My IFR Check Ride From Hell and Elderly Abuse

              My Aviation IFR Check Ride from Hell

   or.. "Why I failed my “Instrument Flight Rules” Flight Exam."

 

“This was originally published for pilots, but has been re-written with terms defined for the General Public with a PS.”

 

This begins with a new Maintenance officer at Sky Ranch Airport operated my the East Tennessee Pilots Association who would remove planes from active status without considering planned flights or check rides, or of informing pilots of such canceled active status.
 

I arrived at the Sky Ranch Airport early am to preflight before my trip to MOR (the Morristown Airport) to take my IFR Practical, and found that my reserved aircraft N45220 had been removed from active status and placed in Maintenance without informing me. However suspecting that some chicanery might be attempted to prevent me from taking my check ride, I had reserved another aircraft at another airport where such childish antics did not occur. But I still had to drive to another city to acquire the airplane. By the time I was through with my Orals (oral examination) I had already been awake for 14 hours. I knew this would be a problem, but I was determined to give the Practical a“good old country try”.

 

The Plane I had reserved was new to me with radios I had never used. My Examiner, the infamous Evelyn Bryan Johnson aka “Mama Bird” and I sat at the end of the runway in Morristown, Tennessee patently waiting for “clearance” for Takeoff, and I finally called TYS (the controlling Airport in Alcoa, TN) a second time for our clearence. TYS seemed extremely busy but eventually responded with my clearance.
 

I took off, made a hard left turn toward the Snowbird VOR, and “got under the Hood”as they say, as though I was flying in the clouds unable to see out of the airplane, (The Hood, in this case was a pair of yellow plastic glasses called Foggols - glasses which block your vision in all directions except down to the Instrument Panel) …and headed for my first intersection, which is a hard one to make and usually causes pilots to fail immediately. I found my air turbulent, with a strong Laps Rate, and Thermals, which when added to the 20 kt wind, made the small C-150 a hand full in IFR conditions.
 

Evelyn started putting some maps over my windows to keep me honest (so I can’t peek outside to cheat) and in doing so knocked my reading glasses off the dash never to be seen again during the flight. I normally carry a couple of magnifying glasses, but in my rush to load the airplane for the check ride, (after finding the tires were low, and the rental agency at airport telling me I would have to fill them myself with my own air pump.) …anyway, I neglected to load half my backups. So now I have difficulty reading Aeronautical Charts and Approach Plates (these are maps that help guide you properly along air routes and into airports). And I hadn’t made notes on paper as a backup for anticipitated difficulties in interpreting the charts. But I trudged on.
 

A right cross wind made intercepting my first Intersection difficult, but I nailed the Intersection, made a right turn and proceeded on the IR (instrument route) toward TYS to shoot my approaches to the airport. But the Foggles (to simulate flying in the clouds) began to cause me sever pain from being pressed against my head by my headphones.
 

By the time I reached TYS for my first approach I was in agony. My head was throbbing from the pain. I nailed my first approach to TYS landing, and did the required “missed approach”, and was told I was number 12 for my second approach, which had me flying required turns over half of East Tennessee to put distance between me and the other planes. I had never been more than number 3 in line before this.
 

One of the other pilot’s radios was so loud and distorted that it would rattle me every time he transmitted. For the first time since I had began flight training I began having communication problems with the controller. He was under unusual pressure himself because of the large number of planes attempting to land. Exhaustion, pain and not willing to quit, I asked the controller to confirm my heading for the second missed approach and Evelyn snapped at me. I had started to make a wrong turn. I was devastated. This is how mid-air collisions occur.
 

After completing my second approach and missed approach, I got it together for my next airport, which had an NDB Approach (Non Directional Beacon. This is a beacon that transmits in all directions equally and helps you hone in on an Airport Approach). This approach had to be done “partial panel”. This means that some of my Instruments were blocked out and cannot be used. (Partial panel is a training exercise we all have to learn for safety.) But when I came around for the Hold (a circling pattern used to separate aircraft for landing) and was given a clearance time to land, I realized I didn’t have my timer. I wrote down my times and proceeded to fly the Hold by counting time in my head. My timing was correct, but I flew my pattern on the wrong side of the NDB. I had never made a mistake like this.
 

