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| THE SPIRIT OF AVIATION |
| Since the start of the human life on the Earth, for so many years, birds had had a monopoly in flying... But in the second millennium, human broke down that monopoly... Since then, flying has not been a monopoly of anyone or creature at all any more... Until its first flight, human had only watched the birds in envy for more than a millennium and had been through several attempts that had failed to pioneer the flight of human. |
| I believe the spirit of aviation has been lying deep down in the basics of human nature since the start of human life. Philosophically, that might be due to the transitory condition of humankind and all of the live elements right on the vertiginously whirling and cruising Earth, a planet of Milky Way's solar system right in the heart of Universe. Undoubtedly, the pilot in command of the Earth is the "incredible stability of the Universe". That is why the Earth may well be called as "Spaceship the Earth". |
| In other viewpoint, in 1903, Wright Brothers launched a new era. First human made flying craft flew in the lower layers of atmosphere of spaceship the Earth. Later on, the term of "pilot", meaning ; "one employed to steer a ship, helmsman, leader or guide", was introduced to name the persons who dare to use any kind of flying craft within the layers of atmosphere and the term of "astronaut" for the persons who fly beyond the atmosphere. |
| Aviation may not be your profession but, I bet, it is concealed to be discovered deep down in your spirit. The feelings of freedom, commanding aloft, enjoying the aerial view, perceiving and recognizing how small the world is, shaking off perishable, transitory passions or greed, all lie in human's subconscious, deep down in our hearts. That feeling may surface out suddenly and unexpectedly or may continue to hibernate if no otherwise chance is given. |
| Almost everyone, must have flown in dreams throughout the childhood and besides, even without wings. Nevertheless, this joy fades out slowly as the years pass by and people find out that flying wingless for humankind is virtually impossible. This way, we all had to say good-bye to nice flying dreams by adolescence. This condition of supreme well being and good spirits decorating the dreams of children is an obvious indicator that flying is not under the monopoly of even the birds. |
| The sky look for love for the Mother Nature, love for aviation of any kind. The human who shares the skies, already shares the admiration and love for the skies. The love for the skies is pure and unilateral. Although the past wars between nations had played a great role in the development of aviation assets, the skies was still innocent. The blameworthy was the greedy nature of the nations. |
| Nevertheless, there are some realities of aviation deserving some attention. |
| The talent of aviation may vary dramatically from person to person. It is quite like ability towards music, painting, writing or any branch of fine arts. |
| Every flight bears an inherent risk of aviation. Inherent risks of aviation shall continue to be there, unless the human has its own wings to fly needing no additional assets any more. |
| What are the risks of aviation? The aviation is so vast, so the risks will be. Engine failures, flight control problems, electric or electronic failures, hydraulics system malfunctions and so on. Regarding the Mother Nature's bad temper, we can talk about; turbulence, high or low level wind shears, thunderstorms and tornadoes, icing, lightning etc. Concerning human practice, we can talk about Pilot , ATC controller or mechanic error. Those still may be regarded as unintentional errors. But unfortunately on this high-tech world a new form of evil has taken place as human practice. This category includes; sabotage, bomb scare and unlawful interference (hi-jack). On September 11, 2001 the unfortunate tragedy in NY City has taught the world that ,the evil may get so evil to try to commandeer the jetliners and use them as huge fire missiles to attack the innocent civilian people with the whole passengers and crew onboard. While the world is preparing to prevent such further evil attempts, this kind of acts, unfortunately, has now been considered within aviation's risks that must be prevented with increased precautionary measures no matter how much would it cost. |
| A jetliner or a corporate jet flying high enough close to its maximum level for the prevailing circumstances, is in low density, narrow speed spectrum conditions. That means the airplane bears a risk of upset in such cases of sudden control failures, uncommanded yaw or roll control inputs of various electronic flight control systems, in cases of an engine failure, unless handled properly and timely, or in cases of severe CAT (clear air turbulence). |
| That is why being an aviator is a privilege. That is why all around the world the future pilots are selectively selected, properly educated, trained and inspired. Only the ones having a spirit of medieval knight and proper talent are graduated and granted wings. The situation is never evaluated on a mere commercial point of view. It is already and widely known that the otherwise cost might be huge. Human life is not payable with money. It is too valuable to have a cost. Every single human life, is like series of metal rings fitted into one another. Each having it's own loved (fitted) ones. Therefore, in case of a fatal accident or an unfortunate event, the unfortunate outcome, not only destroys ground zero and passengers and crew onboard, but it harms the loved ones as well. |
| From my point of view, the most basic rule of flight safety, is to be properly educated, well trained and perfectly inspired, attaining the ultimate readiness and preparedness for the worst possible contingencies of flight operations. Various aviation training organizations and airlines, regionals, corporate jet flight departments and so on, should ascertain and implement for proper initial and recurrent training procedures. An educational period on all aspects of aviation including an overview of select rules from FAA, JAR, ICAO and aviation international law should be applied. Aviation psychology, bomb scare and unlawful interference procedures should never be overlooked or omitted in schedules. Then the resultant fit flight crews shall feel confident and be operationally ready to recover out of worst aviation contingencies. |
