Create an “It Ain’t Gonna Happen to Me” List

Well said, Robert. For the VFR guy who inadvertently flies into IMC, a controlled 180 back to a known area of VMC is definitely the best way to extricate himself from that high risk situation. The problem comes when VFR pilots attempt such a 180 in IMC after months, if not years, since their last actual time "under the hood".

For that reason I have long advocated that the mandatory equipment list for certified VFR aircraft and complex homebuilts should include a functioning heading hold autopilot and heading bug. Such an equipment upgrade, while somewhat costly, makes it far easier to safely reverse direction without loss of control (LOC) —another far too common ending for VFRs who stumble into IMC.

Certainly there must be other examples where additional equipment and/or better currency/training might make the difference between high risk accident avoidance and becoming an accident statistic.

Flying with a slaved heading indicator or HSI makes it much harder to get lost than the pilot who uses a heading indicator with precession errors that must be managed every 15 minutes or so. A fuel totalizer provides much more relevant information on fuel status than those cheap, error prone $20 automotive style gas gauges we've been flying behind since the 1940s. Does it seem reasonable to anybody that a $350.000 182 has pair of crappy gs gauges? Doesn't having a totalizer help a pilot avoid running out of gas? Vortex generator kits help reduce both the stall speed and Vmc of light twins, so why aren't the installed as mandatory equipment at the factory? In all of these cases, why would manufacturers willingly exclude equipment that can be demonstrated to improve our collective safety?

Of course there is always the human factors/pilot error side of the equation. All the bells and whistles in the world won't prevent a poorly trained sky jockey from crashing into a mountain, or descending below approach minimums. If you fly once a week you're more likely to be safer than if you fly once a month, once a season or, God forbid, once a year. And don't forget this aviation axiom: "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots." Clearly, the choice is ours.

Just as Cirrus' "blue button" immediately returns the aircraft to level flight and holds heading, the above described ideas can demonstrably be proven to save lives every year, all around the world.

So this all boils down to whether we think making planes about $5000 cheaper is a better deal than flying more often and adding equipment proven to help mitigate against high risk situations. We choose which airplane we buy or rent, so we decide with our pocketbooks how much we are willing to pay for the potential benefits of enhanced safety. What we do with or without those benefits makes the difference between a safe flight, or a debris field off the approach end of the runway.

This pilot chooses safety, at almost any price. (Sorry, I stole that idea from F. Lee Bailey.)When I can no longer afford to maximize my flying safety, I'll quit and take up golf instead.

Douglas M
Surrey, British Columbia Canada