Aviation Safety

In recent weeks, I had the opportunity to make several flights up and down the eastern seaboard, in good and bad weather, stopping into airports of all sizes and in many different locations. With one exception, and even including the ATC folks with whom I worked, the experience was positive. I was welcomed at FBOs, treated with respect by airport and FAA employees, and other GA pilots were cooperative, helpful and professional. At one fuel stop, the airport employee apparently pulls double-duty; he was riding a tractor up and down the runway sides, mowing grass. I was left to find the restrooms and pump my own gas, trusted not to abscond with anything in the FBOs office or tinker with hangared airplanes. It was all good.

Rich Stowells articles on unusual attitude recoveries (Unusual Recoveries, June 2007; Unusual Recoveries II, July 2007) should be required reading for all CFIs. His analysis of the different spin recovery techniques was very well done. I have been instructing in aviation for 30+ years, both civilian and military, and it always amazes me how very experienced aviators know little about the dynamics of spins. One of my USAF students in T-37s had over 4000 hours and held both an ATP and CFII. He did very well until we got to spins. He didnt understand them and was terrified of them. It wasnt until the end of his T-37 training that he was finally able to master a spin recovery. The key was stopping what caused the spin in the first place: the yaw and stall. Thats what the NASA standard recovery does.

The airplane sustained substantial damage at 1540 Central time when it collided with terrain following a loss of control while returning to land. The pilot received serious injuries. Visual conditions prevailed. Shortly after taking off, the pilot told ATC he had a problem and needed to return to land. The tower cleared the pilot to land. Witnesses reported seeing the airplane enter a steep right bank and descend to impact with the terrain.

At approximately 1530 Central time, the float-equipped airplane was substantially damaged when it collided with a 17-foot powerboat during a water takeoff. The Commercial pilot and two passengers in the airplane were not injured; the boats sole occupant was fatally injured. Visual conditions prevailed.

The two scheduled regional airliners nearly collided at 1336 Pacific time. There were no reported injuries and no reported damage to aircraft. The EMB-120 was arriving; the EMB-170 was departing. After the EMB-120 came to a stop at the intersection of Runways 1L and 28R, the EMB-170 lifted off and overflew it. The initial FAA tower report estimated the aircraft missed colliding by 300 feet. However, the EMB-120 crew estimated the distance as 30 to 50 feet; the EMB-170 crew estimated 150 feet. They characterized their estimate as a “guess,” noting that they could not actually see the Brasilia as they passed over the top of the aircraft.

At 0735 Pacific time the airplane experienced a loss of engine power during cruise, made a forced landing, and came to rest inverted in a salt marsh. The airplane sustained substantial damage. The pilot was not injured; a passenger sustained minor injuries. Visual conditions prevailed.

After an IFR flight of nearly four hours, my wife and I approached a north central U.S. airport in our Mooney. We had descended below the 6000-foot overcast to find excellent visibility. My wife handled the communications while I flew; her first call to the tower, from more than 10 miles out, was met with the question, “Are you IFR or VFR?” She responded that we had canceled our IFR flight plan and were VFR with the field in sight. We were advised to enter a left downwind for the east-west runway.

A repair station states it has begun removing the four screws attaching the elevator trim tab horn to the trim tab to inspect them for corrosion at every annual inspection performed on 300/400 series Cessnas. The facility reports finding numerous screws corroded almost in half; there is no way to inspect these screws (p/n AN515-8R26 and MS35206-251) without removing them.

At approximately 1910 Central time, the airplane was destroyed during a forced landing following a reported loss of engine power while in initial-takeoff climb. The Commercial pilot and passenger were fatally injured. Visual conditions prevailed.

The airplane collided with terrain at about 1040 Mountain time during a circling instrument approach. The Airline Transport pilot and one passenger sustained fatal injuries; the airplane was destroyed. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. A witness later stated a whistling noise got his attention. He looked up and saw an airplane below the cloud bases, turning to the right. Its attitude was about 75 to 80 degrees nose low. It made six to seven turns before it disappeared from sight behind terrain, and the radius of the turn got tighter as the airplane descended. He did not see any smoke, and the airplane appeared to be intact.