John and Martha King

(We originally wrote this article for the
National Association of Flight Instructors)

As instructors we have many responsibilities—creating pilots who are great risk managers and truly prepared to be pilot-in-command would be high on the list.  It would seem that teaching good aviation citizenship would come way down this list.  But in my view, teaching aviation citizenship should also be near the top.

Helping pilots move from aviation klutzhood to citizenship is a very simple way to help them greatly reduce the stress and increase the enjoyment of flying, and at the same time, markedly reduce their risk of having an accident.

Not being a good aviation citizen clearly has its risks.  Pilots who finally do themselves in often have had a long history of not following the rules, and of self-centered and cavalier behavior.  The folks who run aviation insurance companies will tell you that there is one very identifiable group of pilots with a significantly higher than average accident rate.  It is those pilots who don’t pay their premiums on time and argue heatedly about training and currency requirements.

As instructors we need teach pilots to manage what they care about.  It is what pilots care about that causes or prevents accidents.  Pilots who care about saving money on fuel will press on to an airport with cheaper fuel even at the risk of running out of fuel on the way. It is my contention that the habit of thoughtful aviation citizenship and what pilots care about can be trained, and that it will carry over into all of the pilot’s flying.

Now the truth is, being a good aviation citizen isn’t all that easy.  When you are in an aircraft you are busy.  Your attention is focused on what you are doing.  Unless you take special effort to think about how you are affecting others, it won’t come to mind.

Historically, thoughtful citizenship has not normally been included in the flight instruction program.  In fact, occasionally pilots have been trained to do something that has an unnecessarily negative impact on others.  For example, instead of being trained to fly quietly on approach, pilots are often told to increase propeller RPM early on a constant-speed prop to be ready for a go-around.

I had never thought much about how my flying was affecting folks on the ground until I attended a series of neighborhood meetings about a proposed runway extension at our local airport.  Some of the meetings had over a thousand attendees—and most had showed up to let everyone know how much the noise from airplanes bothered them.  The number and intensity of these folks was a great surprise to me.  For the first time I realized that if we wanted to keep our airport, we were going to have to be more considerate of our neighbors.

There are a few little things we can teach pilots to do that will make a big difference.  For instance, climbing at best angle-of-climb speed right after takeoff not only multiplies their alternatives in the event of an engine failure, but it reduces their noise impact to the neighborhood geometrically as they gain altitude.

Since much of the noise made by airplanes is caused by the speed of the propeller blade tips, teaching them to keep prop RPM low anytime they are over a populated area will make a huge difference.  Most manufacturers approve RPMs as low as 1800.  Many pilots with constant-speed props are afraid of operating their engines at that low an RPM, because they were erroneously taught never to operate over-square (with manifold pressure in inches greater than RPM in hundreds).  So consequently, they needlessly fly over neighborhoods with their props screaming away.

You can also reduce neighborhood noise by teaching pilots to keep their pattern tight and delay their descent in the pattern until they are on a normal descent path to the runway.  Unless taught otherwise, lots of pilots tend to start their descent abeam the landing point regardless of how extended the traffic pattern has become, and wind up flying an extended pattern at low altitude over neighborhood homes.

The alternative is to teach pilots that when the pattern becomes extended they should to hold their altitude, slow down, keep the airplane to follow in sight, and turn base when they pass abeam you on final.  This keeps their noise footprint closer to the airport and has the safety advantage of making it easier for everybody to keep pattern traffic in sight.

The traffic pattern is one place where exercising courtesy and civility is especially critical to safety.  Regardless of how big or fast an airplane they are flying, at an uncontrolled airport it is the pilot’s responsibility to monitor the frequency. It is disrespectful, dangerous, and contrary to the Aeronautical Information Manual for pilots to assume that they are exempt from the obligation to monitor the frequency and say, “All traffic please advise”.  The likely result is everybody talking at once.  This is a real setup for a midair collision.

