Flying - December 2016

MASTERING GO-AROUNDS
SIRIUSXM PORTABLE WEATHER RECEIVER / VISUAL APPROACHES
F I R S T
WE GO INSIDE
L O O K :
T H E W O R L D S M O S T T E C H N O L O G I C A L LY
G U L F S T R E A M
ADVANCED BUSINESS JET
SINCE 1927
G 5 0 0
PILOT DECISION-MAKING
BEYOND BLACK OR WHITE
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE

S O M E T H I N G F O R E V E R Y AV I AT O R O N Y O U R L I S T
ACTIVE
WINGLET
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is based on preliminary data and subject to change.
Features
DECEMBER 2016
VOLUME 143 -- ISSUE 12
40
FIRST LOOK: GULFSTREAM G500
Take a tour inside the worlds most technologically advanced
business jet.
P H O T O S BY M AT T ST E P H A N
48
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
Tis the season to splurge on your aviator friends and
family members.
By Flying Staff
56
THE GO-AROUND
A practical look at why pilots struggle to determine when and how
to abandon an approach.
By Rob Mark
The Gulfstream G500 cabin test

airplane took time out from its
busy certification flight schedule
for an air-to-air photo mission in
the skies over coastal Georgia.
Photo by Matt Stephan
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 | F LY I N G M A G . C O M |
By Stephen Pope
ON THE COVER
Departments
DECEMBER 2016
VOLUME 143 -- ISSUE 12
10 Flying Inbox
Feedback from
our readers
14
14 Project
Notebook
Aviation news
and notes from the
editors desk
13 Tech
SiriusXM partners
with ForeFlight
How It Works
19 Chart Wise
In-depth explanation
of the nuances of
Jeppesen instrument charts
13
20 ILAFFT
A night flight over
the desert takes a
turn for the worse
24 Everything
Explained
The visual approach
66 In Depth
Ferry pilot
Margrit Waltzs
40-year career
16
Take a look at how ADS-B

technology is used to detect
and manage air traffic.
28 Pilots
Discretion
Decision-making
is never just black
and white
30 Atermath
Risk is only
chance called by
a different name
34 Taking
Wing
Homeward bound:
a New York
Christmas tale
80
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64 Unusual
Atitudes
An airborne traffic
patrol saga
70 Gear Up
The end of a
love affair
74 Jumpseat
Flying an
empty airplane
80 Technicalities
Drop test
82 Sign Of
Inside the Reno
air races
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08 On Course
Why you need
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On Course
Editors Letter
THE ADS-B MANDATE:

WHY YOU NEED A PLAN
ows this for an eyebrow-raising statistic:

Of the 160,000 or so U.S.-registered general
aviation airplanes that are candidates for
upgrades to meet the FAAs ADS-B mandate,
only about 23,000 have been equipped so far. Thats less
than 15 percent of the GA eet with three years left to go
before the deadline. Ouch.
The airlines and the military arent faring much better
than GA in terms of the total number of airplanes ying
with ADS-B avionics but unlike general aviation, both
have solid equipage plans in place. The airlines have
worked out a schedule with the FAA that will ensure
about 90 percent of the commercial jet eet is equipped
by the December 31, 2019, deadline. The Defense
Department admits all its airplanes wont be ready in
time, but Pentagon planners are working closely with
the FAA to keep military aircraft ying.
Its a diferent story with general aviation. There is no
comprehensive equipage plan. Its every aircraft owner
for him or herself and theres no contingency in place
for what happens with folks who miss the deadline.
The FAAs $500 ADS-B equipment rebate program is
having a positive efect in getting piston airplane owners
of the fence and at least thinking about making equipment investments. Thats the good news. So far, a couple
thousand have signed up for the rebates out of a pool of
checks that will be capped at 20,000 through next September. If every one of these rebate checks is claimed,
itll mean a respectable number of general aviation airplanes will be equipped for ADS-B by this time next year.
The vexing question is, will it leave enough time for the
rest of the GA eet to be upgraded before the deadline?
The answer is no but its a qualied no. Thats
because nobody really expects the owners of all GA airplanes to pony up for ADS-B equipment before January
1, 2020. Some will choose to y outside controlled airspace. Some will wait until after the deadline. And lets
face it, a certain number of airplanes remain on the FAA
Its every aircraft owner for

him or herself and theres no
contingency in place for what happens
with folks who miss the deadline.
registry but sit at airports with weeds growing up around

their cracked tires and fading paint.
So how many airplanes are we really talking about?
Nobody knows for sure, but estimates from the General
Aviation Manufacturers Association put the total at
somewhere between 90,000 and 100,000. These are aircraft that are own regularly in controlled airspace and
therefore can be reasonably expected to continue to
do so after the mandate. That leaves us with 50,000 or
so airplanes requiring ADS-B upgrades in the remaining two years before the deadline (assuming all 20,000
rebate checks are claimed). While this is a smaller number than we often hear, its still a daunting challenge.
If youre waiting to upgrade, heres sage advice: Go
claim your $500 rebate. Or if you must wait, do like the
airlines and the military and formulate an equipage plan
now. Call your avionics shop and ask if you can reserve
a slot on the calendar, even if you havent made up your
mind which ADS-B avionics to buy. Because once this
sadistic game of musical chairs ends, you dont want to
be among the unfortunate multitude who own airplanes
they cant y.
Editor-in-Chief
Michael Goulian, Champion Aerobatic
Air Race Pilot
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Inbox
Single-Pilot Tips
Readers chimed in with their tips for
pilots flying by themselves [Master
the Skills Needed to Safely Fly Alone,
Oct. 9, 2016].
FRANK DAMICO
MORNING FLIGHT
Caught this shot this morning, October 1, at 0745 before takeoff at Ogden
Airport in Ogden, Utah.
MARK KUETHER
10
The Substitute Copilot article [Jumpseat, October 2016]

really illustrates that even the
best airline pilots can easily
succumb to human limitations. While learning to fly, I
always considered overcoming
a minor distraction a good
sign of my skills. However,
I wondered if it was just my
novice perspective or if I really
performed well. This article
let me know that even the best
of the best can be thrown by
minor distractions and foibles.
DALE DOUGLAS
@thathelicopterguy
After 40 years of single-pilot 135 flying,

Id say dont fall asleep, have a good
radar, fly twins, and most of all, have
good maintenance by a mechanic that
checks every little thing!
BOB GARDNER
Flew alone for 10 years. Stay awake.

Dont fly tired. Dont choke on your food.
If you doubt yourself in any way, dont
go, or turn around. Develop SOPs for
yourself and memorize flows. And attach
after-takeoff and approach/final checks
someplace you can read without having
to grab a checklist.
SEND LETTERS TO:
Share your flying adventures

with #FlyingMagazine.
DA1PaL1GUO@U'CFO
AROOJ NASIM
AVIATORS
NEVER RETIRE
Its time you give this world a fully fledged, inexpensive

ultralight airplane [Project Notebook: Retirement
Dream, Oct. 10, 2016]. Aviators never retire. Happy
landings, Burt!
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TECH
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THE BEST OF WHATS NEW
HOW IT WORKS
SiriusXM is partner-
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UP TO SIX-HOUR
BATTERY LIFE
Project Notebook
By Pia Bergqvist
TECH
PROJECT NOTEBOOK
WE FLY
TAMARACKS ACTIVE WINGLETS
HOW IT WORKS
Tamaracks
active wingtip
extension and
winglet system
include TACS,
small tabs that
move to alleviate
stress on the
wing in high-load
conditions. The
performance
improvements
are dramatic.
T
14
amarack Aerospace is in the final stages of FAA certification for the first commercially viable installation
of its Active Technology Load Alleviation System
(ATLAS), which allows wingtip extensions with winglets to be installed without increasing the load on the wing. The
installation includes Tamarack Active Camber Surfaces (TACS) on
the outboard portions of the trailing edges of the wings. The TACS
automatically activate when additional load is put on the wing,
such as during turbulence or maneuvers that increase G-load.
The first STC for the system will go to the Cessna Citation 525
series: the CJ, CJ1, CJ1+ and M2. The system is already certified
in Europe and is available for installation there.
We had a chance to test out the system on the Citation CJ
that has been used for the certification effort. The performance
improvements are simply mind-blowing.
Before takeoff, Tamaracks founder and CEO Nick Guida opened
up the Citations performance software, CPCalc, to show me what
would be expected in an unmodified airplane for the conditions on
that day. It was the typical sunny Southern California day, with
a temperature on the ground of 28 degrees C. CPCalc told us it
would take one hour and 54 minutes to climb to FL 410, an altitude most CJ pilots are unfamiliar with, says former Cessna chief
pilot Kirby Ortega. Eleven minutes after takeoff from sea level, we
leveled off briefly at FL 230, then continued our climb. We made it
to 41,000 feet in just 34 minutes.
PERFORMANCE
DOMINO EFFECT
Because the airplane with
Tamaracks winglets can get
to altitude much more quickly,
the fuel burn decreases significantly, which in turn leads to a
reduction in the required fuel
load. As a result, the payload
capabilities increase as well.
Through extensive flight
testing, Tamarack has realized
a 15 to 25 percent decrease
in fuel burn. After two solid
hours of flying, which included
the climb to FL 410, we had
burned a total of 1,200 pounds
of fuel. Guida once set a record
when he flew the CJ for six
hours and 16 minutes, covering
1,853 nm. Another benefit,
says Guida, is an increase in
the service life of the airplane
as the stresses on the airframe
are reduced.
The system also improves

the lateral stability up high.
Guida told me to push a rudder
pedal and release to see how
the airplane would respond. It
oscillated back and forth six
or seven times before settling
back into stable, straight flight.
The initial cost for the
installation through Cessnas
Citation Service Centers is
$239,900. Tamarack has had
discussions with other OEMs
about offering ATLAS.
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AVIATION TECHNOLOGY MADE SIMPLE
TECH
HOW IT WORKS
utomatic dependent surveillancebroadcast is a GPS-based system meant

to replace the traditional radar-based
technology ATC has relied on for decades to
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GPS SATELLITES
16
AIRCRAFT EQUIPPED WITH

ADS-B OUT AVIONICS
ADS-B GROUND STATIONS
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
INFRASTRUCTURE
ACCURACY AND
EFFICIENCY
ADS-B relies on an
aircrafts GPS receiver to
determine highly
accurate position and
groundspeed information,
which it calculates by
receiving radio signals
from a network of satellites and comparing
the time stamp of when
those signals were sent
with the time stamp of
when they are received.
Aircraft then take this

GPS data and, along
with identification and
flight-status information,
transmit it to groundstation receivers using
a datalink transmitter in
the form of either a Mode
S transponder or a universal access transceiver.
This occurs automatically
a minimum of once every
second, compared with
the existing radar-based
system, which scans for
data once every five to 12
seconds, thus providing
a much more accurate
picture of the traffic
landscape at any given
time to ATC. According to
the FAA, this change will
allow ATC to reduce separation between aircraft
and implement more
efficient routing.
But this information isnt
just transmitted to
ATC; it is also shared
among aircraft. Aircraft
with ADS-B in capabilities
can receive this information either directly from
other aircraft or via the
ground stations, which
re-broadcast it along with
position data for nonADS-B-equipped aircraft
that have a transponder
and are within radar
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I L LUS T R AT I O N BY B RYA N C H R I S T I E D E S I G N
PROJECT NOTEBOOK
INSIDE ADS-B
Learjet 23
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ATC PHRASEOLOGY
To avoid confusion
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RNAV procedures they
are cleared straight
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clearance. Also, instead
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on the final approach
course and 3 miles or
more from the final
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CHARTWISE.
RNAV APPROACHES
The RNAV approach is a type of GPS-based procedure that is becoming ubiquitous in general aviation
as the FAA continues to roll it out at thousands of airports around the United States. If youre adept at
flying an ILS approach, RNAV LPV procedures (offering localizer performance with vertical guidance)
should be very familiar to you, since lateral and vertical deviations are identical at similar distances.
Have a look at the chart above to learn about the nuances of these types of satnav-based approaches.
LPV (LOCALIZER
PERFORMANCE
WITH VERTICAL
GUIDANCE)
The improved accuracy
of WAAS lateral and
vertical guidance
allows for ILS-like
LPV minimums. Pilots
fly to a DA, and the
angular guidance
provided increases
in sensitivity as the
aircraft gets closer to
the runway.
AFTERMATH
LNAV/VNAV
(LATERAL
NAVIGATION/
VERTICAL
NAVIGATION)
LNAV/VNAV uses
approved vertical
guidance offered by
WAAS- and approachcertified baro-VNAV
systems, with minimums published as a
decision altitude (DA).
PILOTS DISCRETION
RNAV EVERYWHERE
At last count, there
were 3,722 WAAS
LPV approaches in the
United States, serving
1,812 airports and
nearly 14,000 GPS
approaches in all. That
compares with around
1,300 ILS approaches.
EVERYTHING EXPLAINED
LNAV
(LATERAL
NAVIGATION)
LNAV provides only
lateral guidance with
no vertical information,
and in this way is similar to a nonprecision
VOR approach. A
WAAS GPS receiver is
not required.
ILAFFT
CHART WISE: RNAV APPROACHES
19
I . L. A. F . F. T .
I LEARNED ABOUT
FLYING FROM THAT
CHART WISE
ILAFFT
PILOT'S DISCRETION
MY LONGEST
TRIP TO VEGAS
AFTERMATH
TWO PILOTS FACE ICING CONDITIONS ON A

NIGHT FLIGHT ACROSS THE DESERT
BY PAUL TEIRSTEIN
eople like to ask, What was your favorite ight? There are so
many, I wouldnt know how to choose. But ask me to choose my
least favorite ight, and I can tell you in a heartbeat. It started on
a beautiful February day. My buddy Shaun decided to join me.
We made a lot of good decisions during that ight, except one:
20
taking of.
That time of year in San Diego brings some rain and a few storms. We were
grounded for most of the week, but things cleared by the day of my talk in Las
Vegas an easy 80-minute ight in our Vans RV-7. Checking my iPad, I saw the
weather looked VFR, but I called Flight Service on the way to the airport as a
nal check. I gave 10,500 feet as my highest altitude and a six-hour total time
there and back. It would be a quick visit to Vegas. Id deliver a short presentation
and get right back home. Flight Service conrmed no adverse weather conditions. We had a gorgeous outbound ight. I gave a brilliant lecture on heart
valves and then immediately returned to the airplane. It was turning dark, so
I used my iPad to le an IFR ight plan back to San Diego. Our RV-7 is an Experimental homebuilt. It doesnt have a lot of bells and whistles, but its nicely
outtted for IFR with a Dynon glass panel. We departed just after sunset into
the pitch-black desert night.

