Aviation Safety

Undoubtedly the worst moment in my flying career so far was the day I ran out of fuel and wrote off a perfectly good airplane through my own stupidity. Ill never forget it.

They say accidents result from a chain of small, seemingly insignificant events that eventually add up. In my case, the first link in the chain was an absence of paperwork. I was flying a light twin in which it was not possible to dip the tanks, so we had to rely on fuel consumption records, with the fuel gauges as backups.

On that particular day, the fuel records were missing, so I had to rely solely on the fuel gauges. This didnt worry me too much; Id been flying this plane for some time and knew the gauges w…

I have been a flight instructor for a few years at Orange County Airport in Montgomery, N.Y. During that time, its become crystal clear why pilots should be extra careful when flying into uncontrolled airports.

Some pilots neglect to use current charts, ignore the Airport/Facility Directory, and dont bother to check Notams before flying to another airport. Here are some perfect examples of what I am talking about.

In January 2001, Orange County Airport started to use a new CTAF because of radio congestion with other uncontrolled airports in the area. We all thought this would be great.

I quickly changed my mind the first time I had an aircraft starting to flare at the same time…

I figured, what can be so hard about an IPC? I had 30 hours of hard IMC flight in the past 180 days and 34 approaches. I didnt even need the check ride to stay legal – all I was missing was a hold. However, good sense says that a semiannual check is a good idea, even if you dont technically need it.

I made a date with my local DPE and occasional instructor. I told him I wanted an informal but demanding couple of hours, doing things that I wouldnt normally do. The morning dawned with low IMC but VFR conditions were forecast for the afternoon when we were meeting. As a precaution, I filed IFR sequentially to two local airports, and then back home.

Ah, youve filed – we might as well…

Faster, slower. Higher, lower. Bigger, smaller. Expensive, cheaper. Like the four dimensions physicists use to describe the universe, these four dimensions describe the universe of general aviation airplanes.

The speed, altitude and size of the airplane you fly determines the kinds and levels of risk to which you expose yourself. The most extreme example is one of a military pilot skimming the treetops at attack speed, who is in a decidedly riskier spot than that same pilot ferrying that same aircraft from one base to another in the flight levels.

The same could be said for general aviation airplanes, though perhaps the extremes are closer together. Flying a J-3 Cub at 1,500 feet agl…

Much as some people say they like winter flying, theres no way around the fact that, for most pilots, winter only seems to muck things up. Hangar flying replaces cross country flying and a whole lot of airplanes have just had an annual inspection done.

With spring comes a new commitment to flying, new chances to spread our wings and the reaffirmation of why we took this thing up in the first place. Its easy to get distracted by the prospects of a season full of new adventures and fresh challenges. Maybe a new airplane or another rating is in the works, maybe not. Regardless, this is the time of year to take stock of your flying, yes, but also your attitudes toward flying.

The ASFs…

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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The FAA reports it is still receiving accident and incident reports stemming from fuel exhaustion on Cessna 210s. The FAA blames most of the episodes on pilots neglecting to operate their aircraft in accordance with the flight manual revisions ordered in AD 94-12-08. Also, some pilots apparently are confused about the proper operation of the electric fuel boost pump. There are several different methods of operating both the normal (low boost) pump switch and the emergency (hig…

The following information is derived from the FAAs Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts.

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Witnesses in the airport traffic pattern heard the pilot of a Cessna 172M announce on the radio that he had lost all aileron control.

The airplane crashed, and while investigating the accident, an NTSB investigator discovered that two flight control cables were broken. He found that the left aileron control cable separated in the area of the top pulley located at the right doorpost. The cable was severely frayed for several inches on each side of the failure point and there was evidence of heavy corrosion on the cable and inside the pulley track.

When the pu…

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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Every Champion CF0100 and CF0101 oil filter is packaged with a gasket kit that contains a copper gasket, a square rubber gasket and a flat rubber gasket – all of which are used to prevent the oil filter housing assembly from leaking. Some of the square gaskets may have been manufactured thicker than called for in the manufacturers specifications. The square gasket, supplied in the kit, should be 0.180 inch thick. Some gaskets were found with a thickness of 0.25-inch. The manuf…

Jeff Schweitzers article Beyond See and Avoid [Instrument Check, January] is a good start.

I have been flying just shy of 30 years, but 500-plus hours in the Northeast in a Skywatch-equipped Bonanza over the past 22 months have shocked me. We are fooling ourselves if we think see and avoid is much more than a snare and a delusion in congested airspace.

The new boxes give you a fair chance when an intruder is coming from behind or climbing rapidly from below, offer a second chance for distracted pilots in rapid-convergence situations, expand the circle of safety for pilots (IFR or VFR) in marginal VMC, could have prevented a number of multiple-fatality midairs involving high-perf…

I read the angry letter Young & In Charge from CFI Ben Wielenga [Unicom, February]. He clearly has a point about the error of stereotyping all young CFIs as lacking certain training qualities, but your editors comments are right on point in indicating the excessive increase in the fatal accident rate while the age and experience of the flight instructors has decreased.

I am a 1000-hour, instrument-rated pilot and former owner of a very nice 1981 Cessna 210. I have read your newsletter for many years and passed archive copies on to two of my younger brothers as they became interested in learning to fly. Unfortunately for my youngest brother Steve, who had approximately 200 hours and an…