| Regarding the hands on part of aviation training, in other words flight training, simulators are deemed as today's primary flight training devices. Nevertheless, I believe there is a prominent truth about simulators. They are so good for hands on training to build habitual way of flying out of emergency or distress conditions but at the same time they may cause some people to be trapped into faulty sense of easiness of handling live in-flight vital occurrences. As it's apparent one cannot overlook the use of simulators, pretending not to see the immeasurable benefits of them, professional and/or future pilots under training should be enlightened on the specific differences between live events and simulators. I can cite you some of them hereby, so that you may well infer more of them synergistically: |
| GARAVITY FACTOR: In cases of live severe upset conditions, the induced "g" forces on aviators, may get them into black out (excess positive g) or red out (excess negative g) conditions, making them temporarily unable even to raise a hand for a switch on overhead or mode control panel. So far it has not been possible to simulate gravity forces in simulators concurrently. |
| VERTIGO: During simulated electrical failure, partial panel or upset works in simulators, there has been no way to simulate vertigo conditions for fliers. The three fluid-filled semicircular canals with brush type nerves and the vestibule that are concerned with maintaining human's balance in our internal ear area shall not pick up the real sense of turning or maneuvering in simulators as they shall in real flying. As a result, while pilots easily handle partial panel, electrical failures or upset conditions in sims, they should be aware that in case of real events during instrument meteorological conditions, or pitch black nights they'll have an additional giant enemy to fight on that is called VERTIGO. |
| ADRENALINE: A basic principal sympathomimetic blood-pressure raising and heart stimulant hormone that is very good indeed as a vasoconstrictor in controlling hemorrhages of the skin in case of injuries, may turn out to be a disadvantage in some cases when one face a serious vital challenge. The increased levels of adrenaline hormone within human blood, causes elevated heartbeat together with reduced rational reasoning and analyzing ability. |
| During simulated vital or catastrophic distress or emergency conditions in sims, adrenaline levels are not elevated as much as in live events. Since, the aviators in sims subconsciously know that they are in a simulator actually and besides, there is no way of dying in a simulator whatever the outcome would be. |
| While the effect of varied adrenaline levels in blood system to human behavior and thinking is so natural and varies from person to person, the only way to defeat the disadvantage of increased adrenaline levels in human blood is to have proper self-confidence built by experience and time. One should also be able to differentiate between; "proper self-confidence", "over-confidence" and "megalomania". Most probably, many seasoned pilots who had experienced true vital emergencies in their novice years, should have had completed only about %20-30 of what they knew then by memory, anyhow, fortunately that percentage should have had included the proper vital items to help them survive. As experience continues to build up as a matter of time, that percentage slowly increases up... |
| The rules of aviation have been written with blood since from the very beginning. Every single drop of blood brings about a new rule, new regulation or becomes a good reason for a new set of precautionary measures. Almost all of the aviators who have lost their lives so far, have left this world leaving a great heritage for their successors, such as; new beams of light, new lessons to learn and new sets of rules for the remainders... |
| There are mainly three types of jobs that have no margin of error. All relates to human life. Pilots, Medical Doctors and Judges and Jurors. |
| As my final words, I would like to re-emphasize that; "The spirit of aviation" inherently exists inside of every human being ,and being an aviator is not conditional here at all. Searching for this inherent spirit deeply, bringing it out trying to feel it, would be sufficient. We all owe great respects to the nameless heroes who have lost their lives so far. Every single drop of blood lost by those martyrs has been a vital beam of light that enlightened spiritually and intellectually, the unknown characteristics of high and fast flying, combat flying and all weather transport flying of their individual times. No matter those heroes were whether test pilots, any kind of general aviation, airline, regional, commuter, charter, military or private pilots, they all contributed to today's sophisticated aviation and aerospace technology and aviation safety. |
| I hereby honor the praiseworthy people who devoted their hearts to aviation and express my deep gratitude to the souls of aviators who lost their lives, leaving us the great heritage of advanced aviation. |
| Copyright@Sept 24/2001 Captain Savas USKENT Airline Comdr. Pilot & Aviation Author, ATP&CFI Next Generation Boeing B737-800, B737-400/500, Airbus-310/300-200, BAe-146 (Avrojet), Challenger-601-3A, Learjet-60, Learjet-55C, Learjet-35A, Caravelle SE210, Grumman' s S-2 |
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| Copyright @ Sept.24.2001 Captain Savas USKENT Airline Commander & Aviation Author uskent@yahoo.com You may use the following article intact or in extracted forms, in your printed or inter/intra net productions solely for training and/or teaching purposes, so long as the author's copyright is included... Other intentions of usage is protected by copyright. |
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