Flying something big or fast, even when on an IFR flight plan, is not an excuse to make a straight-in approach to a crowded pattern.  I make it a policy to always fly the pattern, even in a jet, unless I am certain that I won’t interfere with pattern traffic, and weather conditions would make circling risky.  We should teach all our customers to do the same thing.

Aviation citizenship is important on the ground too.

Even the smallest plane can blow things around a hangar or fill it with dust, just by turning the wrong direction.  You can teach pilots to avoid this by something as simple as taxiing past an open hangar before they start a turn.

The other day we were sitting at an airport restaurant wondering when the guy sitting on the ramp with his engine blaring away was ever going to move away from us.  Part of the problem was that the pilot was running his engine much harder than he needed to.  He just hadn’t been taught to reduce RPM to idle after startup.  We should teach pilots to whenever possible copy ATIS and get their clearance before they start up and then move the airplane away from the restaurant area, or any other populated area, right after start up.

The other day a couple of professional pilots in a Citation pulled up to the hold line and blocked everyone else from taking off.  As it worked out the airspace in the direction they wanted go was saturated, but the airspace in other directions would allow immediate take-offs.  No one could move, however, because they had blocked the path to the runway.  When tower asked if they could move out of the way, they said they didn’t have room to move, and added that turbine aircraft were always entitled to taxi directly to the hold line.

We should teach pilots that anyone waiting for an IFR clearance should pull out of the way, if possible, to allow other aircraft access to the runway—even if they are otherwise ready to go.  Many times a faster aircraft or one going another direction can go out ahead of them.  It will cost them virtually nothing in the way of time and it will save others a lot.

We should teach pilots to think kindly towards ATC.  We pilots can often be an anti-authority crowd.  I remember in my early days of flying, I’d be taking off VFR and the controller would say, “Say your destination”.  This would annoy me because I thought of controllers as being part of the federal government.  My reaction was, “What business is it of the government where I am going?”  The fact was, the controller just wanted to know which direction I was flying so he could help get me on my way.

I also used to have a chip on my shoulder about ATC when I didn’t get an altitude or route as quickly as I thought I should have.  After we got a traffic awareness system that let us see the airplanes around us, I realized that the controllers were giving us the clearances we wanted just as soon as it was possible.  Now I realize that they are working every day trying to solve a giant puzzle in the sky to get everybody on their way efficiently.

After having flown internationally, I have come to greatly appreciate our ATC system. I now realize that we have a magnificent system that accommodates general aviation better than anyplace  else in the world.  I see the relationship with Air Traffic Control as a beautiful dance in which each partner plays a cooperative role.  In those cases in which a controller makes a mistake or is impatient, I remind myself that through the years I have caused controllers much more trouble than they have ever caused me.

We should teach our pilots that it they ever do feel that they have a grievance with a controller, the thing to do is call a supervisor on the phone after they land.  The radio is never the place to air grievances.

We should also teach pilots to appreciate FBOs.  Flying a general aviation aircraft internationally has led me to appreciate FBOs.  Most of the rest of the world doesn’t have them in the way we do, and when there are FBOs, they are much, much more expensive than ours.

In most parts of the world fuel is supplied by a roving tank truck that serves the airliners first and general aviation only when there is spare time available.  It is not uncommon to wait hours for fuel.  By the same token, since there is no FBO, there is no place to park your airplane or rent a car.  When you arrive at an FBO in the U.S. people usually come to greet you to ask what services you’d like.  In other parts of the world, when they run up to you as you arrive, they say, “You can’t park here.”  You have to beg permission to park on someone’s property and figure a way to schlep your luggage through the security gate.

We should also teach pilots to appreciate business jets.  It is very difficult even in the U.S. for an FBO to make it based solely on business from piston-powered aircraft.  Yet FBOs often accommodate us in pistons with the same service they give jets—even though jets take on 10 to 20 times the fuel.  We should teach pilots to develop the habit of buying at least some fuel every time they use an FBO and of saying to FBOs, “Thanks for being here, and thanks for the service you provide.”  Our aviation life wouldn’t be the same without them.

