Highway vs. Aviation Safety
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the nation’s highways are safer than in years past. Assuming you’re in a car, that is. Apparently if you’re driving a truck or walking, somehow the trend is going in the wrong direction. Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — The number of people killed on U.S. highways fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2010, marking the longest streak of declines since records began in 1899. Fatalities dropped 2.9 percent to 32,885, the lowest since 1949, the Washington-based National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said today in an e-mailed statement. Deaths of motorcyclists, pedestrians and large-truck occupants increased. A Los Angeles Times article quotes the NHTSA as...
Read MoreThe Checklist
Ah, the checklist. If Shakespeare was a pilot, he’d have written an ode to it. Once confined to the world of aviation, formal checklist discipline is now common in hospitals, assembly lines, product design, maintenance, and just about any other instance where loss of essential time, money, or bodily function can result from improper procedures or forgotten items. Some pilots can’t imagine flying without one. Like a child wandering the yard without their favorite blanket, they’d quite literally be lost without that laminated piece of paper guiding them through each phase of flight. I’ve seen pilots who seemed to enjoy using the checklist more than the actual flying. Others have a difficult time understanding why a written list is needed...
Read MoreNew Phraseology During Runway Construction
Clear communication is important in virtually every aspect of life. From business deals to formal schooling to everyday interaction with friends and family, life flows a lot smoother when communication is clear and concise. This holds especially true in aviation. Unfortunately we already have many things going against us in the cockpit when it comes to clear communication with air traffic controllers. The environment is loud, radio transmissions are often stepped on, and standard phraseology is not always utilized. Controllers are sometimes guilty of this last item, but in my experience it’s far more often the pilots who are at fault. I could write for days about that one. Even when standard phraseology is used, communication can remain unclear. ...
Read MoreAn Accident Waiting to Happen. Again.
Air Facts contributor John Zimmerman recently wrote about watching a pilot massively overload an aircraft and then proceed to takeoff from a short runway on a hot day, barely avoiding disaster. He then asks how we should respond when an aviator is witnessed performing a Stupid Pilot Trick. Do we confront them? Call the FAA? Shrug and walk away? What is our responsibility, and when are we morally obligated to get involved? It’s a difficult question to answer, especially for those of us who are not confrontational by nature. It’s something I’ve been struggling with lately, as Zimmerman’s article brought to mind a mind-blowing encounter I had with a Darwin Award candidate while conducing some commercial checkride prep with a student at a...
Read MoreReno Air Race Crash
Some remarkable photographs have emerged from last Friday’s tragedy at National Championship Air Races. Several friends of mine were at the event, some as competitors (though none in the Unlimited category) and others as spectators. Between phone calls, texts, Facebook posts, tweets, photos, and video, I’ve received so many accounts of the crash that I almost feel like I was there. I wasn’t, of course, and I’m glad of that now. I’d imagine there’s going to be some post-traumatic stress for the air race community to deal with once things settle down. Let me start off by saying that I don’t know what caused the accident, nor does anyone else with absolute certainty. The good news is that the NTSB will puzzle this thing...
Read MoreIs Flying Safe?
I receive a wide variety of aviation-related questions from non-pilots such as passengers, students, friends, family, others. Over the years I’ve realized that a fair percentage of them are really asking the same thing: whether or not flying is “safe”, especially as it concerns general aviation. Oh, not many people come right out and ask it directly. I imagine that’s because few folks wish to posit a question which might be perceived as impudent, especially on a sensitive topic at which they are at a disadvantage. It’s a respect thing. But the question is there, hanging in the midair like a model aircraft suspended from the ceiling. For example, rather than come right out and ask if flying is safe, I’ve seen the inquiry...
Read MoreAutomation’s Effect on Pilot Skill
The Associated Press seems to have discovered what instructors across the country already know: persistent exposure to high-levels of automation can lead to loss of basic flying skill. A draft FAA study found pilots sometimes “abdicate too much responsibility to automated systems.” Because these systems are so integrated in today’s planes, one malfunctioning piece of equipment or a single bad computer instruction can suddenly cascade into a series of other failures, unnerving pilots who have been trained to rely on the equipment. The study examined 46 accidents and major incidents, 734 voluntary reports by pilots and others as well as data from more than 9,000 flights in which a safety official rides in the cockpit to observe...
Read MoreTo Brief or Not to Brief
One of the dirty little secrets about aviation is that you can spend as much time preparing for a flight as you do actually flying. This is not always the case, of course. It depends on many factors. What you’re flying, how far you’re going, and so on. But the point is, preflight activities are vital to safety in the skies. The law — 14 CFR 91.103, specifically — requires pilots to obtain “all available information” about a flight before departure. That’s a pretty broad mandate, especially in the Information Age. But it makes sense, because while aviation may be a relatively safe activity, it’s not terribly forgiving of carelessness. For a typical flight, “all available information” includes...
Read MoreSNA Blames Runway Incursions on “Small Planes”
It never ceases to amaze me how often folks within the aviation industry use “small planes” as a catch-all scapegoat and get by without being challenged. Whether it’s FAA funding, airline delays, noise issues, pollution, ATC staffing levels, or the long lines at the McDonald’s in the terminal, the finger always gets pointed at the same place: it’s those small airplanes. Yes, guilty as charged. We’re also responsible the Southern California fires, the Landis doping scandal, and the overabundance of Pottery Barn catalogs in your mailbox. No one will call them on it, even when the very statistics they espouse to support their thesis clearly suggest the problem lies elsewhere. The latest example comes from my home base, John...
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