Flight Safety
Sponsored by:
Mental Gears - February 2010
Gene Benson
A friend of mine is a retired career firefighter and is still active in our local volunteer fire department. A recent conversation turned to the subject of how automobile accidents have changed over the years. He was explaining that arriving at the scene of a serious accident thirty years ago almost always involved extricating bodies. A good day was when the injured were extricated and whisked away to the hospital. Today it is common for the first responders to find the occupants standing outside their mangled cars talking on their cell phones.
What has changed? Automobile design has greatly changed and great emphasis has been put on “crashworthiness.” Cars now have airbags hidden just about everywhere and they are designed with “crumple zones” to absorb the energy of a crash before it reaches the occupants.
I know very little about the automobile industry or about safety initiatives to prevent accidents. I know that the inclusion of anti-lock brakes and stability control systems are helpful but I’m not sure how many accidents are being prevented by this technology. I also notice the lack of any significant safe driving campaigns. So perhaps the auto industry, the National Safety Council, and the Department of Transportation have given up on accident prevention and are concentrating on accident survivability. That’s outside my area of expertise so I can’t make an informed judgment as to whether or not that’s the best way to decrease highway deaths and serious injuries.
OK, I’m into the fourth paragraph and it’s time to make the connection with airplanes. How about crashworthiness in our airplanes? It’s not so good. Most of the general aviation airplanes flying today were designed in the 1950s or 1960s. Crashworthiness for airplanes back then was not a high priority just as it was not a high priority for the automakers. The newer airplane designs that include composite materials are probably more crashworthy than the older aluminum models but the accident reports still show lots of fatalities in the modern airplanes. Some advancement has been made in the installation of shoulder harnesses containing airbags. Of course there are still lots of airplanes flying around without any shoulder harnesses at all.
The advent of the ballistic parachute is perhaps the aviation equivalent of anti-lock brakes and stability control systems on cars. They are there to help mitigate the result of an operator (pilot or driver) failing to plan ahead for the conditions. The difference being that the ballistic parachute doesn’t prevent the accident but it can increase the probability of surviving.
So why haven’t airplanes become as crashworthy as cars? Let’s remember that the average general aviation accident probably happens at around twice the speed of the average automobile accident. That means lots of additional energy must be absorbed somewhere. Let’s also remember that most cars are built from steel and most airplanes are built from aluminum. An airplane designed to protect its occupants from, let’s say, a stall/spin accident at 500 feet AGL, would have a serious reduction in performance if it would fly at all.
So as pilots we have to shift our mental gears. It’s not a good idea to be driving in freezing rain, talking on the phone and eating lunch at the same time, but many drivers do it or something similar. Many of those careless drivers will have accidents and will survive thanks to the vehicles they are operating. We need to be in a different gear range when we get into the airplane. We need to plan the flight, make sure the airplane is safe, maintain our recent experience, and do whatever else we can to avoid having an accident. The airplanes we fly will probably not protect us from our carelessness as well as our cars so it is critical to take every possible precaution to avoid the accident.
Increments - January 2010
Gene Benson
How did Peyton Manning become one of the best quarterbacks of recent time? How did Jay Leno become one of the best comedians of the last 20 years? Did they wake up one morning and realize that talent had suddenly been bestowed upon them? Were they struck by lightening and somehow skill-enhanced? Probably not. They each started out with an interest and worked very hard to learn their craft and develop their abilities through study and practice. They improved in increments.
We can become better pilots by also improving in increments. As we begin a new year let’s all agree to be incrementally better pilots by the end of the year. Here’s a few ideas on how to accomplish that goal.
If not already participating, enroll in the FAA Wings Pilot Proficiency Program and complete a phase. If already enrolled, complete the next level, advanced or master, as appropriate.
Fly for at least one and a half hours with an instructor you have never flown with before. Ask around to get recommendations from other pilots. No matter how much we might like “our” instructor or how loyal we might be to him/her, there is always something to be learned from a different perspective. This time can be used as part of the Wings program.
Participate in a recurrent ground school course. There are some online and, as a shameless plug, I offer one as a live webinar event. Recurrent ground school is different than initial ground school in that the emphasis can be on information that is practical rather than on what is needed to pass the exam.
Read over the handbook for the kind of airplane that you usually fly. Pay particular attention to the section on systems operation. Many accidents and incidents could be avoided if the pilot had understood more about how the systems function.
Resolve to take four additional online courses. That’s only one every three months. Plenty are available for free. FAAsafety.gov has an ever increasing selection (I just authored the new “Aeronautical Decision Making” course which is a core requirement for the Wings program.) The AOPA Air Safety Foundation has a selection of very good free courses and you don’t have to be a member to use them. My website also has some free courses.
Read one additional aviation magazine each month. Even articles that aren’t intended to be safety related frequently have content that produces an “Oh yeah!” moment.
These are just a few ideas but it is a starting point. Chose one, or two, or all, or come up with some ideas of your own. We won’t become super pilots overnight but we can move incrementally toward that goal.
.gif)