There are many acronyms and checklists that an aspiring pilot must learn.
The pilot must know when and how they are to be used, some are done during the
preflight period, others are done during the flight portion, but some are even done
before a pilot even gets to the plane. We are going to be talking about the last one
this acronym is known as the PAVE checklist, PAVE stands for pilot, aircraft,
environment, and external pressure. Given a scenario we will utilize the PAVE
checklist and determine whether the pilot should have made that flight to begin
with.
Before conducting a preflight on an aircraft, a pilot should conduct a preflight
on himself. A way to do that is by utilizing the IMSAFE checklist (Illness, Medication,
Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, Emotions). In the scenario we have no indication of any
illness, medication, nor alcohol that the student pilot had taken. There could be a
multitude of stress factors in this scenario, the student seems to be on his first solo
cross-country which could be stressful when he was used to his instructor being
there in case of a slip up like it happened when he did not understand Departure
Control. Another stress could be that he has asked for what is for him too much
schedule adjustments in a short period of time therefore he may want to get done
with it to not have to ask for another adjustment again. Lastly, having wrong
weather information and having to go-around could raise some unwanted stress
causing fatigue. According to clevelandclinic.org one of the possible causes of
fatigue is stress, as we can see this scenario has a lot of stressors that may and will
lead to fatigue. When it comes to emotions the pilot is feeling and abundance of
different emotions, he may be nervous about doing a long flight be himself, excited
that he is at a point where he is finally trusted to fly on his own, disappointed that it
took so long due to weather, and even possibly scared when the gusting wind
caused him to go around.
After checking themselves the pilot assesses the situation of the aircraft. In
this scenario, the aircraft was his second-choice aircraft, but it does not go into
details of why it was his second choice. Another issue that could play a factor in the
aircraft is the gusting winds which are gusting to 17 knots. Given that he is a 37-
hour student pilot, meaning he is still going for his private pilot license and may not
have the experience of being in this sort of wind condition, the trainer aircraft may
not have been tested at that high of gusty winds. For example, according to the
pilot operating handbook of a Cessna 172 the max demonstrated crosswind is 15
knots, meaning that an experienced pilot whose job is to test those aircraft only felt
comfortable flying it at 15 knots crosswind not that it is a limitation to the aircraft
itself. Flying in worst conditions while being less experienced than the test pilot is
probably not a wise idea.
The environment can play a big role in the success or availability of flying.
The environment includes the airports and their conditions as well as weather. It can
also be different terrain, maybe even different dialects if talking to ATC on a long
flight. In the scenario the weather all though VFR has some moderate to heavy
winds for an inexperience pilot. The winds according to the AWOS system are
coming from 55 degrees at 10 knots gusting to 17 knots, having a sustained
crosswind of 10 knots. This could be challenging for landing as the pilot is going to
have to finesse with power to account for the wind changes as well as a crab to the
right to account for the crosswind since he is landing at a 10 degree heading.
Some external pressure the pilot is may be having are the thought of it may
being the only day he has since weather has not been in his favor lately. Another
pressure is to get done with the flight on time in order to have enough time to go to
work. As well as getting the cross-country done so that he could be done with it and
continue with the next step in getting his license. Lastly, his first landing attempt
ends up in a go around placing more pressure on the pilot to either divert, cancel, or
reattempt the approach. This happens in such a short time that a pilot needs to
make a moderately quick decision on what his next step will be.
According to the AOPA Nall report it states that, “Landing accidents still
accounted for the largest number (290) but thankfully suffered few fatal accidents
(figure 1.11). Loss of control (147) continued to dominate as the leading cause of
landing accidents,” (Richard G. McSpadden report figure view 2020) bringing this
back to the scenario shows how if the pilot does not finesse or play with the power
to account for those sporadic wind changes could lead to losing control of the
aircraft ending in an accident. According to the Risk Management Handbook it
states that, “Pilots should also have personal minimums for wind and turbulence
and record the most challenging wind conditions comfortably experienced during
the last six to twelve months.,” (Risk management handbook (FAA-H-8083-2A)
meaning that if the pilot in the scenario would have done this he most likely would
had not even attempted to land the aircraft as he would have had a stricter
maximum wind speed than the one on the POH. I would have personally aborted the
landing and diverted to back to my base airport because during that time I had a
personal maximum of 12 knots of gusting wind with a maximum of 5 knots
differential from calm to gust. I would have also not gone on the flight since I would
have seen as many things were not lining up how I wanted like the aircraft not being
the one of my choice and feeling pressure from my boss to get back to work. I was
once told that it is better to not get in the air and think of what could have been
than to get in the air and think that I should of stayed in the ground.
References
Richard G. McSpadden report figure view. AOPA. (2020, July 21).
https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute/accident-analysis/richard-g-
mcspadden-report/mcspadden%20report%20figure%20view?
category=all&year=2021&condition=all&report=true
Risk management handbook (FAA-H-8083-2A). Risk Management Handbook (FAA-H-8083-2A)
| Federal Aviation Administration. (n.d.).
https://www.faa.gov/regulationspolicies/handbooksmanuals/risk-management-handbook-
faa-h-8083-2a
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
