AVOIDING OPERATOR ERROR: LOCAL PILOTS DISCUSS WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A SAFE PILOT

Piloting an aircraft leaves little room for operator error because there is no such thing as a fender bender in an airplane. But experienced pilots still prefer flying a plane to driving any car.

"I feel safer flying a plane than I do driving to the airport," said former judge A.J. Seier.

With more than 5,000 hours of commercial flying under his belt and countless hours when he served in the U.S. Navy, Seier has been through it all. He has undertaken one of the most difficult challenges a pilot can face --- landing on an aircraft carrier.

"It scares you," Seier said. "You have got to hit that deck because there is no place else to go."

"They describe flying as hours of boredom and seconds of stark panic," Seier said. "It's true."

Experience is the key and when John F. Kennedy Jr. embarked on his flight July 17, he was tempting fate. There was a low visibility (4.5 to 6 miles) with a haze and he was flying over water. He did not have an instrument rating and he was flying a Piper Saratoga 32, which is considered a high performance aircraft. Kennedy had less than 100 hours of experience.

"You have got to know your equipment," Seier said. "You have got to have a lot of experience going into something like that."

Kennedy had just purchased the plane and because it was more of a high performance aircraft, there was even less room for mistakes.

"Pilots talk about forgiving and unforgiving aircraft," Seier said. "Some will let you make a mistake and it is OK. Some are more forgiving than others. The more advanced and powerful the plane is, the less forgiving."

It was night, Kennedy was in an unfamiliar, high-performance aircraft and flying over water.

"When you are flying at night over water, you lose your visual reference," said Mark Seesing, who was the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport manager from 1989-93. "Flying over land there are lights. But over water, you can't really tell where the sky stops and the water begins. Individuals get caught up in distinguishing between the two."

In the Navy, Seier said they called it vertigo. It is a disorientation that pilots sometimes get because without a visual reference their bodies have a hard time knowing where the sky is and where the ground is.

"I have heard of pilots getting disoriented when they drop a map and bend down to pick it up and all hell breaks loose," Seier said.

He said people have three areas that contribute to their equilibrium -- vision, inner ear and a deep muscle sense. The latter two are unreliable.

"If you blindfold someone and sit them on a piano stool and spin them around, when you stop them, they still feel like they are spinning," Seier said.

In other words, once the visual reference is gone, the inner ear and the deep muscle sense do not give a person an accurate picture of what is happening. Seier said in the military, pilots are trained to identify the disorientation. But if pilots do not expect it, they may not even know they are disoriented especially if they are flying over areas where they cannot see well.

Seesing, now a funeral director at Ford and Sons Funeral Home, said he always encourages prospective pilots to get an instrument rating.

"An instrument rating makes you a better visual pilot," Seesing said. "You have both sides of the aircraft under control --- the outside and the inside."

Private pilots have to complete 40 hours of training and 20 of those hours have to be solo flights, said Bill Beard, chief pilot of the Fixed Wing Division at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport.

"Very few people ever get their pilot's license in 40 hours," Beard said. "Most people need to plan on at least 50 to 60 hours."

He said people have minimum requirements, but the instructor has a lot of leeway in determining when the student is ready to get a license. But there also is a safety net because the student must pass a written test and a practical test.

"It is a kind of a two-fold system," Beard said. "The instructor may feel confident that the student is ready, but the students have to prove that to the examiner before they can receive the license."

Beard said any prospective pilot should go beyond the requirements and fly at least once per week while in training. He said flying is a learning process and pilots should continue to learn.

No one knows what happened in Kennedy's plane. Pilots everywhere have faced those conditions and have been disoriented in the air.

"Every pilot has been there," Seier said. "Every pilot will tell you they have been there and done that. But luckily they have gotten through it."

LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR BECOMING A PRIVATE PILOT:

*Must be at least 17 years old and speak, read and understand English.

*Must obtain a minimum of 40 hours in an aircraft, 20 of which must be solo flights, 3 hours must be cross country flights, 3 hours must be night flying over 100 miles of cross country that takes 10 take-offs and 10 landings to a full stop, 3 hours must be flight training, maneuvering aircraft solely by reference to instruments and 3 hours of prep time.

*Must complete 5 hours of cross country flying within 20 hours of solo flight.

*Must take a written test.

*Must take a practical from either a designated examiner or FAA inspector, who can issue a pilot's license.

REQUIREMENTS TO RETAIN LICENSES:

*Must maintain medical certificate every 2 to 3 years depending on type of licenses.

*Must stay within FAA currency laws by keeping a log book that shows at least 3 take-offs and landings during a 90-day period. If the individual is licensed to fly at night, there must be 3 take-offs and landings at night. The 3 night take-offs and landings can count toward the minimum requirements so that a person does not have to do 6 take-offs and landings within a 90-day period.