Aviation Safety

One of the reasons many fly personal aircraft is to travel. Even simple, slow airplanes can be used for personal and business transportation, within limits, and they’re the preferred solution for many. And when trying to get from one location underserved by the airlines to another, there’s really no better solution.

When comparing new personal aircraft to old ones, there are two major developments that stand out to me: Using composite materials to construct airframes and the proliferation of advanced, GPS-driven avionics in their panels. Eventually, these developments will be joined by modern powerplants to truly revolutionize how and what we fly, but the technology and economics for advanced engines aren’t quite there yet. In the meantime, using composites and installing advanced avionics result in aircraft lighter and more efficient than ever, plus they’re easier and safer to fly, thanks to the automation.

This passage from “As We Know It,” the July 2014 Editor’s Log, caught my attention: “What we’ve seen, instead, is the proliferation of smaller, lighter airplanes, often with range and capabilities that seem limiting when compared to what was the norm 30 years ago. This market is populated by storebought LSAs and experimental aircraft. They’re great for a $100 hamburger run, and possibly even an overnight getaway to the mountains or a beach, but the destinations need to be close, the load light and the weather good.”

Recent general aviation and air carrier accidents

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.

Airspeed is one of the first things we learn about in fixed-wing primary training, It’s an all-important tool for managing an airplane’s performance and helps us determine when we can do certain things, like deploying flaps or lowering landing gear. Too, pilots typically are taught to “aim” for a certain airspeed when performing various maneuvers and at various stages of normal flight. But there are different kinds of airspeed. For example, what we read directly off the instrument panel is subject to error and interpretation, and often must be corrected before it can be used for even basic tasks like navigation. Depending on the aircraft and the conditions, the airspeed instrumentation we use can be merely advisory, or it can be wildly inaccurate for our immediate needs.

I once had an emergency while serving as pilot in command. It was a big one. It was the type of emergency that means you will shortly be landing somewhere, anywhere, so you best hurry up and get ready. There were red-box—or bold—items, the ones you memorize, to perform. Fortunately, not too many. And in the 90 seconds from the start of my emergency until we were egressing from the cockpit, there was a moment.

It’s that time of year again in the Northern Hemisphere, when the average cross-country flight is going to have to deal with thunderstorms. Where I live, in Florida, this time of year each mid-afternoon brings with it the rumble of thunder, usually followed by some hard rain, then cooler temperatures. That’s on the ground, of course,

You’re probably familiar with your airplane’s primary control surfaces, what they are, where they are and how they work. (If not, now’s a good time to research the topic.) According to the FAA, primary controls are those “required to control an aircraft safely during flight,” and are the rudder, ailerons and the elevator/stabilator of a conventional airplane. The pitch-control surfaces of a canard-configured airplane usually are considered primary controls, also.

High-altitude operations are known to require extra care and attention. The thinner air reduces takeoff and climb performance when compared to sea level. While a turbocharger helps overcome reduced engine power, even it must be managed correctly to obtain maximum performance. Problems can arise if the crew doesn’t have much experience with high-altitude takeoffs and might not be exercising every precaution.