Open-Door Policy

I had almost the same experience ("Open-Door Policy," Learning Experiences, August 2011) with my father. It was just after WWII, and I was 10 or 11. He had a Piper Cub. It was a nice, late summer evening and we had just taken off from the Whitman County Airport in Eastern Washington. The window was open and-why, I dont know-I reached up and pulled its quick release. It promptly fell off, but my dad had seen me do it and, as luck would have it, caught the door! He calmly reached around with it, handed it to me and said "Hang on to it; Ill land and well put it back on." Which we did, on a hilltop in wheat stubble out in the middle of nowhere.

Key Takeaways:

• An anecdote describes a pilot calmly resolving an incident where his child accidentally removed an aircraft window mid-flight, landing to reattach it safely.
• Altimeter readings are significantly affected by non-standard atmospheric temperatures, causing true altitude errors that are crucial to understand, especially in mountainous or warm environments ("pressure or temperature is low, look out below").
• The core issue in pilot training is not a lack of good reform ideas, but rather a failure by instructors and examiners to uphold and train to existing standards, resulting in pilots unprepared in fundamental skills.

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