We should also teach pilots to understand their enormous responsibility to passengers.  Passengers trustingly put their lives completely in our hands.  They have a right to expect us to identify and manage the risks of every flight.  We often fail to think about the flight from the passengers’ view point instead of our own.  I can’t tell you how many folks have been lost to the aviation community because a new pilot wanted to show them stalls.  Clearly the pilot was thinking of their own needs—not their passengers.  We lose a lot of potential members of our community because of thoughtless actions.

Realizing that I have been and still am an aviation klutz from time to time has helped me in my efforts to be more tolerant of other pilots who, while wrapped up in what they are trying to do, have joined the aviation klutz club and inconvenienced me.  One of the things we all need to remember is we need other pilots to help keep the critical mass necessary to sustain our industry.  We should welcome and include others into our aviation community and treat them with civility and respect.

As new pilots come into the industry they will make the same kind of annoying and frustrating mistakes that we made when we started flying.  We need to be tolerant of these mistakes, including those of the rusty old hands who still make an occasional faux pas.

I know that I have been least considerate of others when I have been in a hurry.  Being in a hurry in an airplane is not a good thing.  These days when I find myself being in a hurry, I remind myself that the airplane is fast—so I don’t have to be.  We need to teach pilots to slow down and enjoy what they are doing.  They will become safer pilots, have more fun, and be much more considerate towards others.

We need to teach pilots that to be thoughtful aviation citizens, they don’t necessarily have to put others ahead of themselves.  They just need to think about the effect they have on others.  It will cost pilots very little, if anything, to minimize that effect.  The little effort it does take will pay rich dividends to them directly from safer, less stressful flights, and to the aviation community from greater support for airports and more pilots who stay with flying.

Martha and I have been flying together for over 43 years now, and I have to admit we haven’t always gotten along all that well together in an airplane. Getting along in an airplane requires mutual respect and a strong desire to share flying, but we’ve come to understand that these alone are not enough. We have discovered some tools that make it easier for flying partners to work well together in an airplane.

Now when Martha and I are flying together, the person monitoring uses the word ‘Captain’ when addressing the flying pilot. When our passengers hear this, they think we’re joking. But we find that the pilot flying accepts input far better when addressed as ‘Captain’. Plus the person not flying frames their comments more thoughtfully and respectfully.

Also important is agreeing in advance on what help each pilot should expect from the other. Once Martha, as the non-flying pilot, switched the frequencies on the navigation radio I was using to shoot an ILS. I didn’t notice the flags and thought the centered needles meant I was doing a fantastic job.

Whether you are flying an aircraft for which two pilots are required, or sharing your flying with a passenger, the second person in the cockpit can relieve the workload, improve situational awareness, trap errors and make flying more fun.

But if you don’t know the principles of crew resource management, you can work at cross purposes with each other.  If you fly with someone in the cockpit frequently, look for the upcoming release of our new course on Crew Resource Management.  It is designed for pilots in a two-pilot crew, but I think you will find that it will make sharing the cockpit with any frequent companion at lot safer, and a lot more fun—trust me, we know.

 My grandfather was a pilot and flew in Vietnam and helped design the F-22. I was wondering is it really complicated to fly? Do you need to know a lot of math to fly a plane? I ask these things because one day I want to fly jets in the Air Force but I don’t know if I can on account of me not knowing math.

Our answer? It’s a challenge well worth the effort:

 You can be assured that, if you are willing to make the commitment, you can, indeed, learn to fly. Flying, more than many other things in life, requires effort and study over a long period of time. The fact that you do not currently know everything you need to know to fly, including the required math, should not concern you. Nobody is born knowing everything they need to know to fly. That is why we have to study. If you decide you are willing to put in the effort to learn to fly, you will never regret it. Flying is one of the most rewarding activities in life.

John and Martha King

(We originally wrote this article for the
National Association of Flight Instructors)

It has happened to most of us who have been flying very long.  Someone we know, but maybe not all that well, comes to grief in an airplane, along with their passengers.  Very often the flight instructors and other pilots who knew the pilot weren’t all that surprised.  But the tragic fact is that they hadn’t done anything about it.

