Knowledge, Proficiency, and Culture
Part 3
By Greg Gremminger
Knowledge
You can’t make good decisions without a good understanding of the knowledge issues involved. What are the issues and limiting factors in the aircraft’s safe flight envelope, and why? Try to understand or find someone to thoroughly explain the full issues of PIO, Bunt-Over, Precession Stalls, Horizontal Stabilizers, etc. Don’t just dismiss these issues as just for the technical types. You can’t make good decisions about some very basic things unless you understand the issues of what, why and when!
Ultralight Training:
We all appreciate the ability in our country to fly under the ultralight rules. This is a great thing. You don’t really even need to take a written, oral or flight test – a great freedom! But that doesn’t mean we still don’t need to take the time to learn all the basic principles and issues with flying gyros – written resources, ground school and face-to-face ground instruction. This includes a thorough understanding and application of Aviation Decision Making tools and principles. Just because we don’t like rules or regulations or limitations, doesn’t mean they aren’t important – to your own safety – and important to your friends and loved ones. You owe that to yourself and to them. They are proud of you, and they want you to succeed in your ambitions. A way you can best assure their pride and your success is to take the time to learn everything you need to know to make good decisions. Take ground instruction seriously. Recognize that you probably don’t even know what you don’t know! Take the time necessary to get all the exposure to gyro issues you can - so you at least know more of the questions to ask.
Transition Training:
Already rated pilots who are transitioning to gyros also need exposure to the special issues with gyro flight. These not only include mastering the different flight characteristics and capabilities, but they include a thorough understanding and appreciation of the stability and control and wind and speed issues with gyros. They also include an understanding of the particular misleading airplane analogies that don’t apply to gyros – and why! They include the often unappreciated skills development to fly at or near the limits of the safe flight envelope for that particular gyro – and why! They also include a thorough appreciation and understanding of the differences in control characteristics and why and when those might occur. “Pre-rated” pilots also may have not even been introduced to the tools and principles of ADM. ADM has only been a part of the FAA curriculum for 5 or 6 years. And, just because a rated pilot had studied ADM for an earlier rating, doesn’t mean they understand the particular hazards and knowledge issues associated with this different form of flight. At least a refresher is in order. ADM should be taken seriously, especially as it appears it could have prevented most gyro fatal accidents.
Instructors:
Instructors, we should be requiring and spending quality time with our students making sure they have mastered the tools and principles of ADM, and that they have developed habits to apply them. This applies to ultralight students, transition students, as well as to those studying or a gyro rating. Our students should be able to make good decisions. To do that, they also need good ground training on all the technical and safety issues related to gyros. There is no reason we should not be assuring that any student has the knowledge and tools to at least pass the FAA written test on ADM. To make good decisions in their sport gyro pursuits, they need a thorough grounding on all gyro safety issues – the foundation on which good decisions are made. Instructors should place restrictions on solo flights consistent with that student’s proficiency and knowledge of the issues. When limitations are placed on a student’s flight conditions, the student should thoroughly understand why that limitation is important. These are not subjects that can be properly covered in an hour or two of hangar talk.
Proficiency
The individual pilot’s understanding of his/her own proficiency to fly that particular gyro, to fly that particular gyro in these particular conditions, is vital to that pilot making a good decision to do so. In so many fatal accidents, it appears to be just this mis-understanding or poor assessment of their own proficiency level that has contributed to the bad decision that ended in that pilot’s demise!
A full appreciation of one’s own capabilities and proficiency level is fundamental to making a good decision to fly in that gyro, in that situation. Very often that full appreciation is faulty – or why did that pilot make a decision to fly in that gyro in that situation where his/her skills were obviously deficient.
Why is this so? I believe this is so because of a common lack of appreciation that almost every different configuration of gyro flies differently – requires different skills and different skill levels. Even the same gyro can fly differently in different corners of its flight envelope – speed, power loading! More so than in most other types of aircraft, this is the case in gyros. But, from mis-applied airplane analogies, from limited performance capabilities of past or more basic gyros, and from observations of other experienced pilots, often the misleading impression is that, because I’m comfortable with my gyro in these (moderate) conditions, there’s no reason I can’t push the envelope or fly a different gyro OK. That’s just wrong. In the same way a pilot who has only flown a light Cessna would not even consider getting into a Pitts Special alone, the gyro pilot should not assume their skills are adequate for all other gyros or even for pushing the flight envelope in the one gyro they might feel familiar with.
