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Checkride Pink Slips

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Key Takeaways:

  • The author disputes the relevance of a pilot's past checkride disapprovals to accident causation, arguing that such failures are common, don't necessarily indicate a "bad pilot," and can reflect persistence or training disadvantages.
  • He considers linking disapproval history to accidents unfair and discouraging, advocating instead for focusing solely on direct, ascertainable factors.
  • The magazine responds by noting that the NTSB itself highlighted the accident pilot's certification record in its report, alongside other factors like being over-gross and existing icing conditions.
See a mistake? Contact us.

Thank you for Aviation Safety magazine. It’s exceptional. But I do have an issue with April’s Accident Probe entry, “Exceeding Capabilities.”

As you know, aircraft certified for flight into known icing conditions, both single pilot and crew-­piloted, have succumbed to in-flight icing. More recently, as you also know, an aeromedical operation flying single- and crew-piloted King Air were lost to what appears to be icing-related accidents. By all accounts, those were professional pilots in good standing.

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