The plane and man are from a time gone by, but the training technique is timeless.
He was a Senior Captain flying Baltimore International to Florida, South in the morning, North in the afternoon, in a Delta Airlines DC 6, at that time, top of the line. His home was in Maryland, and he kept an immaculate Piper J 3 cub in a hanger at Suburban Airport.
While I was working on my Commercial and Instrument ratings, I saw him sitting at the picnic table under a tree by the office. There were a couple of other Commercial students there too, so I walked over, and joined them. He had his copy of the DC 6 manual, a thick ring binder, and was teaching systems to the guys who had gathered. With the largest aircraft on the field a Piper Seminole, not something they needed to know any time soon, and not what they needed to pass the Commercial written or check ride.
As I studied with them, I found that the real lesson was how to find the right diagram to start learning a system, then the progression of detailed diagrams and text descriptions, until you had covered the whole system.
The DC 6 is a 4 radial engine plane, and the start of one day was the electrical system. First the elementary of the basic system, 4 generators, 4 batteries, not the same size, if I remember correctly, and the buss ties and cross connects that allowed feeding each battery from more than one generator. Next, the feeds to the various power distribution busses, each with a feed from two batteries. From there, the feeds from each power distribution buss to the instruments, radios, and other electric powered devices.
The lesson he taught was how to unravel the complex system in a logical and progressive way, which is easier to remember. That is generic for any airplane. He would stop for any question, back up and re explain if someone was puzzled, then go on. He was very patient. He also, obviously, knew that manual from front to rear, by heart. Questions for details for something he was teaching resulted in an easy turn of a few pages, and there was the answer.
The “class” went on until the subject was used up; he would stand up, and call it a day. We did not pay him, and neither did the school, his training did not fit any part of the syllabus. He did it because he was proud of his knowledge, and wished to share it with the younger pilots coming into the profession. I already used the same approach to studying systems, aviation or my own profession, and admired his skills in keeping his ‘students’ engaged in what he was teaching. They did understand that they were not preparing to fly the DC 6, but how to read whatever aircraft manual they needed to learn.
On some days, he compared the manual for the Seminole to the DC 6. The pitot/static was much the same, except for redundancies, and dual for pilot and co pilot. The extra features were explained, so they understood that any more complex plane should have a variation of the components of the -6. Attitude gyros were a little different from those on our training planes, and the differences explained. Interestingly, some -6’s had two gyro horizons on the Captain’s side, one conventional vacuum, the other electric, capable of inverted flight without tumbling. In today’s highly automated controls, that is assumed to be impossible to occur. Back then with airliners flying at altitudes in the teens, the 2400 HP DC 6 service ceiling was only 18,000 feet, accidentally entering a thunderstorm cell was somewhat likely to happen; they expected the Captain to be prepared to recover from a complete upset.
The logic of engine starting was obvious after you had it explained. The engine on the pilot’s side, inboard, was first, with two batteries paralleled for maximum energy availability. Following successful start, the battery voltage was allowed to recover with the inboard generator feeding both batteries, and then the inboard on the opposite side was cranked up. This balanced the thrust from the two nearly zero pitch propellers. The tie between the two inboard batteries was opened, the tie between in and outboard closed, and the outboard engines started. A lot of details are left out here, but this is the type of information he taught. He cautioned that different airlines might have different sequences, but that would be learned when they started type training. Inboard engines are started first because they are easier to see, problems are more likely to happen on the first engines started because of lower cranking voltage, slower cranking speeds, etcetera.
Some of the guys were invited to go flying with him in the J 3, and they reported he was a master in it, flew it precisely, but did not pay much attention to the then current FAA regulations for such non aerobatic aircraft. He sometimes entered the traffic pattern at 200 feet AGL, parallel to the runway but not yet to it, popped up over the trees; S turned to the runway centerline, and slipped in. He carefully scanned the air above to be sure that the pattern was empty when doing this, so safe enough, but the passenger was quite startled by the overall event, because the throttle was moved to idle as the pop up took place, and the passenger did not realize the runway was just on the other side of the tree line.
He put in many hours at that picnic table, and I am sure that the guys that went on to airline jobs gained critical thinking skills from his lessons there. I was not planning on going on, but he taught me some of the more detailed aspects of how systems were designed, no matter the size of the plane, and I understood the Pipers we were training in, as well as the Cessna’s I normally flew.
Today, I am still amazed how many pilots do not fully understand such vital systems as the fuel tanks, selection valves, and pumps, resulting in loss of power with plenty of fuel on board, failure to realize the auto pilot can only be driven by one gyro, so loss of that forces hand flying without that gyro, so partial panel. Do you know where the alternate static air is in every plane you fly? If you fly IFR, I hope your plane does have alternate, as smashing the ROC glass is the other way to get the altimeter working. All that sort of information is in the manual/POH for the plane, and you need to have worked through all the systems, as he taught us to do, with that thick DC 6 manual.
Questions directly related to the Seminole were answered directly from the POH supplied by whoever asked the question, you did not ask such if you did not have the relevant manual. I did read the Seminole manual cover to cover, and felt that I understood it reasonably well, but did not continue training in it after acquiring my Commercial endorsement, the costs versus the benefits did not fit the flying that I expected to do.
Obviously, I do not have his signature in my logs, so I cannot pull up his name, but he has made a difference in the safety of my flights, and I have always appreciated his input to my skills.