Different gyros fly differently:
The reasons why different gyros can fly much differently from other gyros, requiring much different skills and proficiency levels, are very technical. But, just looking at all the various gyro configurations, certainly you can assume they must have much different handling characteristics. They have different response rates, they have different dampening factors, and they have different inertial airframe and rotor responses. Also, realize that our gyros are not certificated; they do not have to pass any standard flight characteristics or control handling flight standards – as certified aircraft do. The FAA classifies certified aircraft according to some common
and required control characteristics – Normal, Utility or Aerobatic categories. The FAA does this so that a pilot, most any pilot, can get into another airplane of that category and expect to have the proficiency skills to safely fly that other airplane. There is no such guaranteed consistency in our very experimental gyros. Our gyros, so far, do not have even agreed-upon standard criteria to define some common set of flight handling and control characteristics. Without getting too technical, suffice it to say many gyros fly differently from other gyros, and the skills to fly one type may not apply to another type of gyro without significant additional proficiency development. It is important for making good decisions to thoroughly appreciate this and why this is so.
Some gyros fly differently at high speeds:
Perhaps even more insidious is the fact that the same gyro can have dramatically different control and handling characteristics AND proficiency requirements just by flying faster, or with more power. The reason for this is also very technical, but it has a lot to do with the gyro not being a fixed-wing aircraft. The analogy that an airplane flies pretty much the same at 100 mph as it does at 70 mph is misleading. Because a gyro is not a fixed-wing aircraft, the flight proficiency required to fly that gyro at 70 can be very different from the well-practiced skills required at 55 mph. Dramatic changes can occur in the stabilizing properties and response rates to pilot and wind transients. These different characteristics can be so dramatic as to be the difference between safe flight at 55 mph and a fatality at 70 mph. It is important for making good decisions to thoroughly appreciate this - and also why. Many a gyro pilot, comfortable with flying at a certain speed in familiar conditions, has met their Maker at just a few mph higher airspeed in that same familiar gyro! It is important that we all understand and appreciate what gyro configurations and conditions can lead to such dramatic proficiency shortfalls and accidents.
Gyros behave differently in wind:
Another too often over-looked proficiency issue is flying in wind turbulence. Gyros have a very dramatic range of control and response characteristics in turbulent winds. Some gyro configurations are simply unsafe in turbulent winds of any significance – pilot proficiency in that particular gyro is critically important. Some gyro configurations can handle winds with little pilot concern or intervention. The reason for this is also very technical. Airplanes can have a wide spread of degrees of self-correction and stabilization to transient disturbances. But gyros, because of some very important physical attributes that too many people dispute or don’t understand, can be several times even more diverse in these safety/stability characteristics. Some gyro configurations can be much safer, more insensitive and more self-correcting to very turbulent conditions than any other comparable aircraft type. But, some gyro design configurations can be treacherously much worse, requiring skill levels that even many experienced gyro pilots do not have. To make a good decision on perhaps flying in windy conditions, it is imperative that the pilot recognize, understand and fully appreciate the wind turbulence characteristics of their gyro and of their pilot proficiency abilities to handle that wind. If you are not sure of either your machine’s or your personal capabilities, if any doubting thoughts arise, that should be an obvious “Red Flag” to consider that decision very, very closely – preferable a decision not to test your skills.
What are my safe flight safety envelope limits? How do I recognize them? A good suggestion on how to make a good decision on these issues is to ask yourself the following “Red Flag” questions:
• Am I an experienced pilot? – This means more than just a couple hundred hours flying in moderate conditions only.
• Are the conditions beyond what I have significant experience flying in?
• Are the characteristics and capabilities of my gyro questionable under these conditions? If there is controversy on the subject or on that gyro configuration, the characteristics and capabilities ARE “questionable”!
• Have others cautioned me against flying in these conditions?
• Do I understand why my flight in these conditions is questioned or questionable? If I don’t understand why, I probably don’t have the knowledge elements necessary to make a good decision on this issue.
All of the above questions should be “Red Flags” that in most situations should result in a decision not to fly in those conditions. For these issues, good planning has no “what if” options to plan for. The nature of PIO and other pitch/stability issues is that it is already too late when you discover your plan isn’t working!
Culture
Gyro Patriarchs:
Those of us to whom others look to for advice and confidence have a special obligation. We must help others of less experience to appropriately appreciate the safety issues they are facing. If we are preserving an antiquated culture that, either consciously or inadvertently, dismisses the real challenges for neophytes, we should take steps to correct that culture. The ease with which we fly our gyros, the maneuvers we “WOW” the crowd with, may leave unduly dangerous images and perceptions on which others might base poor decisions. If we present flying examples that tempt emulation by the lesser informed and skilled, we must take the extra steps to ensure those same people recognize that these performances are not safely emulated by the less experienced. And, if we might be somehow influencing or endorsing neophytes to dismiss safety issues or good practices or requirements, we have the duty to change our ways. The continuation of deaths and grief in our sport is testimony to people who were somehow influenced to ignore, or were deprived of, the knowledge and cautions to make good decisions that may have prevented their demise. Just because we personally might have survived our own neophyte days without meeting our Maker, that is no reason that the people who look to us for example and guidance should be influenced to take more risks than are necessary. The patriarchs in our sport have this special obligation to look after and help those whom we have influenced to join this sport.
