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:

Unclear communication and undefined roles between two pilots in a General Aviation (GA) cockpit pose a significant safety risk, often leading to unverified control inputs or system changes and the dangerous situation where "no one is flying."
To mitigate these risks, GA pilots should adopt principles of Cockpit Resource Management (CRM), emphasizing clear verbal communication for all actions, discussing and verifying any system manipulations, and implementing a positive exchange of flight controls.
It is critical to clearly establish one pilot as the Pilot In Command (PIC) who holds ultimate decision-making authority, and ensure that the pilot most familiar with the aircraft's specific systems is involved in any system changes to prevent surprises.

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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.