C. Donald Bateman, big damn hero, passed away on Sunday. He was 91.
Most people outside of a small specialized circle have probably never heard of him, but:
…Bateman is credited by industry experts as having saved more lives than anyone in aviation history.
Back in the day, there was a huge problem with airplanes flying into the ground. The industry refers to this as “controlled flight into terrain” (CFIT). Two high profile examples of this were Southern Airways Flight 932 (the Marshall University crash) and TWA Flight 514 (the Mount Weather crash).
Don Bateman developed the Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) which warns pilots when they’re getting too close to the ground.
Those early systems used a radar altimeter to track how high the plane was above the ground. It helped a lot, but it wasn’t perfect: the GPWS had a “blind spot” looking forward, and could also be fooled if the plane was configured for landing.
So Don Bateman went on to develop the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) which ties into GPS and a terrain database. EGPWS gives even more warning.
There’s a great story about the early development of EGPWS: Mr. Bateman found out that, after the Soviet Union had fallen apart, there was a huge terrain database that the Soviets had built up available for sale on the black market. So he went to his superiors at Honeywell and convinced them to buy the database, and the early EGPWS were built on that.
Today, what the FAA calls “terrain awareness and warning systems” (TAWS) are required on “all U.S. registered turbine-powered airplanes with six or more passenger seats (exclusive of pilot and copilot seating)”.
Bateman assembled a small team to work exclusively on flight safety systems — over the years, typically fewer than 10 people.
Bob Champion, who came to manage the team for Bateman, said “he looked for innovators who could drive his ideas. He liked people who disagreed and argued so we’d have a good debate about how to solve a problem.”
He said Bateman called it a “team of mavericks.”
Bateman’s team devised critical safety additions, including:
- The Runway Awareness and Advisory System, which alerts pilots taxiing on the ground when they are approaching a runway. It also tells pilots coming in to land if they are not aligned with the runway.
- The glide slope alert system, which warns pilots if their approach is excessively low or high.
- The Runway Overrun Awareness and Alerting System, which tells pilots if they’re coming in too long or too hard and in danger of overshooting.
- The Roll Recovery System, which detects an excessive bank angle and tells the pilot whether to roll left or roll right to prevent the plane rolling over.
I am thinking that it was due to his work that we were treated to the cockpit voice repeating “pull up, pull up, pull up” during the movie Sully, starring Tom Hanks, which was about the so called Miracle on the Hudson.
I watched the movie a couple of times, and that was something that stood out each time. The warning to the pilots to pull up due to the approaching ground or other obstacle. I have watched a couple of different landings of large aircraft such as MD 80’s and such, via cockpit videos, on YouTube, and was impressed with how both professional they are and how calm and routine like they are.
I was with my wife leaving Lansing to go to Tampa one winter, probably in around 2005, when the MD 80 that we were on was still climbing and we lost the engine that my wife and I were seated over, on the left side. It honestly sounded like someone had fired a shotgun right outside the window. It scared a lot of people on the plane, my wife included. The pilot came on the intercom and calmly told us that we were turning around and heading back to Lansing.
Of course, flight attendants were leaning into my lap to see the engine, trying to ascertain if there was any flames or such, but it was just an engine that was not running, I guess, because it looked normal. Any other time, having a hot young female leaning on my lap, not trying to worry about how she touched me or vice versa would have been fun, my wife with me or not. But that time, I didn’t even think to try and help her maintain her position my holding her to keep her from falling over.
The pilot turned us around and landed us like no big deal, although he had to keep firing the one engine and letting up on it, to maintain a straight course. And upon landing the passengers all applauded and such. Departing the plane, the pilot and copilot stood at the doorway, and everyone thanked them profusely, and the pilot, a young man of maybe 30, looked like he wanted to hide, he was almost embarrassed by the attention.
I saw him in the gate area on his cell phone apparently talking to his significant other, and telling her that he was going to be late getting home, so she should not wait dinner with the kids for him. Like just another day at the office.
A worker for the airline came by and saw me listening to the pilot, and told me that those guys who fly the big jets like that are the absolute best of the best, and the skills that he used to land the plane were really just another day at the office for him. And that he was a former military pilot, who flew from aircraft carriers. From what I have seen about carriers, that is the hardest job of any pilot, so I understand just how he was able to land our plane safely, but it still made the day of around 120 people and their circle of friends and family. What is amazing to me is that flying like they do is no different than driving a bus, running the same route back and forth in one day, then maybe doing a different route the next.
When I read about people who die, and the things that they have done with their lives that have had such a huge impact on the rest of the world, and we never even knew about them, it makes me think that probably everyone has something in their lives that someway, somehow they touched more people than they ever could imagine, even if only through a third person.
I can tell you one thing for certain. It is the official beginning of summer. Not due to the passing of Memorial Day, but due to the fact that my wife convinced me to finally shave all of the hair from my head for the year. During the colder months, I resist doing so, as it makes a difference. But my wife says when it gets too long, I begin to resemble Bozo the Clown. She doesn’t say so, but now I resemble Mr. Clean, except for the muscles.