I Learned About Flying From That

Roy Stafford

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A seasoned F-4 instructor shared critical, "off-book" preflight knowledge with a trainee: how to identify a dangerous Boundary Layer Control (BLC) duct leak by observing a specific wing panel.
Years later, the pilot used this learned insight to discover a fractured BLC duct on his own aircraft, a failure that was undetectable by instruments and could have led to a catastrophic explosion.
The incident highlights the invaluable role of shared practical experience and common-sense knowledge from professionals in aviation, which can be life-saving and even lead to new standard operating procedures.

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This is not your normal “learned about that” story. But an example of how a little bit of aviation knowledge, which didn’t appear in “the book,” that was passed on by a consummate professional probably saved my life and an airplane to boot.

Many years ago (more than I’d like to admit) I was a young “Studley Do Right” going through the West Coast Marine F-4 RAG at MCAS, Yuma, Arizona. Basically it was the Marine F-4 training squadron (VMFA-101); from there, once we were qualified in the F-4 we would go out to the fleet.