A Passion for Flying...Where are Aviation Safety Ethics Today

Sammy Mason of the Hollywood Hawks

Flight Instruction—Part 3-

Our days at the Santa Paula airport, getting on the airport with our bicycles, observing and asking questions to pilots and aircraft owners were a direct result of the early days of aviation culture.

Let’s look at the origins of flight instruction.

Flight instruction started out for most people when they learned to fly after they bought a plane. They would take instruction after they saw barnstormers who crossed the country, took a ride and realized the advantages of flying above the terrain.

Farmers, ranchers, and businessmen were all enchanted with the idea of getting from point “A” to point “B” when they wanted, weather permitting.

This led to flight instruction that consisted of getting just enough flying time with an experienced pilot to know the controls and learn how to get the aircraft aloft, and return to earth. Most of the time the experienced pilots would jump out and solo a prospective pilot, not so much when the newbies were ready, but for self-preservation.

Better flight instruction and aviation would have perhaps progressed more rapidly during the period of 1910 to 1920 if there had not been World War I.

Some might argue this point but German aviation records show that the average pilot’s time aloft as a fighter pilot lasted only 14 days. When they were shot down, or killed in action. This may have elevated the need for flight instruction to make new replacement pilots every two weeks but did not sufficiently explain aerodynamics in a manner whereby the pilot might experience the result of aerodynamics.

Many of the maneuvers developed during the conflict were to avoid being shot down, quick instincts appeared to be thwarted by jammed guns, engine and structural failures, fires and so on.

World War II flight instruction was developed in a more systematic manner developed with a pause in war between 1917 and the late 1930s (in Europe).

Knowing  that air superiority was just as, and in some cases more important the that of ruling the oceans the U.S. developed flight programs for every aspect of military planning.

The regime of flight instruction was based on some solid recognition of aeronautics, and a lot of interest in speed, weapons, and delivery of explosives. So in a nutshell the military approach required some expertise or at least some exposure to pushing the envelope both in speed and payload.

In short American pilots were getting trained using a syllabus, and practical experience with knowledgeable flight instructors who had flight experience in less capable aircraft, thus the knowledge of how far to push the envelope, and once busted how to return to manageable flying.

Cases in point are the test pilots of the Sammy Mason era, who knew how to fly out of an aircraft’s negative characteristics by a thorough understanding of aerodynamics (a lot of altitude and a bit of luck). They knew what a good flying machine was, and what a bad machine with some flying characteristics they should beware of.

History shows us that the first Civil Aeronautics Administration leader came from the Army Air Corp, thus the strict regime of pilot training and regulations directly after WWII.

Today there are few instructors that will routinely approach spinning an aircraft without a lot of altitude, parachutes and a few Hale Mary’s before the flight. The reason is that they are only biding their time to build flight hours, move on and fly commercially by climbing the ladder from First Officer to Pilot in Command (PIC). Besides the regulations now don’t require it…

Basically their cop out, or shall we say the system’s ability to allow this cowardly approach to teaching physics has created FAA certified flight baby sitters.

So the FAA had to create Practical Test Standards to guideline certain areas and regulations necessitating demonstration to a designated pilot examiner before achieving a new authorization or license.

Strangely spinning an aircraft has been left out of basic maneuvers and not a requirement to become a flight instructor (unless you fail an oral and practical test to identify the incipient stages of a stall spin). The PTS has served only to create “Aviation Ego Gods” of Designated Pilot Examiners beyond reproach not better pilots, but better rule followers.

This comes at a time when FAA and NTSB statistics show that the increasing and overwhelming cause of accidents among Part 91 and General Aviation accidents and incidents nationally on take-off and landing, are categorized as a “loss of control” by the pilot.

What an embarrassment to those test pilots, instructors and CFIs of the past who mentored, watched advised and policed their apprentices until they earned wings of flight knowledge.

More soon in part 4-