We were at 10,000 feet in the middle
of the desert, mountains on all sides
and my eyes glued to the instruments,
when Shaun said, Were in a cloud.
I looked up. Each ash of our strobe
lights screamed youre in IMC. We
had been ying only 20 minutes.
Wow, I said. I thought this was
going to be VFR conditions. Good
thing I led IFR. Not three minutes
later, Shaun said, Its raining. I got
a chill and said: Thats a problem.
Thats not rain. Its 29 degrees out
there. Take the ashlight and check
the wings. Shaun scanned the surface and conrmed, Weve got ice on
the wings. There was about a halfinch of gritty-looking white foamy
stuf on our leading edge. In the four
years and 1,600 hours since I had
I L LU S T R AT I O N B Y B A R R Y R O S S
( B A R R Y R O S S A R T. C O M )
NO. 910
T&T
TRAINING & TECHNIQUE
I AGAIN ASKED
FOR LOWER. IT
TRIES TO EVEN
GET A RESPONSE:
NEGATIVE. ATC
DIDNT SEEM
TO SHARE OUR
TERROR.
With ice on the wings, we didnt know

its stall speed or any other characteristics. Irregular patches of granular
ice started to form on the windshield.
We were silent as we each shined a
ashlight on the wings. As we moved
away from the mountainous terrain,
I again asked for lower. It took a few
tries to even get a response: negative.
ATC didnt seem to share our terror.
It was a very long 10 minutes. Then
we exited the cloud.
The skies were clear now, and the
airplane was still ying. We had ice on
the wings, but it wasnt accumulating.
As soon as ATC let us, we descended
to 7,000 and saw welcome streaks
of moisture on the windshield. We
talked about making a no-ap landing or circling the airport until all the
ice melted. Finally, we saw the lights
of Las Vegas and ATC let us descend
further. I started to breathe again as
we watched shrouds of ice y of our
windshield and wings. By the time
we turned nal, our wings were clear,
so we put the aps in and made a
routine landing. It was dark and desolate at the airport, but we got to tell
our story to the guy in the fuel truck.
A quarter-inch-thick at pane of ice
was still glued to our cowling and
spinner. We spent the night in Las
Vegas and returned to San Diego the
next morning.
Mistakes we made: I did not check
the weather again for the return
trip. I had a mindset that this was
just one quick day trip there and
back, yet on our return, many hours
had passed since I had checked the
weather. Thats the problem with the
weather: It changes. The regulations say you cannot y into known
icing conditions without anti-icing
TOOK A FEW
started ying, it was the rst time I

felt terror. My response was funny
only in retrospect. I said passionately,
Weve gotta do something!
I immediately asked for lower,
and ATC gave me 9,000. The outside
air temperature rose a whopping 1
degree. That was not going to do it. So
I asked again and got 8,000. Now the
OAT was 31 degrees not going to
work. When I asked for lower a third
time, we were told unable. The
minimum en route altitude for our
airway was 8,000 feet.
So we evaluated our options. We
were almost halfway to San Diego.
We could cancel IFR and descend
another 1,500 feet, which might be
enough to melt the ice. Let me think
about this: Its pitch dark, Im in the
middle of the desert, Ive got ice on
my wings, theres terrain on all sides,
and Im going to cancel IFR. It took
about a tenth of a second to rule out
that option.
I asked for an immediate 180 and
got it. We had been in icing conditions
for only about ve minutes. If we
reversed now, it would likely be clear
skies in another ve. It was the obvious choice and the one we all learned
in ight school.
ATC asked if we had deicing
equipment on our aircraft. Not on
an RV-7. Do you want to declare an
emergency? Ah, no. What was that
going to accomplish? They wouldnt
give us lower, and they wouldnt vector us of the airway. We just needed to
get out of this cloud and then get to
lower terrain.
I made the 180-degree turn
very slowly. The RV-7 is labeled an
Experimental, but now I was ying an
experimental Experimental aircraft.
21
I. L . A. F. F. T.
My Longest Trip to Vegas
equipment (FAR 91.527). I did not know icing conditions

had developed, but I should have known. According to FAR
91.103, Each pilotin command shall, before beginning a
ight, become familiar withall available information concerning that ight.
As soon as Shaun said we were in clouds, we should
have begun working the problem. Visible moisture in
below-freezing conditions is nowhere to be, especially
without deicing equipment. We could have saved a few
minutes of icing or avoided it altogether had we turned
around immediately.
We had weather on the Dynon and did not use it. If you
have weather information in the cockpit, why not use it?
We did not declare an emergency. Most pilots to whom
I tell this story say they would not have declared an
emergency either. They say: Why bother? ATC will not
do anything diferently. But I have been convinced by
others this was an error. Icing is, after all, an emergency.
ATC might have asked for pilot reports and found less
icing at higher, not lower, altitudes. Maybe we would
have been rerouted. At least we would have been talked to

more. Instead, we were decidedly not a priority.
We put in aps to land. We could see there was no longer ice on the wings, but upon exiting the airplane, there it
was on the cowling, and we hadn't realized it. There could
have been ice on the tail.
Flying across the desert and over mountains at night in a
single-engine airplane can always be criticized, of
course. Im sure you can think of other mistakes
we made.
Things we did right: I brought along a smart pilot friend.
I was glued to the instruments. If Shaun hadnt noticed
the clouds and precipitation, when would I have realized
I was in trouble? When my airspeed started to decay? By
then it might have been too late.
We didnt freak out. We turned around. We turned
on the pitot heat. We led IFR for the night ight
across the desert. We had ashlights. And we each got
to experience something wonderful back at the hotel:
two vodka martinis.
D E D I C A T E D T O H E L P I N G B U S I N E S S A C H I E V E I T S H I G H E S T G O A L S.
REMEMBER WHEN THE SKIES

O FFERED UNL I M I T ED POT EN T I A L?
T H E Y S T I L L D O.
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Everything Explained
AVIATION
REGS
IN
PLAIN
ENGLISH
By Richie Lengel
CHART WISE
ILAFFT
AFTERMATH
EXPLORING THE NUANCES OF THIS IFR PROCEDURE
RELEVANT
DISCUSSION:
(AIM 2-1-2,
3-2-3, 3-2-4, 5-4-3,
5-4-4, 5-4-23,
5-5-11, 91.155,
135.205,
135.213, 121.649,
OPSPEC C077,
FAA-H-8083-16,
JO 7110.65W
PARAGRAPHS 7-4-2
AND 7-4-3)
24
A visual approach is an IFR

clearance that allows a
pilot to descend for landing
without flying a published
instrument approach,
reducing workload and
saving time. Heres what
you should consider before
flying a visual approach:
1. The aircraft must be on
an IFR flight plan.
2. ATC may assign you
can accept or not.
3. You should not get clearance for a visual unless the
proper VFR conditions exist
(a controller requirement).
4. The airport must be
reporting at least a
1,000-foot ceiling and 3
miles of visibility.
5. To vector an aircraft for a
visual approach, an additional controller requirement
is that the ceiling must be

at least 500 feet above
minimum vectoring altitude.
However, a controller can
still clear an aircraft for a
visual anytime the weather
is VFR and the pilot reports
the field in sight. In the
case of an airport without
weather-reporting capability, the controller must have
reasonable assurance that
descent and flight to the
airport can be made visually, and the pilot must be
informed that weather is not
available for the destination.
6. The flight crew must
have either the airport or
the preceding aircraft
in sight (the pilot is
responsible for waketurbulence separation).
7. A visual is an instrument
WEATHER REPORTING
& 135.213
1. The FAA considers commercial pilots competent to
provide weather information for
Part 135 VFR operations (only).
However, to use this concession,
the operators ops manual
must specify the circumstances
under which PICs may use the
provision of 135.213(a).
If observers other than PICs
are used, operators must specify the training and qualifications
of these observers (8900.1).
OpSpec C077 may impose
further restrictions.
2. To conduct IFR operations,
pilots must use weather observations (from official sources)
taken at the airport where those
operations are conducted.
3. Reminder: A visual approach
is an IFR operation.
ILLUSTRATION BY TIM B ARKER
PILOTS DISCRETION
THE VISUAL
APPROACH
Everything Explained
approach in the sense that it can (and

should) be assigned only when the aircraft
is on an IFR flight plan; however, it is
not an instrument approach in the sense
that it does not have a missed approach
The Visual Approach
segment. It is not an instrument approach,

but it is an IFR authorization (and does
not alter IFR flight-plan cancellation responsibility).
8. For commercial operations, cloud-
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registered in the United States and/or other countries. Features,
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notice. Designed and engineered in Vienna, Austria
clearance requirements of 91.155

are not applicable unless required by
operation specifications.
9. Part 135 nonturbojet and all
Part 91 operations must remain clear
of clouds.
10. Part 121 operations and Part
135 turbojet operations are ruled by
OpSpec C077, which states you must
have 91.155 VFR cloud clearance
applicable to the airspace involved.
That means Class B is clear of clouds.
Class C, D and E are 500 feet below,
1,000 feet above and 2,000 feet horizontally (when below 10,000 feet msl;
higher cloud clearance and visibility
required at and above 10,000 feet msl).
11. Additional requirements of OpSpec
C077 include:
a. The flight crew may not accept a
visual approach or a charted visual
flight procedure unless the flight is
operated and remains in Class B, C
or D airspace, within 35 miles of the
destination airport in Class E airspace
or the airspace beneath the designated
transition area.
b. Ceiling and cloud clearance must
be as such to allow the flight crew
to maintain the minimum altitudes
prescribed in 91.129, 91.130 or 91.131,
as applicable for the airspace class in
which the flight is operated. Generally,
for large or turbine-powered aircraft,
this means unless otherwise required
by the applicable distance from cloud
criteria, enter the traffic pattern at
an altitude of at least 1,500 agl and
maintain at least 1,500 agl until further
descent is required for a safe landing
(91.129[e][1]).
FROM FAA ORDER 8900.1

An AWOS cannot be used as an authorized weather source for Part 121 and
Part 135 IFR operations if the visibility
is reported missing.
OpSpec C077: Part 121 operations or
Part 135 turbojet operations require
reported ceiling and visibility.
FAA regulations could change at any time. Please
refer to current FARs to ensure you are legal.
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Pilots Discretion
FLYING
Opinion
CHART WISE
ILAFFT
FIFTY SHADES OF FLYING
PILOTS DISCRETION
AFTERMATH
28
DECISIONS ARE RARELY BLACK AND WHITE IN THE COCKPIT
ve seen enough over the past few years to reach

the conclusion that self-driving cars going mainstream is now a matter of when rather than if. The
advanced technology in todays production vehicles is helping to pave the way. While I havent had the
chance to use the autopilot feature in a Tesla electric
vehicle, I did recently take a new Ford SUV on a road
trip and used its driver-assist technology over several
hundred miles. This particular model had an advanced
cruise-control system that would accelerate and brake
automatically to maintain a user-defined distance from
the car in front of you. It would also engage the steering
system to guide you back into the middle of the lane if
you started to drift.
This system still requires the driver to pay full attention to the task at hand, but autonomous cars arent far
away. As we droned along, I started thinking more about
how a computer thinks in contrast with a human,
and about the inherent limitations of self-driving (and
self-flying) technology. As if Mother Nature chose to
underscore that point, we drove through a wall of rain,
and the automated features were disabled due to blockages of the various sensors. The pseudo-self-driving car
recognized its limitations and raised the white flag.
Computers and automated systems are routinely
making a series of binary yes-no decisions, which are
only as good as the finite amount of data they have
access to. Humans, on the other hand, have vastly
larger databases of knowledge and awareness of their
surroundings compared to a computer (at least at
the present) to help make better-informed decisions.
We also have past experiences on which to base our
decisions that a computer may not be able to consider,
including the ability to account for outcomes such as
passenger comfort, safety and even moral obligations.

