"Rules aren't always meant to be broken" is a chapter in my book, Plane Reflections: about life and a flight around Australia's coast, and a topic for one of my newsletters. Worth bearing in mind.
Welcome to issue no. 23 of Pilot your life. May 2011
Just recently I’ve viewed a few movies where the main characters have “broken all the rules” and triumphed. However, real life doesn’t always work that way. Here’s a passage from my book, Plane Reflections: about life and a flight around Australia’s coast, which illustrates the potential hazards if some rules are broken.
“Rules aren’t always meant to be broken
There are more rules up in the air than on the ground. You don’t just jump in a plane and take off because you can get into a lot of trouble if you don’t read your charts properly.
There are a lot of Prohibited, Restricted and Danger Areas (PRDs), some of which need to be avoided if they are active, and there is also civil and military controlled airspace.
Some areas are for training or transitting and this applies to planes, helicopters, gliders, float planes, military jets, parachuting, aerobatics etc. Other areas need to be avoided when active for bombing, flares, rifles, lasers, gunnery, blasting, high velocity gas discharge etc.
Quite a lot of things end up in the atmosphere and planes don’t want to be in the air at the wrong time. If you read the documents and obtain weather reports with the PRDs before flying, then safety is assured.
Controlled airspace is one place where you don’t do your own thing without obtaining a clearance (asking permission) first. Planes etc. need to be kept separate from one another to avoid collisions. This is easier in airspace where the control tower has aircraft on radar but in other areas it’s up to the pilot to keep watch and maintain separation.
Along the coast there are military areas where planes can transit by set routes. This suited me in many instances because the routes flew over the ocean anyway.
On one occasion I obtained a clearance to fly along the coast at 1,500 feet. I was on radar, transmitting the designated transponder code, and while I was flying through the area I must have been concentrating on the camera and not on the altimeter and I had gradually descended. The control tower promptly told me to climb back to 1,500 feet. Just as well I did because not long after, a military helicopter came in from the ocean and flew beneath me towards the land.
Imagine what would have happened if I had kept descending and the helicopter had been climbing! A good lesson learnt that day!
So every time you come across a rule which you consider unnecessary, think very carefully before you break it. The rule may well have been designed for your own protection!”
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