The Perfect Flight

Doesn't exist; never has, never will.

So to the kind gentleman getting off my flight yesterday from AUS, thank you but..... Now I know what he meant, he was satisfied, trying to be gracious and offered his salutations deplaning, but....

Ever since Icarus man's attempt to make a perfect flight has failed, always has, always will. Any airman worth his wings will tell you exactly the same.

Let me offer as an analogy to driving your car and doing it perfectly. You must obey ALL traffic laws, all recommendations in your drivers manual, ensuring you're up to date with all maintenance & your records kept current. You think you do that? Really?? Then you haven't been paying close attention. It's kind of like the old saying, "I thought I made a mistake once, but I was mistaken", thus...

So you think you always drive at or below the speed limit, stop at or before every crosswalk, you signal every lane change or turn (even when nobody is around to see you), you get that windshield repaired/replaced when a nick or crack first appears, you always have the proper tire pressure in your tires, you always change your fluids at the recommended intervals, you've always been sober, never fatigued, and never ever distracted; and you do it day in & day out -right?

Well we all strive to, we have the best intentions - but were not Saints. I'd go so far as to say that the guy who drives the Pope-mobile does something wrong (no matter how insignificant) every time.

Same with airline flying. From a pilot standpoint we're human, we all make mistakes, we recognize that - and that's important. Most errors are small & insignificant (a mistuned radio, a wrong turn on the taxiway, a radio call answered on the PA system instead of back to ATC). Some are more so (a wrong flap setting, lining up for the wrong runway, flying to the wrong navigation aid, etc.). A few years back an airline had a rash of flights landing at the wrong (small adjacent) airports that the joke was their airline name stood for Don't Ever Land There Again.

Most are recognized right away by the pilot OR caught by either the other pilot, the air traffic controller, the FA's, sometimes the passengers, or the airplane itself. The training we receive, backed up with the experience we've obtained, mixed with the checks & balances all help manage to trap errors. Recognizing that the routine of the job requires attentiveness. Searching for those subtle differences that makes each flight unique - different weights, different runways, different routing, different weather, different crew, etc. - helps keep the routine fresh.

Untrapped errors frequently compound until you're watching it on the evening news; which rarely even cover traffic accidents anymore because they're so frequent. BTW you notice they're never called traffic on-purposes, even though we all bear witness to knucklehead driving all the time.

You can rest assured that knucklehead pilots don't make it very far in this business; the profession pretty much ensures that. That old saying goes, "There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots."

So while I was just focused on this from a pilot point of view, but it starts much earlier. From the initial & refined design, manufacturing, testing of the aircraft, engines & components, all the FAA rules & Company policies in place (most written in blood), the mandated ongoing training that everyone gets, the oversight from various departments & agencies, from management, to the maintenance side, to the dispatchers, to the ramp guys loading the baggage & cargo properly, to the FA's and ultimately the folks in the pointy end - to the ATC folks and manufactures of their equipment, to the airport folks and the guys who built & grooved & plow the runways, and installed the navigation aids, and the approach lighting, and to the engineers on the performance side who ensure given various conditions we can takeoff & land at certain weights & design T-Pro's and the like - ALL focused on getting Mr & Mrs 27 A/B from their point of origin to their destination safe & sound (and oblivious to the W,W,W,W & how's that made it so). And doing it every day & all night for thousands of flights with millions of passengers worldwide every 24/7.

It may not be perfect, but we're doing the best we can.