As automation becomes more common in just about
all modes of transportation, Ive often found myself
considering how a computer might handle a given situation if it were in complete control. This has allowed me
to gain a fresh look at decision-making across all phases
of flight, from preflight planning to handling inflight
emergencies, and the reality that theres rarely a single
answer to any given task or problem.
As a flight instructor and check airman, I routinely
see student pilots take the if this, then that approach
when presented with an inflight dilemma, and thats
OK. When something abnormal happens, the imme-
By Bret Koebbe
diate reaction should be to consult the checklist. Say,

for example, you experience a ap-motor failure while
maneuvering to enter the traic pattern. The procedure
requires little interpretation and could be accomplished
just as easily by a computer-controlled pilot as by a
human. Other than verifying that the destination runway still meets the additional landing distance required,
there isnt much left to consider.
It can be easy to develop the mindset that ying and
ine how to approach an abnormal or emergency situation

in the cockpit. Consider the low-voltage light in your airplane, which is either on or of. In the modern Cessna 172,
it remains of when the 28-volt electrical system is healthy,
but the instant the voltage drops below 24.5 volts, the light
is illuminated to make you aware that something isnt
working properly.
Its up to you to decide what happens next. The checklist
will have you accomplish a few tasks in an attempt to reset
IT CAN BE EASY TO DEVELOP THE MINDSET THAT FLYING AND DECISION-MAKING ARE
BLACK AND WHITE. I UNKNOWINGLY ADOPTED THIS APPROACH IN MY FIRST FEW
HUNDRED HOURS AND TOOK A ROBOTIC APPROACH TO FLYING.
the alternator, but perhaps thats not an option in the case

of a broken belt. Its now decision time.
Your course of action will vary greatly depending on the
circumstances. For the VFR pilot about to enter the airport
traic pattern on a blue-sky day, this is a nonevent. But for
the IFR pilot planning for an instrument approach 100
miles from the destination, this is a true emergency. This
pilot has to begin load-shedding to get the most duration
from the remaining power in the battery. The pilot may
have to evaluate the utility of backup communication and
navigation resources and determine if there is enough fuel
on board to divert to VFR weather.
How would a computer handle this scenario? Activate
the airplane parachute? I would assume the hypothetical computer-controlled airplane 20 years down the road
would be much better equipped, with a backup for the
backup so that a low-voltage situation could never happen. But again, there is not a one-size-ts-all approach to
decision-making. We have to consider hundreds of variables, rely on our training, and think about the outcomes
from past experiences to navigate these gray areas.
The good news today is that we have fewer unknowns
when it comes time to make these decisions, thanks to the
automation found in modern GA airplanes and portable
technology like iPads, GPS and ADS-B receivers. Collectively, this provides the best of both worlds when it comes
to ying, combining the system-monitoring and analysis tools of a computer with the real-world experience
and the desire for comfortable and safe ight that we as
human pilots naturally seek out.
decision-making are black and white. I unknowingly

adopted this approach during my rst few hundred
hours and took a robotic approach to ying, following
the same if this, then that mentality. That is, until one
seemingly simple event changed my perspective.
At the time, I was doing some contract ying in the
right seat of a Piper Cheyenne twin turboprop. My rst
ight was at night, departing from a busy Class B airport, and as we were cleared for takeof, I called out the
checklist items. Crossing the hold short line, I turned on
the landing light just as I had done hundreds of times
before in other airplanes in preparation for takeof. The
captain immediately smacked my hand on the switch,
turned the light back of, and asked, What are you
doing? I was obviously caught of guard. What I had
failed to notice was the Delta 757 sitting across the runway on the opposing taxiway, which I had momentarily
blinded with our landing lights.
It was one of those eye-opening moments that taught
me to look for even the most basic checklist items,
beyond black or white, on or of, yes or no. No matter
how simple and routine a task may seem, theres probably a situation or circumstance that will require a
slightly diferent approach, as illustrated by the use of
the landing light. While it might have been procedurally
correct to turn it on when entering the active runway,
I lacked the situational awareness, and the checklist
fails to consider the courtesy aspect and what efect the
bright light has on nearby pilots.
More dire consequences can result when you exam-
29
Atermath
ACCIDENT
ANALYSIS
By Peter Garrison
CHART WISE
ILAFFT
PILOT'S DISCRETION
AFTERMATH
30
HURRY HOME
RISK IS ONLY CHANCE CALLED BY A DIFFERENT NAME
AS HE FLEW, THE
he pilot of a Mooney 201, bound PILOT EXCHANGED

VFR in May 2012 from Arizona to A SERIES OF TEXT
Hillsboro, Oregon, encountered
MESSAGES WITH
weather in northern California,
HIS WIFE:
with lowering ceilings and increasingly frequent rain showers. By the time he crossed the
border into Oregon, the ceilings were around BACK IN THE AIR
6,500 feet msl, less than 2,000 feet above the
GOOD! FLY SAFE!!
lower terrain. The rain began to be mixed
with snow. Still almost 300 miles short of his
destination, he continued northward, encour- JUST BET [SIC] ME
aged by good visibility under the clouds and OUT OF LAKE VIEW
between the showers.
BASED ON CURBut the conditions continued to deteriorate.
In snow showers he lost forward visibility; only RENT WEATHER OR
BAD HISTORY?
the ground below him was visible. He ew up
a valley between cloud-covered ridges, under
a 1,000-foot ceiling. Thirty miles north of BOTH, ZERO VISILakeview, with the weather closing in around
BILITY OVER THE
him and ice beginning to accumulate on the
MOUNTAINS
Mooneys wings, he made the long-deferred
decision to turn back, rent a car at Lakeview,
LET ME KNOW
and make the trip to Hillsboro by road.
WHEN YOU HAVE
As he drove out of the airport an hour later, he
CLEARED THE
saw a Gulfstream American Cheetah approach- MOUNTAINS THEN.
ing to land. By now there were snow showers
all around. He reected that he had been foolish
THAT WAS NOT
to push on as far as he had, and that the pilot of
GOOD, BATTERIES
the Cheetah must be more foolish still.
The pilot of the Cheetah, however, was DIED IN THAT MESS,
I AM CLEAR
familiar with the area. A 48-year-old man with
a private license and 600 hours but no instrument rating, he had own here from his base OH BABE, HURRY
HOME!!!
near Boise, Idaho. On this trip, he deplaned two
passengers, visited the restroom, and immedi-
ately took of for the two-hour ight home.

The terrain between Lakeview and Boise is
inhospitable not especially high, with VFR
clearance altitudes around 8,500 feet, but rugged and unpopulated, with few airstrips. The
weather by this time was likewise uninviting:
The overcast was below the ridge tops, there
were snow showers and patches of fog and
mist, and the wind was occasionally gusting to
30 knots.
Have a nice tail wind, hopefully no more
stupid stuf. I should have replaced that bat
before I took of, he texted his wife.
The battery that died was presumably in one
of his two handheld GPS units. That mess
most likely referred to the clouds and snow
showers over the mountains. I am clear
implied that he had passed the two principal mountain ridges in his way; in fact, at that
point he had passed only one and would crash
fatally on the second, just after reversing
course and not long after sending his last text
message. It took searchers six days to locate
what was left of the white Cheetah in the
remote and snowy terrain.
The National Transportation Safety Boards
report on the accident gave the following
account of the nal seconds of the ight. It
suggests a desperate attempt to avoid barely
glimpsed terrain:
Just after rolling out of the turn, the airplanes groundspeed increased to about
158 knots, and then over a period of about
10 seconds, rapidly decreased to about 45
knots. Almost immediately thereafter, the
Atermath
ACCIDENT
ANALYSIS
Hurry Home
THEY WENT INTO MARGINAL WEATHER TO TAKE A LOOK.

THEY WENT, PERHAPS AS MANY PILOTS DO FARTHER THAN
THEY SHOULD HAVE.
airplane made a nearly 90-degree turn to the left,

followed immediately by nearly a 90-degree turn back to
the right. The last recorded GPS data point was recorded
about three seconds after the last turn to the right, with
the last groundspeed recorded being 21 knots.
Accidents like this one they are common sometimes begin with decisions made on the ground, long
before the ight itself. Optimistic assumptions about
future weather may cause a pilot to schedule two commitments, distant from each other, in such a way that he
is obliged to make a ight even when changing weather
militates against it. But that was not the case here. According to press reports, the pilot had committed to take
his two stepsons to Lakeview on a Thursday; his daughter was graduating from high school that weekend. It
was a reasonable schedule; there was plenty of time to
get to Lakeview and back, even if the weather turned so
rotten that he had to drive one or both ways.
There was no record of the pilot obtaining a weather
brieng, but he may have self-briefed. If he had talked
to a briefer, he would have received the usual VFR not
recommended warning and perhaps a prediction of
moderate turbulence, but detailed information about
remote mountain areas is seldom available anyway.
To know if there was a cloud, a 30-knot gust or a snow
shower in a particular place, you would have to go there.
And indeed he did. The GPS record of his ight shows
an almost straight line; weather, if it had been a problem at all, had not been an obstacle. But it was late in the
day, and as the Mooney pilot had found, conditions were
worsening. The temperature-dew point spread had narrowed considerably, increasing the probability of patchy
fog below the overcast. He might have encountered better weather if he had left home an hour or two earlier
but he could not know that before the fact.
His return track was more jagged: approaching then

turning away from a mountain ridge, drifting to the left
of the direct line, feeling his way northeastward. Then
there was the course reversal, followed by the series of
turns and speed changes. He must have stumbled into
a snow shower or cloud; he would never have slammed
into the mountain if he had been in the clear.
The same place, the same weather. Two pilots the
Mooney pilot and the Cheetah pilot with generally
similar equipment and similar alternatives for getting
where they wanted to go. One survived, the other did not.
How were they diferent?
They werent.
Both did what all scud-running pilots do. They went
into marginal weather to take a look. They went, perhaps
as many pilots do farther than they should have.
Both realized that they had gone too far, and both turned
back. One made it to safety; the other didnt.
The diference between a risky ight that ends safely
and one that doesnt cannot always be traced to particular decisions, habits or character traits of the pilots. It
may hinge on chance events a sudden downdraft, a
patch of rain or snow, a brief distraction, a turn made a
few seconds too late.
To take a risk is to expose yourself to the vagaries
of chance. True, we sometimes see pilots take risks so
rash as to verge on suicide. But most risks are merely relative, beginning with the tiny some would say
nonexistent increment of risk involved in learning
to y in the rst place. We learn and we gain satisfaction by taking risks and coping with the challenges they
bring. No blame necessarily attaches to the taking of
risks, but we should never lose sight of the fact that, in
taking any risk, we have heightened the possibility of a
bad outcome.
This article is based on the NTSB's report of this accident and is intended to bring the issues raised to our readers attention. It is not intended to judge nor to reach any
definitive conclusions about the ability or capacity of any person, living or dead, or any aircraft or accessory.
Taking Wing
FLYING Opinion
By Sam Weigel
HOMEWARD BOUND
A
34
n inescapable part of ying the line as a junior

pilot is working on birthdays, anniversaries
and holidays Christmas above all. Most
everyone wants it of, especially those with
young children, and many resort to tactics such as bidding a reserve line to get it. Under the old rules, Part 121
pilots were limited to 1,000 hours of ight time per calendar year, and Ive seen a few friends pick up a punishing
amount of overtime ying in a futile efort to time out
before December 25. Ive never been that desperate; I
actually enjoy ying over the holidays, and for several
years I got in a groove of bidding trips that ended early on
Christmas morning. The ights were usually empty, the
ATC frequencies quiet, and it was a really nice, peaceful
way to go home to spend the rest of the holiday with Dawn
and extended family.
Ive seldom been more junior than in December 2014,
when I was in my rst year with my current airline and I
was commuting from Minneapolis to New York to boot
yet somehow I managed to snag a good line with the last
trip ending on the afternoon of December 24. However, I

neglected to check the ights for my commute home prior
to bidding, and thus didnt realize that my airline greatly
reduces its Christmas Eve schedule. The upshot was that
my trip ended at JFK at 3:10 p.m., and my only chance of
making it home that night was a 4:20 p.m. departure from
LaGuardia. Thats a really tight connection under the
best of conditions, but the next feasible option didnt get
me home until the following afternoon. The prospect of
spending Christmas Eve in my Jackson Heights crash pad
didnt sound terribly appealing; I decided to go for broke
and hope for the best.
New York is by far my airlines most junior base and is
largely stafed by pilots who live elsewhere. My youthful
captain for this trip was a Boston commuter, and he was
wholly on board with the go-fast program for our last
leg, a three-hour hop up the coast from Orlando, Florida
(MCO). The winds were favorable, we had plenty of gas,
and our dispatcher led us via the shorter over-water
routing that leaves Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about
P H O TO BY A L A M Y
A NEW YORK CHRISTMAS TALE
JANUARY 2528, 2017
SEBRING
EXPO
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Photo courtesy of Sky Runner
its the Beginning.
Taking Wing
FLYING Opinion
Floatplane
Fun
Homeward Bound
36
100 nm to port. We seemed to have a good shot at making

