Pitch and Power Habits

Richard Eastman

Tuesday, February 23, 2021 at 09:44 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I) is the leading cause of fatal general aviation accidents, with its prevalence remaining statistically unchanged over decades.
The article attributes the persistence of LOC-I to "bad habits" formed during initial flight training, particularly a fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between pitch and power in controlling aircraft performance.
Many pilots incorrectly equate power with speed and pitch with climb/descent, a habit reinforced by two-dimensional experiences like driving, rather than using pitch and power together to achieve specific performance outcomes.
The proposed solution is to reform *ab initio* flight training to instill pitch and power settings as the primary "keystone" habit for controlling aircraft performance, with the airspeed indicator serving only as confirmation.

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According to the NTSB, “between 2001 and 2011, over 40 percent of fixed wing GA fatal accidents occurred because pilots lost control of their airplanes.” The National Business Aviation Association adds that NTSB’s more recent numbers show 46.4 percent of all fatal accidents in the U.S. from 2014 to 2018 were attributed to loss of control in-flight (LOC-I). That makes it the number one cause of fatal accidents. The AOPA Air Safety Institute’s most recent Nall Report, which looked at accident occurring in 2009 through 2018, confirms the prevalence of LOC-I in pilot-related accidents, especially during takeoff and landing.

In this magazine’s March 2019 issue, Robert Wright’s article, “Why We Lose Control,” looked at the risk management-related reasons behind LOC-I accidents. He made an excellent case for the proposition that poor risk management is a root cause of LOC-I accidents, aided and abetted by poor stick-and-rudder skills. Put another way, the fact that the pilot put him/herself into a situation where LOC-I happened is poor risk management. That the airplane got out of control is an airmanship issue. Given the industry’s relative success in reducing many other accident types, why do LOC-I accidents continue to remain statistically unchanged? Maybe it’s because of some bad habits.