Perspective

Mary Allison and I have been friends since we were 14. We met when we were both involved in the Oregon Lutheran Youth organization. Now she’s a pilot! She’s currently working up in Alaska and recently started Tumbling. It seems like it’s pretty intense up there!

 Miss you, Mallis!

mallis:

I head back out to the bush tomorrow. I’m excited to go back, I miss it. I should be back in Anchorage on the 21st, but I don’t think my cell phone will be working when I get back into Anchorage. Turns out they want money, wierd. My email is above, keep in touch.

Mom, Aunt Ginger: don’t read the rest of this.

We had an incident this last week. I use incident loosely because by FAA definition, this was not an incident. However, I refuse to use the other word because of the connotation. It was a CFIT incident, which I won’t define because I know my mom and Aunt Ginger will read this and it will scare them more than necessary.

Stop reading mom.

This pilot was new, he was from my class, but he had enough hours under his belt to go directly to a PIC spot. He was in his first 2 week rotation-as I just was. In fact, he spent about a week out at the KS apartment with us. Brand spanking new and doesn’t know the area very well, like the rest of us. However, I’m SIC so I never fly solo. I fly with someone who knows this entire area like no one else. They know every bump in the terrain, every little lake, every little bend in the creek that comes out of ‘that’ lake, half way to ‘that’ airport. They’re amazing. This guy didn’t have the advantage of flying 100 hours with these guys to get to know the area like I’m getting to do.

Having this happen right as I’m getting here and prior to getting PIC really puts things into perspective. Really makes me think of what I can do to prevent getting into that position. Know my limits, know when I should turn around, know my terrain. I won’t lie, it scares me a little bit— but it’s a good ‘put me in my place’ kind of scare. This man has lots more experience than I do and he got bit. He made the decision to turn around, however it was a 1/2 of a second too late. It’s amazing to me that he lived through it and with relatively minor injuries. Truly amazing in my mind for a CFIT incident. Those planes go fast and when they unexpectedly hit ground, it has got to be abrupt.

I understand what I’m getting myself into up here, I’m not stupid, I came for the challenge. I won’t begin to analyze and tell you what the pilot did wrong in this situation, it’s not my place. I have my ideas and thoughts about the incident, but I’ll use those to improve my own decisions in the future, not point the finger. We’ve all made that decision to continue on when we weren’t really sure if we should. We all make mistakes, but we learn from them.