it to Kennedy a half-hour early or better. And then, slowly
but surely, it all went pear-shaped.
First we waited for a few straggling passengers to extricate themselves from the clutches of the TSA, and then
we sat on the ramp with doors closed, waiting for rampers
to come load the last of the bags. Finally we pushed back,
started up and got our taxi clearance to Runway 18L,
clear on the other side of the airport, stuck behind the rst
and only Southwest Airlines jet Ive ever seen taxi at that
mythical walking mans pace. We climbed southbound for
a good 20 miles before Orlando Approach got us turned
back toward our ight-plan route. No sooner did we check
in with Jacksonville Center than the en route delays
started: Turn right heading 090, 280 knots or less, vectors
for the sequence to Kennedy. An hour later, Washington
Center slowed us further, to 250 knots, and gave us several
nearly perpendicular turns of the route to follow traic.
Apparently, several airlines were simultaneously bringing

in their entire eets to spend Christmas Eve in New York!
In reality, none of this was very unusual; ATC delays are
a fact of life going in and out of all the NYC-area airports.
New Yorks population is at an all-time high, the denizens
are as affluent as ever, and the city is again one of Americas hottest tourist destinations as well as a major hub of
travel between the Americas, Europe and Africa. All this
burgeoning air traic is sharing the same nite airspace
and the same few stretches of concrete as 30 years ago. The
proliferation of regional jets hasnt helped the congestion
one bit, either. Everything ows reasonably well when the
weather is good, but even a small reduction in the arrival
rate can prompt ground stops clear to the other side of the
country. And while this wasnt quite a white Christmas, it
was just gray enough to gum up the works pretty good.
Descending through FL 190 over the Jersey shore, we
checked in with New York Approach and were told to
Even a small reduction in the arrival rate can prompt ground stops clear
to the other side of the country. And while this wasnt quite a white
Christmas, it was just gray enough to gum up the works pretty good.
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IS A PUBLICATION OF THE
Taking Wing
FLYING Opinion
expect an ILS to Runway 4R. Hot dog, a straight in! Nope,

not so fast: After a bit, they sent us left to heading 320 and
told us to instead expect the Parkway Visual to 13R, then
turned us further to 280 and switched us to the VOR 13R
approach. We had just nished that brieng when they
again changed their minds and switched us back to the ILS
4R! In my book, the controllers at New York Approach are
the best of the best, true professionals who I love working
with despite their often brisk demeanor but they certainly dont mind asking a lot of the pilots in their airspace,
so youd best bring your A game when ying there. In this
case, their indecision was caused by quickly changing conditions in ying scud, driven by gusty, shifting winds. We
bounced through the clouds interminably and occasionally caught glimpses of angry leaden whitecaps through
breaks in the churning mire below.
By the time our McDonnell Douglas jet nally thumped
Floatplane
Fun
Homeward Bound
bridge close before wed even shut down the engines. Perhaps, perhaps I shook hands with the captain and bade
him farewell, bounded through the terminal, and ran hufing up to the rst curbside yellow cab I saw. Hows the
Van Wyck looking? I queried of the credulous cabby.
Eh, the usual, not great, he grunted. Where are
you headed?
LaGuardia. My one shot at getting home for Christmas
leaves in 35 minutes. Can you do it?
He paused only a half-second, looked me in the eye, and
nodded determinedly. Get in. Ill get you there.
God bless that New York cab driver. He was true to his
word and proved himself the nest specimen of his kind
that I ever had the honor of watching in action. He drove
with determination and verve, precision and purpose,
jostling for position with skill and cunning, working the
pedals like a prodigy playing a Stradivarius, silently plot-
In my book, the controllers at New York Approach are the best of the
best, true professionals who I love working with despite their often
brisk demeanor but they certainly dont mind asking a lot of the
pilots in their airspace, so you best bring your A game when flying there.
38
down on a soggy Runway 4R, I had mentally resigned

myself to a New York Christmas Eve. Maybe it wouldnt be
so bad. Perhaps my favorite Colombian restaurant down
the street from the crash pad would be open, ftbol reruns
on the big screen over the bar as I tucked into a steaming
plate of pollo con arroz with sweet plantains. Maybe after
dinner Id hop the 7 train to Grand Central and ride the
Lexington Avenue Local down to my favorite East Village
watering holes, their dark booths haunted by generations of broke students, scheming pols, literary greats and
old-school mobsters. And then I might come back to the
suddenly heaving crash pad to nd several old friends I
hadnt seen in forever claiming their bunks for the night,
and Id dig out that stashed-away bottle of Laphroaig
and wed toast the season and long-ago ights and shoot
the breeze late into the night. Work in this industry
long enough, and your denition of family expands well
beyond the biological.
But then, miraculously, we were cleared straight to the
gate, the alleyway was clear, the marshallers were waiting with wands in hand, and the gate agent pulled the jet
ting every move and reconsidering his strategy with every

faint shimmer of brake lights on the horizon. Twice he cut
across three lanes of traic to dive of an exit onto a broad,
fast-owing surface street, bypassing a freeway snarl he
had intuited from a half-mile away. This pro among pros
managed to convey me from JFK to LaGuardia, door to
door, in 22 minutes during rush hour on a Wednesday. I
gratefully thrust a wad of twenties into his hands, heartily
wished him a merry Christmas, and dashed into the terminal. I arrived at the gate just in time to hear the agent
calling my name to come collect my rst-class seat.
So I made it home for Christmas against all odds, and
that made it a pretty special holiday. Two years later, Im
still pretty young and still pretty junior, and I have no
doubt that Ill yet y many birthdays and anniversaries
and Christmases to come probably including this holiday season. Thats OK: Its what you do when youre junior,
and there are far worse things that one could be stuck
doing. But when the universe throws you a bone, you have
to remember and celebrate it. Ill certainly never forget
my New York Christmas miracle.
F I R S T
TA K E A T O U R I N S I D E
L O O K :
T H E W O R L D S M O S T T E C H N O L O G I C A L LY A D V A N C E D
G U L F S T R E A M
BUSINESS JET
G 5 0 0
BY STEPHEN POPE
or all the talk about lingering economic uncertainty and

struggling aircraft market segments, its hard to think back
to a more fascinating time for the business aviation industry.
From emerging models like the Cessna Denali turboprop and
Cirrus Vision Jet to larger airplanes, including the HondaJet,
Pilatus PC-24, Citation Hemisphere, Bombardier Global
8000 and Dassault Falcon 8X, the market is brimming with
new choices. At the pinnacle of this list of business airplanes
are two large-cabin jets that inarguably rank among the most
technologically advanced civil airplanes ever designed. The
Gulfstream G500 and G600 can fly several thousand miles
just a few knots below the speed of sound. They will whisk
passengers in ultimate comfort thanks to their astonishingly
quiet and supremely comfortable cabins. They feature the
first active-control sidesticks in civilian aviation, linked by
fly-by-wire flight controls that keep the pilots firmly in the
loop (right where they belong), and cockpits incorporating a
multitude of touchscreen displays that can be used for managing an unprecedented array of technology.
I recently had the chance to visit Gulfstreams sprawling
world headquarters in Savannah, Georgia, for an up-close
look at the G500, which is well on its way toward certification
next year, with first customer deliveries scheduled for 2018.

Pilots of the four certification test airplanes and one cabin
test airplane are being kept busy flying scores of sorties while
engineers in the lab continue to assess and refine the G500s
various systems. By the time the G500 reaches the market,
Gulfstream will be well into the test regimen for the slightly
larger G600, slated to enter the market a year later, in 2019.
Though the G500 features a smaller wing and tail and a
shorter fuselage than the G600, the airplanes are so similar
owing to the fly-by-wire computers, which make the jets
feel exactly the same to pilots that they will share a common type rating. Once a pilot has completed initial training
at FlightSafety Internationals learning center in Savannah,
a freshly minted pilot certificate will be issued with GVIIG500/G600 added. Thats not a typo: The G500 and G600
technically form the G7 model line, just as the G650 really
is a G6 and the current-production G450 and G550 are
G5s. For you plane spotters, forget trying to tell a G500 and
G600 apart both have seven large oval windows per side (a
change from the original design for the G500, which began
life with six windows) and will be nearly impossible to distinguish without a tape measure or a peek at the data plate.
TH E P R AT T & W H ITN E Y
PW8 0 0 E N G I N E S G I V E
TH E G 5 0 0 TH E B E S T F U E L
E F F I C I E N CY I N C L A S S , TH E
LOW E S T N O I S E , A N D A N
E N G I N E TB O O F 1 0,0 0 0
H O U R S WITH N O M I D LI F E
I N S P E C TI O N .
What puts these airplanes in uncharted territory from a
technology standpoint can be distilled to a few key areas: The
Honeywell Symmetry ight deck, based on the Primus Epic
architecture, is all-new and the basis for a workspace that
will make the G500 and G600 the envy of pilots ying other
bizjets. The passenger compartment builds on achievements
rst realized in the G650, with the lowest cabin sound levels
in the industry, the same large signature oval windows, and a
cabin altitude for the G500 of 4,850 feet at its max operating
altitude of FL 510. Another noteworthy change in the G500
and G600 are the airplanes Pratt & Whitney PW800-series
turbofan engines; its the rst time Gulfstream has wavered
from ofering Rolls-Royce power in its large-cabin jets, and
a switch that gives the models the best fuel eiciency in the
class, the lowest noise, and an engine TBO of an impressive
10,000 hours with no midlife inspection requirement.
I obviously wasnt given the opportunity to y the G500
on this visit, but I got a taste of what the experience will be
like when I was invited to y in the sim. With Gulfstream experimental test pilot Tobias van Esselstyn as my guide in the
right seat, I settled in amid all the vibrant touchscreens inside Gulfstreams CASE, or Conceptual Advanced Simulation
Environment. The simulator lacks motion, but everything
else, from the cockpit layout to the feedback of the sidesticks
to the ight dynamics, is spot on, van Esselstyn assured me.
As we departed from Savannahs Runway 28 and climbed
out over the tide-swept Atlantic coast, my rst impression
of the G500 was that it ies very much like a conventional
airplane, despite its y-by-wire computer brains. Unlike
the Dassault Falcon 7X and 8X, which lack trim controls,
the G500 has the familiar trim switch on the sidestick. As I
moved the sidestick, I could see that the other stick on the
right was mimicking my movements precisely, despite there
From my experience in the G500
simulator, its clear this is an airplane
designed to fly like a tried-and-true
Gulfstream, despite the fly-by-wire
technology operating behind the scenes.
being no physical link between them.

One of the only clues I had that I was indeed at the controls
of a y-by-wire airplane was my ability to press the autopilot
disconnect button on the stick and have the airplane automatically trim itself to present airspeed. Gulfstream calls it
intelligence-by-wire, and Id have to agree. The architecture in the G500 and G600 uses wires, relays, circuits and
servos rather than mechanical rods, pulleys and cables to
manipulate the ight controls. Intelligence-by-wire advances that philosophy a few steps by linking the active-control
sidesticks and touchscreen avionics with the autopilot, autothrottles, autobrakes and automatic emergency descent to
protect against lost cabin pressurization. Its heady stuf.
Yes, the intelligence-by-wire system makes continual
minor corrections to keep the airplane in an optimum aerodynamic condition, resulting in consistent handling for
smoother ight and greater passenger comfort, but its easy
to forget its there. Safety advances include stall protection at
low speed and bufet protection at high Mach, both of which I
got the chance to test. As the stall approached with the power
levers pulled to ight idle, the nose automatically pitched
down even though I was holding the stick fully aft. Even rolling the airplane to the left and right in this precarious state
didnt lead to catastrophe.
Landings in the G500 sim were surprisingly similar to the
experience of ying light general aviation airplanes. The big
Gulfstream wing provides lots of cushion in ground efect,
van Esselstyn explained. The force-feedback technology
in the G500 works wonderfully well. If one pilot moves the
stick opposite of the other pilot, both feel the input. If they
ght over the controls, eventually they will split and the
captains stick takes precedence. Its all very Gulfstream in
TH E G 5 0 0 S I NTE R I O R
D E S I G N E R S H AV E C R E ATE D
S PAC E S TH AT S E A M LE S S LY
CA R RY OV E R F RO M TH E
H O M E , O F F I C E , YAC HT O R
LU X U RY CA R .
44
its philosophy, and I cant imagine pilots transitioning from

