One of the beautiful things about Oshkosh is the self-deception: Stand in the middle of the crowded grounds, teaming with people and aircraft, and you can enjoy the momentary illusion that aviation is actually a popular, well-attended activity.
The stats are in, the tallies tallied and the totals have been summed up: Loss-of-control tops the list of general aviation accident causes. Recent studies by industry and government point to loss-of-control (LOC) accidents in all their variations are the leading cause of GA accidents, both fatal and otherwise. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO, “From 1999 through 2011, nonfatal accidents involving general aviation airplanes generally decreased, falling 29 percent, from 1265 in 1999 to 902 in 2011.” That’s the good news. The bad news is there were still more than 200 fatal accidents each year during the period.
Aww, crap,” I thought as I realized my Baron’s right brake went all the way to the floor. Some vigorous pumping returned some of its pressure, and it was usable for low-speed taxiing, but not for much else.
I freely admit to being something of a packrat. Also, I like books. Neither of which qualifies me for an anti-Luddite reality television show, but it does mean I’ve accumulated something of an aviation library over the years. These days, with e-books and pretty much everything you’d want in the way of reference materials easily available on the Innertubez, my having more than a few aviation books laying around has always been a source of amusement for friends and pilots alike.
The inoperative table doesn’t cover every possible system failure. Plus, you also need to consider facility outages and equipment failures at your alternate.
A recent discussion with a friend who happens to be an aviation attorney got me thinking about how pilots put too much faith in cockpit traffic alert systems. Without spilling the beans on privileged client/attorney speak, he spoke of a lawsuit he was working that arose from an ugly mid-air collision involving an aircraft well-equipped with high-end traffic alerting gear. It’s the type of accident provoking lots of emotion since it sadly took some lives. From what I could gather, there were some fingers wrongly pointed at the traffic system manufacturer, as if the traffic system failed at its intended job.
A recent discussion with a friend who happens to be an aviation attorney got me thinking about how pilots put too much faith in cockpit traffic alert systems. Without spilling the beans on privileged client/attorney speak, he spoke of a lawsuit he was working that arose from an ugly mid-air collision involving an aircraft well-equipped with high-end traffic alerting gear. It’s the type of accident provoking lots of emotion since it sadly took some lives. From what I could gather, there were some fingers wrongly pointed at the traffic system manufacturer, as if the traffic system failed at its intended job.
There I was, a cocky preppy with an airplane, trying to get home after a week at the beach. I’d flown a borrowed Skyhawk about 3.5 hours since full tanks, leaving me about 1.5 to dry ones. It was Sunday and the weather sucked. I could get out fine with an IFR clearance, but the beach-side airport where I landed had no fuel.Remember how the IFR alternate rules work when filing a flight plan? If the destination airport TAF or area forecast, within an hour either side of your ETA, advertises less than a 2000-foot ceiling and three statute miles, you need to file an alternate airport in your flight plan. In turn, that alternate airport has to have a forecast of 600/2 for precision approaches or 800/2 for non-precision. No problem. My destination was advertising something like 1500/5. I could get there VFR, but I had to file an alternate.
There I was, a cocky preppy with an airplane, trying to get home after a week at the beach. I’d flown a borrowed Skyhawk about 3.5 hours since full tanks, leaving me about 1.5 to dry ones. It was Sunday and the weather sucked. I could get out fine with an IFR clearance, but the beach-side airport where I landed had no fuel.Remember how the IFR alternate rules work when filing a flight plan? If the destination airport TAF or area forecast, within an hour either side of your ETA, advertises less than a 2000-foot ceiling and three statute miles, you need to file an alternate airport in your flight plan. In turn, that alternate airport has to have a forecast of 600/2 for precision approaches or 800/2 for non-precision. No problem. My destination was advertising something like 1500/5. I could get there VFR, but I had to file an alternate.
Automation is a routine part of our lives now, dictated by sweeping new technologies and consumer preferences. Arguably, the trend toward automation began in aviation in the 1970s. It has been debated and resisted by many in the aviation community, but the game has recently changed for both the airlines and general aviation. Yet, our culture is still firmly grounded in the Lindbergh white scarf era, aided and abetted by a pilot training system with roots traceable to the period just after that epic flight.
