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Guest Opinion: Simulation Comes of Age

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • General Aviation (GA) consistently suffers from a high accident rate attributed to weaknesses in both fundamental flight skills and higher-order risk management training.
  • Flight simulators offer a promising, cost-effective solution to improve pilot education by effectively addressing both basic skill development and realistic risk management scenarios.
  • Widespread adoption of simulators is currently hampered by restrictive FAA regulations regarding loggable credit and instructors' preference for logging actual flight time for career progression.
  • Overcoming these obstacles requires regulatory changes to encourage simulator use and a shift in flight school culture to prioritize developing excellent aviators over simply accumulating flight hours.
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One of the few advantages of aging (or becoming “seasoned,” as my wife calls it) is gaining better perspective of our lives and careers. For me, a constant over the past 40 years has been watching the tragic consistency of the rate and reasons for General Aviation aircraft accidents.

On a personal level, I‘ve lost too many friends in such accidents. As an insurance professional, I’ve watched GA become crippled by rising insurance costs, particularly for product liability. And now, if the experts are correct, we could be facing another “hard” property and casualty insurance market making that challenge much worse.

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