The Utility Myth

Not a winter goes by without someone sending me an e-mail that includes the sentence, “You aren’t really suggesting I don’t fly my airplane in IMC in the winter?” It’s usually from the pilot of a very capable piston single or light twin that is not certificated for flight in icing conditions; often the pilot includes something like, “I live in the Great Lakes and we get icing a large part of the year.” Sometimes I get a similar question about passenger and baggage loads. “The engineers at [insert airplane manufacturer name here] wouldn’t have designed the airplane with six seats if it couldn’t carry six adults, or at least four adults and two kids. Do you really mean I can’t fill the seats and the fuel tanks?” A current trend is questions about synthetic vision systems in glass cockpit panels or cutting-edge heads-up displays. “With an essentially VFR depiction of the runway, I can make a zero-zero takeoff and even a zero-zero landing ‘if I have to’, can’t I?”

Key Takeaways:

• Pilots often operate aircraft beyond their certified limits, such as flying into icing conditions or exceeding weight and balance envelopes, despite the inherent dangers.
• This risky behavior stems from "The Myth of Utility," a belief that an aircraft can perform "so many things," fueled by aggressive marketing, the financial need to justify ownership, and pilot ego.
• For safe operation, pilots must understand that every airplane has limitations and trade-offs; they must choose a specific utility for each flight and adhere strictly to the aircraft's documented capabilities rather than personal desires or marketing hype.

Key takeaways sponsored by Aviator Pro | Start Your Training ->

See a mistake? Contact us.