Jay Hopkins

In January I wrote about some of the horror stories, such as when a controller watched an airplane flying into extreme weather or actually gave a heading towards high terrain at night without trying to warn the pilot. While the pilots in these situations certainly contributed to their own demise, it is hard to believe […]

Safety in flying is all about having alternatives. Each trip may offer several different possible routes and a variety of alternates. The departure time and sometimes even the date of departure can be changed if necessary. Once en route, the present and forecast conditions must be analyzed to determine which of various alternatives offer the […]

In the history of aviation there have been a number of aircraft that were considered dangerous, including the Learjet 20 series, the Aerostar and the Twin Comanche. More recently the airplane some people seem to love to hate is the Mitsubishi MU-2. There are numerous websites that detail what the authors consider to be the […]

There are a number of reasons why around 700 people die each year in aircraft operating under Part 91 and Part 135, while Part 121 operations sometimes go an entire year without any fatalities. Airlines have stricter regulations, and operations manuals spell out every nuance of how a flight and the entire airline will be […]

If you are like me you have the best of intentions. As a conscientious pilot who wants to fly in a professional manner, you desire to stay up to date on the latest aviation information. You are planning to go to the next safety seminar that the FAA or AOPA puts on in your area. […]

It should be a simple question. After all, it seems like almost every classroom, hangar, shop or production area has posters reminding people that “Safety Comes First” and to “Be Safe,” “Fly Safe” and “Work Safe.” Yet when I ask the people attending my Preventing Human Error seminar to define safety, to explain how to […]

Back before the days of Nexrad on a GPS screen, controllers were usually the only resource for pilots of light airplanes without weather radar to avoid bad weather. Even though their screens were not optimized for showing weather, they could usually steer a pilot around the worst areas. Controllers have also been very helpful in […]

Probably the most feared situation in aviation, besides perhaps an inflight fire, is a midair collision. One moment a pilot is enjoying the flight. He may be checking his chart or tuning a radio. Or maybe he is talking with a passenger or taking a drink of water. Suddenly there is a loud crash. The […]

With the advent of the new glass cockpits, a lot of thought went into the kind of training that would be necessary to adequately prepare a pilot to safely utilize these more sophisticated systems. The FAA worked with the general aviation industry to put together a set of standards for glass cockpit training. The original […]

When I wrote “Hazardous Duty” (Flying, May 2005), I was learning about missionary aviation but had never actually been to the mission field. Everything I wrote came from descriptions and accident reports written by others. That has all changed. Last month I had a chance to travel to Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Papua, Indonesia, […]