<p>Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.</p>


Editor-in-Chief

Beechcraft King Air 200, 250, and 260 Series

Matt Thurber

<p>Ben Taber has been racking up flying hours—more than 12,000 in Beechcraft King Air 200s and 20,000 total—as a charter pilot for Dreamline Aviation, a charter operator headquartered at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. Taber is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and flies mostly from San Carlos Airport, and over the years, he has developed a reputation as a mentor to up-and-coming pilots. Part of that mentoring includes helping new (and old) pilots understand not only how to fly safely, but also what makes a good pilot a professional. If anyone could be called “old school,” it’s Taber, who still flies with paper charts. Countless pilots that he has mentored might recall him stressing the need to know how to navigate without GPS, what exactly is going on during controller handoffs, or the nuances of a particular regulation. And as they move on to careers in business aviation and with airlines, hopefully, they’ll remember the lessons Taber taught them and pass them on to the new pilots they encounter.</p>
<h2>How is Dreamline Aviation Doing?</h2>
<p>We're humming along; we’re just busy as can be. We need a couple more King Airs. We’re losing [pilots] to the majors [airlines] on a pretty good clip. It’s a fun airplane to teach, and [we have] a mentorship program where we pick up copilots at around 400 hours. We keep them for a couple of years and then off they go to bigger things, either with us or with someone else.</p>
<h2>How did you get started in aviation?</h2>
<p>I was in an entirely different industry working in Alaska where the ratio of men to women, then as now, is about 10 to 1. And so my buddy had nothing to do one fall and signed up for private pilot ground school at the community college. And I'm thinking, college—there's gotta be girls in college. I'll sign up too. There weren’t. I got my private up there and then discovered the incredibly generous state of Alaska student loan program. It got me through all my ratings except my ATP. [After meeting my future wife], we came down here [to the Bay Area]. I had a whopping 450 hours in my logbook. There was an ad in the paper at Gnoss Field [for a flight instructor]. They wanted 500 hours, and I applied anyway. I think I did 800 hours of instruction given in one year, which qualified me for Part 135 [charter].</p>
<h2>Did the school give you any guidance, or did they just turn you loose?</h2>
<p>Absolutely not. It was the wild west. That's where I learned not to do BFRs [now flight reviews]. In those days, the feds [FAA] encouraged us, or maybe they do now, to interview the applicant and try to get [an idea] on what kind of flying they had been doing, kind of focus on that area. This older gentleman says, “I just stay right here, you know, local $100 hamburger flights. I don’t get anywhere, I don't talk to a tower."</p>
<h2>What happened after you signed off his BFR?</h2>
<p>He finds this 20-year-old girl, blasts off to LA, and [chalks up] four violations one day after [we flew together]. Within the next 48 hours, the feds are knocking at my door. So afterward, I said, “Okay, we're done with the BFR thing.” Another guy showed up with an airplane which appeared to have been painted with house paint and reeked of aviation gasoline. Yeah. Okay. No. Sorry. Gotta draw the line somewhere.</p>
<h2>Did you learn a lot when teaching?</h2>
<p>I remember very distinctly standing up in front of a ground school trying to teach an NDB intercept with a fixed compass card, realizing that I had no idea what I was talking about. Oh, crack the books now. Subsequently, I really enjoy the teaching part of what I do. It's just great to have some kid come in right out of blasting through the basics, commercial, multi, instrument and spin them up to 200, 300 knots and get them [using] navigation systems, talking on the radio, customer service, all kinds of subtleties that they just don't cover in flight school.</p>
<h2>You seem to have a thing for knowing the airplane and equipment and how air traffic control (ATC) works, which are of course what every pilot needs to know.</h2>
<p>(Taber recently published a YouTube video explaining ATC concepts.)</p>
<p>Weirdly, nobody teaches radio [properly], not [the big schools]. And that's why I did that video—to say, "All right, there's a reason that I'm grumpy about this stuff, and here's what it is."</p>
<h2>Is there a point where you felt like you gained an understanding of what it meant to be safe?</h2>
