Bailing Out Sucks - Preflight briefing for Flt 6 of Hakan's Lancair

This was my favorite part of the first flight of Håkan's new flap system. It's one thing to properly evaluate the risks of a program, another to be able to communicate it, quite another to discuss it effectively before flying the test point.
Some of the most frustrating experiences in flight test came after the airplane was broken and the owner felt like he hadn't agreed to the risks that had been taken. If I blew it in the cockpit that's one thing. But not communicating what we were getting ready to do and why when the airspeed and altitude is zero is a whole other level of blowing it.
Since then I have tried to do a better job with these tough conversations, then record them, and then record flight. These permanent records do wonders for limiting the space for the argument over the broken airplane parts.
If there was any one thing I wish could be taught about flight test it's here in this space. I have been trained to see and quantify risk, but the real art is in effectively communicating the risk to the stakeholders at the appropriate time.
airplanes are cool
Full video of the flight here: • So Many Tufts - Stall ...
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