Hacker News Reader

Comment by Dalewyn | Hacker News Reader

One of my acquaintances used to be an ATC (air traffic controller) and has many pilot friends from back then. They all say the same thing whenever they talk about the most important thing in aviation:

Have the courage to not take off.

Kudos to that US Airways captain for refusing to takeoff and stay put until everyone got on the same page.

View on HN

And the first officer too. It's a team effort and safety is the responsibility of all crew members (including the flight attendants to call out something, jumpseaters and even folks dead heading).

I recall in a CRM training they asked the class what would you do if the captain wanted to take off and you thought it was unsafe. Various answers and one person said "I'd hold my feet on the brakes to prevent moving" to which the trainer said yes - that's the right answer.

> Have the courage to not take off.

As the old old saying goes, better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here.

The four most useless things to a pilot are:

the fuel in the fuel truck,

the altitude above you,

the runway behind you,

and a tenth of a second ago.

You're flying the plane until it has stopped moving.

Every last piece of it.

or:

You're flying the plane until you take the key out of the ignition.

Doesn't matter how deep a hole you need to dig to get it.

Another common thing I hear is about having the courage not to land. It's almost as if the dangerous part is low-altitude maneuvering!

Yup, an approach is a go-around with the option of landing. (Thanks Juan Brown)

However, landing is eventually assured.

Well, reaching the ground is. Whether or not you can call it landing is a different question.

"If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing."

Chuck Yeagar

> Have the courage to not take off.

So many tragedies could have been averted if people just sat the fck down.

If shit doesn't feel right, just chill until it does.

Don't just do something, stand there! is my favourite exhortation. If I ran my own company, I would have it plastered all over the office.

The corollary if you're already aloft is to "fly the damn plane". Everything else comes second.

“Never drop the plane to fly the radio.”

"Aviate, navigate, communicate" ... in that order

Also “you can always go around”.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com