Recent, similar efforts involving the FAA and the GA community are picking up in tempo. Youve already seen some of the institutional changes: relaxed certification standards for installing advisory angle-of-attack indicators and the new rash of all-electronic attitude indicators, among others, which are designed to help minimize the classic loss-of-control inflight accident. These and other outcomes may be producing tangible results, but its too early to be sure. Regardless, by using a data-driven approach and producing specific safety enhancements, these efforts are creating some useful outcomes for GA pilots. The way this came to be is an example of why you never want to see sausage made.
The FAA shifted from regulation enforcement to a proactive, data-driven, and industry-collaborative safety approach (e.g., "Safer Skies") following mid-1990s airline accidents.
This approach, through the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST), drastically reduced fatal airline accidents but saw slower initial progress in General Aviation (GA) despite efforts like the early GAJSC and FITS training program.
Recent revitalization of GA safety efforts, including a re-chartered GAJSC and new Airman Certification Standards (ACS), aims to apply data-driven methods to develop specific "safety enhancements," though the direct cause for recent GA accident rate reductions remains debated.
Since the mid-1990s, the FAA has worked proactively with the aviation community to reduce fatal aviation accidents. This has worked spectacularly well with the airlines, which are much more tightly regulated than general aviation, and the safety record shows it. Until recently, however, these efforts haven’t trickled deep down to GA. That’s changing.
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