I’m leaving that
also to the professionals. I don't touch a thing, or
button it back up, without the O.K. of my A&P/IA.
"Hey, just changed the oil. Can you come over here for
five minutes and give everything a look see before I button
it up? Lunch is on me." Sometimes it's as simple
as that.
Do I know more about aircraft engines than him? (No)
Am I willing to bet my life on it? (No!)
The lives of my wife and children? (No!!!)
A reliable engine is ‘life’, and I've had a couple go stupid on
me in the last two decades. It will change your
whole outlook when/if it happens. I don’t skimp or get too ‘experimental’.
I don’t
fly in aircraft that have engines in them that they weren't
designed for (i.e. car engines in RVs) And I don't drive cars powered by aircraft engines,
either. I admire those gearheads, but I'm not one.
No long,
solo direct legs without flight following Steve Fossett. You remember surfing the news stories
there at the office.
No
listening to LOUD music in congested airspace. If you want it on
softly in the background, awesome. Just make sure you
can hear my radio call over it.
No Releasing the Seat Belt
in Flight Not to reach for something in the baggage area.
Not to take a pee. Not for anything. Turbulence
happens, and the consequences can be fatal.
30
minutes of VFR fuel is not enough I flight plan for 60 minutes. You should too.
These gauges aren't accurate enough to bet your life on it.
No
massive, multi-element
formations. No formation acro for me. It both looks and sounds amazing, but gargantuan formations are
too risky for my comfort level now. I am qualified - have a
F.A.S.T. formation card in the wallet
that I got through the Globe Swift gang located on my field.
These days I stick to smaller 1-3 element formation flights for
proficiency, with people whose flying skills I am completely
familiar with. No impulsive formation flights without a proper and thorough briefing.
Absolutely no formation acro at all for me, thank you.
You guys go have a blast though. I did it for a
bit...too much risk for me.
Why the turnaround? The answer came, for me, with a
little research. Professional, full time,
recognized-as-the-best-of-the-best military aerobatic teams
like the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds and Snowbirds, with hand picked
members, no propellers and sitting on ejection seats......bump and trade paint on a
surprisingly regular basis. They practice
their routines full time. Some
have died over the years - more than you would think.
Case in point: The link above lists (17) crash entries
for the Snowbirds. Of those seventeen, twelve resulted
in either ejection and/or death.
RVs don't 'bump and trade paint' very well at all
(propellers / no ejection seat).
Color me impressed at the skill set, but politely passing on
the offer. When I see the mass flights go over at
air shows I'm whistling as loud as everybody else...but I'm also saying a
quick prayer (and am positioned well away from the flight
line).
Instrument rating
Obtained 10/13/2015. Very, very light IFR is the
plan.
No turning a blind
eye: If I witness you blatantly
breaking the FARs
in the USA, I will tactfully bring it to your attention and
ask you nicely to please not do it again. If I see you
doing the same thing a second time I will report you to the
authorities. When you signed that pilot card in your wallet you
agreed to fly by the rules. Do I care that you flew 400' from a cloud base
instead of 500', or didn't enter a pattern precisely on a
45° angle, or any other number of perfectly honest, safe and
innocent 'violations'? I honestly could not care one
rat's @ss. Now, do I
care that you made (6) 200mph low passes 12 inches over your friend's car parked on the taxiway
(with people standing next to it)
while giving folks on the ramp the finger each time?
All while three student pilots were in the pattern?
I'll let you decide.
Nearly everyone has a video camera on their phone now.
The
proof will be concrete, will show real endangerment to bystanders and
will be indisputable.
If you post a video of
yourself blatantly breaking the FARs
somewhere and link to it in my forums, I will delete the
post and call you on it (same promise as above). When you post blatantly illegal flying
on my site (and later crash) you put me and my family in the
legal crosshairs of a grieving spouse. Google's cache
feature is forever....deleted thread or not. When you
broadcast it to the world instead of privately doing it over
some private field in the sticks by yourself you've created
a whole new animal.
BTW, I won't need to call anybody.
Dozens of FAA I.P.
addresses access these forums on a daily basis. The addresses resolve to Washington DC. I also have a couple of
friends who work for the FAA (one at HQ in DC) and they tell
me they visit the site every single day (one has a RV).
If you post videos of yourself violating FARs in the U.S.A.
you are putting nails in your own coffin, dumbass. The feds will most likely see it before
I do. With these hard-nose rules I’m trying to keep folks
from INCRIMINATING THEMSELVES. But, like the comedian
Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid."
I’ll go one further and make you a deal. If you won’t post videos of yourself
blatantly violating the FARs in my place of business (while
trying to guilt me into not reporting it)……then I won’t put a TV
showing a video loop of me robbing a liquor store in the
lobby of your place of business, while asking you for the same
leniency. Deal? Swell.
U.S.A. FAR violations I
DO NOT want to see posted in my
forums:
Video of acro with a
passenger and no chutes
(I know it's a dumb reg
with a tip up canopy,
but it's the rule on the books right now and we have to
live with it)
Dodging in and out of
clouds when it's obvious you're VFR.
High speed, dangerously low
low low passes (Do you
really think there is no difference
between 5 inches vs 50 feet at 200mph on a crowded
airport? Really?)
Acro where you can see
dozens of houses in the shot.
You can
probably tell by the bullet points above that I don't sell
airplanes for a living. I don't spin this hobby as one
where you can't get hurt. This sh*t can kill you in
five seconds (source). It is the most amazing and
satisfying hobby I've found. You have to try pretty hard to die on a golf
course, or fishing.
While flying small planes, it takes no effort at all with the
wrong mindset.
With the right attitude, and admitting
that you just might not know what you don't know, you can
minimize that risk to a surprisingly small percentage. I'm
taking steps, active steps that all can see, to hopefully fly
safely into my late 70's or early 80's. I'd like you to do the same for
me.
A link to
this document now exists in my email auto-signature and in the
profile of all the online boards I visit. I encourage you
to create your own RV Safety Culture Document and link to it in everything you do online.
We as a group need to spread the words 'RV Safety Culture' around
a LOT more, and lead
by example.
If I do
something stupid or dangerous, I expect you to call me on it.
Friends for (hopefully a long) life,
Doug
Doug Reeves www.VansAirForce.net
RV-6 N617AR (first flight Sept. 2002).
Private pilot since 1996. ~1,500hrs TT.
Being the
original 'airplane guy' in the I.T. Department was fun. I'm
honored you got your pilot licenses and started building
your own RVs after watching me build and fly mine. Since
you have the same computer/business background as me (non-military /
non-airline), and since I'm now about a decade further down the
road from you in flying experience, I'd like to take a moment to
jot down some thoughts on how my flying style has changed over
the last decade. How I have become much more conservative
and safety oriented in my flying.
If you post videos of yourself violating FARs in the U.S.A.
you are putting nails in your own coffin, dumbass. The feds will most likely see it before
I do. With these hard-nose rules I’m trying to keep folks
from INCRIMINATING THEMSELVES. But, like the comedian
Ron White says, "You can't fix stupid."
