LT. COLNEL BILL KORNER (RET.) - A TRUE WAR HERO

LT. COLNEL BILL KORNER (RET.)

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TRUE WAR HERO

I am the AOPA rep at Scottsdale (SDL) and am a member of the Arizona Business Aviation Association(AZBAA) which is a chapter of the National Business Aviation Association(NBAA). 

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having lunch with a true hero and a very prolific speaker, Bill Korner. 

Bill is the Chairman and CEO of Flight Reach, Inc., but more on that later. Bill spent 5 years on active duty with the US Army and Air Force along with many years serving in the Reserve and Air National Guard. He flew 204 combat missions in Viet Nam and was shot down on more than one occasion avoiding capture by the N. Vietnamese. Bill was one of the most highly decorated pilots in Viet Nam receiving: 2 silver stars, 2 distinguished flying crosses, 2 Bronze stars, 14 air medals, Army and Air Force commendation medal, Vietnamese cross of gallantry, and the Vietnamese medal of honor. Bill is also the recipient of the Air Force’s Daedalian Orville Wright achievement award being the leading aviator in a competition of over 2000 Air Force pilots. His combined flying and academic scores were the highest ever obtained at that time in history.

Bill was recalled to fly in Desert Storm and flew 25 combat missions. He is also a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor which includes 6 former Presidents. If that is not enough Bill played football for Penn State.

As mentioned earlier Bill heads up Flight Research (FR). FR deals with upset recovery in GA airplanes and corporate jets. This is not the same as flying aerobatics, but deals with recovery of an airplane that has gone wrong. The course lasts 3 days including ground school and 2 flights. 

Bill talked about several airline crashes and what went wrong. The biggest problem is automation in the cockpit and Pilots forgetting, or not being trained correctly, how to recover from a stall or being to fly the plane by hand if the magic goes out. I have always stated that the best airline pilots I have flown with also own a GA airplane. They keep their hand flying skills sharp.

One of the biggest problem facing airline crashes are stalls. When a plane is stalling for some reason the pilots are pulling back on the yolk or side stick. In the Colgan crash near Buffalo, NY the Captain applied full power but kept pulling the yolk back which led to a stall spin crash. In a plane with a yolk both yolks are coordinated. If you pull back on one yolk, both go back. In the Airbus with side sticks this is not the case. One pilot does not know what the other is doing. Air France 447 was an example of this. The pitot tubes froze for some reason, and an improper airspeed was given to the crew. The FO in the right seat pulled back on the yolk while the FO in the left seat was pushing forward. The FO in the right seat pulled harder, and the plane stalled and crashed. I do not understand why the pilots did not look at the attitude indicator and GPS ground speed.

In all certified airplanes if you just let go of the yolk or side stick the plane will unload and fly again. This is one of several reasons that the Flight Research training is so important. They can do things in an airplane that can not be recreated in a Simulator. With the abundance of automation airline and even business pilots are not doing enough hand flying and have forgotten the basics of flying an airplane. A perfect example of this was the Asiana crash last summer in San Francisco. Auto pilot goes on around 300 above ground on take off and is disconnected in most cases around 800 feet above ground for landing. The rest of the time spent by the crew is monitoring the instruments. These pilots might have thousands of hours in their logbooks, but I would bet I have more time hand flying an airplane than most of these airline pilots.

Major corporations are sending their flight departments for training at Flight Research. I hope the airlines wake up and smell the roses to recreate this training also.