yoke-equipped jets complaining once theyve tried it.
Im not so sure what the reaction to the touchscreens will
be among longtime Gulfstream pilots, but I liked them a lot.
The four main ight displays do not have touch capability,
but 10 other displays oriented around the cockpit are touch-controlled. To me, the displays
seemed logically arranged, with the usual systems accessible overhead and strategic ight
tasks completed on the lower displays. I had a
hard time discovering just the right technique
to swipe between pages, and of course I couldnt
try the touchscreens in turbulence. What I did
appreciate was the fact that menu selections
arent made until the pilot removes his or her
nger, which should help cut down on erroneous inputs in the bumps.
The touchscreens have the look and feel of
electronic ight bag units, which is on purpose. Theyre designed to be pilot-replaceable
should a particular screen start acting up while away from
home base. The rest of the cockpit, meanwhile, is stunningly
beautiful: The seats are perforated leather, and the center
pedestal and sidewalls ow together in a way that gives the
impression of sitting in a high-end sports car, though with a
lot of extra space. There are a pair of cursor-control devices
on the center pedestal that can be used to access menus and
data, with brushed-metal accents that carry over to the sidesticks and trim.
Of course, the aesthetics of the cockpit are nothing compared with the cabin. Gulfstreams interior designers have
created spaces that seamlessly carry over from the home,
oice, yacht, luxury car or whatever the buyer desires. The
$44.65 million price of a new G500 includes a fully outtted
interior. When you sign the papers to buy one, you can use
Gulfstreams app on an iPad to add, remove and rearrange a
seemingly endless array of cabin modules that include seating arrangements, divans, cabinets with hidden at-screen
TVs and more. You can also pay a bit more and add special
touches like stone oors (really), beds and a shower.
Every G500 comes standard with a galley, which the buyer
can choose to position up front or in the back of the cabin.
There are also standard fore and aft lavatories. To assist
well-heeled buyers in choosing their signature cabin look,
the interior team has created ve basic aesthetic designs to
choose from: classic, layered, sport, minimalist and nextgeneration. As you might guess, the classic look is traditional
and will be familiar to any corporate jet passenger.
Pilots are sure to appreciate the thought

that went into the design philosophy in the
G500. The sidesticks retain trim controls,
while the electric parking brake looks like it
was borrowed from a luxury car.
Layered takes the classic approach a step further by using

patterns and textures together with accents such as plated
metals to create a more stimulating look. Sport values high
contrast, and unsurprisingly takes its cues from the automotive and yachting industries. Minimalist might be described as a look coveted by tech entrepreneurs, with tonal
aesthetics that focus more on the architecture of the cabin
think Palo Alto oice. Next-generation, meanwhile, is a freefor-all of design concepts, reserved for the unreserved.
The cabin environment has become so important to Gulfstream, in fact, that the fth G500 test airplane, designated
P1, is being used as the interior test plane. It is outtted with
The attention to
detail Gulfstream
places on cabin
refinement
shows in the
finished result.
Interior modules
can be outfitted
in a seemingly
endless array of
configurations,
while galleys
and lavatories
are created to
maximize the
available space.
Gulfstreams
interior-design
team helps
buyers craft
the perfect
cabin space by
starting with five
basic aesthetic
themes from
which they may
choose: classic,
layered, sport,
minimalist or
next-generation.
GULFSTREAM G500
$44.65 million
Engines
Pratt & Whitney

PW814GA (2)
Power
15,144 pounds of
thrust each
TBO
10,000 hours
Passenger Seats
Up to 19
Length
91 feet 2 inches
Height
25 feet 6 inches
Wingspan
87 feet 1 inch
Cabin Length
41 feet 6 inches
Cabin Height
6 feet 4 inches
Cabin Width
7 feet 11 inches
Basic Operating Weight
46,600 pounds
Max Takeoff Weight
76,850 pounds
Max Landing Weight
64,350 pounds
Max Fuel
28,850 pounds
Max Payload
5,500 pounds
Range (high speed)
3,900 nm
Range (long range)
5,000 nm
Mmo
Mach 0.925
High-Speed Cruise
Mach 0.90
Long-Range Cruise
Mach 0.85
Takeoff Distance (SL, ISA

MTOW)
5,200 feet
Landing Distance (SL, ISA,

MLW)
3,100 feet
Max Operating Altitude
51,000 feet
Initial Cruise Altitude
41,000 feet
Baggage Volume
175 cubic feet
Price
45
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
46
As I walked the production line at the Gulfstream

factory in Savannah, Georgia, and marveled at the
fantastical G500s and G600s being assembled by
humans and, yes, robots, I couldnt help but wonder
what Orville and Wilbur might think of it all.
What theyd say, Im fairly certain, is, Gee, we could
have used some of this technology at Kitty Hawk. Which
begs the question: Are there certain elements from the
cutting-edge world of business jet development that
can be applied to the lower echelons of general aviation, perhaps in tomorrows light airplanes?
The answer is a resounding yes. The smart use of
touchscreens in the G500, for example, should prove
to tomorrows airplane designers that touch technology
has a firm place in GAs future. Automation, meanwhile,
can be used to make smarter airplanes that sense
when something is amiss and work to correct a problem without the pilot having to lift a finger.
Sidesticks are a revelation from the G500 that have
also been used in the Dassault Falcon 7X and 8X,
Embraer Legacy 450 and 500, Cirrus SR series and
Vision Jet, Cessna TTx, and others. Theres little question they should be a de facto standard in any future
light airplane. They put the flight controls within natural reach of the pilots hand while freeing space in the
cockpit thats taken up by yokes and control columns
in other airplanes. If Gulfstream has embraced them,
isnt it time everybody else did too?
The 10,000-hour TBO of the G500s Pratt & Whitney
PW814GA engines is something wed all love to be the
beneficiaries of in the future. The lesson here? Turbine
power is superior to the venerable piston engine, no
question. With the Cirrus Vision Jet on short final for
certification, and several highly capable single-engine
turboprops and light jets to choose from, my money is
on a continued shift among buyers to turbine power and
jet-A fuel rather than avgas-powered piston engines.
Its also high time that smaller airplanes started
benefiting from fly-by-wire flight controls, autothrottles and a more electric architecture in general.
At the moment, the technology is too costly to filter
downstream even to the highest-performance piston
airplanes, turboprops and small jets. Ill wager you
this, however: The first manufacturer to do it will sell
a lot of airplanes.
IT OCCU R R E D TO M E
TH AT I N A COC K P IT
TH I S Q U I E T,
CO M FO R TA B LE A N D
DA R K , S TAY I N G
AWA K E O N LO N G
F LI G HT S M I G HT B E A
C H A LLE N G E .
The G500s
Honeywell
Symmetry flight
deck represents
a sea change
for Gulfstream.
It incorporates
10 tablet-based
touchscreens,
each of them
replaceable
by a pilot, plus
four main flight
displays that
are not touchcapable. The
active sidesticks
move together in
response to pilot
inputs, a first for
a civilian fly-bywire airplane.
The overall look
of the workspace
is stunningly
beautiful, with
ample room
for even the
tallest pilots to
stretch out.
secretive Gulfstream acoustics laboratory to learn how designers test the sound-deadening properties of everything
that goes inside the cabin.
Finally I was able to board the P1 test airplane and see the
finished interior firsthand, as well as the actual production
flight deck. It occurred to me that in a cockpit this quiet, comfortable and dark, staying awake on long flights might be a
challenge. For passengers, the G500 will be an inviting place
to relax, enjoy a meal, work, read, or watch a movie.
And thats the secret to business aviations long success
story, isnt it? In a world where airline travel can seem like
drudgery and schedules are dictated on their terms instead
of yours, a private plane can take you anywhere you need to
be, when you need to be there. In the case of the G500, passengers will appreciate the capabilities just that much more.
Pilots, meanwhile, will be flying a Gulfstream the ultimate
Gulfstream, in fact. And thats saying something.
a production-ready cabin that gives the airplane the look of

a sales demonstrator. The approach allows Gulfstream engineers and designers to test all of the interior components and
technology in the real environments that the airplane can be
expected to fly in. As on the G650, the interiors of the G500
and G600 were designed with input from engineers brought
over from Gulfstream parent General Dynamics submarine
division. These minds figured out how to make the cabins so
quiet that passengers scarcely know they are flying at all.
During my visit to Savannah, I was permitted to don a
virtual reality headset and go inside a computer-generated
cabin, where I could interact with anything I so desired
opening and closing the refrigerator door in the galley and
seeing the carafe of fresh-squeezed orange juice inside,
for example and make changes using a controller that I
pointed at seats, couches, tables and more to instantly make
them become something else. I was also invited inside the
47
TIS THE SEASON TO SPLURGE ON YOUR

AVIATOR FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS.
HERE ARE SOME FUN GIFT IDEAS THAT
CAN BE FOUND AT YOUR FAVORITE
AVIATION SHOPS, SUCH AS SPORTYS,
AIRCRAFT SPRUCE AND PILOT MALL.
PHOTOS BY JON WHITTLE
BOSE A20 AVIATION HEADSET

While your grandfather might have
survived just fine without any ear
protection, pilots today agree that
the only way to fly is with a welldesigned active noise-reduction
(ANR) headset.
Boses latest offering, the A20, is an
improved version of the companys
highly successful headsets. With
the ability to connect via Bluetooth
to your portable jukebox (read,
tablet or smartphone), you will get
exceptionally clear sound quality
whether youre listening to music or
making a phone call through
the headset.
At only 12 ounces in total, the
headset doesnt weigh you down,
and the soft padding eliminates any
pressure on the apex of your head.
$1,095
bose.com
X-NAUT ACTIVE
COOLING MOUNT
Give your flying friends peace of
mind with this unique cooling
mount that prevents iPads from
overheating in direct sunlight. Its
small, targeted cooling fans keep
the iPad cool while maintaining a
sleek profile. The iPad mount can be
worn as a kneeboard or secured to
RAM or MyGoFlight mounts.
$199.99 iPad
$179.99 iPad mini
x-naut.com
SCHEYDEN
LIBERATORS
A titanium version of classic aviator
sunglasses, these shades never go
out of style. Scheydens ultralight
frames are designed to fit
perfectly beneath a headset so you
can fly in comfort and style.
$289
scheyden.com
CUBCRAFTERS XCUB
Youve really got to love someone
to buy them an airplane. But if you
have the money to splurge, the
XCub is guaranteed to be appreciated by your flying friend.
The XCub was certified by the FAA
earlier this year and offers a terrific
blend of backcountry and crosscountry capabilities .
You can cruise at speeds greater
than 150 mph, remarkable for a Cub.
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54
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ARE PILOTS JUST OUT OF PRACTICE,

NOT ONLY IN THE ELEMENTS OF
THE MANEUVER ITSELF, BUT IN THE
DECISION PROCESS THAT LEADS TO A
GO-AROUND SO OUT OF PRACTICE,
IN FACT, THAT THEY DONT EVEN
CONSIDER THE OPTION?
The
Go-Around
How to Master Aviations Least Practiced Maneuver
By Rob Mark
In July 2010, a Cirrus SR22 crashed half a mile

north of the Caldwell, New Jersey, airport in
clear weather and calm winds. Witnesses said it
appeared to be high and fast on final and touched
down about halfway down the airports 4,552-foot
runway. After what witnesses called a bounce, the
pilot executed a go-around, during which another
witness observed the airplane pitch up and enter a
left turn before dropping and impacting the ground
in a steep, nose-low attitude. Three people, including the pilot, perished in the accident.
The National Transportation Safety Boards
investigation uncovered no evidence of mechanical malfunction or failure, although the flaps
were found in the fully extended position. The
Cirrus pilot operating handbook calls for flaps to
be retracted to 50 percent during the go-around,
then fully retracted once obstacles are cleared.
The board determined the probable cause of the
accident to be the pilots failure to maintain aircraft control during the go-around following a hard
landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilots
continuance of an unstabilized final approach and
the improper use of flaps during the go-around.
Poor training or a lack of training when things
go wrong with home plate in sight is not a problem limited to low-time aviators. In July 2013, an
Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 stalled and struck the
seawall near the approach end of Runway 28L
at San Francisco International Airport. In that
accident, three type-rated pilots sitting in the
cockpit watched the airspeed steadily decreasing
during the approach. When the flying pilot finally
attempted a go-around, it was too late and the airliner fell out of the sky, striking the tail first.
hink about all of the decisions a pilot makes every

moment he or she is in command choices that
must fit together just so to ensure a safe flight.
Sometimes the choices are simple, like correcting for a gusty crosswind in a light trainer. Other
times theyre considerably more challenging, like
successfully controlling an airliner when the electric trim goes nuts. Of course, there are thousands
more decisions in between these extremes.
Consider for a moment just one decision, an item
that seldom garners much attention except when
things go haywire: How do pilots decide when to
abandon an approach and go around for another
try? Some pilots say they go around if things get
really bad, although the definition of really bad
seems to differ from pilot to pilot. Others offer up
the equally vague I know the situation when I see
it. Some cringe at the mention of a go-around, reasoning that it points to a pilots inability to make
the landing work the first time. But knowing when
to say enough during an approach, whether in the
clouds or the blue sky, is an important decision we
train for, or at least one we should be training for.
Instructors dont spend time telling pilots
they need to be as good at go-arounds as the landings themselves, says Tom Turner, a 31-year
flight instructor and the executive director
of the American Bonanza Societys Air Safety
Foundation. Many think theyll be criticized for
whatever techniques they used to get themselves
into the go-around situation in the first place.
All too often, pilots dont make a go-around
work when they need it most, as many accident
reports confirm. Are pilots just out of practice, not
only in the elements of the maneuver itself, but in
the decision process that leads to a go-around so
out of practice, in fact, that they dont even consider the option?
57
The Go-Around
58
In August 2016, an Emirates Boeing 777 crashed

