Clearing the Bar: How a Little Professionalism Goes a Long Way James Williams, FAA Safety Briefing Magazine Associate Editor
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"Maintaining basic standards of performance and professionalism in your flying can avoid many accidents. That’s not to say you shouldn’t aspire to the highest possible standard — of course you should! — but clearing the bar for minimum professional standards goes a long way.Given the professionalism focus for this issue of FAA Safety Briefing magazine, I decided to take a closer look at some of the ways an aviator’s decision to be rash could lead to a crash.
To investigate this question, I dove into the accident database. Specifically, I looked at general aviation aircraft accidents in the 2017–2019 timeframe involving certain key factors: inappropriately low altitude, aerobatic flight, lack of preparation/poor preflight, and improper certificate or operation issues... Overall, my search turned up 228 accidents. With 249 fatalities, about 62% of those onboard during the events were killed. Here’s the |
breakdown. (Note: the percentages exceed 100 since more than one factor was often involved. This is the percentage of total accidents that included the cited factor.)
Read the original article here. |
FAA Secret: Part 91 Pilots Set Their Safety Standard!
David St. George, Society of Aviation and Flight Educators
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"Some GA pilots have the mistaken impression that our Friendly Aviation Association regulates safety under part 91. Nope. For GA, the FAA only draws the line you should never cross and implores pilots to “make good choices.” They actively *promote* safety elsewhere. There is a lot of freedom here (and plenty of rope to hang yourself). If you just “follow the rules” under CFR 91, you may find yourself in hazardous conditions – the regs are not safety guidelines! Every pilot must specify their own personal margin above the FAA minimums.
The FAA only actively regulates safety for the airlines and charter, where paying customers are a risk. (And the safety contrast is pretty stunning in the graph below). Fun, freedom and flexibility rule GA |
flying; the 91 regs. are only “legal limits.” The FAA leaves most of the safety decisions to the pilot.
The first critical step for safety improvement is to understand the FAA minimums are definitely not “operating recommendations! Each individual pilot must choose their personal “safety margin” above the minimums to assure long life and happiness. This “margin” is also what every applicant must demonstrate on ACS flight tests to earn a certificate. Aviation has a lot of “freedom and fun” but the consequences of careless blundering are severe." See original article here. |
If only… The friends I’ve lost in airplane accidents
Mark Jarratt, Air Facts
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"I’ve lost sixteen friends and numerous acquaintances in aircraft mishaps. So far. Of my friends, four died in military training and combat, and all the rest in general aviation. Nearly all were highly skilled, with decades of experience in all sorts of aircraft and conditions. And I miss these good men and women every single day.Oddly enough, I don’t personally know anyone who survived a GA crash where others died. This might be due to the nature of flying in a part of the country with very challenging terrain and weather. But records show that terrible, life-altering injuries are frequent. A common trait among pilots is a highly developed sense of responsibility for protecting our passengers. I can’t begin to imagine the lifelong load of guilt a pilot must have to carry after killing or maiming people who trusted their lives to them.
So how do qualified, well-trained pilots lose their lives? My friends perished due to various causes: continued VFR into IMC, midair |
collision, severe turbulence in mountains, flight control malfunction, low altitude stall/spin, descending below approach minimums in IMC, flying up blind canyons, attempting a go-around from a one-way strip, and catastrophic engine failure. There was no hotdogging, buzzing, or overt recklessness involved. These all should’ve just been normal flights.
Come to think of it, I’ve only known one person who died in a traffic accident, and he was on a motorcycle. Anyone who tells you that flying is safer than driving is probably talking about airline flying. Either that or they’re misinformed. And in this instance at least, the old flying adage holds true: “… if you crash because of weather, your funeral will be held on a sunny day.” Read original article here. |
When Trainers Fill the Sky: Flying around areas of high training activity is inherently dicey. Here’s what you can do to cut down on your risk.
Jason Blair, Plane & Pilot
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"In some places, there are quite literally hundreds of aircraft in the air on good-weather days within a 20-30 mile radius of some of the busiest homes of flight training providers—and not all of these hubs are in Florida, I should add. Regardless of location, this many aircraft in a small area pose risks for them with each other and with transient aircraft trying to pass through the areas where training is
happening.The risk of flying in, near or around places busy with flight |
training aircraft is something that can be minimized and mitigated. Here are a few tips that might help you keep from getting too close to other aircraft in these areas by knowing where they are and how to navigate them."
Read the original article here. |
Buyer Beware: If an airplane is listed for sale cheap, there's always a reason.
Mike Busch
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"When George told me what his FSDO folks said, I was flabbergasted. I related the story of Oscar's annual and George's exchange with his FSDO folks to my own PMI, who pretty much confirmed what George's had said. Under FAA regulations, an IA's certification that an aircraft is airworthy is valid only until the ink dries on his logbook entry. No matter how unworthy an aircraft may subsequently be found
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to be, the FAA cannot take action against the IA who signed off the last annual unless it can prove that the aircraft was unairworthy at the time of the inspection - and that's often hard to do."
Read the original article here. |
Who's Really Flying Aircraft On U.S. Registry? DOT IG Finds Safety And Security Holes.
John Goglia, Forbes Transportation Contributor
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"FAA regulations allow only aircraft owned by US citizens or resident aliens to be registered in the US and bear US markings, the so-called N number used to identify US aircraft from foreign aircraft. However, there’s a loophole that allows foreign citizens to register their aircraft in the US and carry a US designator. The loophole allows aircraft to be owned by a trust and if the trust is a US trust with an American trustee, the actual owner (beneficiary) can be of any nationality in the world. This allows non-U.S. citizens to have their aircraft registered on FAA’s Registry and bear US markings. As long as the trust meets US citizenship requirements, the FAA does not look beyond that to citizenship of the beneficiaries (e.g. foreign owners).
According to the IG’s report, the FAA’s aircraft registry “ lacks accurate and complete information needed for aviation safety and security measures. The Registry lacks information on registered aircraft, owners—including non-U.S. citizens—and their compliance with |
FAA regulations.”
The Inspector General further found: “ incomplete registrations for about 5,600 aircraft, or 54 percent, owned under trusts for non-U.S. citizens. As a result, FAA has been unable to provide information on these aircraft to foreign authorities upon request when U.S. registered aircraft are involved in accidents or incidents in foreign countries, as required by the Convention on International Aviation.” "Certainly when terrorist threats are high enough to apparently warrant the extensive security measures recently revealed by NSA leaker Edward Snowden, it would seem that the FAA would want to have accurate information on the identities of all owners and operators of US-registered aircraft, especially those owned by non-citizen trusts." Read the original article here. |