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Getting “behind the airplane” is something no one wants to do. But when flight conditions change unexpectedly a pilot’s workload increases, sometimes to the point of being in danger. Today’s guest got into a such a situation when, in IMC, he was given vectors for an approach he didn’t have time to prepare for. FAA Master Pilot Award recipient Tim Delaney describes how he got behind the airplane on an instrument flight to Santa Rosa, California. Sponsored by Avemco

Learning aerobatics imposes forces on the human body that are not familiar. And it requires some changes in how the airplane is handled. For instance, unless we’re intentionally slipping the airplane, we’re taught to “stay coordinated” and “keep the ball centered.” For one pilot, his method of keeping the ball centered during an aerobatic maneuver left him in a very unusual attitude — in a Stearman! How he recovered and what he learned is the story in today’s episode.

Today we learn some important lessons that affect every pilot on every mission flown, no matter how experienced that pilot is. Do we “push the envelope” on a flight because of familiarity, because we got through marginal weather before, or do we assess each flight thoroughly? A relatively short flight became dangerous because the pilot had “been there, done that.” But it got him in an icy situation. Gene Benson from Vectors for Safety shares his story.