during a go-around attempt at Dubai International
Airport. A post-impact fire destroyed the airplane,
although everyone on board managed to escape the
inferno that followed the crash. While the United
Arab Emirates General Civil Aviation Authority
is still writing the final report, the preliminary
edition offers a chilling look at the pilots decision
process during the final few minutes of the arrival.
The Emirates crew was alerted on final approach
to something unusual when the airliners automated wind shear, wind shear alert sounded
in the cockpit, having sensed a headwind that
changed to a tailwind before switching back again.
The airplanes actual speed is still unknown, as is
the reason why it touched down farther along the
runway than normal. The nose gear remained in
the air long enough after the mains were planted,
however, that the Boeings onboard computers
again alerted the crew theyd had a long landing,
beyond the optimal point on the runway.
The captain initiated a go-around and pitched
the 777 for a climb in preparation for a second
landing attempt. The gear began to retract six seconds later. Most pilots can imagine the activity in
the cockpit at this point probably something
along the lines of positive rate, gear up. In this
case, however, the airplane didnt climb above 85
feet before it began to settle back to the runway.
The Boeings ground proximity warning system
warned, Dont sink, dont sink, at about the same
moment much too late, of course that the two
giant Rolls-Royce Trent engines powering the 777
began spinning up toward full power. With the
landing gear still in transit and a speed of only 125
knots, this Boeings fate was sealed. The aircraft
struck the runway, tearing the right engine away
and igniting a fire that eventually destroyed it.
WHAT ARE WE DOING WRONG?

Every one of us remembers our training days, when
our instructor would wait until we appeared to
have the runway made. Thats when the instructor
would point out the imaginary cow or deer crossing the runway. After the right number of practice
attempts, the reaction became almost automatic,
almost always from the same point in the approach.
Students pour the coals to the motor, pitch up a bit,
and usually rid the airplane of the drag items sure
to slow the climb, such as gear and flaps.
I remember my first go-around, with a fresh
private pilot certificate in my pocket, in a Cessna
150 many years ago at Sky Harbor Airport, north
of Chicago. Looking back, I still cant remember
ever having practiced a go-around before my private check ride. But I do remember the fear I saw
in the eyes of the people on the ground I passed
over as I tried to make the 150 fly with full flaps
still extended. After what seemed like an eternity
of nosing over to keep the little airplane flying and
pulling back to clear the buildings, I happened
to milk up a notch of flaps. The little red Cessna
lunged forward. I realized the connection barely in
time to be able to come back around for a full stop.
I never wanted to try that maneuver again, and I
didnt for many years.
The reason for a botched go-around isnt always
so easily determined. Examining the August
Emirates crash requires that we consider what
role the aircrafts automation, as well as the pilots
understanding of the operation of that technology, played in the outcome. To be clear, the Boeing
777s automation apparently functioned precisely
the way it was designed. Initial reports indicate
the Emirates crew believed the autothrottles were
responsible for bringing the engines up to full
power during a go-around, a fact they realized too
late was incorrect.
Once the Boeings main gear touched the concrete, the autothrottles were removed from the
solution and the engines remained at idle until
someone jammed them forward just seconds
before impact. The question in this and other accidents, of course, is why pilots are often unaware of
how the automation can be expected to function in
a go-around. Regularly practicing the go-around
maneuver from a variety of arrival situations would
seem to be the only solution for pilots to reach the
necessary level of performance and proficiency.
AFTER WHAT SEEMED LIKE AN ETERNITY OF NOSING OVER TO KEEP THE LITTLE
AIRPLANE FLYING AND PULLING BACK TO CLEAR THE BUILDINGS, I HAPPENED TO MILK UP
A NOTCH OF FLAPS. THE LITTLE RED CESSNA LUNGED FORWARD.
The Go-Around
STABILIZED APPROACH
A stable approach is the best indicator of a good
landing. Its a theorem pilots hear whether theyre
in the left seat of a Beechcraft Bonanza or an Airbus
A380. Stable can be defined, of course, but what
about the precise location of the final decision
point on the approach when being unstabilized
means going around?
Pilots of transport-category aircraft normally
explain stable as, at the 1,000 agl point, having
the gear down, final flaps set, and the aircrafts
speed within a predetermined safety margin above
reference speed. If the flying pilot is correcting to
the standard, he or she will continue to the 500
agl point. The idea is that a go-around should be
initiated. It just doesnt work out that way in reality, however, with pilots continuing despite clearly
unstable indications.
In a Cirrus SR22, a stabilized approach might
mean final flaps are set by 300 to 500 agl with a
speed within 5 knots of the 75 required across the
Training Aid. This book has become the de facto

guide in the recent push for upset prevention and
recovery training to be added to flying curriculums around the globe. Carbaugh believes one of
the problems causing pilots to lose control of airplanes during go-around maneuvers is that all too
often the maneuver is practiced from exactly the
same point every time: decision height. Anyone
who has attended jet recurrent training knows full
well that on the single-engine ILS, youll see nothing at minimums and will need to go around. But
how realistic is the effort when everyone knows its
coming? Here the pilot had time to think through
the process of applying power, deciding when to
pitch the aircraft and when to begin gently cleaning
up offending drag to prepare for another try.
All well and good, except that many go-arounds
dont begin at decision height. They might start at
500 above minimums or on a 3-mile final, where
flying the go-around the way a pilot was trained
on that single-engine ILS could lead to blowing
THINK BACK TO THE LAST TIME YOU PRACTICED OR FLEW AN ACTUAL

GO-AROUND, AND YOULL REALIZE WHY MANY PILOTS STRUGGLE WITH THE WHEN
ASPECT OF THE GO-AROUND DECISION.
60
fence. But like the jet jockeys, how far outside these
parameters means a go-around is necessary? Is a
74-knot speed cause for panic? If the Boeings ref
speed is 121 knots and the flying pilot sees 123 on
short final, does he or she bail? Clearly, there are
standards somewhere. The problem is the standard is not necessarily the same for everyone.
Think back to the last time you practiced or flew
an actual go-around, and youll realize why many
pilots struggle with the when aspect of the goaround decision. Knowing when can really only
be based on experience, mated to some predetermined guidelines. Success also means more than
simply knowing when. Once the decision to go
around is made, pilots must also understand precisely what steps are necessary and in what order
for a safe climb away from the runway, lest training
shortcomings are demonstrated the hard way, as
they were to the Emirates crew at Dubai.
Dave Carbaugh, the retired chief pilot of Boeings
Commercial Airplanes Flight Operations Safety
group, co-authored the Airplane Upset Recovery
through a relatively low-altitude restriction, or

overspeeding the flaps or landing gear in a rush to
comply with ATC or some other issue. Carbaugh
confirms that these kinds of errors evolve from
pilots trying to accomplish too much too quickly.
He says changing an airplanes configuration from
heading down toward the runway, with everything
hanging out, to climbing and being cleaned up is
no small task. He advises pilots to slow down and
methodically accomplish one item at a time, ensuring its all working the way they want before they
turn their attention to some other task.
Turner says another reason for the go-around
mess is that we dont train and evaluate stalls,
often a major factor in go-arounds, the way they
occur. Theres a strong correlation between stall
mishaps in go-arounds being made worse if the
aircraft happens to be heavy or loaded toward a
rearward center of gravity, making the aircraft
more difficult to control.
Whose job is it, then, to set pilots straight about
the elements of a go-around? Looking deep into the
new Airman Certification Standards recently created for private pilots, youll find some, although
honestly not much, guidance for the go-around
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61
The Go-Around
maneuver that has the potential to cause so many

problems. Still, the ACS is a vast improvement over
the explanation of the go-around found in the original Private Pilot Practical Test Standards.
The ACS expects an applicant to exhibit satisfactory knowledge, risk management and skills
associated with a go-around/rejected landing with
emphasis on factors that contribute to landing
conditions that may require a go-around. Whats
missing, of course, are the individual steps, the
guideposts, for a successful go-around, which leads
us back again to the guidance that can be offered
by an experienced instructor, one who has done a
little homework. Theres considerable guidance
about the go-around maneuver in the Practical
Test Standards for the ATP certificate, a place few
might ever look.
Inside the PTS, under the rejected-landing
option, flight instructors, pilots and safety managers will find meaty topics to discuss, such as being
Eurocontrol and others, convening a Go-Around

Safety Forum in Brussels to study the go-around
problem. The teams used the IATA GADMSTEADES database and discovered just over 28,000
air safety reports filed between 2003 and 2011
coded with a mention of go-around. The forum
presented data showing that for every 1,000 flights,
somewhere between one and three executed a goaround, a tiny number compared with what anyone
expected. The researchers also realized how rare
the maneuver is for most commercial pilots. On
average, short-haul pilots perform a go-around
once or twice a year, while long-haul pilots may
make one only every two to three years. Even in the
face of an unstable approach, less than 5 percent
of these professional pilots executed a go-around.
The stats also showed that one in 10 of the goaround efforts resulted in a potentially hazardous
outcome, such as exceeding aircraft performance
limits or fuel endurance.
PILOTS NEED TO NOT ONLY TRAIN MORE OFTEN, BUT ALSO UNDERSTAND THAT
REALISTICALLY, A SUCCESSFUL LANDING FROM AN UNSTABLE APPROACH MEANS NOTHING
MORE THAN HAVING GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT THIS TIME.
62
able to detail the rejected-landing procedures

and the conditions under which the pilot will use
them, or the appropriate power settings and pitch
attitudes demanded to create a particular desired
performance, as well as when the pilot will retract
the gear and flaps, and in what order, while maintaining a predetermined airspeed. Theres even a
topic to guide a discussion about the appropriate
use of trim during the go-around maneuver, no
small issue when pouring the coals to most any
aircraft already trimmed nose-high usually calls
for immediate, considerable and sometimes unexpected forward pressure on the control column or
stick to avoid a stall.
THE RESEARCH
In June 2013, the Flight Safety Foundation
joined with experts from the International Civil
Aviation Organization, the U.K.s Civil Aviation
Authority, the French Bureau dEnqutes et
dAnalyses, the International Air Transport
Association, the European Cockpit Association,
A stable approach, whether in a Cessna 150, a

Pilatus PC-12 or a Boeing 777, means understanding the safety margins that exist on every approach,
and understanding they were created in the hope of
never actually being needed. To help prevent accidents stemming from poor go-around techniques,
though, pilots need to not only train more often,
but also understand that realistically, a successful
landing from an unstable approach means nothing
more than having gotten away with it this time.
Pilots must maintain situational awareness of
their aircraft on final approach. Even if the company that operates the aircraft has no set criteria
for a go-around, each and every pilot in command
can create his or her own standards they simply
refuse to violate because of their understanding of
the risks involved. We must demand training that
includes work on go-arounds.
No matter the category of our pilot certificate,
we need to train the way we fly, and the go-around
must be recognized as a normal segment of any
flight, despite the fact that its not used on each and
every trip. The point of training, after all, is to keep
us sharp both physically and mentally for what
could happen as well as what will happen.
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Unusual Atitudes
FLYING Opinion
PETER PAN AND WENDY

AN AIRBORNE TRAFFIC PATROL SAGA
64
he atmosphere in our normally gray conference room was, well, colorful, and the manager
was wishing he hadnt OKd my idea for an
informal meeting with local airborne-traic
helicopter and xed-wing pilots after a recent and highly
publicized accident.
On that frigid, foggy morning, a pilot and a female
reporter lifted of in a Bell Jet Ranger from a heliport
northeast of Lunken Airport. Fog around Lunken was
so dense that a second Jet Ranger returned to base and
urged the other pilot to do the same. Maybe since some
traic reporters from other stations were already airborne, he opted to continue. He wasnt in sight of the
tower as he proceeded along a taxiway at low altitude; visibility in this area, at the conuence of the Little Miami
and Ohio rivers, was zero. But the noninstrument-rated
pilot continued beyond the airport and crashed into trees
on an adjacent densely wooded hillside. Both he and the
reporter were killed. Fog was so dense that it took several
hours for rescuers to locate the crash scene.
Emergency equipment was passing our oice, and
another inspector and I followed them to the accident
site. These were pre-bunny-suit days, so I climbed the
densely forested hill in a skirt, winter coat and leather pumps. Rough going, but nothing compared to the
catastrophic, ugly and incredibly sad accident scene.
Cops were cordoning of the area from scavengers (yes,
really), and EMS teams still searching. The NTSB would
arrive later to take over the investigation; we interviewed
the motorist who saw something in the trees, talked
to the cops, and took pictures. I whispered a prayer and
sprinkled holy water from my cache.
Only pilots had been invited to that meeting at the
FSDO, but newsroom and station managers got wind and
arrived in force. With reporters and cameramen milling
around outside, my boss called the regional oice and was,
to put it mildly, not happy. The meeting got nowhere, with
every media exec and newsroom manager hotly deny-
ing they pressured their pilots to y and the pilots saying

nothing. But I knew hell, everybody knew about the
erce competition between stations, and had heard snide
on-air remarks like Well, folks, another morning with our
chopper up while the other guys are still on the ground.
A year later, the nal NTSB report would list factors contributing to the event as near dark conditions,
rising terrain, the pilots lack of instrument time [and]
pressure induced by company/operator management
[and] pressure by the pilot in command.
THESE WERE PRE-BUNNY-SUIT DAYS,

