Fly Me Friendly

While reading Macarthur Job’s book “Into Oblivion: the Southern Cloud enigma” (as mentioned in my previous blog entry) I encountered over some sagely aviation advice that was written in 1930 that still rings true today.

The book has a set of appendices that contain documents & articles written around 1930 including an article on “Blind Flying” written by Travis W. Shortridge, the captain of the Southern Cloud at the time it disappeared. At the end of his article, Shortridge made the following observation:

The success or otherwise of ‘the airway’ is in the hands of the people who do the work – the pilots. In their hands rests everything. No man can be born a fully-trained pilot; no pilot can ever be fully trained. All pilots should ever be learning, ever striving to increase their own efficiency. Efficiency begets confidence, and thus safety. So aim at being safe.

He then also discussed airmanship and how there is much more to flying than just the actual stick & rudder work:

Somehow ‘airmanship’, which is not just flying, but is everything flying means, is a very neglected subject … If only young pilots would forget that a ‘joy stick’ is in many ways only a secondary consideration, that ‘circuits and landings’ do not make a pilot, that they never will learn all that the air can teach them, and that advice from old hands should never be disregarded – well, lots of young pilots would still be pilots!

No matter what you are flying, Shortridge’s words apply to anyone who leaves the surface of our planet to experience the freedom of the air and beyond. It’s amazing to consider that after over 80 years, these comments still ring true in today’s aviation environment. Despite all our technological advancements and improvements in the way we train pilots, we continue to return to problems that have their root cause in the human aspects of attitude, ego and awareness.

There are indications that insurance companies, training organisations and government aviation regulators are starting to realise that beyond practical test standards and raw figures of accumulated hours there lies the core attitudes and mental processes of the pilots themselves. We are hearing the phrase “you can’t legislate professionalism” and encountering questionnaires & surveys to assess a pilot’s personality & approach to problem solving. Certainly these may be steps towards finally addressing the common issues that no amount of technology can resolve but I still cannot help but wonder whether we’ll be making comments like Shortridge’s in another 80 years?

I recently finished reading Macarthur (“Mac”) Job’s book Into Oblivion: The Southern Cloud enigma, yet another of his amazing air crash investigation books. An avid pilot, Macarthur was also responsible for the Department of Civil Aviation’s Aviation Safety Digest for some 14 years. Like the Safety Digest, his books combine an attention to detail and presentation of the facts with a well written narrative and engaging delivery.

“Into Oblivion” details the disappearance of Australian National Airways’ Avro 10 tri-motor “Southern Cloud” in 1931 and the subsequent discovery of its wreckage in 1958. Macarthur gives great background into the airline’s history, from when it was set up by Sir Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm to when it shut down not long after the Southern Cloud disappeared. He lays out the events that lead up to the Southern Cloud’s disappearance and then describes how the wreckage was discovered, the limited investigation that was performed and the questions left unanswered. He also provides some possible scenarios that could explain how the accident occurred and whether it was survivable.

There is also coverage of various anniversary events that have occurred in more recent times while the appendices contain four documents written in the 1930s, including:

• A review of flying the Avro Ten
• An journalist’s report documenting the experience of flying from Melbourne to Sydney with ANA
• An article on “blind flying” written by the pilot shortly before his death
• A journalist’s report on his experience flying with Kingsford Smith in the search for the Southern Cloud.

The only niggling item I encountered was an occasional repetition of some facts or comments that wasn’t really necessary as they’d only recently been raised. It was clear that the sections had been written separately and then linked together without “blending” them and removing duplications. Fortunately there were only a couple of these instances and they weren’t a major annoyance.

All up, I really enjoyed this book and have no hesitation recommending it for anyone interested in learning more about Australia’s first major airline disaster. Not simply a dry repetition of the facts, “Into Oblivion” engages the reader and is a pleasure to read.