<p>It was kind of a maturing of your attitude. Well…I used to say, crunching an airplane helps.</p>
<h2>Tell us about that.</h2>
<p>Statistically, as I understand it, there's a pretty big accident spike right around 3,000 hours, which is right about where everyone thinks they have it all dialed in, and naturally, that's right about where I did it. I was going into a private strip, and I called down and I thought I'd asked every possible question that could be asked about this strip. How long is it? What are the obstacles? I asked everything except how wide it is.</p>
<h2>What were you flying?</h2>
<p>A [Cessna] 414, brand-new RAM conversion. My original idea was to do a low pass check, and I'd come around. But as I got [close], it was like a cowboy party. Everyone's flying any way. And there was a 310 right ahead of me. And so he's already on base and I watched him land, and it looked pretty normal.</p>
<p>What I didn't perceive from my position on downwind was his tip tanks were over the edge of the pavement. The 414 has a pretty wide wheel track, and it turns out that the soil on either side of the very narrow runway was sort of like pumice or talcum powder, super soft, and the runway was full of potholes. I bounced one wheel off the runway, got sucked down into the talcum powder, and that was it for the [landing gear] trunnion, which took out the spar.</p>
<p>To add insult to injury, the insurance company said to the owner, "Hey, no problem, go there, take the wings off, we'll fix it." [The owner] said, “I got it” [and signed papers to take over the rebuild]. So he hires a helicopter to sling it out of there, and they didn't rig it quite right.</p>
<p>Lawn dart! Pow! He rebuilt it, ultimately.&nbsp;</p>
<p>I've had a few things over the years that have got my attention but I think where the big safety focus…when I've had these proteges coming through, I'm just preaching safety, comfort, economy over and over and over again. Just safety first and then worry about the Hobbs meter and who is happy, but make the safe choice.</p>
<p>And by the way, on this exact point, I took a seminar from a couple of Coast Guard helicopter pilots a few weeks ago and the senior guy said, look, we're talking about CRM [crew resource management]. He says, “Our thing is whenever there's a disagreement as to a course of action, we just default to whatever the most conservative choice is and then discuss it later.”</p>
<h2>That's an interesting concept.</h2>
<p>Yeah, because there's a modulating influence, which, by the way, is supported by insurance companies that have found that the mere presence of any pilot, just a person who's a pilot in the [other] seat of a single-pilot airplane will make the pilot more conservative; [they are] less likely to do something [stupid].</p>
<p>We have a kind of an apprenticeship program here. If they don't like something, I encourage them to pipe up and say so.</p>
<h2>Fundamentally, what does safety mean to you?</h2>
<p>For starters, make sure you can use the airplane again. Listen to the voice if it says, “This is a bad idea.” Don't be afraid to pipe up.</p>
<p>Whenever there's a power imbalance—I‘ve got some new kid with 400 hours and I got 20,000—there's a perception that he must know what he's doing; therefore, I'm not gonna worry about it.</p>
<p>No, no, no, it’s a team effort here. And I can be just as stupid as you can. So don’t assume and if you're feeling weird, you raise your hand.</p>
<h2>Is there a big difference between a safety-focused company like Dreamline and others you’ve flown for?</h2>
<p>This is the first company I've ever worked for [where] they didn't flog you for being one-tenth over on the Hobbs meter [that measures flight time]. They just would much rather we went point four over and came back in one piece and, more importantly, didn't freak out the client. Because what I'm teaching is three things: safety, comfort, and economy. The comfort thing—if you save one-tenth on the Hobbs and beat up the clients, they're not coming back.</p>
<p>That's the company’s [mantra]. But I believe it, and it makes total sense. Because I'm not going to worry about the Hobbs meter unless the other two are satisfied. I'll try to fly efficiently and all that good stuff. But, for example, King Air 200s are happiest at the 19,000- to 22,000-foot band. But if we're sitting there at 21,000 getting beat up, I'll try 23,000 and if that won’t work I'll try 25,000, going into an increased headwind. I don't care; I'm trying to give [the customer] a good ride.</p>
<p>My ideal flight is one in which a client never knew they were in an airplane. They're just doing their thing, commuting, yakking, whatever; just make it smooth and invisible.</p>
