Risk Management

Sometimes you look at an FAR and have to scratch your head. What, you ask yourself, can that possibly have to do with flight safety? The various rules, placards and limitations seem to be written more for the FAAs lawyers than for pilots and their passengers.

Sadly, many of the notes, warnings and cautions in aircraft manuals and some of the FARs are written in blood. But violation of an FAR doesnt automatically mean that the flight was unsafe. It all seems so confusing.

When I was a private pilot, a lot of the rules seemed difficult to understand. It took an instrument rating before I understood control zones. It took a flight engineer certificate and a graduate school education…

Judging from the NTSBs files, more than a few pilots have had the misfortune of encountering flutter. Whether induced by the pilots actions or by improper maintenance procedures, flutter is a very serious problem that requires instant corrective action in flight. The stakes are high. Flutter can disfigure your airframe or even rip it apart.

I personally encountered flutter in flight a few years ago – and at a speed that greatly surprised me because it was relatively low.

I was in a sailplane working an afternoon thermal with my wife in the front seat. I was circling in the thermal at about 55 knots when the wing started to vibrate. It was enough that we definitely felt it in the coc…

Class B airspace can be complex and unforgiving, even to experienced pilots who think they know the ropes.

How about a tip of the hat for the long-suffering flight instructor, a hardworking professional who gets neither the respect nor the pay he deserves. And considering the risks involved in teaching a ham-fisted neophyte to fly, we wonder how it is that many survive for long.

Is that a credit to raw skill or the clever design of the average primary trainer? A little of both, we suppose, but from time to time, were asked to rate training aircraft solely on safety records, good or bad.

In a joint research project with our sister publication, The Aviation Consumer, we launched an effort to assess the safety of different models of airplanes. In our first – and we hope not last – analysis, w…

For years Ive taught seminars on preventing human error to airline pilots, military pilots, fire fighters, bomb squads, search and rescue teams, smokejumpers and other teams involved in high risk activities.

One of the major portions of this seminar looks at decision-making, including some of the weaknesses and pitfalls of many peopl experience. Although the exact number may vary, depending on which study you quote, pilot decision-making is generally faulted in 85 percent of all aviation accidents.

At scientific conferences, academics and accident investigators hammer on pilots for faulty decision-making that lead to an accident. Ive often sat there quietly squirming because Ive…

Its crucial to learn the right habits from your very first flights because they form the foundation of your skills for the rest of your flying career.

When the proverbial fertilizer hits the fan, people tend to revert to their earliest patterns of responses. The problem is, sometimes thats not the right response.

During a badly bounced landing for example, the pilot has very little altitude and airspeed to use in trying to execute a go around or other recovery. In most aircraft, a go-around requires bringing the nose up to about 5 degrees above the horizon and adding full power.

Thats apparently what the crew of a Twin Otter tried to do after a bounced landing. This tale isnt…

Troubling words from a pilots mouth: Uh, where were we?

A friend assures me that he has developed a sure-fire method to duck out of jury duty. When the defense poses the first voir dire question, merely reply: Well, the police wouldnt have arrested him if he wasnt guilty.

If the judge doesnt threaten contempt, the defense attorney will immediately conclude that no one could possibly be that dumb. On the other hand, on the off chance that someone could, using up a challenge is cheap insurance. Next juror, please.

The irony of this absurdity is that in such life-and-death matters as jury trials, were spring-loaded to doubt the governments pronouncements. Yet as pilots, most of us react in the opposite way when confronted with ATC clear…

Among the most avoidable mishaps are those caused by fuel exhaustion. Most of them seem inexcusable, yet virtually every pilot has flirted with this danger at one time or another.

You may pass up refueling at a major metropolitan airport because of the price. Or youre in a hurry and rationalize that you can make it with good leaning or tail winds – especially if youve made the same trip before. If the winds are not as forecast or your leaning is a bit off, you could be in for trouble. Ditto if you fail to recheck the weather en route and arrive to find it below minimums.

According to the AOPA Air Safety Foundations Nall Report there were 95 accidents due to fuel exhaustion in 1998…

Getting rushed or falling into situations where a time shortage rears its head is one of the leading causes of inducing errors. If you are rushed for time, you are eleven times more likely to commit an error.

You are more likely to skip critical items, overlook important details or jump at the first idea that enters your mind without fully looking at other options. Youll ignore important warning signs and generally get that deer in the headlights look. Its prevalent in all segments of aviation. During my recent research into EMS helicopter accidents, I found that time pressure was one of the leading error-causing conditions.

Some time shortages are self-induced. Others are created…