36 Views of the Utah State Capital

As a pilot, one must submit for a medical exam once a year. It's nothing too involved -- checking eyes, ears, stable pulse etc., but you always hear crazy stories about someone going in and losing their medical due to some rare heart condition. As a pilot on the go, it's sometimes difficult to acquire the healthiest food. I've made a lot of fast food runs in airports, but we were so delayed yesterday thanks to a control tower fire alarm in Phoenix, that I didn't eat dinner until arriving in SLC after 1030pm. The captain and I went across the street from the hotel to a sports bar called Legends.

The clientele was what you'd expect to find at a bar in Salt Lake on a Thursday night. Beat-looking, possibly under the influence of illegal substances, and missing a few teeth. I had a southwest burger with peppers and the captain ordered a plate full of tater tots covered in chile verde and cheese. He suggested I try a place down the street tomorrow called Bruges Waffles & Frites. It boasts a sandwich called the machine gun that he described as a baguette with two sausages and french fries covered in sauce. I worry about the captain's medical.

I had an unusual 30 hour layover in Salt Lake City -- a place I have spent so much time in, I feel as though I've seen it all. Since I had so much time, I thought about taking the train to see an airplane museum in Ogden, but the nearest stop was still 3.5 miles away, so I'd still have to get an Uber or something. I didn't feel like doing this planes, trains, and automobiles (quite literally) adventure, so I tried to find some interesting running routes. I found a spot that might offer some good views over the city and the capital, but it would be all uphill.

The picture of the capital above was after a considerable uphill in its own right, but this was child's play compared to what was to come. My run devolved into some sort of spastic ritual of throwing one leg in front of the other as the grade steepened. The capital building which sits on a large hill looking over the city was now below me. The altitude and dryness of the air was starting to take its toll on my endurance, but I had to press on to Ensign Peak, my goal at the top of the hill.

Unknown to me until after I got back, Ensign Peak is apparently significant in Mormon history as the place where Brigham Young looked down at the valley and Salty Lake below him, had a vision, and exclaimed, "Ah ha! This is it! The promised land! Zion! Bring 'em old! Brigham Young! In my vision, I see a meth den and a Dollar General!" I paraphrase, but you get the idea. Back to my run  jog  semi-brisk walk, I was struggling just to negotiate the rocky dirt path leading up to the top.

At long last, I reached the summit, making sure to run the last couple feet just for show. It did have an all-encompassing view of the valley. I could see the airport, Provo, University of Utah, and of course the capital building and downtown area. The sun wasn't in the ideal spot and most buildings were in the their own shadow. Brigham Young must have arrived in the morning. The valley didn't look as picturesque mid-afternoon, but I still took some time to marvel at the elevation gain I had just undergone and enjoy the fact that it was all downhill from here.

To appreciate the distance, here's a picture of the capital from the top. Be impressed, people! Are you not entertained? I drank an entire quart of water after I got back to the hotel. Now to decide on dinner. . . should I go back to Legends for the plate full of tater tots? I mean after that workout, I could probably even feel ok about myself eating that, but the machine gun sandwich crosses a line. Even Brigham Young did not anticipate such a travesty of cuisine unfolding below him.

Sully -- the movie, myth, and the man . . . and some other guy who was flying with him.

Prior to flying for the airlines, I was a flight instructor flying light aircraft around Southern California and occasionally other locales. When visiting Nicole's family in New Jersey, I would sometimes takeoff from Caldwell Airport to fly down a special flight area that encircles Manhattan. I had lots of experience on the radios in busy California airspace, so the transition to talking to LaGuardia and Newark approach was nothing new to me, but the views of Manhattan at  just 1500-2000 feet were. At some points, the buildings were above the altitude of the plane.

When "Sully" was gliding an Airbus A320 onto the Hudson River, he was obviously even lower than that when he cleared the George Washington Bridge. I just saw the movie about the incident today and thought I'd air my comments about the whole ordeal and his depiction in the film. First off, the movie makes my profession look good. It is a refreshing and welcome portrayal after the horrendous film that was Flight, where Denzel Washington's character is an alcoholic, addicted to cocaine, and sleeps with flight attendants.

