When Authority Kills, No Choice, No Chance!

CYA/IFR

  Scott Crossfield 1921-2006
Click the image for the NASA Story.
Read the NTSB Fatality report Here

By ACE CFII

As pilots (under federal law) we accept the ultimate responsibility for the safety of our flight and all involved in the mission.

The right as the pilot in command, to question the ultimate authority and make the final decision assures we can prevent loss of life and property or pay the ultimate price.

Don't forget that Jacque. You work for us, we the people!

Today’s IFR ground lesson included Jill.  You remember Jill from a previous Blog Post?  If you have to toggle down and have another look (she is hot in that bikini) it’s OK.  Just report  back on frequency when your done….. 

I just finished writing on the blackboard, “CYA /IFR.”  I handed Jill and my other students the Oct. 2006 NTSB issued Safety Alert SA-11, entitled “Thunderstorm Encounters.”  Class, I think the catalyst that gave birth to this Alert comes form the death of  Scott Crossfield. 

As one of The United States top test pilots, he flew some of the most exotic and dangerous high performance aircraft (X-1, XF-92, X-4, X-5 to name a few) ever built.  It’s very unfortunate that his skill, and experience wasn’t enough to keep his Cessna 210 from coming apart in a thunderstorm near Ludville, Georgia on 4-19-2006.  He needed one more thing, a little CYA (cover your ass) IFR.

Scott’s death is a wake up call to the rest of us.  In my opinion, Scott made the mistake of counting on air traffic controllers to COVER HIS ASS.  In that, ATC would advise him  (a review of Atlanta ARTCC communications with the accident airplane confirmed that the pilot was not provided any severe weather advisories nor was he advised of the radar-depicted weather displayed on the sector 38 radar controller's scope) about areas of severe weather ahead. 

That ATC training and briefings to controllers were sufficient to ensure that pilots would receive the weather advisories needed to support good in-flight weather avoidance decisions. 

After all, that’s what one reads in FAA Order 7110.65, the Controllers Bible.  By not issuing weather reports to Scott (one of two IFR aircraft in sector 38 at that time) the controller violated several paragraphs in that Order.  While Scott was fighting for his life, entrapped in a Thunderstorm (Imagery from Geostationary Operations Environmental Satellite number 12 depicted cumulonimbus clouds associated with the squall line.

These clouds extended from extreme northeastern Alabama,across northern Georgia, southern Tennessee, and into western North and South Carolina. The accident site was located on the southern side of the system where cloud tops were near 37,000 feet. Higher cloud tops of 46,000 feet were observed to the west of the accident site and were associated with the observed squall line.

According to aircraft radar track data, the accidentairplane's last radar return was located under the anvil of a cumulonimbus cloud) the controller was thinking:  “Look at my screen, adverse weather (moderate, heavy, and extreme) all over.  I believe pilots have a better idea of where adverse weather is then I do!  I expect pilots to inform me on what actions they need to take to avoid the weather.  After all, my equipment is not reliable, my displayed weather can be between 6 to 15 minutes old.” I know, it sounds ludicrous, but that’s what the controller said in his report to the NTSB.  I wonder if he still has a job. 

Jill looked up and pointed to the blackboard, and asked, Ace, how do we CYA in IFR?  Well, said one of the other students, your not going to be able to do it with that small bikini you wore last week.  OK, let’s get back on track!  It would be a tribute to Scott, if we were to learn something from his death.  Here’s a little CYA  info for all of us.

Don’t assume ATC is watching the weather for you.

• Radar detects precipitation not clouds or turbulence.
• Radar doesn’t tell controllers when you’re in IMC.
• Don’t be shy about asking for deviations.
• If there’s weather ahead, ask for deviations early.
• If you don’t have weather detection equipment, tell ATC.
• If you’re in IMC and can’t visually avoid weather, tell ATC.
• If you encounter weather ATC hasn’t mentioned, tell ATC.
• When you are handed off to another sector, make sure the new controller fully understands you weather situation, and what you expect from ATC. 
• If there’s a convective sigmet for the area, seriously consider staying on the ground.
• Data link radar can be several minutes old, don’t use it to thread your way through fast developing weather.
• Plan fights for the morning, most thunderstorms develop in the afternoon or evening.
• Avoid large cells by at least 20 miles.  If you’re flying between two cells, you’ll need a 40 mile gap.
• When deviating, try to stay on the upwind side of thunderstorms.
• Don’t fly under the anvil of a thunderstorm.
• Slow the airplane to VA as soon as possible.
• Maintain a general attitude, don’t worry about altitude.
• Extend the landing gear, leave the flaps up.
• Turn the cockpit lighting as high as it will go.
• Approach and center controllers use different radar systems.
• Do look at the links provided on the Safety Alert and NTSB accident file on Scott.

 

 Honors: A reprint From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Albert Scott Crossfield received the Lawrence Sperry Award (1954), Octave Chanute Award (1954), Iven C. Kincheloe Award (1960), American Rocket Society (ARS) Astronautics Award (1960), Harmon International Trophy (1961 at the White House by President John F. Kennedy), Collier Trophy (1961 at the White House by President Kennedy in 1962), NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1993), and was named Honorary Fellow by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1999). Crossfield is the only American to be honored in the White House for his contributions in advancing aeronautical science - or any other discipline - more than once, let alone two consecutive years. He has been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (1983), the International Space Hall of Fame (1988), the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame (1998), Aerospace Walk of Honor (1990) and the National Air and Space Museum Trophy (2000). Posthumously, he has been awarded the Hoyt S. Vandenburg Award, the Paul Tissandier Diploma, the Victor A. Prather Award, and the Donald D. Engen Award. He also had an elementary school named in his honor near his last residence, in Herndon, Virginia (a community just northeast of Dulles International Airport). A ribbon named after him is one of the Aerospace Education Awards in the Civil Air Patrol Senior Members program. He was also most proud of his A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year Award which is awarded annually at what is known as the "Oscar Night" in aviation, the Annual Enshrinement Ceremony Weekend at the National Aviation Hall of Fame held each year at the end of July in Dayton, Ohio. This year we will select our twenty-second teacher for this prestigious award. Mr. Crossfield received an honorary doctor of science degree from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1982. While he was celebrated as a daring test pilot, he claimed that his actual profession was an engineer. "I am an aeronautical engineer, an aerodynamicist and a designer. My flying was only primarily because I felt that it was essential to designing and building better airplanes for pilots to fly." Even so, Crossfield often performed much of the dangerous initial test flight profiles with a small cadre of other test pilots before active duty Air Force and Navy test pilots were turned loose in the experimental aircraft. Crossfield opined his military, NACA/NASA, and manufacturer flight test job was to prepare military test pilots to earn recognition for aeronautical firsts by giving them solid flight data.

To friends and protegees, Crossfield was incredibly generous with his time and his insights. A morning meet for a cup of coffee could easily turn into a three-hour chat about almost anything. One such chat was about his first meeting with Vice President Nixon and test flight; Nixon remarked about the danger of flying. Crossfield replied, "I think you are in a much more precarious position, sir, as an elected official," then wryly remarked he predicted Watergate fallout well before any other person. To an even smaller group of those who were close, Crossfield discussed distinguishing capabilities of test pilots and who could be counted upon to get recurring reliable data on profile flights and those who were assigned to the chase planes.