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For years Ive taught seminars on preventing human error to airline pilots, military pilots, fire fighters, bomb squads, search and rescue teams, smokejumpers and other teams involved in high risk activities.

One of the major portions of this seminar looks at decision-making, including some of the weaknesses and pitfalls of many peopl experience. Although the exact number may vary, depending on which study you quote, pilot decision-making is generally faulted in 85 percent of all aviation accidents.

At scientific conferences, academics and accident investigators hammer on pilots for faulty decision-making that lead to an accident. Ive often sat there quietly squirming because Ive…

To most pilots, the airplanes propeller is something routinely taken for granted. Oh sure, preflight may include running a hand over the blades in some pretended attempt to look for something. But many people dont have much of a clue as to what theyre looking for – maybe nicks or leading edge surface roughness from sand or water erosion.

Controllable-pitch props generally have some kind of flight time or calendar TBO, such as requiring an overhaul after 1,200 hours or five years, whichever comes first. Check the logbooks of most older airplanes, and you may find this to be the most commonly ignored manufacturer recommendation for Part 91 airplanes.

Some misguided owners, in an eff…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view “Airworthiness Directives.”

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A sudden and complete engine failure forced the pilot of an American Champion 7GCBC to make an off-airport landing.

Investigators determined the engine failure was caused by melted P-lead wires that were bundled with an overheated wire connecting the master switch and the overvoltage relay. The cause of the overheated wire could not be readily determined, but the affected wire was not protected by a fuse or circuit breaker.

The accident investigators and a team from Ame…

Assessing your skills and your judgment are crucial, particularly when the weather refuses to cooperate

Aspen, Telluride, Hayden, Jackson, Sun Valley, Missoula, Ketchikan, Juneau.

These beautiful locations have some of the most treacherous instrument approaches found anywhere in the United States for one simple reason: big mountains. It will be many months before the NTSB issues its final report on the fatal accident of the Gulfstream that crashed during its final approach into Aspen on March 29, and the preliminary report it issued shortly after the crash contained less information than the local newspaper.

To state that the instrument approaches into these locations are tricky is an understatement. As a former EMS and fire-fighting pilot operating into all of these airports, I can te…

Last year the Federal Aviation Administration established a new organization called the Runway Safety Program with the stated goal, to design and execute a coherent, corporate action plan that will effectively reduce the number of incursions at our nations airports. After looking at the agencys efforts so far, one can only wonder how long they debated before deciding to make the plan coherent.

To guide the RSP, the FAA published a sweeping 34-page thesis titled, National Blueprint for Runway Safety (available on the internet at www.faa.gov/runwaysafety). The document lays out the agencys plan for countering what it has concluded is a…

Remember that pilot personality self-survey, with the half-dozen psycho babble attitudes guaranteed to make a smoking hole? There was resigned, anti-authority, impulsive, macho and invulnerable.

We think a more accurate way to assess whether a pilot falls into one of these groups is to connect him to an EEG and see which button lights up following the words, Caution wake turbulence, departing 757.

Would your button be Resigned? Impulsive? Invulnerable? If you dont spend your spare time tearing up gyros for fun, the prospect of an uncommanded flight upset might make your blood run cold.

A better-than-average grasp of airmanship may cause you to understand that the instinct to p…

Any cloud connected to a severe thunderstorm carries the threat of violence. – AC 00-6A

One of the dangerous myths of aviation is that of the all-weather general aviation airplane. And while its true that modern technology has done wonders in making flying more reliable and safer, its important to remember that Mother Nature always has the last word. Heres an important case in point.

This mishap involved a turbocharged Piper Saratoga that broke up in flight in the vicious winds found in and around severe thunderstorms. The pilot was attempting to find his way through a band of thunderstorms, which extended from northeast to southwest over central New Mexico. Two cells ne…

Aviation is full of mysteries. Perhaps rooted in reality, they take on an almost mythical air about them. Pilots know they are true, without being able to justify that position and without really knowing where that knowledge came from.

The downwind turn, operating lean of peak and flying on the step have all been part of that aviation lore – and in fact may be so still for some pilots.

The fact is that many pilots treat their airplanes like its a complex remote control for a big screen TV. They know only enough about its operation to meet their anticipated daily needs. Instead of studying the book on the airplane and engine, they put their effort into learning to fly instrument a…

Its crucial to learn the right habits from your very first flights because they form the foundation of your skills for the rest of your flying career.

When the proverbial fertilizer hits the fan, people tend to revert to their earliest patterns of responses. The problem is, sometimes thats not the right response.

During a badly bounced landing for example, the pilot has very little altitude and airspeed to use in trying to execute a go around or other recovery. In most aircraft, a go-around requires bringing the nose up to about 5 degrees above the horizon and adding full power.

Thats apparently what the crew of a Twin Otter tried to do after a bounced landing. This tale isnt…