Most of us feel uncomfortable about intervening.  I know.  I used to feel that way too—until I stood by and let another pilot kill himself in an airplane.

I had a student in a ground-school class who troubled me.  He was a pillar in his community.  He was both a physician and an Episcopalian priest, but he didn’t follow the conventions of a classroom.  He came in late, left early, and interrupted the class unnecessarily.  I became so concerned that I told the FAA inspector who came to give the test that unless he intervened, this student would kill himself in an airplane.  The inspector rightly told me that he could not give someone a lecture just because I said he should.  He suggested that I should intervene.  I didn’t feel comfortable doing so—and my student killed himself in an airplane crash within two weeks.

The truth is that many of us have been in a similar situation and done nothing.  I have resolved that I will no longer stand by and not act, when I see a problem.  But even if every one of us makes the same resolve, we still have the problem of what to look for, and after that what, to do about it.

With the support of Avemco Insurance, Bill Rhodes of Aerworthy Consulting has been working on what to look for.  Bill has been measuring the risk management performance of pilots in simulators and comparing their performance to some characteristics.

Here are some characteristics that on a preliminary basis Bill has come up with that we should find scary:

• Takes risks
• Knows it all
• Is overconfident
• Is overly optimistic—plans on the unrealistic/ barely realistic
• Is in a hurry
• Advances to high performance aircraft very quickly
• Shows off
• Ignores the books and the mentors

All in all, it is not so much lack of skill that should scare us as lack of humility, ethics and responsibility towards others.  In the final analysis, it’s not that we don’t know what to look for.  As a Supreme Court justice famously said—“I know it when I see it”.

Recognizing this person  is not the hard part.  The hard part is screwing up the courage to talk to them, and doing it in a way that gets positive results.

I might have a special perspective on this issue, because when I started flying I was identified as the overly optimistic person described above.  I had many people who did talk to me, but I discounted what they had to say.

The way I saw it, these people were trying to stop me from doing what I wanted to do, and I took their admonitions as a personal affront.  I didn’t have the tools I needed to even know the categories of risks I was taking and the probabilities and consequences of things going wrong as a result of those risks.  I was, you might say, unconsciously ignorant—I didn’t know what I didn’t know.  All I knew was that people were questioning my skill and judgment and trying to stop me from doing what I wanted to do.  I have often thought about why these very concerned individuals were unable to get through to me.  What could have gotten through to me?

I believe more information and the use of better terminology would have been helpful.

I was told what I was doing wasn’t “safe”.  People talked about safety as if safety were an on/off condition.  It just didn’t make intellectual sense to me.  What I needed was a more thoughtful way of thinking about it.  I needed the concepts of risk management and a vocabulary that would have given me the tools to think about the concepts.

It is subtle, but it would have been helpful for me to have focused on risks and probabilities rather than safety.  I needed to understand the risks I was taking and the probabilities of things going wrong as a result of the risks I was taking.

So what do I do now?  I try to give the person I am talking to information.  I explain to them the categories of risk involved in aviation, and what special risks there might be in today’s circumstances and how they can manage them.  But whatever I do, if I see a situation that scares me, I talk to them.  As flight instructors we should all consider it our sacred duty to do so.

Dr. Forrest Bird

He will be presented the Lindbergh Award during SUN ‘n FUN at the Fantasy of Flight.  You are invited to be there to join the celebration.

Forrest Bird is an avid pilot.  He soloed at 14.  He ferried aircraft across the North Atlantic during WWII.  He flew his own Howard 500 regularly back and forth to Europe. And when the Learjet became available, flew his own Lear to Europe regularly.  Today he has many thousands of hours, a few dozen aircraft, his own airport, and an impressive aviation museum.

As remarkable as all of this is, many people are thankful for Forrest Bird because what he learned by flying across the North Atlantic allowed him create a device that saved thousands of lives.  The device is known as the Bird Respirator.