By the time I was ready to land, I could barely interpret headings. I had never been in such pain, and I knew I had failed my practical. I apologized to Evelyn for flying so badly, and explained the pain I was having because of the Foggles. Evelyn told me that she knew something was wrong because I was a much better pilot than how I was flying, and that I should have said something about the pain.
 

“We could have taken a break and worked something out.” I could hear the disappointment in her voice. I explained that I didn’t know I could talk to her during the Exam. She told me that except for the “holding error” off the NDB, the flying was good, but my interpretation of communication was bad.
 

Trying to fly in my exhausted and painful state was a bad decision and it has taught me a lesson I will never forget. My only regret from the experience is feeling like I let down my Instructor by failing the Practical. That counts against “him”, and he is an excellent Instructor. By the way, I ordered a different kind of Foggles for my next attempt, and passed my Instrument Rating with no problems. Evelyn singed me off in my Log Book with the most valuable signature I will ever have! She was later inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame where I announced a quote that exemplifies her life. “What you are is Gods gift to you. What you make of yourself is your gift to God.”
 

 

In the years to follow, Miss Evelyn “as I called her” and I would become close friends as she did with most everyone in her life. One afternoon she fell beside her car after arriving home and had to crawl into her house to a phone for help when her cell phone failed to work. No one was checking on her! I was furious! If I knew an elderly person was living in my neighborhood, “let alone one of the most famous people in aviation,” I would check on them constantly! What is the matter with people? Evelyn decided it was time to move into a “Limited Care Facility” in Jefferson City which is not far from the Morristown Airport where she was Airport Manager. Then after an automobile accident on her way home from church, which was due to light sensitivity from Glycoma, Evelyn lost one of her legs in surgery. This is when Ken became her chauffeur, and would deliver her to the Morristown Airport where she remained the Airport Manager.
 

Some of her earlier students and I began to meet monthly and have a luncheon with Miss Evelyn at a local restaurant. But when she started having some dementia, they didn’t want to be around her. And soon after that, Ken stopped taking her to the Airport for the same reason. I began visiting Evelyn once or twice a week. Some of the staff and supervisors began to complain to me that… “It is a shame that know one ever visits Evelyn, given who she is”.
 

I began to find some things around Evelyn not being taken care of, so I asked the staff about getting Evelyn a “Care Giver”. The supervisor snapped at me… “We are her Care Givers!”

“OH Boy! I’ve had it Now!” 
 

I tried to encourage some of “The 99’s” (a women’s flying group she was a part of) to visit Evelyn, but was never successful.
 

Next I called a local Talk Radio station who knew me “on the air” and asked for people that knew Evelyn to please visit with her “at the care facilitie’s request” and stimulate her mind with conversation. I explained that all our elderly in care facilities need visitors to stimulate them or they will drift off into Dementia.
 

“You don’t have to know someone, just volunteer!”
 

The talk show host began to argue with me that… “You can’t tell people to visit Care Facilities because these visitors will steal from them!” And then they hung up on me. This conversation had gone out over five states. I was shocked! I trusted these guys to be better then our local media.
 

Later I began to find Evelyn in deplorable condition when I came to visit her at lunchtime.
 

“Jimmy, I can’t chew my food.”
 

“What’s the matter Miss Evelyn?”
 

“I can’t find my teeth.”
 

Where upon I would dash to her room and find her teeth under her bed, clean them, and bring them to her at the lunch table.
 

On other occasions I would find a dead hearing aid battery, knotted socks cutting off circulation in a foot, a TV remote not working. And once her bathroom had fecies all over the floor and toilet seat! …at Lunch Time! …when someone should have been checking on her much earlier! Evelyn’s step daughter“Sue” found some of the same problems on her visits.
 

The staff began to tell me that I could not visit Evelyn because she was sick. This is often used in care facilities when someone has been injured and they don’t want you to know it. I expressed my concerns to Ken, her chauffeur. And he said. “Don’t call them, and don’t use the front entrance. I don’t. Use the side entrance.” That worked great for me too.
 

Evelyn only lasted a few more months. I believe she died of neglect. But she was… 102 years old. I didn’t go to her Funeral. I’m sure it was a Big One, full of stories of Evelyn’s aviation days. But I didn’t want to see anyone there, because I knew how she had spent her last days.
 

Why didn’t I go to Adult Protective Services? Because “they” had already failed to protect my elderly neighbor Helen Burleson from “her”neighbors, and from her own family. But that’s another story… 


 See below for other Abuses

 

Jim