We were bumping through the clouds at Flight Level 300, unable to escape the clutches of a low, winter jet stream thanks to 167 burly souls on board and 26,000 pounds of jet-A sloshing in the tanks. Under such conditions this McDonnell Douglas finds itself just a little short of wing, and the prudent pilot won’t climb too high lest the indicated airspeed slip to the backside of the power curve — a very bad place popularly known as “coffin corner.” Jacksonville Center had just called out opposite direction traffic at FL 310, and I was straining to spy a telltale wisp of contrail through ragged breaks in the clouds when a faint metallic snap barely punctured my consciousness. That sounded kind of like a circuit breaker, I thought, and I started scanning the expansive breaker panels behind the captain’s seat and on the overhead panel. None were popped. I turned ahead and was surprised to see that our route had disappeared from both map displays and we had reverted to heading hold mode. “Boss, we lost everything!” I said, motioning toward the newly reset flight management system. I’d seen this before; there must have been a momentary power interruption. I started quickly re-entering our route as the captain read the waypoints from the flight plan.
Taking Wing: Experience Matters
Key Takeaways:
- Modern airline flying, characterized by heavy automation, can cause pilots' fundamental "stick-and-rudder" skills to atrophy, making recovery from unexpected flight upsets challenging.
- Many recent loss-of-control accidents are attributed to pilots who began airline careers with minimal initial flight experience (around 250 hours), hindering the development of robust basic airmanship before reliance on automation.
- While the U.S. 1,500-hour rule aims to increase pilot experience, the author argues it doesn't guarantee the specific type of hands-on, diverse flying experience needed to build critical skills, a concern amplified by international programs like the Multi-Crew Pilot License (MPL).
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