SO I CLIMBED THE DENSELY FORESTED
HILL IN A SKIRT, WINTER COAT AND
LEATHER PUMPS.
In those pre-webcam and -drone days, airborne traic

reporting was big and the broadcasting market highly
competitive. Stations vied with one another for the
best coverage. There were as many as three helicopters
and three or four airplanes ying during busy commuting times. But it was the voice of John Phillips that was
most familiar in the Cincinnati area. Flying an Enstrom
Shark helicopter, he broadcast live traic reports to nine
Cincinnati-area radio and TV stations while communicating with Approach Control, two control towers,
station broadcasters and other traic. This was solo and
VFR, and I can attest to Johns skill in simultaneously
handling the radio and the Enstrom because I ew with
him no, I dont remember if that was authorized.
An amazing thing, largely driven by John, came out
of that tragic accident. The airborne-traic culture had
By Martha Lunken
to change, so we asked the pilots to meet for breakfast

at a restaurant, knowing you can attract young, hungry
pilots anywhere by ofering free food. Thered be no
management, reporters, bosses, notes or attendance
records. Johns stations even picked up the tab.
So we met for breakfast every few months for years,
with air traic people and police and medevac pilots. They
discussed equipment, weather, routes and frequencies,
and worked out airspace and traic issues. It was great to
see ugly, adversarial relationships morph into friendships
and maybe avert another tragedy.
Station managers, news broadcasters and listeners loved John Phillips cops, re departments and
medevac helicopter operators, not so much. Peter Pan
would call me (Wendy) with Listen, you may get a call
from the cops, but I absolutely didnt Theyd grumble
when he got there rst and claim he was a nuisance. But
beneath that talented, articulate, breezy and gutsy persona was a responsible and safety-conscious pilot who, Im
condent, never interfered with a rescue operation.
Hed land his helicopter on an interstate median to
give a live report or mediate an angry exchange between
motorists. He once ended up in police custody for shooting groundhogs while hovering at the Blue Ash Airport.
That he ended up in court only enhanced his popularity.
John called a while back about giving an instrument
practical test. I said sure but reneged when the FAA
ripped of my examiner buttons.
He left a message on my phone because his family is
leaving Cincinnati for good this time. We probably wont
run into each other, but he poignantly said how much our
friendship has meant and ended by saying, I love you.
I get teary when I listen to that message; itll stay on my
machine forever.
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DECEMBER 2016
MARGRIT WALTZ
To fly this far for this long,

a ferry pilot must have
superb piloting skills and
a personality as tenacious
as it is courageous.
66
n her nearly 40-year career as a ferry pilot shuttling

general aviation airplanes around the globe,
Margrit Waltz has amassed nearly 23,000 flight
hours and just completed her 800th ocean crossing.
Most of these flights were between Europe and the
United States, over miles of desolate ocean and through
some of the planets worst weather.
To fly this far for this long and live to tell the tale, a ferry
pilot must have superb piloting skills and a personality as
tenacious as it is courageous. And when things go south
and you are in the soup in a single-engine or twin GA airplane somewhere near the resting place of the Titanic,
there is something else a ferry pilot needs: luck by the yard.
Once, I was delivering a Cessna 404 from the States
that was for a German buyer, Waltz says, and there were
no maintenance records for the airplane. One engine was
eating oil all the way across Canada, and I eventually lost
that engine. Then the mixture would not go back in on
the second engine, so when I landed, I pretty much did it
with two engines out. In my type of job, you definitely need
BY DAN PIMENTEL
PHOTOS BY JON WHITTLE
some skill, but I believe we pilots have

a yardstick of luck we y with. And
every time you use some of that luck,
theres an inch cut of. And eventually,
you run out of it.
She has own over oceans and between continents in just about every
type of GA airplane, from luxury business jets across the north Atlantic to
Piper Super Cub deliveries in Africa.
Shes just ne ying those routes today with anything turbine-powered,

she says; piston-engine airplanes,
however, always seem to cut too many
inches of her luck yardstick.
I was bringing a Cessna 421 back
to the States in February one time,
Waltz says, so you can imagine what
the weather was like on that trip.
One engine had just been replaced,
and the mechanics insisted on using
break-in oil. Between Greenland
and Iceland, it got so cold that the oil
cooler stopped working on the aircraft, and the break-in oil congealed,
so I had to shut down that side to save
the engine. It was so cold, the good
engine started cutting out too, but I
made it in to Goose Bay. Standing on
the runway in a snowstorm, I realized I had used a few too many inches of my yardstick, so I gave up ying
pistons across oceans.
As a young girl growing up in Hersel, Germany, Waltz liked to read the
story about Icarus and Daedalus, and
even tried to stand on a stool with
feathers tied to her arms. Obviously,
she says, I didnt end up ying, you
know, but as I look back, ying like a
bird was a childhood dream of mine.
Her father, a World War II Luftwafe pilot, laid the foundation
for her interest in aviation. That
interest magnied many times while
at Ursulinen Internat, a boarding
school run by Catholic nuns near
Bonn, Germany. Right across the
River Rhine from the school was the
DELIVERING
SOMEBODY
ELSES BABY
The day we met up
with Margrit Waltz
for our photo shoot
at Pompano Beach
Airpark in South
Florida, she had just
landed after ferrying
a brand-new TBM
930 from the Daher
factory in Tarbes,
France. It was fitting
that earlier this year,
when she celebrated
her 800th ocean
crossing, she was
flying a TBM as well.
Having done the trip
so many times, she
has developed just
one hard and fast
rule: The airplane had
better have a Pratt &
Whitney PT6 or other
turbine engine bolted
to it, or else shes not
flying it.
68
Bonn-Hangelar Airport, Waltz says,

and from my window, I could see
the planes going up and down every
day. Being in the boarding school with
nuns was the closest thing I could
imagine to being in prison, and it
looked like freedom over there at the
airport. About that time, a good friend
took me up in a Cessna 150, and on
that ight, a dream was born.
The next year, at 17, Waltz began
taking ying lessons from an instructor who you could say had a bit of
history when it came to staying composed under pressure. She knew him
as Mr. Hartmann, but to the rest of
the world and his aerial adversaries,
he was known as the Blond Knight.
Taking her initial pilot training
from famed Luftwafe ace Erich
Bubi Hartmann, the highestscoring ace of all time, with 352 aerial
kills, might explain how Waltz learned
the skills she uses to keep cool in the
cockpit when things go sideways. He
was just a fantastic ight instructor,
she says of Hartmann, and one of
the rst things he taught me over and
over was steep turns. He told me that
If I said yes,
he would
always be
number two,
as flying was
my first love.
knowing this would save my life one

day. I didnt understand why at the
time, but he was a ghter pilot and
looked at ying totally diferently,
so I listened.
Throughout most of her ying
career, her husband, David, has been
her biggest supporter, and he handles
behind-the-scenes ground logistics
that can change frequently on any
given ight. Their marriage is a true
partnership, and going in, David knew
hed never be able to compete with
the sky, where his wifes heart would
always be. When he proposed, Waltz
says, I told him straight out that he
had to understand that if I said yes, he

would always be number two, as ying was my rst love. I guess it was a
strange answer to a marriage proposal, but he said he could deal with that,
and weve been together since.
With so many years of ying missions that contained a higher element
of risk than your average hamburger
run, today Waltz is taking a slightly
more cautious approach to ferry
ying and ocean crossings. Her yardstick of luck started with the same 36
inches as everyone elses, but she has
whittled away at that stick inch by
inch, until now, when its approaching a foot long. Im 59 now, she says,
and I try not to challenge my luck
anymore, making sure to keep a little
bit in reserve in case I really need it.
Shes looking to retire from ferrying someday but not from ying,
and as her mission changes from
one of intense ocean crossings to
one of pure pleasure ying, itll be
good to have a few inches of that
yardstick left. And of course, her
experience yardstick is as long as
any pilots.
Gear Up
FLYING Opinion
By Dick Karl
THE END OF A LOVE AFFAIR

HAS JET FLYING DIMINISHED A TURBOPROP OWNERS ENTHUSIASM?
I took the airplane to Bill Turley

of Aircraft Engineering in Bartow,
Florida. The belts that run the compressor had come of. New ones
were installed, and the air worked
well for the 20-minute ight back
to Tampa. When I took of the next
morning bound for Delaware, the
AC was not on board. After landing,
I stuck my ngers through a small
access door on the right engine and
retrieved two belts with cuts on them.
A long way from home maintenance, I contacted Columbia Air
Services in Groton, Connecticut. I
knew the mechanics there to be Cheyenne gurus. Alas, they had retreated
from servicing these venerable and
remarkable machines. They did have
70
hat to say to an old and

dear friend, a super
friend, when my adoration begins to fade?
For that matter, how did it become
apparent that our relationship had
entered a slide toward entropic
doom? It wasnt that there hadnt
been issues or problems before. In
the past, the magnicence of our
relationship made almost any hardship bearable. It was just that now
those problems seemed emblematic
of something more serious than nor-
mal. The problems were occurring

more frequently, and the remedies
were becoming more elusive.
Im talking about our airplane, a
Piper Cheyenne. Thirty-six years
old, she has been in our family for the
past 16. Shes a powerhouse. None of
these glitches were dangerous just
annoying. But they told a tale.
It started last summer with a trip
from New Hampshire to Florida.
On takeof, the airplane was hot; it
was clear the air conditioning wasnt
working. Once I landed in Tampa,
a contact on the eld who had lots of

Cheyenne experience and the tools to
match. Johnny Locke set me straight,
aligned the AC, installed new belts,
and got me going, but not without
some drama about a tensioner that
had been repaired sometime in the
past. Nonetheless, I ew on to New
Hampshire nice and cool.
A few days later, I was to y to
Morristown, New Jersey, for mountain qualication training at CAE.
This would allow me to become M2
qualied at JetSuite and y CJ3s into
Im beginning to wonder, has

my jet experience put me off
flying the Cheyenne?
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FLYING Opinion
The End of a Love Affair
Id never been to
72
Aspen and Eagle, Colorado, among other tricky locales. I

was amused to be qualifying for mountain work in New
Jersey, but my amusement vanished when I discovered
the cabin blower on the Cheyenne, a necessary component for both air conditioning and heat, was not working.
This development, while inconvenient for that day,
took on greater signicance as my wife, Cathy, and I were
scheduled to depart the next day for an elaborate summer
vacation via turboprop. We had Kansas City, Missouri;
Santa Fe, New Mexico; Moab, Utah; Bozeman, Montana;
and Muskegon, Michigan, on our wish list. Not much
could be done without AC down low and heat up high in
the ight levels. This trip was our summer-treat trip.
As I have so many countless times before, I called Bill
Turley in Florida. Ill call you back was all he said. When
he did, I was struck dumb in amazement. Originally from
Ohio, Bill had called an old friend who operates several Cheyennes who had a blower with the matching
part number and would be glad to help us out. And so the
next morning, we climbed just up to Flight Level 200 and
stayed relatively warm until we shot the RNAV approach
to Tiin, Ohio, where we were met by the entire Neuman
family and their beautiful dogs, Emmy and Charlie.
Ill leave it to the statisticians to decide how likely it
might be that a needed part, mechanical expertise and
willingness to help would lie on a path between KLEB
and KMKC, but there it was. Two hours after landing and
getting help from Andrew Neuman and mechanic Dennis,
and after a few hugs on the dogs, we were back in the air,
dodging weather to Kansas City.
Our arrival in Santa Fe the next day was at midafternoon bad planning on my part. Anybody familiar
with that area of the world in August would know about
afternoon thunderstorms. A phalanx of them guarded our
arrival like loyal sentries. We skipped to the south, ducked
under the cloud bases, withstood a few highly memorable
jolts, and soon found ourselves on nal for 20. Though the
winds were reported as calm, I saw a tailwind vector of 17
knots just 500 feet above touchdown. When I queried the
tower, the answer was calm winds. We parked and got out
to feel the warm outow of the nearby thunderstorms.
Calm winds, indeed.
Santa Fe is 6,349 feet above sea level, and our PT6
engines typically can produce full power when climbing
through that altitude when we take of from sea level. But
today the engines were temperature-limited to somewhat less than maximum torque because we were taking
of. Without ram air, the engine ITTs were too hot for full
Moab, and I felt

