TRIPLE NICKEL ....

Acknowledgements:  Thomas P. Turner, Mastery Flight Training, Inc. & Flight Instructor Hall of Fame inductee

“I was interviewed for an Aviation International News (AIN) “Tales from the Flight Deck segment (#27)” on pilot non-compliance, which will be posted on the AIN podcasts site soon. I got a gem from one of the other pilots who was part of the podcast (space shuttle astronaut, Experimental Aircraft Association board member/Safety Committee chair and business jet safety authority Charlie Precourt). Ok, he’s not just “one of the other pilots”!

I’d hoped the podcast would be available by the time I post this edition of FLYING LESSONS Weekly, but I’ll go ahead and comment on it now (because it’s also pertinent to the Debrief below) and will include a link to the podcast when it becomes available. In the podcast, Colonel Precourt talks about the pursuit of the “perfect flight” — a completely flawless execution; something that never happens.

Despite the impossibility of total perfection, Charlie mentions that in his military career he and his fellow pilots strove for what he calls in the podcast the TRIPLE NICKEL. It’s called a triple nickel (a 5 5 5) for reasons you’ll see momentarily; for my international readers, a US 5-cent coin is 75% copper and 25% nickel, so we call it a nickel. Americans are clever that way. 

A TRIPLE NICKEL FLIGHT is one during which the pilot maintains control within all three of the following tolerances from “perfect” in every phase of flight:

  • Airspeed +/- 5 knots

  • Heading +/- 5 degrees

  • Altitude +/- 50 feet 

To fly a triple nickel, you first need to know precisely what the targets are for: 

·       take-off 

·       initial climb 

·       cruise climb 

·       cruise 

·       descent 

·       approach 

·       missed approach 

·       go-around

·       landing 

Then you can compare your actual performance to your targets and see just how good a pilot you are.

As I’ve written many times, SAFETY IS NOT A STRATEGY, IT’S AN OUTCOME. Safety is the result of your pursuit of mastery and command of the aircraft.

 Flying has inherent and very hazardous risks; stick and rudder precision is an important part of safe flying, but it’s not the only part. It is part of mastering the airplane, and if you master the airplane, the environment and yourself, your flying will be as safe as it can possibly be under the conditions you permit yourself to fly. 

I’ve been doing something approximating this comparison for a long time, but Charlie’s quantification has excited me to be even more precise and contemplative of my performance. I have a holiday flight coming up, and I’ll see how close I can get to attaining a TRIPLE NICKEL. I’m encouraged to learn from Charlie’s interview that even military fighter pilots and astronauts have to work hard to fly to this level, and it doesn’t happen every time. It’s not an excuse, it’s a challenge. 

Can you command a triple nickel flight?”

 FLY SAFE!

Tony Birth