{"id":3206,"date":"2015-01-09T07:08:46","date_gmt":"2015-01-09T15:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=3206"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","slug":"121-sterile-cockpit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/121-sterile-cockpit\/","title":{"rendered":"#121 The Sterile Cockpit"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the last few years, the Acme Flying School has continued to encourage the squelching of pilot improvement by coming up with \u201cThe Sterile Cockpit\u201d.\u00a0 Naturally, this\u00a0concept began with the airline industry and has crept into federal aviation regulations.\u00a0 Seems like<\/h3>\n
\"_DSC2187<\/a>
“The concept of the \u201cSterile Cockpit\u201d originated with the airlines.” (Photo by Bert Garrison of First Officer Mike Newby)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

a pretty good idea when it is first considered.\u00a0 The concept is simple.\u00a0 Passengers are told to shut up and any conversation or activity not related to the takeoff or landing is not permitted while the aircraft is taking off, landing or involved in any \u201ccritical phase\u201d of flight.\u00a0 This sterility of the cockpit environment is designed to enable the pilot to concentrate on more demanding tasks without any distractions.<\/h3>\n

But it seems to me that this may be one more example of protecting modern pilots from their own shortcomings rather than increasing their skills.\u00a0 I recently performed a little test and put together a video of it which will appear on the Tailwheeler\u2019s Journal.\u00a0 Called \u201cDistractions\u201d, the video features my students, both primary and highly rated, landing the Cessna 140 while being distracted by my antics.\u00a0 One of my primaries is even blinded by a sunshade just as she is flaring.\u00a0 She bats the shade away from her face with total aplomb and the landing is completed pretty well. A flight instructor is shown on the approach, stating \u201cif you\u2019re trying to distract me, it\u2019s not going to work\u201d, just as I clapped a motion picture slate on his nose.\u00a0 His landing was pulled off pretty well.<\/h3>\n
\"Brian<\/a>
With the Wescam 182 equipped with a sensor for the Navy contract.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I flew for L3 Wescam, I was faced with distractions of a new intensity.\u00a0 Seated next to a camera operator and equipped with a small screen in front of me, I was expected to fly the plane and keep the gear out of the shot, while communicating with ATC, listening to traffic and my operator, not to mention proper navigation of the aircraft.\u00a0 I think it was some of the best training I ever had.<\/h3>\n

Later, I would find that as a glider pilot<\/h3>\n
\"DSC04614\"<\/a>
Flying the Sunriver Soaring 2-32 required a constant patter… sort of like being a pilot, tour guide and flight instructor all rolled up in one. No “sterile cockpit” here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

conducting aerial tours, I\u2019d have to deal with the landing and takeoff of that glider, preparing for possible emergencies while simultaneously describing the operation being undertaken and functioning as a tour pilot. I don\u2019t believe that such division of attention was asking too much and I certainly don\u2019t think it would have been appropriate to insist on a \u201csterile cockpit\u201d during takeoffs and landings. More importantly, I don\u2019t believe that my passengers were ever endangered by their pilot\u2019s attention to several details at the same time.<\/h3>\n

My point is that, instead of protecting air crews from distractions, perhaps we should be better preparing them to deal with those distractions.<\/h3>\n

Now, before you grab your pitchforks and light your torches, let me say that I\u2019m not talking about airliners.\u00a0 I\u2019m talking about general aviation pilots.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not asking that an undertrained pilot undertake an activity that he can\u2019t handle.\u00a0 I am saying that such a pilot ought to be trained to handle common distractions without falling apart.\u00a0 If such a pilot really must have a sterile cockpit in order to concentrate on that incredibly difficult landing or takeoff, maybe we ought to design some training scenarios which will help that pilot to deal with the common distractions that will arise.\u00a0 After all, didn\u2019t aviators invent \u201cmulti-tasking\u201d?<\/h3>\n

We don\u2019t have a lot of primary students here at Tailwheel Town.\u00a0 But the ones we do are normally familiarized with cockpit distractions, landing in a turn, dead stick landings and even formation flight BEFORE they solo.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have all the answers when it comes to teaching flight.\u00a0 But I do have THAT one!<\/h3>\n

Happy (distracted) Swooping!<\/h3>\n

Brian<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last few years, the Acme Flying School has continued to encourage the squelching of pilot improvement by coming up with \u201cThe Sterile Cockpit\u201d.\u00a0 Naturally, this\u00a0concept began with the airline industry and has crept into federal aviation regulations.\u00a0 Seems like a pretty good idea when it is first considered.\u00a0 The concept is simple.\u00a0 Passengers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,162,171,174],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}