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:

In multi-pilot general aviation cockpits, unclear roles and a lack of communication between pilots are significant safety risks, leading to errors like unintended control manipulation.
To ensure safety and predictability, all changes to an aircraft's systems must be verbalized, discussed, and verified by both pilots.
One pilot must always be clearly designated as the Pilot in Command (PIC) to maintain ultimate authority and accountability, as two pilots cannot effectively fly the same aircraft simultaneously.

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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.