78 SA Flyer Magazine

Many aspects of ying

under Visual Flight Rules

(VFR) require pilots

to exercise discretion

and airmanship. So the

question arises: are

you a chef, or merely a

cook, when it comes to

a chef?

Imagine a

who nevertheless is a great cook, because

she meticulously follows the recipes

and almost every meal is a success.

Occasionally she may become a little

ustered and proffer a spoon before her

hubby, asking, “Taste this for me. Is it ok?”

When this happens, supper is likely to be

bland and uninteresting, or may even be

recipe has an instruction along the lines

of, “Season to taste.” Not knowing exactly

how much seasoning this will require, Wifey

searches her books, invokes Google and

even asks some of her trusted friends, but

nowhere can she nd a denitive answer.

Every piece of information she nds is

vague or even ridiculous.

This makes her feel insecure. The

result is that she probably does something

application of those hard-won qualities.

Not only are most of a chef’s dishes

exceptional, but they are also very unlikely

to fail. The chef is so used to exercising

the chef has the freedom to exercise

her own discretion and thereby excel.

Understanding the old adage that ‘with

essential ingredient that makes a chef

superior to a mere cook.

What’s this got to do with ying?

Last month I dealt with some of

the challenges of integrating VFR and

make his or her own choices and it is

emphasised that he or she carries full

choices. In other words, the regulations,

particularly at uncontrolled airelds,

require pilots to behave with the skill,

experience and judgement of a chef.

This is because there are no detailed

documents or recommendations on how

those choices must be made. There is

It’s concerning that many pilots,

like a cook out of his depth, become

ustered and confused when the rules

give them the freedom to make their own

choices. They too tend to make irrational

choices that are potentially disastrous.

Their brains scramble when an air trafc

controller prexes his call with “at your

own discretion ...” as they try to nd what

discretion means in their recipe books.

occasionally given freedom of choice,

they sometimes behave like headless

It is therefore essential that pilots

take the time and effort to understand

that when the regulations or even ATC

instructions give them the freedom to

exercise their own discretion, they now

carry full responsibility for doing the

right thing. The learned response that

decisions are written in a book or issued

in a command must fall away, and the

mind must now focus on decision-making

Be a chef in the cockpit.

new kind of pilot, which we will simply call

the drone pilot. Unlike the cook pilots and

the chef pilots, the drone pilot is a new

AOPA South Africa has therefore

followed in the footsteps of AOPA in the

USA and opened membership to drone

The drone pilot considers as

mundane many of the issues that stick-

growth of backyard-built aircraft modelled

on multi-copter drones, but which can

also carry a passenger and/or pilot.

hand tools and consisting of little more

than a few lengths of aluminium, a seat

and some electric motors and propellers

radio-controlled by model electronics

adapted to the purpose.

These designs mirror those of the

contender from China, the Ehang 184,

is now also in nal testing with human

The Volocopter and Ehang

passenger drones are mainly targeted

at commercial operations. On the other

hand, we are seeing many homebuilt

aircraft coming out of garages and home

workshops all over the world, such as

the USA, Germany and unexpected

countries such as the Philippines.

on JARUS, the Joint Authorities for

through our afliation with IAOPA. This

give us an up-front opportunity to protect

the interests of private drone pilots and