And just as Sully is the lone hero in the public and media's eye, the first officer and flight attendants contributions are kind of an afterthought to the narrative. Anytime throughout history where the captain has passed out or has had a heart attack and the first officer lands the plane safely, the media goes crazy as if it was some kind of fluke. Toward the end of the film, Tom Hanks as Sully finally acknowledges FO Skiles for calmly running the restart checklists, but the movie sticks pretty closely to what the public already thinks . . .no Sully, no Miracle on the Hudson.

So let me dispel some misunderstandings about how a flight crew works. While it is true that in many Asian countries that the Captain is the only pilot that actually flies, in the United States, the environment is far different. 50% of the time the first officer will be flying the plane. The duties are split almost equally. We know each others jobs. It's like a safety net for when the other person makes a mistake. There have been occasions where I have pointed out an error to a Captain and am usually met with, "Thanks for pointing that out." It promotes a healthy team work environment. Obviously I've made errors of my own, but they get caught quickly and are quickly fixed.

To point the finger at Asia again, it is often taboo to question the Captain's authority. After all, they are sometimes the only one with any meaningful flying experience, while the first officer is largely responsible for just programing the FMS (flight computer/autopilot). This type of crew culture is poisonous and has less than positive results (unrelated picture of Asiana 214 shown at left). In the U.S., captains and first officers are essentially equal. If the captain screws up and I don't catch it, we both lose our license (or worse). A lot has changed since Sully splashed down in the Hudson. 

After the incident, Sully had a lot to say about the ticking time bomb that was regional airline pilots. They were underpaid, overworked, and often lacking experience -- hired out of desperation by companies who couldn't entice more experienced pilots to fly for $15 an hour. (For comparison I was netting $55/hour as a flight instructor). And while a lot of regional airline pilots think Sully is full of shit for those comments, he was right. (unrelated picture of Colgan Air 3407 at right). But the emphasis should be on was. There are no more pilots in the U.S. flying 70+ passengers around with just 500 hours of experience. The rules have changed.

And while I may have complained about those new rules, experience is everything -- especially as an instructor, which is now virtually the only way to build time without losing a fortune. As an instructor, I could see all the common errors that everyone else was making and figure out ways to fix them. I've had radio failure, total electrical failure, oil temperature spikes, rough running engines, and failed instruments during those instructing hours and it made a huge difference in the way I approached problems. Since the student was usually flying, I could easily assess the situation and devise a plan of action. And this is essentially how we are instructed in the sim.

In an emergency, the first officer typically flies the plane and handles the radios while the captain assesses the problem and runs the QRH (emergency checklist). The idea behind this setup is that the captain won't get tunnel vision from being saturated with tasks like flying a highly advanced piece of technology. If you watched the movie, this is not what happened in Sully. If Skiles had continued to fly, would Sully have been able to get his head on more of a swivel and found Teterboro or LaGuardia a more appealing option than the icy Hudson? Who knows. 

As the movie points out, the human factor is not something you can replicate accurately in a sim. But I do know this. When one pilot is given near god-like status while the other is seen as an apprentice pilot who shouldn't question the other's authority, rash decisions occur. For example, a crew may experience single engine failure and proceed to shutdown the good engine (unrelated picture of TransAsia flight 235 shown here). 

The point I'm trying to make is that flying is very safe, and has only become safer over the years, but as one of the NTSB investigators in the movie says toward the end, "There's an X...and it's you." Garbage in, garbage out. When your culture is such that you insist on segregated crew roles and don't value female pilots or those of different backgrounds, and insist that more autopilot = fewer errors, your results are going to be mixed at best. Pilots that insist on using the autopilot seconds after takeoff, typically have horrible stick and rudder skills, which isn't good when the automation stops working. Most of the time you'll get by fine because again . . . flying is safe, but if the captain makes an error and the first officer is meek, it may not have a happy ending. And you'd best hope that the FAA isn't there to investigate. Because if there's anything I learned from the movie, it's that those little devils can't be trusted.