by Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Stuff happens. Despite our best, most concientious plans, once we get airborne things can change. Weather forecasts turn to lies, passengers change destinations and a well-maintained aircraft can break. It can get lonely up there.

When the landing gear fails to extend, do we calmly, professionally run the manual-extension checklist and fly the airplane to a safe, otherwise-uneventful landing that doesn’t make the evening news? When one of our two engines fails, do we secure the dead engine and safely divert to the nearest suitable runway? When our single engine fails, do we manage our kinetic energy to arrive over a farmer’s field at the key point…