Reality Check

Most of us who travel from small airport to smaller airport recognize the importance of weather and fuel requirements, but the alternatives available is often neglected in our training. Instead, were focused on getting a weather briefing and knowing things like runway lengths, ATC frequencies and whether the destination has a restaurant. Too often, we learn the hard way that services at the small airports closest to our ultimate destination may not be available when we need them most.

As more and more technology is welcomed into our formerly round-dial cockpits, many pilots have expressed growing frustration over the lingering need to do some things the old-fashioned way. In the new, high-tech cockpit, flat-panel screens, all-electronic flight instruments and portable, tablet-size computers with built-in GPS dominate our must-have lists. Along the way, these much-welcomed advances have helped simplify the pre-flight planning task. But much of the information we need for every flight remains stuck in the abbreviated, ALL CAPS format used when DC-3s and J3 Cubs were the cat’s meow. The notice to airmen (Notam) function is perhaps the best/worst example of how international regulatory agencies have failed leveraging new technologies to improve dissemination of flight-critical information. But now, thanks to an unlikely set of circumstances, an overhaul of the Notam system is underway. Here’s what’s going on, why and what you can expect.

Modern jetliners just aren’t supposed to fall out of the sky. It’s simply not acceptable (it’s not acceptable when smaller aircraft do it, either, by the way). Decades of refinement, engineering, development and lessons learned have produced an extremely safe worldwide air transportation system. That’s one reason the disappearance of an Airbus A330 operating as Air France Flight 447 from over the Atlantic Ocean almost three years ago is serving as a wake-up call to operators and pilots alike.

We all have had a life experience or two in which we “should have known” about the results of a decision and could kick ourselves for not heeding our instincts. When it comes to flying safely, the need to follow those internal alarms is all the more important. For example, there is a big difference between instrument flying where we need to faithfully heed the data on the panel in spite of our inner ear sensations and the attention we should pay to our “sixth sense” of self-preservation when we get hints from the aircraft systems that something isnt right. We often fly with other pilots and, depending on our role in the cockpit, we may notice more or less about the aircraft or environment. When a system offers up a hint, we analyze it and take some action, but do we take enough action or give enough credence to our sixth sense of feelings about the potential impact on the flight? Can that inner warning be “waived off” by a casual remark from the other pilot or a controller? Lets look at some instances and examples.

The potential for ice doesnt have to ground you for the winter if you understand the weather and consider your options

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Though it seldom happens, a passed-out pilot may be passengers greatest fear. For frequent passengers, just a little training can make for a happy ending

Pilots love to scoff at the aerophobes who express fear at the prospect of light plane flying.

The most dangerous thing about flying is the drive to the airport, might be the amiable retort.

Some sayings persist because the truth they carry is evident. Others endure because no one has seriously challenged their worth.

Dr. Gerald Fairbairn, professor of aviation at Daniel Webster College and a long-time flight instructor, challenges the notion that light plane flying is even remotely as safe as driving. In so doing, he suggests a look beneath the surface of aviation safety. Look at what constitutes risk, why it is there, and how it can be mitigated.

Fairbairn is not decisively…

You are flying a well-appointed, 180-hp Cessna 172 and with a friend have just taken off from Aspen, Colo., on a trip back to Wichita. You make a right climbing turn over the hills north of the airport and, at 80 knots, continue climbing to the southeast. The air has a gentle texture, not even light turbulence.

As you gain altitude in the valley of the Roaring Fork River you are below the tops of the mountains. The September gold of the aspens is phenomenal. Theres a cloudless, blue sky. You are feeling good because you flew in and out of Aspen successfully and didnt foul up in the busy mix of aircraft types and opposite direction traffic on runway 15-33.

Your airplane rises steadil…

Flying while intoxicated doesnt happen often, but when it does the results are usually tragic. A single DWI may point to trouble ahead in airplanes