TOP: Dr. Forrest and Pamela Bird surrounded by the aviation crowd at his 90th birthday fly-in. BOTTOM: Flight line at the fly-in.

During WWII Forrest flew the turbo-charged and super-charged aircraft that had just been developed.  For the first time planes routinely flew at altitudes above 28,000 ft.  Until that time those altitudes were a “no man’s land” because the reduced air pressure and lack of pressurization meant that pilots needed some system for supplemental oxygen.  Dr. Bird’s work on developing systems for high altitude flight got him interested in the principles of respiration, and he obtained his M.D. in order to pursue that interest.

In the 1950’s Dr. Bird developed mechanically simple, yet remarkably effective, ventilators that began saving lives on an unprecedented basis.  Until that time all that was available for patients with respiratory problems was the iron lung.

One of his most famous inventions is a ventilator for infants, nicknamed the “Babybird.”  The Babybird reduced the mortality rate of infants with breathing problems from 70% to 10%.  Bird respirators are still in use around the world saving lives.

Dr. Bird has been richly honored as an inventor.  He was inducted into the National inventor’s Hall of Fame and received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Obama.  He was also featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes.

TOP: Dr. Bird presenting Martha with her Living Legend award. BOTTOM: Dr. Bird presenting John with his Living Legend award.

But if you ask Dr. Bird what he enjoys the most, the answer will be “flying” – and his credentials certainly support that.  He is an Airline Transport Pilot, rated in all classes of airplanes.  He is also a helicopter and glider pilot.  Plus, he is a flight instructor for single and multiengine airplanes and helicopters and gliders.  Perhaps most impressive of all, he is an A and P mechanic with an Inspection Authorization.

The reason he lives on a lake in Idaho is so that he could fly seaplanes there.  He celebrated his 90th birthday with a fly-in to his airport and aviation museum.

Dr. Bird was named a Living Legend of Aviation by the Kiddie Hawk Foundation, and Martha and I were deeply honored when he presented the same award to us this January.

Please join us during Sun ‘n’ Fun at the Lindbergh Foundation award ceremony as Martha and I will be able to return the honor by presenting the Lindbergh certificate and medal to the remarkable Dr. Forrest Bird.

With the current political climate, it is more important than ever that pilots fly regularly.  In England, there is an organization of trail bike riders who diligently log time riding ancient trails through the English countryside, in order to maintain ancient right-of-ways in a use-it-or-lose-it system.  If we want to maintain free access to airspace, airports and ATC, we should look at flying the same way.  It is truly in our best interests to both bring new pilots into aviation and to help inactive pilots start flying again.

You probably know a pilot that has been away from flying for a while.  Maybe their career got in the way, or they just didn’t fly for a few weeks and that lapse suddenly turned into a few years.  Now, even though they love to talk about flying at the drop of a leather helmet, they think it would take too much time, effort, or money to get current.  Well, now you can help overcome all three of those objections by recommending one of our new “Return to Flying” kits (Return to VFR Flying Kit | Return to IFR Flying Kit).  These products will make it quick, easy, and fun for your pilot friend to get back up to speed—and to address the “too expensive” part, we slashed the price by 50%!

The freedom to fly without excessive governmental fees and restrictions is not guaranteed by our Constitution.  We need to remain diligent in fighting threatening legislation.  Just as important, we need to make sure our population stays strong, vibrant and … flying!  We hope that you will join us in helping to both bring new pilots into aviation and to get those inactive pilots flying again.

That’s why we were so pleased recently to stop by the Redbird Skyport in San Marcos, TX to congratulate the students from Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Flushing, NY on passing their ground school and starting their flight training.

These students are engaged in an accelerated training program for their Private Pilot certificates at the Skyport flight training laboratory. Vaughn College and the Redbird Skyport are working together to determine the most effective way to use simulators in Private Pilot certification. The goal is to turn out a pilot who is not only physically proficient, but is a good risk manager and truly ready to be pilot in command.