<p>I just learned a new term a couple of weeks ago. It's “fly the table.” Watch your drink, and don't fly at a deck attitude that's going to make that drink move. Just because you can, don’t [climb steeply] if it means a steep deck angle.</p>
<h2>At Dreamline, do young pilots stick around?</h2>
<p>It depends on what their long-term aspiration is. Some like charter.</p>
<p>Personally, I couldn't fly the skeds [airlines]. It's just not me, which is why I've been doing this for so long. But for other people, that's their goal, and if we can help them, great.</p>
<h2>Do you feel good about imparting some wisdom to them?</h2>
<p>I hate to use this word because it makes me sound ancient, which I probably am, but that's my legacy, right? I derive my pleasure from their success.</p>
<h2>Do you get involved when a young new pilot comes on board, helping get them up to speed?</h2>
<p>Totally. I actually find them. That's the tricky part, to find the right mix of personality and talent and aptitude.</p>
<h2>How do you find them?</h2>
<p>I have a network of 24 people that [I’ve flown with]. I have an email group, [and] whenever I'm looking, my very first thing is I blast out to those people. They all know what I'm looking for, having already been there. It's been pretty successful.</p>
<h2>What are you seeing amongst the young up-and-coming pilots? Are they good, and do they care about flying?</h2>
<p>On the flying side, they’ve got all their tickets and are usually pretty decent. But what's scary is the state of ground instruction and regulatory knowledge. It is abysmal.</p>
<p>I have a little quiz that I used to use as a screen for new hires. I have them take that just for fun, it's like basic commercial, multi-engine, instrument stuff. And wow! They're missing a lot.</p>
<h2>Give an example.</h2>
<p>They couldn’t decode an FD [winds aloft forecast].&nbsp;</p>
<p>My favorite is 91.175 on how low you can go [on an instrument approach] when you see the approach lights. Fifty percent will say 100 feet below DA [decision altitude] when it's 100 feet above [touchdown zone elevation]. That's one people miss constantly. Also, something as stupid as light gun signals.</p>
<p>I do this too, flashcards for airport signage. The really bad one, the one that says you're on a runway, about half the people miss that one. I'm thinking, "You really ought to know this."</p>
<p>I'm doing recurrents [flight checks of other pilots]. Understanding the controller's perspective on a traffic call because, of course, they can't see which way your nose is pointing. [The traffic pointed out by the controller], it's two o'clock your track, not where your nose is. Three-quarters of people miss that one. Okay, that's scary.</p>
<h2>You're big on avionics knowledge and navigation and having backups.</h2>
<p>In general, way back when the FAA controlled the human-machine interface with avionics…it was the day when you could show me how to start it and I can fly any airplane with Narco [or King or Collins or Honeywell avionics]. We know how that works. Now you’ve got to take a graduate course in engineering to learn each new system, and they're each different. [The FAA] decided not to control that interface anymore. And so [it] went off on a different path.</p>
<p>I see guys that are so wrapped up in G1000 [avionics] on a blue sky day with a million bug smashers flying, they’re staring at some screen instead of looking for traffic.</p>
<h2>What about iPads in the cockpit?</h2>
<p>They’re a handy tool, but people do get a little wrapped up in them. Jeppesen sent me an email about a year ago saying, “Make a case for continuing to use paper [charts].” I was giving a guy a [flight] check. His iPad locked up. He couldn't unlock it, it overheats, it needs [a charge].</p>
<p>Most importantly, I like to look at old next to new [comparing the old chart with the new one], if it's somewhere I go a lot. What's the change?</p>
<h2>What's your most important wisdom for young pilots?</h2>
<p>To have a safe, healthy, and successful career, it’s a combination of listening to your inner voice and not being afraid to speak up, without regard to whatever power imbalance exists in a cockpit. It's a team effort and nobody's foolproof.</p>
<p>If you're flying with someone who thinks that they are foolproof, I would not want to be there anymore. I've met two of these in my life, people who believe there's nothing else to be learned. They're unteachable. Talk about a dangerous attitude.</p>
<p>I’m pushing 40 years [flying], and I'm still learning.</p>


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