Editor’s Log

The U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) last month published a report recommending the FAA set specific goals for improving general aviation safety and employ a data-driven approach to minimize risks. Those are the same kinds of things we’ve been advocating pilots do to enhance their own safety for as long as I can remember and is something we certainly support.But how to go about it? Part of the problem, according to the GAO, anyway, is a lack of reliable data on pilot and aircraft activity against which to compare accidents and incidents, and compute their occurrence rate.

It’s been a rough few years for private aviation. The advent of GPS, moving map displays and so-called plastic airplanes in the 1990s brought with them renewed growth and interest. Much of that persisted, despite best efforts from national agencies concerned with security above all else, during the following decade. By 2007, signs of economic upheaval put a damper on flying activity. By the time 2008 and its sky-high aviation fuel prices rolled through, used personal aircraft were being sold at unheard-of low prices. Both trends flattened out in the years since, but fuel remains a significant operational expense and many used airframes aren’t worth what they were 15 years ago.

As expected, France’s counterpart to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sécurité de l’aviation civile (BEA), on July 5 released its long-awaited final report into the loss of Air France Flight 447, an Airbus A330 that disappeared over the equitorial Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009. Also as expected, the BEA found a complicated series of events led to the crash, almost all of them associated with crew training and expectations.

Unless you’ve been out flying the last few months, you’re probably aware 2012 is a presidential election year in the U.S. Take away all the posturing, the debates and the incessant television ads, and the average GA pilot is left with…temporary flight restrictions, or TFRs. The fun begins in earnest about the time you read this, with the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., followed quickly by the Democrats’ confab in Charlotte, N.C. Even if you don’t live near one of those areas, an election-related TFR can pop up near you just about any time. What’s a pilot to do?

A number of notable items have crossed my desk in recent weeks, some of which deserve a few pages of their own, some of which don’t. They all deserve mention, however.

As we were putting the finishing touches on this issue, the NTSB announced it would be holding a two-day forum next month, “focused on safety issues related to general aviation.” The event is scheduled for June 19 and 20, at the NTSB’s Board Room and Conference Center in Washington, D.C. The forum is open to the public, free of charge and may be viewed live via Webcast on the board’s Web site, www.ntsb.gov.

At long last, Congress in February passed and the president signed into law multi-year legislation reauthorizing the FAA. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 was several years in the making; the FAA had been operating under temporary funding since the mid-2000s. It’s set to expire in four years, though, so we’ll get to go through this process again in the near future. The new law includes a wide-ranging set of provisions. For example, it mandates new pilot certificates bearing a photograph of the holder.

If you’ve been following the tale of LightSquared, a well-funded company which attempted to use radio frequency spectrum adjacent to that used by GPS, you may be aware how incredibly weak the satellite signals we use to navigate and shoot approaches really are. Thankfully, LightSquared, which I referenced in this space in our January issue, was recently denied approvals to build its terrestrial Wifi network in part because of its disastrous effect on GPS. But just because it appears LightSquared won’t be a continuing challenge to GPS doesn’t mean others might not appear.

I’ve been attending the annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo for the last few years. It’s held in Sebring, Fla., in late January, and features the latest and greatest found in the light sport aircraft (LSA) market from around the world. It’s a much smaller show than the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual extravaganza in Oshkosh, Wis., or even the Lakeland, Fla, Sun ‘n Fun fly-in. That’s okay, because it’s also much more accessible. This year’s event was no different: It afforded attendees the opportunity to perform an up-close-and-personal check on the LSA industry’s pulse.

One of the year-end rituals in which most of us engage is looking back on what was and thinking of ways we can make improvements during the next 365 days. Although the official NTSB statistics aren’t yet available, there’s enough available evidence to say certain civil aviation segments are wrapping up a pretty good year. Others, not so much.