Learning from Airline Pilots' Mistakes

Learning from Airline Pilots’ Mistakes

Stephen Pope

Thursday, November 07, 2013 at 06:42 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The FAA's new airline pilot training mandates, focusing on stall/upset recovery and crosswind landings, offer valuable lessons for GA pilots who should also prioritize these advanced skills with their instructors.
GA pilots should proactively manage their own fitness for flight, adopting personal rest requirements to avoid flying when fatigued, stressed, or unwell, mirroring the intent of new airline flight and duty time rules.
To preserve fundamental airmanship, GA pilots are advised to spend more time hand-flying and reduce over-reliance on automation, reflecting the FAA's push for airline pilots to enhance the quality of their flight hours.

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The FAA’s major overhaul of training rules for airline pilots, formally adopted with a new final rule on Tuesday, came as a long-overdue reaction to the deadly Colgan Air Dash-8 Q400 crash in Buffalo, New York, almost five years ago. Earlier changes, also prompted by the Colgan disaster, have altered flight and duty time regulations for airline pilots and increased the minimum number of flight hours to become an airline first officer.

The question GA pilots should be asking is, what can we learn from the FAA and airline industry’s efforts to improve safety? It turns out, quite a lot.