When you're done armchair quarterbacking the way you'd handle an abnormal or emergency situation in a large, transport category airplane, perhaps you'll go get experience one, then spout off. Fortunately, you have a few hours in a 182 that gives you an adequate expert base of experience to educate us all.

Oh.

What do you do?

What might you have said without a college degree?

It is comments like this that prove you don't have enough experience to make such emphatic statements. You yourself even commented about how much of a "handful" a single engine turboprop could be. An aerodynamically clean aircraft with powerful jet engines at takeoff power handles much more differently than a 182.

The state of a 182 will barely change in the amount of time it takes to recognize that: A. You have unreliable instrumentation, B. Determine which instruments are providing valid information, C. Realize that what your body is telling is a lie, and D. recover. Meanwhile, a jet will easily jet into an extremely high descent rate that will require unusually large control inputs to stop.

Unreliable instrumentation is one of the hardest things to recover from. They lead you down a path of confidence that is hard to break. The characteristics that it would take to recover at the first sign of unreliable instrumentation would also cause you to make drastic changes when you or the other pilot makes a minor automation error. 99% of emergencies require pilots to spend time verifying and evaluating the failure, not reacting. I have seen unreliable instrumentation get the better of plenty of experienced pilots even when it was briefed by the instructor an hour before.

You were right that GOOD pilots study the mistakes of others, but pilots with enough EXPERIENCE in human factors also realize that even with the benefit of hindsight, we can make the same errors.

See what I mean? No possibility of making any headway against that.

It is extremely alarming to me that you project the same textbook hazardous attitudes that you are so quick to misdiagnose and condemn as being the primary contributing factor in an accident you know nothing about, and in an aircraft in which you have 0.0 hours.

You guys crack me up , the good Dr. actually makes some cogent points but you are all so spring loaded to pounce that you can't comprehend this. He actually brings a different and welcome perspective to these forums, get over yourselves. Pilots kill themselves all the time in this vocation of ours, some have 1000 hours, some have 10,000 , it is imperative that we learn from these mishaps lest they perpetuate. I'm willing to hear, listen, and perhaps learn from all parties in these discussions. No one has a lock on all the answers, hence the existence of these forums. Ok, end of rave. Carry on.

No. Plonk!

Ah. A paid spokesperson.

To use the apparent current MD vernacular; I'll double that No.
Plonk!

Chirst on a Cracker........I know Medical folks are a tad morbid re: Death.....but........that quote is full blown Ass Hat Doctor...for Shame!

My first flying gig was flight instructing out of Burke. I got 4 Doctor's their Private Certs; 2 of them Surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic. They all had VERY strong egos, just like many pilots; they all were checklist oriented, a trend in modern medicine...especially in Surgery. My Bachelors Degree is PreMed; had planned on being a Doctor until I spent a lot of time amongst Doctors. I say this because I think I can see both your side as a Doctor/Pilot.... and my/our side as an ATP.

You think we don't know "pilot error," is, BY FAR, the overwhelming cause of fatal crashes?? Of course we do! You think we all don't go over crashes in our minds, learning from dead friends and the CVR's of strangers? We have all lost friends. I lost my best friend to a stupid mistake he made with a student onboard. He not only paid for his mistake, but took and innocent student with him.

When my Father asked me if I was afraid of dying in a plane, I honestly answered him, "No, but I am afraid a mistake I make will kill someone." Pilots and Doctors hold lives in their hands. One wrong move and someone else often pays the price. Try and have a little more empathy in your responses...I bet most guys here have no idea how much of your income goes to Malpractice Insurance. A dark Parallel to what happens when you or we make the wrong call.

Blue Skies,

RadialGal

Interesting juxtaposition mocking their death and then offering condolences ...

Well "Maverick" has connotations beyond the movie top gun. The company might have existed before the movie, and if not the name was probably not an allusion to the movie.