IM SAFE: Are You Really?

As pilots, we are all familiar with the IM SAFE acronym that the FAA puts out.  It comes up as part of the ground training over Human Factors during private pilot ground school.  We all memorize it, spit it out for our check rides, then most of us promptly forget about it.

When I was training for my pilot’s licenses, I was at a Part 141 school that was very standardized (LeTourneau University, who has a fabulous aviation school).  Before each flight, we had to do a self evaluation based on the weather and the IM SAFE checklist.  Based on our answers, we would then determine if the conditions were conducive to flying as well as if I was physically okay to fly.

This was a great tool because not only do pilots have to pre-flight the airplane, they also need to pre-flight themselves.  It’s very easy to fall into one of the “Hazardous Attitudes” if there is a pressing meeting or you haven’t flown in a while and it’s a beautiful day, but maybe you aren’t physically fit to control an airplane.

Let’s break down the IM SAFE checklist to dig a little deeper into the physically fit side of flying.

Illness

This one is pretty easy.  Are you sick?  If so, how sick?  If you can’t hardly talk or your body feels like it was hit by a truck, then flying probably isn’t in your best interest.

The tricky area can become if you are only a little sick.  Maybe you have a cough or a little cold or a headache is starting to form.  You probably could go fly, but is it really a good idea?  It could be something worse, or it may be nothing.  You have to know yourself and put limits on yourself before you wake up on the day of your big meeting two states over.  Set illness personal minimums and stick to them.

Medication

There are a slew of drugs, both prescription and over the counter, that pilots cannot take and fly.  AOPA has a hotline to call for pilots to find out if they can fly with the medication they are taking, or what meds they can take to give them relief and still operate an aircraft.

Another great resource is your medical examiner.  Just give him/her a call and they will be more than happy to let you know what you can and can’t take.  They’ve been educated in the area of aviation so they are very knowledgeable.

Stress

This is a huge one that pilots ignore a lot.  Maybe it was a stressful day at work, maybe you are running late to the airport, your meeting got moved up, whatever.  Stress can jump on you and mess up a pilot’s thinking very quickly.  If you have a lot of other things on your mind and you aren’t able to focus just on flying, it might be a good idea to stay on the ground.

Alcohol

Out of the whole IM SAFE list, the alcohol limitations are very clearly defined.  8 hours bottle to throttle, no more than 0.04% BAC, no operating an airplane while under the influence, and no carrying passengers who are visibly intoxicated.  For your personal minimums, it’s a good idea to increase that time to 12, 18 or even 24 hours bottle to throttle.

Fatigue

Learning to fly while a college student led to a fair share of canceled flights due to fatigue.  I operate best on 8 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours.  I can function on 6, but anything less than 6 hours, my performance drastically drops off, sometimes to a point where I wouldn’t be safe.  I discovered this while with my flight instructor attempting to do a holding pattern and completely botching it up.

I observed this as a CFI quite often.  If I was doing ground with a student and they were struggling, my first question would be, how much sleep did you get last night?  More often than not, if I had to ask that question, I would get an average answer of 3 to 4 hours (I even had one guy show up for a flight block on 2 hours sleep.  I sent him back to the dorm).

Fatigue is very easily overlooked because it’s not measurable.  Needing to get a flight lesson done or needing to get somewhere when you are obviously fatigued is not a good idea.  Make sure you get a good night’s sleep before a flight and don’t be afraid to cancel if you didn’t.  Set some sleep personal minimums and make them hard and fast.

Eating

Don’t skip meals and fly.  Performance greatly decreases when a pilot is hungry.  At the very least, stick a couple of food bars in your flight bag to give you some nourishment.

Also, stay hydrated, especially in the summer time.  I carry a huge bottle of water with me on all my flights because I get headaches if I don’t drink enough.  Getting dehydrated on a long flight can lead to all sorts of performance problems (over hydration is also a problem in the air, but that’s what Gatorade bottles are for, right?).

All this to say, have some personal minimums when it comes to you and your body.  Check the plane, check the weather and check yourself.  If anything falls in the “red” area in any one of those three categories, stay on the ground and don’t press your luck.

6th Annual Armed Forces Weekend Celebration & Fly-In, May 20-21, in Brady, TX and Curtis Field (KBBD)!

Friday Night on the Square – FREE

Fly-In Saturday, 9-4 – FREE

A Night in London with Sentimental Journey Orchestra
Saturday night 7-11 PM
Tickets for Dinner & Dance, $30 available at www.morganmilitaryaviationmuseum.com.

Some fuel is available for warbirds! Please contact the airport if you would like to bring one!

