Aviation Safety

One of the really cool things about modern avionics is what they can do with basic information. A common example is pushing the “Direct” button, entering a destination and seeing the device pop up the on-course heading, the current ETA and a great-circle route overlaid on a moving map. Long gone are the days when we’d ask ATC for a vector to a distant point and “follow along on the Loran.” Another cool thing many of these boxes and related software can do is calculate a descent rate or angle while we’re en route and looking for the point at which we can begin a constant-rate descent to our destination.

When everything in the IFR system works as it should, it can be a beautiful thing: Pilots coordinating with controllers to ensure safe, orderly flow of traffic to and from an airport, controllers anticipating a pilot’s needs and granting their every request. Everyone knows their role, and they take pride in doing their jobs with precision and professionalism. But when things aren’t working as they should, it can get ugly.

On August 30, an SR22T crashed in the Atlantic Ocean after its pilot become unresponsive. The airplane had been cruising at FL210, then descended to 13,000, according to FlightAware.com, before it went Nordo.

Your article “Keeping Me In Suspense,” September 2014, nicely explains the purpose of the OBS button on the Garmin GNS430/530 series when performing a missed approach. The GPS unit will “suspend” and stop displaying navigational guidance until the OBS button is pushed upon reaching minimum altitude. Although unrelated to an approach, this is the perfect time to mention the second purpose of the OBS button on the Garmin GNS 430/530.

Recent general aviation and air carrier accidents

Many of us fly, or have flown, some rather capable high-performance single-engine airplanes providing excellent long-distance transportation value and utility. Flying a Cirrus, Centurion, Bonanza or Mooney and cruising between 150-180 knots allows you to operate over the entire country on a practical basis. You can, however, achieve almost as much utility from simple fixed-gear airplanes, providing you know and account for their limitations, your “utility envelope” and certain associated risks.

Every primary student who’s at least been ready to solo has experienced a few stalls and recoveries. If they’re lucky, they also are introduced to different kinds of stalls, and how the ways we enter them can help determine their characteristics. Along the way, we learn ways to recover from them. We learn these maneuvers for three reasons: So we’ll recognize, avoid and be able to recover from them.

When it comes to preflighting an airplane, there is nothing more true. Sure, you can follow the diagram laid out in the pilot’s operating handbook, or routinely drone through a do-list of items a mile long that are spelled out in the aircraft’s preflight check list, but if you don’t understand what problems you are looking for, what’s the point?

My brother slipped me a piece of paper on which he’d jotted three numbers: 260, 240 and 180. If you haven’t guessed, they’re weights. Add me and the load is 860 pounds well-marbled (not 170-pound), above-average Americans. Add full tanks, 56 gallons of fuel and we would approach gross weight. I had yet to add backpacks, fly-fishing gear and food for a week, but after that I’d have to start trading fuel for payload, and worry about CG as well. Welcome to the world of gross-weight ops.

As an active instrument instructor, I frequently see confusion in my customers about making the transition from an approach to the missed-approach procedure using a GPS. Even many pilots with a great deal of instrument time don’t demonstrate mastery of a GPS navigator’s “suspend” mode, or know how vital its proper use is to safely executing a missed approach.