Who's the boss

The pilot in command is aviation’s big boss. Peruse your aviation bookshelf, YouTube, and FAA test prep materials, and almost universally you’ll find the definition of pilot in command in terms of the legal authority. What you won’t find is a discussion of what makes a pilot a good pilot in command.

First, the easy stuff. FAR 91.3 lays out the description of a pilot in command and the authority they possess. It says, “The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of that aircraft. In an in-flight emergency requiring immediate action, the pilot in command may deviate from any rule of this part to the extent required to meet that emergency.”

Don't think that being able to fly an airplane well makes you a good pilot. —Virgin Atlantic Capt. Chris PohlThat’s it. No other regulation is so clearly articulated, in such plain language. The FAA says the PIC is the ultimate person in charge on the flight, and they have the authority to break other regulations during an emergency. On one hand, this is a great tool. The PIC can toss the regulations out the window and do whatever necessary to enable a safe outcome of the flight. All those tricky things you’ve learned about communications, cloud clearances, ATC clearances, traffic patterns, minimum safe altitudes, and more are all secondary to safely getting the airplane on the ground. That’s an immense power that doesn’t exist for anyone else in the system. No controller, mechanic, flight school owner, or airport manager can just throw away the rule book. So, whether the flight is in a Cessna 150 or a Boeing 747, the PIC has the ultimate authority.

Despite knowing this, pilots are often reluctant to declare emergencies for fear of reprisal from the FAA. Not to worry, says AOPA Legal Service Plan Attorney Ian Arendt. The FAA doesn’t violate pilots for unnecessarily declaring emergencies, and the reg’s third provision, requiring a written report to the Administrator upon request, is rarely invoked. Most of the time what happens after an emergency is nothing.

But just as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, with great power comes great responsibility. What the books and videos don’t spend much time or space covering is how to use the PIC authority you’ve been given. We’re obviously not going to fly around declaring emergencies all the time just to avoid studying the regulations, so what does a PIC look like in more normal situations? We used to view PICs as confident, no-nonsense, authoritarian figures. Airline captains, often having been trained in the military, were known to tell first and second officers to sit down, shut up, and not to touch anything unless told to. That all began to change in the early 1980s with the advent of crew resource management (CRM) programs, first launched by United Airlines in 1981. NASA had discovered that most accidents were caused by poor cockpit communication, decision making, and leadership.

As a result of CRM programs and other research, we’ve come to view those three skills as the personification of a successful modern pilot in command. In an interview posted to YouTube, Virgin Atlantic Capt. Chris Pohl described the attributes of someone who exemplifies great communication and leadership. “Don’t think that being able to fly an airplane well makes you a good pilot,” he said. It’s the soft skills, such as the ability to work with your teammates, use your resources, stay calm under pressure, and make a decision that matters as much, or more, than one’s skill in being able to manipulate a throttle and yoke.

Pohl, a training captain, uses emergency response as a great example of PIC authority in action. He stresses the FIPTDODAR reaction, which goes through who is flying the airplane, identifying the problem, making a plan, taking your time, diagnosing the problem, evaluation options, deciding on a course of action, taking action, and then reviewing the action.

You could seamlessly fit that sequence into nearly any boardroom. Leadership involves facing the problem, knowing who is in charge, working on a plan, taking an action, and then just as importantly, evaluating the outcome of that action and making additional changes when necessary.

Pilots exercise PIC leadership on every flight, from small and insignificant decisions to important actions taken during an emergency. We continually practice PIC authority and refine it through practice and learning. Did you get a little bit behind the airplane the last time in a busy pattern? In addition to better cockpit management, maybe you could ask ATC for a three-sixty or a stop and taxi back in order to collect your thoughts. Or as a new instrument pilot you flew into a small build up and were shaken up a bit. Next time you can ask for a diversion.

I recently went flying in my airplane with another instructor from whom I’ve received instruction in the past, but who on this day was riding along as my passenger. To avoid confusion, I initiated a conversation before we took off that established who would be the PIC (me) and who would be flying and when (me out and him back). We discussed who would be acting during an emergency and what we would expect of each other when the other person was flying. This sort of conversation seems a bit mundane and perhaps overkill for a simple VFR flight, but two qualified pilots with similar credentials on board an airplane can be quite dangerous. A PIC establishes expectations and sets the tone of the flight, and takes away any confusion when possible.

The pilot calmly said, "Remove everyone from our way, we’ve declared an emergency."Yet the clearest displays of PIC authority in action are when the pilot is reacting to an emergency. Brian Schiff played ATC audio during a recent seminar that showed incredible PIC authority in the face of difficult circumstances. It was a busy day at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York, and the pilot had been given a clearance to land on Runway 22L, but for an unknown reason had to deny the clearance and break off the approach. The controller, under pressure to keep things moving with multiple airplanes in the area, gave the crew a turn and tried to get them back in line. The crew denied the turn and threatened to declare an emergency if they weren’t allowed to land on Runway 31. Unable to do that, the controller again tried to get them to turn back into sequence for 22L, at which point the pilot very calmly said, “We’re turning around to the left here and landing on 31. Remove everyone from our way, we’ve declared an emergency. We’re on a visual.”

There was some armchair quarterbacking that said the crew used strong-arm tactics to get what they wanted, rather than what may have been required under an emergency. Regardless of the circumstances that led to the situation, the pilot in command used his authority to get exactly what he wanted in a very stressful situation, and you can’t deny his calmness under pressure from ATC to do something he wasn’t comfortable doing. New York controllers are notoriously fast and have little patience for shenanigans, and it was an afternoon arrival push.

If that captain can make the decision to break off a landing, turn where he needed to go, and demand to land on a closed runway, certainly we can avoid flying through cloud buildups, request a crosswind runway, or deny a landing clearance when there isn’t enough spacing.

Schiff’s seminar on the makings of a good PIC focused on professionalism in the cockpit and its positive impact on safety. He described a PIC as someone who knows his airplane and the FARs, who avoids stacking risk and can manage external pressures. He also said a good PIC should avoid quandaries, or avoid getting too far into a bad or stressful situation caused by inaction or uncertainty.

Flight training is really effective at making us flight control manipulators. By the time you earn a certificate it’s a given that you can take off and land, fly a steep turn, and recover from a stall. Becoming a good PIC takes time and experience. Accepting that it is you, and not the mechanic, your instructor, the flight school, or your passengers, who has the authority to ensure the safe outcome of the flight is a good place to start. FT

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