Aviation Safety

From Day One of our flight training, maneuvers practice fills much of our hours of dual instruction: turns around a point and such, unusual attitudes and recovery from them, and that most-basic skill from putting together all the control elements, flying pattern work. In aircraft so equipped, most of us learn to use the turn gyro when practicing maneuvering flight, striving to master the standard-rate, two-minute turn depicted by our little friend. But as we learn later in actual flying, that training also instilled flexibility and the skill to adapt maneuvers to the conditions. Among the best of all flexibilities is the ability to maneuver beyond our standards-both beyond the standard-rate turn and past the point where turns become steep. At times it seems that too few of us practice to maintain competence at the higher demands of flight beyond 30 degrees of bank. Thankfully, with a bit of caution and common sense, steep turns are skills we can practice on our own or, even better, with the security and added safety of an instructor or safety pilot. The payoff can be a lifesaver. Steep-turn skill holds significant real-world application in everyday flying, whether for something as potentially dangerous as trying to escape from a dead-end canyon or the more routine need to complete a non-precision instrument approach by circling while remaining within sight of the runway. With a little regular practice, a pilot should be ready to safely, sanely fly steep turns up to and including the most demanding of such unusual maneuvers: the 60-degree bank, 360-degree turn, all while holding altitude within 50 feet, plus or minus, of our entry altitude. Acknowledging that such circumstances when we need that skill should be relatively rare only heightens the need to regularly hone your real-world steep-turns skills. And should we never actually need to, a great sense of self-satisfaction comes from bumping through ones own wake.

I recently flew a friend from my house at a residential airpark outside Sarasota, Fla., up to the Tampa International Airport to catch his plane home. We left with fuel tanks about half-full, and I planned to divert a few miles on my way home to stop at a non-towered airport with ultra-cheap self-serve 100LL to top off. After an uneventful stop, drop and hop, I motored off toward the cheap fuel and dialed up the airports CTAF (which also happens to be the CTAF for my nearby home runway). I was immediately greeted with a cacophony of radio calls involving a couple of Cessnas, at least one CAP flight and a Twin Comanche. All were apparently maneuvering to land or depart from Cheap Fuel Muni, but no one was happy. I really couldnt determine who was landing and who was departing, but the Twin Comanche driver was definitely hot about going around after being cut off in the pattern. Since I dont need much encouragement to avoid chaos in a traffic pattern, I changed plans and went on home.

Congratulations to Tom Turner on another well-written article (“Instrument Rating: The First 100 Hours,” May 2009). Ive been flying GA aircraft in the IFR system since 1990. The conundrum of flying in real weather when most of the instruction is simulated poses real problems for the newly minted IFR pilot. My advice to the newbie would include a couple of additional recommendations. First, I would recommend a visit to your nearest ARTCC, which I think will clearly illustrate your contract with the controller, and will greatly simplify things. Second, learn your local weather patterns for the four seasons. Third, make up imaginary trips you may need to take and figure out by talking to a briefer and using online weather products how you would complete the flight. Fourth, file an IFR flight plan on every flight beyond the $100 cheeseburger run. Next, make up your own checklists for each aircraft you fly, having a LIFR checklist, a winter IFR checklist, a night checklist, etc. My checklist always starts the day before the flight: Check the progs, charge the handheld back-ups, fire up the 396 to make sure the weather comes up, etc. Lastly, spend some time with people who arent cavalier, but whove done the mission and learn the friendly clouds from the unfriendly. Ask the airport manager who the guys are at the field who fly in the weather. There are always those perfect practice days when its clear above 4000 feet and non-convective, but 800-and-2 on the deck.

At 2257 Pacific time, the airplane was lost from radar while executing an instrument approach. Visual conditions prevailed. The airplane was over the Pacific Ocean at the time. Four days later, small portions of the airplanes structure were located on the beach about six miles north of the last radar hit. The commercial pilot and his passenger have not been found, and are assumed to have died in the accident.

The airplane collided with the water about 40 nm west of Ocean-side, Calif., at 1253 Pacific time and was destroyed. The solo private pilot is presumed to have sustained fatal injuries. Visual conditions prevailed.

The airplane was destroyed when it impacted a lake at about 0845 Eastern time. The private pilot and two passengers were fatally injured. Instrument conditions prevailed; no flight plan had been filed. The pilot did not possess an instrument rating. A weather observation taken about 26 nm from the accident site at 0900 included statute mile visibility and an overcast at 300 feet.

At about 0540 Mountain time, the airplane impacted terrain, fatally injuring the private pilot and passenger. The two regularly flew the route as commuters. Instrument conditions prevailed. A witness saw an airplane flying low in the vicinity of the departure airport at about 0530.

The airplane departed Brackett Field with two private pilots aboard, one of whom had an instrument rating. The flight requested and received an IFR clearance. Approximately three minutes later, the airplane impacted elevated terrain and was destroyed. The two pilots were killed.

After landing, the pilot taxied the airplane to the tiedown area. The pilot turned left, after the fuel pumps, and continued to taxi the airplane between a row of parked airplanes and the FBO building. The pilot stated he thought one of the parked airplanes was further back in the row, so he moved to the right; the airplanes right wing then impacted the buildings porch posts. No one was injured.

At about 1340 Eastern time, the airplane was substantially damaged after its Cirrus Airplane Parachute System (CAPS) was deployed shortly after takeoff. The solo private pilot was not injured. Instrument conditions prevailed; an IFR flight plan had been filed. As the airplane entered clouds, a cabin door “popped open” about two inches, which allowed water and cold air to enter the cockpit. The pilot said he became spatially disoriented and the airplanes attitude varied; however, he was able to stabilize the airplane and intended to return to the departure airport.