unprofessional in my
airmanship and a lack of
confidence in the airplane;
although she was performing up to specs, it wasnt a
familiar feeling for me.
power, though once airborne, I could advance the power

as usual.
Moab, Utah, is brown. The black runway and neighboring highway were hard to see among all that brown. Only
at 6 miles out did I nally spot the airport, making a downwind and standard entrance necessary. Funny I was just
vaguely dissatised with the airplane and my handling of
her. Id never been to Moab, and I felt unprofessional in
my airmanship and a lack of condence in the airplane;
although she was performing up to specs, it wasnt a familiar feeling for me.
Moab and its environs are gorgeous; they are said to
be more beautiful than Bryce Canyon. Lots of interesting things are in close proximity. Somehow, though, the
engine temperatures and my failure to spot the runway
until late lingered in my mind, diminishing my enjoyment.
I was already worrying about the Moab-to-Bozeman trip
the next day.
I planned that leg to be direct at FL 220. I know the
highest mountain in the continental United States is
Mount Whitney, at 14,500 feet, so terrain wasnt a factor,
but I also noted that several jet airways in the region had
minimum altitudes of FL 260. Not overly familiar with the
route, I was uncharacteristically anxious about the trip
despite the good forecasts.
I neednt have been. Visits in Big Sky, Montana, and Muskegon, Michigan, were delightful, and the airplane behaved
beautifully. But something had slipped in my mind. Had
CJ3 ying spoiled my appreciation for the Cheyenne and
its lesser capabilities? Is it time for a new airplane?
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Jumpseat
FLYING Opinion
FERRY FLIGHT
M
74
y cellphone buzzed in its charging station

on the nightstand. I opened one bleary
eye and glanced at the red glow of the digital clock. The time was 4:06 a.m. My rude
awakening could only be from one source: crew schedule.
The caller ID conrmed my assumption. My reserveassignment period had begun six minutes prior.
The bright-eyed and bushy-tailed voice at the other
end of the line was in stark contrast to my demeanor.
Nonetheless, I attempted to rally by uttering a mostly
coherent greeting. The crew scheduler was pleasant and
professional and got right down to business. I was being
assigned a ferry ight. We were to y an empty 777 from
JFK to Dallas and then deadhead home.
As my comprehension reached a mostly normal
level, I acknowledged the assignment, thanked the crew
scheduler and pressed end. A quick calculation indicated
that the sign-in time allowed for another hour of sleep. I
reset my alarm, grunted an explanation to my wife, and
attempted to fall back asleep with no success.
Having been caught of guard once before, I had packed
a bag and had my uniform in the ready position. As fate

would have it, this particular one-day trip didnt require an
overnight bag. But Ive been in the business long enough to
know that things change; Id drag the bag with me anyhow.
I began the drive to JFK aware that rush-hour traic
was my destiny. While en route, I called our dispatcher,
asking whether the ight was a result of a prior maintenance issue or just a good old-fashioned ferry ight.
For reasons that are still unclear, it appeared the
airplane was needed in Dallas because of a schedule
disruption. I also asked the dispatcher if nonrevenue
passengers would be authorized. On some occasions, if a
mechanical discrepancy is not involved, the airline will
allow other employees a ride. But in this circumstance, the
authorization was not a priority. Bummer.
As I rode the employee bus to the terminal, contemplating the best mode of transportation to our maintenance
hangar, a text message appeared on my cellphone. My copilot, Mike, was indicating he would be tardy. Not having
to be concerned with passengers and a precise departure
schedule, I saw my copilots late arrival time as no big deal.
P H O TO S BY A L A M Y
FLYING AN EMPTY AIRPLANE
By Les Abend
I took a step into the cabin and peered

down the aisles. Overhead bins were open.
Various compartments and doors were
unlocked. The airplane looked abandoned.
I went about the business of extricating the ight-plan

paperwork from the computer, checking the WSI weather
on the iPad, and clearing out my mailbox.
Ironically, ying a domestic trip had become foreign to
my routine. I chuckled at the fuel load almost one-third
less than my typical trip to London. The takeof weight of
the airplane was so low that it was a number I had never
seen. And I couldnt remember the last time I had own to
Dallas. In the 777, it was probably never.
Shortly after Mikes arrival, we marched out of operations toward the food court. We decided that without
catering and ight attendants, it was in our best interest to
supply our own meals for the trip. Food in hand, we waited
for the other employee bus that would take us to a diferent parking lot that served the maintenance hangar.
It had probably been quite some time since Id stepped
foot into our maintenance operations center. My guess
would be almost 15 years earlier, when I ferried a 757 nonstop from JFK to La Guardia. Except for some new banners
and furniture rearranging, not much had changed.
As Mike and I predicted, the airplane wasnt quite ready.
The assigned mechanic needed to complete the appropriate maintenance-logbook paperwork before the airplane
could be released. In the interim, we were ofered a ride
out to the ramp so we could begin the preight process.
I volunteered to complete the walk-around inspection.
Mike clambered up the scafolding stairs to prepare the
cockpit. He paused at the top, staring at the closed entry
door. Although we were both aware that the emergency
evacuation slide is disarmed when the door is opened
from the outside, regardless of inside lever position, a
moment of reection was not unwarranted. Mike twisted
the handle. No loud hiss. No slide tentacle. Cool.
After dragging my bags up the stairs, I took a step into
the cabin and peered down the aisles. Overhead bins were
open. Various compartments and doors were unlocked.
The airplane looked abandoned. As per our companys
procedures, without ight attendants on board, it was our
responsibility to ensure all food carts, storage doors and
galley ovens were stowed and secured.
It was no small task. I scanned the rst-class galley.
Apparently, catering had not come on board since the
ight had landed. Trays of aluminum-foil-covered meals
were scattered about. The labels indicated the meals were
leftover quiche. Yummy. And various inserts lled with
various beverages were strewn on countertops.
Twenty minutes after a mechanic had left us with the
logbook and closed the forward entry door, I was nally
done locking, stowing and latching. Flying the airplane
would be the easy part.
With the fanfare of only one mechanic and his orange
wands, we taxied away from the maintenance ramp and
over to Runway 22R. With an evil grin, I suggested to Mike
that we consider a max-power takeof. He nodded with
his own grin and made the appropriate selection on the
ight-management computer.
It seemed like mere seconds after the thrust levers
reached their max-power setting that the airplane had
accelerated to its rotation speed of 122 knots. The airplane leaped of the ground as though it was imitating an
F-16. Mike and I smiled. A glance at the IVSI displayed a
5,800 fpm rate of climb. And that would be the extent of
our fun. Even without passengers, abrupt maneuvers in
a transport-category airplane are not a good idea. Stuf
could break or fall of.
During the course of our three-and-a-half-hour ight,
we both took the opportunity to wander the aisles. A sea of
247 empty seats. Not a soul on board. It was as if we were
ying a ghost ship. Eerie.
But then again, who gets the opportunity to y a 777 and
get paid for it? Maybe the next ferry ight will be to a destination more exotic than Dallas.
75
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Technicalities
FLYING Opinion
DROP TEST
SAFETY IN AVIATION MEANS COMING DOWN SOFTLY
80
P H O T O C O U RT E S Y G A RY C O N N E RY
our years ago, I wrote that

it would be impossible for
a skydiver in a wingsuit to
are and land without a
parachute. The aerodynamic eiciency of a wingsuit is so low, and its area
so small, that even with all the stored
energy of a 100 mph fall, it could not
simultaneously support a human
body and slow to a safe landing speed.
Shortly after I delivered this pronouncement, 42-year-old British
stuntman Gary Connery disproved it.
Not quite the way I imagined,
however. Connery, accepting that
he would not be able to land like a
pigeon at a fast walk, decided instead
to y at full tilt into a runway-cumshock-absorber consisting of 18,000
large cardboard boxes. The YouTube
videos of his arrival there are several are impressive. He disappears
into the pile its very long, of course,
but not that deep in a cloud of y-
ing debris like a 3-year-old trying

to whip cream. After a considerable
lapse of time, during which associates
poke around the outside of the stack
like archaeologists searching for the
entrance to an ancient tomb, a grinning Connery strides out unscathed.
It was he who parachuted over
the opening ceremonies of the 2012
Olympics in London disguised as the
queen of England. His wig was white,
his dress salmon.
Fast-forward to July 2016: Luke
Aikins, a professional skydiver,
jumped from an airplane at 25,000
feet without a parachute. He landed
safely in a 100-square-foot net suspended 200 feet above the ground.
That stunt seems to have been
a dramatic application of the fact,
familiar to all pilots, that the aim
point is the one from which all the
surrounding points appear to spread.
Reportedly, Aikins made a number of
practice jumps, opening his chute at

1,000 feet rather than the customary
2,200 feet, to test if he could aim for
the net and position himself directly
above it. Evidently, he developed
quite a lot of condence that he could.
What Aikins and Connerys
stunts have in common is the need to
dissipate a good deal of energy in a
short distance.
Suppose Connery is going 130 feet
per second when he hits the boxes.
The acceleration of gravity is 32 fps
per second; that means the speed of
an object falling in Earths gravitational eld tends to increase by 32
fps, or about 22 mph, every second.
Horizontal deceleration is measured
the same way: A deceleration of 1 G
occurs when speed diminishes by 32
fps every second. So if Connery slows
to a halt in two seconds or so, he experiences about 2 Gs. If he slows in one
second, 4 Gs, and so on.
Of course, Connery was not decelerating smoothly, but by a series of
shocks as he collided with one crushable wall after another. He probably carried an increasing amount of
cardboard ahead of him as he moved
through the pile of boxes, and that
would, I suppose, tend to smooth out
the deceleration. As a lover of knowledge, I certainly hope he carried an
accelerometer, preferably a recording
Wingsuit flyers normally open a
parachute to land. British stuntman
Gary Connery tried 18,000 cardboard boxes instead.
By Peter Garrison
one. I wonder if he used some sort of

neck brace. Usually people running
into something prefer not to lead with
their heads.
The terminal velocity of a skydiver is usually reported to be around
125 mph, although it varies with
the jumpers weight and size. Leaving the parachute behind reduced
Aikins free-fall velocity a bit. Unlike
Connery, and quite understandably,
Aikins did not lead with his head: He
rolled over onto his back just before
reaching the net and struck it in a
curved supine posture.
Aikins situation was more similar to that of a bungee jumper. He
probably experienced the greatest
deceleration near the end of the
process, when the net reached its
greatest extension. To judge from
the video, this must have been about
175 feet below the point at which he
entered it. Bungee jumpers are said to
experience around 3 Gs of peak deceleration, but of course, they are not at

terminal velocity when the cord tightens. I would guess that Aikins might
have momentarily felt 5 or 6 Gs.
Like Connerys boxes and Aikins
net, the landing gear of an airplane
must smoothly and comfortably dissipate the vertical velocity with which
the airplane reaches the ground. The
same relationships of speed, distance
and rate of deceleration apply. The
airplane does not arrive at 125 mph
straight downward, fortunately, and
so it does not require a shock absorber
175 feet long. Daniel Raymers encyclopedic Aircraft Design: A Conceptual Approach states that for oleo struts,
a stroke of 8 inches is considered a
minimum; that is, for instance, the
stroke of a Cherokees main gear. It
may seem curious that gear strokes
for large airplanes are similar to those
for small ones. It is the diameter of
the strut that grows with the airplane,

not its stroke length.
General aviation landing gears are
designed for a 3 G arrival. Carrier airplanes are tougher: 5 to 6 Gs. Landing
gears are tested by dropping the airplane onto the floor from a height.
Part 23 requires the drop height be
not less than 9 or more than 18 inches.
The drop test reflects both the design
G-load and the fact that even when an
airplane is stalled 3 feet in the air and
dropped in by a novice pilot, the wing
is still carrying part of the airplanes
weight on the way down.
Shock absorbers have two functions: spring and damping. Spring
spreads out the force of deceleration over time and distance by
compressing air, rubber or metal, or
by stretching a net or a bungee cord.
Damping dissipates, through friction,
some of the energy that would otherwise be stored, and subsequently
released, by the spring. In an oleo
strut, the spring action is supplied by
compressed air, the damping by oil
being driven through a small hole.
Connerys shock absorber consisted entirely of damping; there was
no spring and no tendency for him
to bounce back. Aikins net, unlike a
trampoline, had some spring back but
seems to have been heavily damped
by the friction of its woven fibers.
Ideally, a landing gear would be well
damped and have little spring back.
As flight instructors know, however,
the spring steel gears on many trainers have plenty of bounce; their only
damping comes from the sideways
scrubbing of tires on the pavement
as the gear spreads out before hurling
student, instructor and airplane back
into the air.
P H O T O BY C H R I S T I A N P O N D E L L A
Professional skydiver Luke Aikins

jumped from 25,000 feet without a
parachute, aiming for a 100-squarefoot net. Fortunately, he hit it.
81
82
PHOTO BY ROBE RT S HELLAB ARGER
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