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Left Seat: Tough Training Rules Can Work

Mitsubishi MU-2
Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Rigorous, specified pilot training, as demonstrated by the Mitsubishi MU-2 and Robinson R22, is highly effective in significantly reducing aircraft accident rates by preventing predictable pilot errors.
  • Aircraft design decisions can be heavily influenced by customer preferences, such as the Gulfstream G250's shorter landing gear, which was chosen for a less conspicuous appearance.
  • A new, affordable Angle-of-Attack (AOA) system from Safe Flight Instruments makes advanced safety and performance indications, previously exclusive to jets, available for piston and turboprop aircraft by adapting existing stall-warning vanes.
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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.

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