Originally Posted by
shdw
I am fairly certain with the right amount of personal discipline and proper application that you can plan for almost any scenario you can ever be in as a pilot. Tell the guys over at NASA that you can't plan for everything, I would bet they have a different philosophy than many of us. Does anyone here happen to know their philosophy for flight planning/preparation?
Don't know so much about it being philosophy but I try to make most decisions on the ground. Waiting until you are in the event gives you at best a 50/50 chance of getting it right. During the event there are time pressures, etc which can lead to rushed decisions. The problem often seems to be 1) not making decisions early or 2) not sticking with decisions. Most have min fuel limits (:30-:45min fuel to be on the ground). But how many stick to that limit? So we get to red light and yellow light rules. Red.. you never violate and yellow.. well, those are conditional. And the yellow light attitude will get you in trouble.
Edit: Back on topic we were taught 4 Bs, briefing, back doors, back ups, and bottom lines. If you create these for each situation and then brief that situation (the act of forcing yourself to do this would be exhibiting good flight discipline) it can help you better prepare yourself. Back ups just to clarify, include things like ATC and bringing along a flight instructor, they are not just GPS/electronics.
Obviously you can't brief for every possible event but how often are we faced with real decision-critical events. Seldom. The problem more often seems to be botching the routine events, continuing bad approaches, trying to 'make it work' when it should be obvious it ISN'T working. And too often we walk away from a bad event with the wrong lesson.
Pilot B is hot and high but continues the approach, floats, lands long but gets it stopped. Instead of realizing that may have been his only free pass, he thinks, "I made it" and that is what goes into his personal data base. Next time he is hot and high, "Hey.. seen this before and I made it. I will continue." But this time he has an unreported 10kt tailwind.