Are Two Pilots Better Than One?

The days mission was to coach a friend of mine through his three bangs-and-goes using another friends Cessna 172. Although he had little time, if any, in Cessnas, he was in the left seat. I was serving as PIC from the right. Shortly after we secured the cabin and ran the before-start checklist, the mighty 160-hp Lycoming was happily purring away. We were getting ready to call for a taxi clearance when the engine stopped. No cough, no protest, no warning. What did you do? I asked. Nothing, the bang-and-go candidate responded. So we ran the checklist again. When we came to the floor-mounted fuel selector, I asked, How did the fuel selector get turned off? He said, Its not; I turned it to both before starting the engine and havent touched it since. Houston, we found the problem.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Multi-pilot general aviation (GA) cockpits carry unique risks due to informal procedures, ambiguous control designs, and a lack of clear responsibilities, leading to critical errors like unverified control inputs.
Effective communication is paramount, requiring all system changes to be verbalized, discussed, agreed upon, and verified by both pilots to ensure predictability and mutual understanding.
A single Pilot In Command (PIC) must always be clearly designated to hold ultimate authority and responsibility for all flight decisions, as multiple pilots cannot effectively "fly the same airplane at the same time."

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The day’s mission was to coach a friend of mine through his three bangs-and-goes using another friend’s Cessna 172. Although he had little time, if any, in Cessnas, he was in the left seat. I was serving as PIC from the right. Shortly after we secured the cabin and ran the before-start checklist, the mighty 160-hp Lycoming was happily purring away. We were getting ready to call for a taxi clearance when the engine stopped. No cough, no protest, no warning.

“What did you do?” I asked. “Nothing,” the bang-and-go candidate responded. So we ran the checklist again. When we came to the floor-mounted fuel selector, I asked, “How did the fuel selector get turned off?” He said, “It’s not; I turned it to ‘both’ before starting the engine and haven’t touched it since.” Houston, we found the problem.