He was a Senior Captain flying Baltimore International to Florida, South in the morning, North in the afternoon, in a Delta Airlines DC 6, at that time, top of the line. His home was in Maryland, and he kept an immaculate Piper J 3 cub in a hanger at Suburban Airport.
While I was working on my Commercial and Instrument ratings, I saw him sitting at the picnic table under a tree by the office. There were a couple of other Commercial students there too, so I walked over, and joined them. He had his copy of the DC 6 manual, a thick ring binder, and was teaching systems to the guys who had gathered. With the largest aircraft on the field a Piper Seminole, not something they needed to know any time soon, and not what they needed to pass the Commercial written or check ride.
As I studied with them, I found that the real lesson was how to find the right diagram to start learning a system, then the progression of detailed diagrams and text descriptions, until you had covered the whole system.
The DC 6 is a 4 radial engine plane, and the start of one day was the electrical system. First the elementary of the basic system, 4 generators, 4 batteries, not the same size, if I remember correctly, and the buss ties and cross connects that allowed feeding each battery from more than one generator. Next, the feeds to the various power distribution busses, each with a feed from two batteries. From there, the feeds from each power distribution buss to the instruments, radios, and other electric powered devices.
The lesson he taught was how to unravel the complex system in a logical and progressive way, which is easier to remember. That is generic for any airplane. He would stop for any question, back up and re explain if someone was puzzled, then go on. He was very patient. He also, obviously, knew that manual from front to rear, by heart. Questions for details for something he was teaching resulted in an easy turn of a few pages, and there was the answer.
The “class” went on until the subject was used up; he would stand up, and call it a day. We did not pay him, and neither did the school, his training did not fit any part of the syllabus. He did it because he was proud of his knowledge, and wished to share it with the younger pilots coming into the profession. I already used the same approach to studying systems, aviation or my own profession, and admired his skills in keeping his ‘students’ engaged in what he was teaching. They did understand that they were not preparing to fly the DC 6, but how to read whatever aircraft manual they needed to learn.
On some days, he compared the manual for the Seminole to the DC 6. The pitot/static was much the same, except for redundancies, and dual for pilot and co pilot. The extra features were explained, so they understood that any more complex plane should have a variation of the components of the -6. Attitude gyros were a little different from those on our training planes, and the differences explained. Interestingly, some -6’s had two gyro horizons on the Captain’s side, one conventional vacuum, the other electric, capable of inverted flight without tumbling. In today’s highly automated controls, that is assumed to be impossible to occur. Back then with airliners flying at altitudes in the teens, the 2400 HP DC 6 service ceiling was only 18,000 feet, accidentally entering a thunderstorm cell was somewhat likely to happen; they expected the Captain to be prepared to recover from a complete upset.
The logic of engine starting was obvious after you had it explained. The engine on the pilot’s side, inboard, was first, with two batteries paralleled for maximum energy availability. Following successful start, the battery voltage was allowed to recover with the inboard generator feeding both batteries, and then the inboard on the opposite side was cranked up. This balanced the thrust from the two nearly zero pitch propellers. The tie between the two inboard batteries was opened, the tie between in and outboard closed, and the outboard engines started. A lot of details are left out here, but this is the type of information he taught. He cautioned that different airlines might have different sequences, but that would be learned when they started type training. Inboard engines are started first because they are easier to see, problems are more likely to happen on the first engines started because of lower cranking voltage, slower cranking speeds, etcetera.
Some of the guys were invited to go flying with him in the J 3, and they reported he was a master in it, flew it precisely, but did not pay much attention to the then current FAA regulations for such non aerobatic aircraft. He sometimes entered the traffic pattern at 200 feet AGL, parallel to the runway but not yet to it, popped up over the trees; S turned to the runway centerline, and slipped in. He carefully scanned the air above to be sure that the pattern was empty when doing this, so safe enough, but the passenger was quite startled by the overall event, because the throttle was moved to idle as the pop up took place, and the passenger did not realize the runway was just on the other side of the tree line.
He put in many hours at that picnic table, and I am sure that the guys that went on to airline jobs gained critical thinking skills from his lessons there. I was not planning on going on, but he taught me some of the more detailed aspects of how systems were designed, no matter the size of the plane, and I understood the Pipers we were training in, as well as the Cessna’s I normally flew.
Today, I am still amazed how many pilots do not fully understand such vital systems as the fuel tanks, selection valves, and pumps, resulting in loss of power with plenty of fuel on board, failure to realize the auto pilot can only be driven by one gyro, so loss of that forces hand flying without that gyro, so partial panel. Do you know where the alternate static air is in every plane you fly? If you fly IFR, I hope your plane does have alternate, as smashing the ROC glass is the other way to get the altimeter working. All that sort of information is in the manual/POH for the plane, and you need to have worked through all the systems, as he taught us to do, with that thick DC 6 manual.
Questions directly related to the Seminole were answered directly from the POH supplied by whoever asked the question, you did not ask such if you did not have the relevant manual. I did read the Seminole manual cover to cover, and felt that I understood it reasonably well, but did not continue training in it after acquiring my Commercial endorsement, the costs versus the benefits did not fit the flying that I expected to do.
Obviously, I do not have his signature in my logs, so I cannot pull up his name, but he has made a difference in the safety of my flights, and I have always appreciated his input to my skills.