The accelerated program at the Skyport flight training laboratory uses the latest computer-based software from Cessna, developed by King Schools. Instructors will introduce flight maneuvers in a full-motion simulator, and then have the students practice what they have learned in the actual airplane. The folks at Skyport aren’t worried about how much or little credit the FAA will give for the simulator time – they’re just interested in whatever provides the most thorough, cost-effective training. (Very few pilots finish their Private Pilot training in the FAA minimum time, anyway. The average flight time is about 73 hours.)

Skyport will also be testing the Redbird Parrot program (interactive ATC) on the Vaughn students, as well as their GIFT program (Guided Independent Flight Instruction, which provides video instruction from us in the simulator before and after they practice maneuvers), to see what changes should be made to these programs in order to provide the maximum help to a student.

And they’ll also be testing the results from a fun, competitive cross-wind simulator

Experimentation over a period of time, with these Vaughn students and others who will follow in their footsteps, will establish the best ratio and sequence of simulator time to airplane flight time. That’s why Redbird calls the Skyport a flight training laboratory. And the good news is that Skyport will publish its results and conclusions, so every flight school in the country can benefit from what they learn.

You might be asking, are these Vaughn College students hand-picked and special? They’re special only in the sense that everyone in love with aviation is special – they are excited, enthusiastic, and motivated.

So congratulations to these ground-breaking, soon-to-be-pilot, students from Vaughn!

We lost 50 pounds in only two months.  We have gone from carrying that much weight in paper to the airport to only two iPads.  That’s better than Jenny Craig, but when you consider just how much smarter these devices are than paper, you quickly understand the unbelievable adoption rate among pilots.  From flight planning and weather briefing all the way through departure procedures, charting and approach plates, these little 1.5 pound devices do it all.  But the work doesn’t stop at the chocks.  Once we arrive, they serve up email, hotel reservations, driving directions, books, and music, just to scratch the surface.  In a very short time it has become hard to imagine flying anywhere without the iPad.

Now, when you put a tablet computer together with online training you really hit the jackpot—training on your schedule, where ever you are, on an easy-to-handle, lightweight device.  Wow!  You can even sign up at this moment for an online course, and be taking it just moments later.  We have come a long way, but believe that the future will provide even newer ways to train.  You can count on KING to be there with products you can trust to help you reach your aviation goals.  To learn about taking KING courses on your iPad or other tablets, see page on using mobile devices.

By the way, the only problem with losing all that weight the way we did is that it only works in the cockpit!  We still need to keep up our exercise!

iSWiFTER on iPad for KING online pilot courses

The obvious, sheer pleasure so many pilots get from their iPads gave Martha and me iPad envy. We finally got one of our own, and found innumerable uses for it in the cockpit. But by far the biggest news is that the folks at King Schools showed us how you can take KING courses on it by introducing us to an application called iSWiFTER.

iSWiFTER is an iPad application that was originally developed to enable running Flash-based games on the iPad, but it also works for viewing any website that (like ours) is implemented using Flash. While not perfect, iSWiFTER allows quick and easy access to King Schools’ online training courses, including video playback and taking interactive questions.

At a price of only $2.99 per month a $4.99 ONE TIME FEE (that’s two four dollars and ninety-nine cents, folks!) to get out of “demo mode” and be able to run your KING courses on it, it’s a great value too.  While, as we said, the iSWiFTER solution is not perfect, we are delighted with the flexibility this provides to fellow iPad owners, and we pledge to continue our quest to seek better solutions in the future.

By the way, we have fallen in love with the iPad. It is light-weight, fast, readable in sunlight, and provides a user-interface that is intuitive to learn. We are intrigued with the idea of a single device that pilots can use to train, brief flights and access in-flight information.

All things considered, we believe that the iPad provides a wonderful way to consume aviation information. If you use an iPad or other tablet, you will find that King Schools is there, making our courses available for you. You can count on us to continue working to ensure our training is available wherever you are, and on whatever device you find useful.

Now if our second unit would just arrive—so we can quit fighting over this one.

Related articles

• Learning To Fly the Citation Mustang – Single Pilot (johnandmartha.kingschools.com)