Aviation Safety

At the end of an excellent article on engine-out procedures and preparation for landing [Reality Check, April], Wally Miller states: … fly the airplane … trim for best guide speed and do not give up an inch of altitude.

I am somewhat perplexed by that statement. if you lose and engine, I always felt that you should pitch the plane up to the best glidespeed, thereby gaining altitude.

I fly a Mooney 201 which cruises at 145 to 150 KIAS. My best glide speed is 85 KIAS. If I lost an engine, I would pull the nose up and immediately trim the plane for 85 KIAS. During the pitch up and trim, I would gain several hundred of feet of altitude, which could buy me a better landing spot. I…

I have two questions regarding the article Landing at the Max [Airmanship, March] You state: … with a 46 KCAS stall speed. Enter the flare in a 172 at 65 knots instead of 60 and you have 2.25 times as much kinetic energy to dissipate before the airplane will stop flying.

My first question is: How did you compute the factor of 2.25? Here is how I analyze this problem. Kinetic energy is proportional to the square of ground speed. For simplicity Ill assume that CAS is equal to GS. The airplane stops flying at its stall speed of 46 knots, therefore the KE (kinetic energy) that must be dissipated before the airplane will stop flying is the difference between the KE at entry and the KE…

The following briefs were selected from the 173 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in May 2000. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Click here to view “Accident Totals, May.”

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May 1, Kotzebue, Alaska
Piper Super Cub
At about 06:30 Alaska daylight time, a ski-equipped Piper PA-18 collided with snow-covered terrain 33.5 miles west-northwest of Kotzebue. The pilot, who held an expired student pilot certificate, was killed. Passing villagers found the airplane inverted about one mile east of the coast near Cape…

At the end of July every summer, thousands of pilots hear the sirens song luring them to Oshkosh. For many, the trip involves a long flight in a sport plane seldom flown cross-country. For a few, the challenge is too much.

Pilots who ignore the pilgrimage to aviations Mecca are not immune. Family vacations and the desire to explore tap into the quality that airplanes do best: long trips.

Long trips have many advantages over short ones. You can climb higher, get above the thermals and into cooler, smoother air. The airplane consumes less fuel in the thinner air and goes faster. You may be able to catch a favorable tailwind and whisk along over the countryside watching the GPS or DME c…

Confront a pilot with a statement like, You pilots are a smug bunch and you probably wont get much argument. Truth is, ego is part of the game.

As the pages in the logbook accumulate, the feelings of been there, done that grow too. Not quickly, perhaps, but insidiously. The eye of experience heralds the look of confidence.

While experience sometimes leads to complacency, most pilots take their responsibility seriously – even enjoy it and the ongoing training and quest for proficiency that comes with the pilot certificate. Conscientiousness may be admirable, but sadly it sometimes is not enough. Mistakes do happen, and sometimes they happen at the worst possible time.

The owner…

Very seldom does instrument training adequately prepare a pilot for flying in actual weather. While an instrument rating gives you the ability to fly in the clouds, the wisdom of knowing what to avoid is more difficult to earn. One weather situation that seldom comes up during training but that greatly increases the risk for the pilot is heavy rain.

The biggest risks of flying in heavy rain are the associated windshears, downdrafts and visual illusions. The problem can be particularly difficult during approach, where you have limited ability to divert unless you abandon the approach entirely.

Heavy rain showers, especially close to decision height, can be very distracting and furthe…

Everyone knows that where theres smoke, theres fire. When most people think about smoke and fire in aviation, three things come to mind: engine fire, electrical fire, crash site. There is, however, another form of smoke that certainly demands respect, and thats the smoke created by wildfires.

Wildfires both large and small create a number of special hazards to general aviation that must be treated with caution. Though wildfires are most common in the western U.S., urban residents of Long Island, Florida, Malibu and Oakland have experienced the powerful ravage of wildfires recently in this decade. The power of wildfire and its hazards to aviators throughout the country should not be…

Light twin flying and rattlesnake encounters start without much drama, certainly, but with carelessness and a casual attitude about the possible end results. Theyre rigged against untrained and unwary people, however, and the results are often the same.

Twin-engine airplanes demand a healthy respect from those who fly them. Some of that must come from the improved performance when everything is working right, and some must come from the slim margins for error that exist when something goes wrong.

Once upon a time, back in 1979, things were booming in general aviation circles. Sales of light piston twins had been increasing by leaps and bounds for a decade. The popular reasoning of the…

The new private pilot was on fourth flight with passengers in a Cessna 172. In his first landing attempt he was long and went around. During the process the airplane was observed performing strangely.

On the second attempt the pilot again landed long and again attempted to go-around. He added full power but did not retract the flaps from fully extended, whereupon the aircraft pitched up, stalled and crashed.

The two long landings were bad enough, implying both inadequate training and substandard proficiency, but the problem had even deeper roots. The NTSB investigator found only two entries in the pilots logbook regarding go-around training. Both were pre-solo. The pilot also had n…

A pilot girds for attempting GPS approaches for the first time.

A safety pilot or instructor is in the right seat to look out for traffic and aircraft control while the new GPS owner briefs himself (again) on his toy. The two pilots go over the planned approach and probably program it into the box while still on the ground.

They take off and fly away from the airport to check out operation of the moving map and make sure the simple-looking en route stuff really is simple. That part probably goes pretty smoothly, and soon theyre emboldened and ready to make the first approach. Maybe the left seater goes under the hood. Maybe he doesnt.

ATC gives the pilot vectors to the final appr…