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No Idea What’s Going On

Retired Army Lt. Col. Lott Lawson inspects a Cessna 172 aircraft March 29 Kirkuk Air Base, Iraq. He is a site manager for the maintainence of Iraqi air force aircraft. As coalition forces continue reaching benchmarks to rebuild the Iraqi air force, this former U.S. Army helicopter has helped foreign pilots earn their wings throughout his military and civilian career during training programs in Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Eric Schloeffel)
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • A 78-year-old private pilot crashed his Cessna Citation due to an aerodynamic stall caused by his failure to maintain airspeed and control the aircraft manually.
  • The investigation highlighted the pilot's struggles with new navigation equipment, lack of proper single-pilot certification, and excessive reliance on autopilot, suggesting age-related cognitive decline or hazardous attitudes.
  • The article uses this accident to underscore the broader issue of aging pilots, their potential cognitive decline, diminishing manual flying skills, and the challenge of determining when they should retire from flying.
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No matter how successful we are in life, there’s always someone with a bigger house, a newer car and a better job to help keep us honest. That’s certainly true in aviation, where we’re often left to wonder how some pilots can get away with buying and flying more airplane than they can handle. You know the type.

Meanwhile, and as Bob Wright touches on in his article beginning on page 8, getting older in the cockpit can expose us to some basic realities about the aging process and how, while we might be physically fit for many activities, our cognitive abilities may not keep up, leaving us with slower reaction times and, often, difficulties in processing new information.

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