Aviation Safety

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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An aircraft owner delivered a Kidde Dexaero fire extinguisher to an FAA-certificated repair station for a hydrostatic test and overhaul.

After a receiving inspection, the unit was routed to the production department so the necessary work could be performed. The unit was found to be full of extinguishing agent and was purged.

While disassembling the fire extinguisher, the technician noticed that the yellow outlet rupture disk had been fired, even though the cylinder was…

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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After an accident in which a helicopter crashed and burned, NTSB investigators discovered that the hose used to refuel the aircraft had decomposed internally and leached a gummy resin into the fuel. The contaminated fuel clogged the carburetor jets and the helicopter lost power on takeoff.

The truck-mounted fuel hose was a 30-foot terra-cotta colored hose labeled Versicon which the owner had acquired as a replacement hose from a local supplier in August 1997. The owner re…

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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When auditing a propeller repair station recently, the FAA discovered that certain alignment and inspection procedures had not been accomplished in accordance with the manufacturers propeller overhaul manual procedures.

Although there have been no reports of failures of the propellers, overhauled by Santa Monica Propeller Service from January 1997 to March 1999, the FAA considers it a significant safety risk because a propeller failure can lead to catastrophic loss of airc…

Im both amused and perplexed by the following excerpts from the September issue.

I recently met an aircraft owner who has been in the aviation business for 30 years, flies 200 hours a year and has accumulated more than 6,000 hours, yet has no instrument rating. When I gently suggested that surely an instrument rating would be a plus, he said he felt safer without it. I find this thinking to be undiluted idiocy. – Paul Bertorelli, page 7.

In some ways, VFR-only pilots can be safer when flying VFR than pilots who hold instrument ratings and sometimes fly VFR, sometimes IFR. VFR pilots often are more self-reliant, while IFR pilots get used to the services provided by the system and mi…

I agree that any actual IMC experience is worth more than most hood time. I also am a firm believer that any pilots first IMC experience should be with a CFII in the right seat.

I had problems my first time (on my long dual cross-country during my instrument training) on an approach to downtown Kansas City airport. But, my next experience was better and now Ive logged several hours of actual on my own and feel comfortable.

However, in The JFK Aftermath, [Commentary, September] Paul Bertorelli suggests that in conducting IFR training on a medium-low IMC day with a CFII you could log flight time as PIC toward a BFR or other recurrency work. Sorry, but wouldnt you have to file IF…

Really enjoyed The Impossible Turn [Proficiency, November]. Many have discussed this issue, but few have actually tested it. There are so many GA issues that are heatedly debated, but never researched like you did. I know Ill be testing the teardrop technique soon in our plane. Maybe this could become a regular feature of Aviation Safety, testing GA planes performance in difficult/risky real-life maneuvers.

-Andrew Doorey
Via e-mail

Flying is full of difficult real-life maneuvers and decisions your student texts never mention. Well do what we can to increase the tools you have to cope with risky situations successfully.

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One Altitude Doesnt F…