Checkride Pink Slips

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Saturday, May 06, 2023 at 07:40 PM ET

Verified

Weather hazards from our winds-aloft chart to the bottom left are shown here.

Key Takeaways:

The author disputes the implication that a pilot's history of checkride disapprovals indicates incompetence or contributes to an accident, arguing that such incidents are common and can signify persistence.
He suggests that highlighting past failures is unfair, potentially discouraging to other pilots, and that evaluations should focus solely on ascertainable accident factors.
The magazine's editor clarifies that the NTSB, not the magazine, dedicated a significant portion of its report to the pilot's record, and also noted the aircraft was over-gross and moderate-to-heavy icing was probable.

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Thank you for Aviation Safety magazine. It’s exceptional. But I do have an issue with April’s Accident Probe entry, “Exceeding Capabilities.”

As you know, aircraft certified for flight into known icing conditions, both single pilot and crew-piloted, have succumbed to in-flight icing. More recently, as you also know, an aeromedical operation flying single- and crew-piloted King Air were lost to what appears to be icing-related accidents. By all accounts, those were professional pilots in good standing.