Left Seat: Tough Training Rules Can Work

J. Mac McClellan

Friday, January 22, 2010 at 06:10 AM ET

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Mitsubishi MU-2

Key Takeaways:

The article initially questions the common practice of blaming pilot error for light airplane accidents, suggesting potential issues with aircraft design or certification.
However, the significant safety improvement of the Mitsubishi MU-2 (and Robinson R22 helicopter) after the implementation of stringent, specific pilot training and checking requirements (S-FAR) demonstrates that enhanced training can effectively prevent predictable pilot errors without changing the aircraft itself.
This evidence suggests that demanding a higher level of comprehensive and recurrent pilot training is a proven solution to drastically reduce accident rates, particularly for aircraft with unique operational characteristics.
While such rigorous training can improve safety in general aviation, it introduces increased operational costs and potential barriers to pilot qualification, requiring a balance between safety standards and accessibility.

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I was talking not long ago with a relatively new pilot and Cirrus owner who also is the founder of a very successful software company. This fellow enjoys flying his airplane immensely but, like all of us, is concerned about the accident rate in piston-powered airplanes.

What frustrates this pilot is how many light-airplane accidents are blamed on pilot error. As he pointed out to me, there is no other business that could succeed if it continued to blame all serious problems on its customers. And in no other business that I can think of are the customers’ problems nearly as serious as in an airplane accident.