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Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 01:50:41 -0500
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Subject: RE: [LML] Re: Runway checks, passes, flybys
Thread-Topic: [LML] Re: Runway checks, passes, flybys
Thread-Index: AcYfIy/en5Im4gkpT+OrJ+bCjBAFBgAOZ2xw
From: "Chuck Jensen" <cjensen@dts9000.com>

Just another take on the safety issue of hi-speed, lo-alt passes.  The
safety compromise associated with such passes may not be excessive given
familiarity with the facility, proper call outs and all, but to do so
consistently calls into question attitude, rather than safety.

A local pilot had a habit of doing hi-lo's at a local airport (only
incidentally, it was in a Lancair).  When he wasn't doing that, he was
'screaming' up and back the grass strip on a pocket-rocket that turned
about 10,000 rpms.  Despite admonitions from fellow pilots, friend and
foe alike, to knock it off, he just didn't see what was wrong.

Subsequently, this pilot spent several months in the hospital and his
passenger spent three days in a funeral home.  Was the high speed pass
his undoing?  No, but his attitude may have been.  After doing some
significant engine work (himself) and (allegedly) without a checkout
flight, took a passenger on a hop around the circuit.  Downwind the
engine ran rough, then quit.  It turned out that 24 inches was the
difference between life and death--literally.  That's how far he was
from clearing the rock abutment on the end of the runway were it drops
off a few feet to the river. =20

There may not be a regulation against high speed passes, there may not
be a regulation against doing significant engine work with minimal
qualification, there may not be a regulation against taking a passenger
on the first flight after important maintenance, but then, there isn't a
regulation against dying either.  I submit the attitude that provoked
one behavior parlayed into a more deadly one. =20

Attitude and decision-making (fully inter-related) has a far greater
effect on the safe outcome of a flight than does pilot skills.

Chuck Jensen