Late last year, the Diamond Aircraft Corporation announced a brand new twin engine, the Diamond DA62. At first glance, this is a pretty cool airplane.  It seats 7 passengers, spread out amongst 3 rows, with 2 massive doors, leading to an “SUV” type feel, according to Flying Magazine.  That is only one of the “neato” features of the Diamond DA62.

The thing that will make pilots believers is the fuel burn.  According to Flying Magazine, which did a test flight of the airplane, at 14,000 feet and 60% power, the airplane was only burning 12 GPH, but still doing 170 KTAS.  Remember, this is a twin.  That’s about the same as a normally aspirated Cirrus SR22 at the same altitude.

How does Diamond do it?  Jet A.  The company put two Austro AE330, 170 Horsepower, Jet A burning piston engines on the Diamond DA62.  You may say, well, yeah, at 60% power, that’s great, but I want to go places. How much fuel does it burn then?  Even at max continuous power of 95%, it’s still only burning 18.5 GPH total and cruising at 195 knots.  Paying Jet A prices, that’s pretty sweet.

The range on the airplane is quite nice too.  Again, according to Flying Magazine, the range with full fuel (86.4 gallons with aux tanks) is about 1,300 miles.  You can carry the whole family too, as the full fuel payload is 1,000 pounds.  Golf clubs?  No problem.  Just stick them in the nose.

The Diamond DA62 is probably one of the easiest twins to manage, engine-wise, too.  The Fully Automated Digital Engine Control (FADEC) system that Diamond installed leaves the pilot with only 2 power levers, instead of 6 on the typical piston twin.  All that needs to be done at cruise is set a percent power and the FADEC computer does the rest.

Need air conditioning, built in oxygen, and TKS?  Diamond can set you up.  The G1000 system complete with digital backup instruments is standard in the airplane.  What more can you really ask for?

If you haven’t figured it out, I really like this airplane and would be aching to fly it.  I enjoy the DA40 and have a good amount of DA42 experience, but I’d really like to hop in a Diamond DA62.

Read the whole Flying Magazine article here.

Sources:  Flyingmag.com

There was a bill introduced in Congress recently to take control of Air Traffic Control away from the FAA and give it to a private, for profit, corporation.  The initial reaction of pilots is “Ahhh!  User fees!” which we are all adamantly opposed to.  There are a myriad of reasons why this is a bad idea (the “Flying” article makes a comparison to giving NASA to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos) and we as pilots should be against it.

Read the “Flying” Magazine full article here.

Thunderstorms are not to be taken lightly. I know you have probably heard that many times in your flying career. Weather related accidents account for approximately 25% of airline and GA accidents.

The Airman’s Information Manual suggests giving a 20 mile berth around thunderstorms. If you are an experienced aviator or a newbie please take this piece of advice seriously. At one flight school where I taught, we had the policy of maintaining a 25 mile buffer around isolated thunderstorms. A bit excessive you think? Maybe, but safety is a good thing!

On this particular day, I was operating a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter during a power line patrol. Power line patrol by itself offers numerous challenges. The job consists of flying along electric power transmission lines at approximately 40 feet above the ground at 40 knots. The crew consisted of me (the pilot) and an observer. The observer is an employee of the power company and it is his job to determine which line(s) will be patrolled during the given day. As I fly along the lines, the observer is checking for anything out of the ordinary such as broken, cracked, or even shot out insulators, excessively large bird nests at the top of structures, or woodpecker holes in wooden poles. The observer knows the lines and he is also a great help in letting me know there is a crossing, and potentially higher, line in our flight path. That makes him a true safety asset!
It was late afternoon during the summer and we were about to finish up for the day. We only had about another 10 miles of line to follow before calling it a day. Up ahead, I noticed an isolated thunderstorm near our power line. I could see the heavy rain falling below the anvil shaped leading clouds. It appeared to be well beyond the end of our day’s work so we pressed on.

As we drew closer to the thunderstorm, we were suddenly tossed up on our left side like a dog toy in mid-flight! It seemed like we were 90 degrees to our normal cruise attitude and, to make it worse, we had the doors off on that hot summer day. I was able to recover and we did an immediate about face and high tailed it home. Forget the rest of that line, tomorrow is another day.

The destructive force of thunderstorms cannot be overstated. In addition to extremely heavy rain, they can contain strong wind shear, large hail, and severe turbulence, each of which can damage or destroy an aircraft. Take care when one of these bad boys is near your flight path. Give it plenty of respect and a lots of room, for safety’s sake.

Alan VanDoren is a 7000 hour ATP pilot.  He has flown both fixed wing and helicopters as a police pilot, missionary pilot, flight instructor, and most recently as an EMS pilot.  He has flown in five countries around the world and also teaches university level aviation courses in his spare time.