Pilots In Command

A critical how-to guide to cockpit decision-making for every pilot, based on FAA-mandated pilot-in-command authority -- and pilot responsibility for flight safety and operations. Includes essential methods for self-retraining, techniques for maintaining awareness, and advice on improving piloting performance.

This title was first published in 2002: A comprehensive examination of the characteristics of the experienced captain. Each chapter begins with an appropriate and relevant anecdote that is analogous to the chapter's main theme. It then progresses to the chapter's main objective and finishes with a scenario that the reader must try to solve from a captain's perspective. Immediately following each of these scenarios, the reader is presented with a number of considerations that should be evaluated when solving the problem. The intent is to help the pilot practice thinking as a captain. Offering a wealth of practical guidance, this book is an ideal platform for pilots or indeed, anyone interested in how leadership and management skills are used to achieve excellence. The reader should gain important command skills and learn how to apply these skills to routine and unexpected situations, in the same way in which an experienced captain would.

Airline pilots are looked upon as leaders by passengers, crew, and employers alike. Newly hired pilots, as well as current pilots upgrading to become Captains, are required to have training, experience, and skills that demonstrate practical leadership ability and professionalism. Beyond accumulated experience in the flight deck, pilots need straightforward guidance on how to fulfill the role of pilot-in-command. Pilots know that when things go wrong, everyone looks to the Captain--the pilot-in-command--to make things right. Pilots In Command: Your Best Trip, Every Trip goes beyond what is required by flight training curricula, into what is both a rarity and a necessity: solid advice to student and professional aviators about how to be transformational leaders. This third edition offers new insights into the airline training process, common experiences, and practices new pilots face when entering the airline industry; expands the previous edition's discussions on culture, professionalism, pilot schedules and bidding, and safety for today's airline operations; and includes new tips on maintaining professional excellence and optimizing your quality of life as an airline pilot. This edition also includes a new chapter on preparing for and completing the initial qualifications course, encompassing aircraft systems training, flight deck procedures training, maneuvers training, line oriented flight training (LOFT), and the line oriented evaluation. Focusing on a range of topics that all tie into the application of basic leadership skills, the author covers crew roles, crew briefings, flight attendants, crew resource management (CRM), threat and error management (TEM), transitioning to the line and initial operating experience, ground services, dispatch, customer service, abnormal and emergency situations, layovers, crew dynamics, 14 CFR Part 117 rest rules, safety, and a new model of transformational leadership and professionalism for pilots. Essential for new airline pilots and Captain upgrade candidates, Pilots In Command shares the insights and techniques typically gained only from years of experience and interaction with your fellow pilots and crew at 35,000 feet.

WASP of the Ferry Command is the story of the women ferry pilots who flew more than nine million miles in 72 different aircraft—115,000 pilot hours—for the Ferrying Division, Air Transport Command, during World War II. In the spring of 1942, Col. William H. Tunner lacked sufficient male pilots to move vital trainer aircraft from the factory to the training fields. Nancy Love found 28 experienced women pilots who could do the job. They, along with graduates of the Army's flight training school for women--established by Jacqueline Cochran--performed this duty until fall 1943, when manufacture of trainers ceased. In December 1943 the women ferry pilots went back to school to learn to fly high-performance WWII fighters, known as pursuits. By January 1944 they began delivering high performance P-51s, 47s, and 39s. Prior to D-Day and beyond, P-51s were crucial to the air war over Germany. They had the range to escort B-17s and B-24s from England to Berlin and back on bombing raids that ultimately brought down the German Reich. Getting those pursuits to the docks in New Jersey for shipment abroad became these women's primary job. Ultimately, more than one hundred WASP pursuit pilots were engaged in this vital movement of aircraft.

"Eddie Rickenbacker, Hub Zemke, Boots Blesse, and Robin Olds are in the pantheon of American fighter aces. Their names are familiar to many, but there has never been a book that examined their brilliant leadership ability as well as their aerial prowess." "These four men were all robust personalities, difficult to discipline, and, more often than not, thorns in the sides of their commanders. Each of these elite pilots burned to become the leading ace of his time. These qualities were not unique. However, the achievements of these men were extraordinary, even for the miniscule percentage of fighter pilots who ever became aces. Rickenbacker, Zemke, Blesse, and Olds distinguished themselves by becoming "force multipliers" - they used their leadership skills, instinctive knowledge of air warfare, and superior piloting abilities to make the other pilots in their units better warriors. These men put their units' interest ahead of every other goal and in the process made their units far more effective. Instead of using their skills merely to achieve personal glory, they trained units that produced multiple aces while achieving ace status themselves." "Renowned aviation historian Walter Boyne details the careers of these legendary aces but also explains the reasons why these pilots achieved such great success as aces and leaders. Boyne's fascinating narrative puts you in the cockpits of fighter planes that varied vastly in technology, against enemies of ever-increasing capability in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Aces in Command takes you in a SPAD XIII with Rickenbacker over the Western Front. It puts you in a P-47 Thunderbolt with Zemke over Germany, breaking all the rules but shooting down Germans. Then you fly with Blesse in a Sabre, getting your victories deep inside North Korean lines - but never losing a wingman. Finally, it tells you of the exploits of the maverick Robin Olds in two wars, learning the trade in a P-38 Lightning during World War II and, later, using all he learned to whip a F-4 Phantom wing into shape in Vietnam." "Despite the differences among the planes and jets of each era, Boyne makes a strong case that Rickenbacker, Zemke, Blesse, and Olds could have been aces in any era. More importantly, he reveals the characteristics and common denominators that made these aces superior combat leaders."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Canada is a global aviation powerhouse. Thanks to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan during World War II, as well as its internationally-recognized reputation enabling an important and meaningful bridge among the nations of the world after the war, Canada — called the Aerodrome of Democracy by President Franklin D. Roosevelt — was chosen as the host of the headquarters of the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and influential International Air Transport Association (IATA), and has become the third-largest aerospace hub in the world. Today, thousands of Canadian aviation professionals specializing in engineering, management, finance, sales, flight operations, academics, flight training, tax, and law staff the ICAO, IATA, governmental agencies, airline companies, law and aircraft leasing firms, universities, and gigantic aerospace corporations. This Canadian expertise also resonates in today’s global training pipeline of highly skilled professionals operating winged-tubes loaded with thousands of gallons of kerosene fuelling complex and powerful engine systems in the lower levels of the stratosphere to carry passengers and/or cargo across intercontinental airways. Canadian Air Law for Pilots is entirely dedicated to pilots; its purpose is twofold: (1) to highlight the landmark Canadian legislative framework relative to aviation law, and provide an extensive review of federal decision-makers affecting pilots’ privileges, rights, and interests by reporting on their purposes, procedural rules, as well as key case law within administrative and penal law; and (2) to outline Canada’s air law for local and international applicants and trainees interested in obtaining pilot permits, licences or ratings (aeroplanes) issued by Transport Canada. This textbook is divided into four parts: Part I: Administrative Law Part II: Penal Law Part III: Aircraft in Canada Part IV: Air Law