An almost, fatal distraction

Flying Safety, July, 2003 by Bob Van Elsberg

Teaching a student pilot can be a dicey business--especially when an inexperienced student is paired with an inexperienced instructor pilot. Maj. Jim McDonald, currently Chief of Flight Safety for the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock AFB AR, was a brandnew instructor pilot (IP) at Little Rock during the fall of 2000. He learned very quickly how a little distraction mixed with a lot of inexperience could get a flight crew into serious trouble.

"This was my second ride in the Buddy Instructor Program," Maj McDonald said. "This was a Phase One check, so we were doing proficiency/instrument work at the Springfield, Mo., Regional Airport. I had a couple of Day One copilots on their very first ride in a C-130 with me on this day. Both of these guys were high-strung, gung-ho. Each had the attitude, 'I have high expectations for myself because I did well in the simulator. Now I'm going to translate that into the C-130.'"

The five-hour-long mission launched uneventfully out of Little Rock. On board, both new copilots were slated for 2-1/2 hours each to bone up on some right-seat skills. McDonald laid out the itinerary for the flight.

"The basic plan is that you take off and fly someplace with one student in the seat and perform holding, procedure turns, instrument approaches and VFR touch-and-go landings. You get them used to flying instruments and learning how to land the aircraft--basic aircraft control. Halfway through the sortie you swap students. Then the second student gets to do the same things the first one did, then fly back to the base where you started."

The student copilot did well at first.

"He was eager and seemed very sharp," McDonald said. "He had his initial procedures down. He knew his checklist responses and how to run a checklist. As a copilot on a C-130, running a checklist is an important thing."

"The first approach we were going to shoot was an NDB (Non-Directional Bearing) procedure turn after holding," McDonald said. "He approached the NDB and went into holding, so now we were burning a circle over the NDB. We were about five miles off the runway to the northwest, about 4000 feet above the approach altitude. He seemed to understand what he was doing and was getting experience with the aircraft, so I felt he was ready."

The flight had gone well so far, and the student was scheduled to shoot some practice landings.

They had dropped down below the weather as they circled. The student copilot could look out the window to see where he was going to land. That's when the problem started.

"As long as he was looking at his instruments, he was fine," McDonald said. "But circling is a visual maneuver. By that, I mean you look outside, find the runway and fly your aircraft around by looking at the runway. Now, that does not mean that you take your instruments out of your crosscheck. You still have to maintain your circling airspeed and altitude and keep proper spacing from the runway and keep your orientation."

However, while watching the run way the student got into the classic "headtip and locked" condition.

McDonald said, "He came down to his MDA (Minimum Descent Altitude), saw the runway and began his circling maneuver. Springfield had crossed runways. He shot the approach to one runway, then we began to circle around to the other runway. As he began his circling turn, I told him, 'You're 45 degrees off'--which is the normal place where we'd 'perch' to begin our turn to final. He said, 'OK.' Then he began his bank. He went to 30 degrees bank and held his airspeed, but did nothing else. So, I asked him, 'Are you looking for the runway; are you looking outside?' His answer was, 'No.' So I said to him, 'Remember, circling is a visual maneuver.' Right then, I think he threw out his instrument crosscheck because that was when. things started to get hairy. He looked out at the runway, which was off his left side because he was in the right seat. As he looked left, he banked the aircraft past 40 degrees. I don't think he was ever aware of what he was doing to the aircraft because he never responded to our inputs."

McDonald looked at the young copilot. He was so fixated on the runway during his final turn that he didn't realize how far he'd banked the aircraft or that he was also leaning forward against the yoke. And there was another problem. Anticipating that he was about to land, the student had reduced power. With increasing bank and decreasing power, the Hercules was rapidly losing speed and altitude.

"My first call to him was, 'You're at 40 degrees of bank, you're 100 feet low and 10 knots slow!' There was not a word from him--he didn't acknowledge. I looked over at him and he was looking past me to the runway. I looked back at the instruments. He was now 15 knots slow, 200 feet low and he was still in a 40-degree bank. I stated to him, '200 low, 15 slow and 40 degrees of bank, what are you going to do?' He said nothing. He was so fixated on the runway and trying to get there that he lost his situational awareness."