noel.wade
February 25th 10, 09:20 PM
Hello All, I posted this to my local glider club's discussion group;
thought I'd repost it here, given the recent safety threads...
As a powered-aircraft pilot, I check out the annual Nall Report. This
is a study compiled each year by the AOPA regarding aviation accidents
and trends. You can find this year's report at:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/09nall.pdf
While gliders are excluded from the study (due to the small amount of
aircraft and flying-time that they represent), there are still some
important lessons we can learn from the report. A few items in
particular stood out, and I wanted to toss them out here where all
members (and especially our students) can see the information.
All tolled, there were 1254 accidents in fixed-wing aircraft last
year, while on non-commercial flights. Of these, the FAA and NTSB
found that at least 907 of them were the result of pilot error. Think
about that for a second - 72% of _all_ accidents were the result of
the pilot doing something he/she shouldn't; OR by the pilot doing
nothing (when they should have taken corrective action). 72%. It is
likely (my personal opinion) that almost all of those were
"preventable" accidents - if the PIC had been better trained, had been
more current in their flying, had been paying proper attention in the
cockpit, or had maintained a safe attitude about when to fly
(especially in terms of weather).
Of those pilot error accidents, 167 resulted in fatalities. That's
18% of the 907 total accidents! To put it another way: If you screw
up and cause an accident based on pilot error, you have a 1 in 6
chance of killing someone (likely yourself).
One more point: The Nall report shows that 33% of all accidents
happened during the Landing phase of flight. And that's in aircraft
with engines that can "go around"! We don't have that luxury - we all
know that landing skills are even more critical for the average glider
pilot. Furthermore it is worth noting that gusts, crosswinds, and
stall/hard-landings were the cause of the vast majority of landing
accidents. These are all things that gliders are susceptible to -
especially crosswinds and gusts!
I'm not trying to scare anyone, or argue for any new rules & regs...
I just want people to realize how much control they have over their
own safety, and the safety of others. Its not that hard to be a safe
pilot before, during, and after every flight. Please - take it
seriously!
At the risk of stating the obvious, here are a few things that I know
I can improve on (and I suspect others can, too)... in order to be a
better and safer pilot:
1) Check FAA NOTAMs (& TFRs) before every flight. We all check the
weather (or get second-hand reports from others) before we fly... but
how often to we skip the NOTAMs because we tend to fly in
uncomplicated / unpopulated airspace? The airspace and lack of
traffic is a poor excuse for not doing this. Although its not the
official source, the AOPA has a great webpage for major NOTAMs and
TFRs: http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html
An official FAA page is here: https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/PilotWeb/
(easiest thing to do is a "Radius search" using "AWO" as the location)
And www.runwayfinder.com does a good job of showing current TFRs, too.
2) Remind ourselves in the air to keep up our visual scan. This is
necessary during _all_ phases of flight (even the aerotow, as the
recent Boulder midair showed). Its easy to get focused on clouds or
goals or other gliders. Don't get tunnel vision, keep up that scan!
I personally fall victim to this alot on long flights, and am making a
concerted effort to change my behavior this year.
3) Get recurrent training to keep our skills sharp. We all know that
it can be tough to get a volunteer CFIG - but most are accommodating
if you actually call/email them directly. A BFR is the *legal
minimum* amount of recurrent training that we must do. Is it really
safe to rely on the minimums? Isn't the cost of an extra tow or even
an hour of instructor's time every 6 - 12 months small potatoes, when
you compare it against the cost of a sailplane repair, an insurance
deductible, a hospital bill, or a lawsuit? And for non-BFR flights
you can always take up a non-CFIG with you for a bit of "peer review";
that's still better than nothing! Refusing to take off 1 or 2 days a
year from "normal" flights in order to do this training is a sign of a
bad attitude.
4) Practice landings. Practice them a lot. Practice *precision*
landings (as many people these days preach, but few actually
practice). Don't get lulled into the exact same approach every time.
Train yourself to look at the windsock and check AWOS/ASOS in your
approach to landing. Practice things like slips and S-turns so that
you can counteract crosswinds and adjust your altitude during your
approach. The flight does not end when the aircraft enters the
pattern - do not relax or let your guard down at that point! The
flight continues until the aircraft comes to a complete stop - keep
thinking and "flying" all the way until it stops!
Thanks for reading,
--Noel
thought I'd repost it here, given the recent safety threads...
As a powered-aircraft pilot, I check out the annual Nall Report. This
is a study compiled each year by the AOPA regarding aviation accidents
and trends. You can find this year's report at:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/09nall.pdf
While gliders are excluded from the study (due to the small amount of
aircraft and flying-time that they represent), there are still some
important lessons we can learn from the report. A few items in
particular stood out, and I wanted to toss them out here where all
members (and especially our students) can see the information.
All tolled, there were 1254 accidents in fixed-wing aircraft last
year, while on non-commercial flights. Of these, the FAA and NTSB
found that at least 907 of them were the result of pilot error. Think
about that for a second - 72% of _all_ accidents were the result of
the pilot doing something he/she shouldn't; OR by the pilot doing
nothing (when they should have taken corrective action). 72%. It is
likely (my personal opinion) that almost all of those were
"preventable" accidents - if the PIC had been better trained, had been
more current in their flying, had been paying proper attention in the
cockpit, or had maintained a safe attitude about when to fly
(especially in terms of weather).
Of those pilot error accidents, 167 resulted in fatalities. That's
18% of the 907 total accidents! To put it another way: If you screw
up and cause an accident based on pilot error, you have a 1 in 6
chance of killing someone (likely yourself).
One more point: The Nall report shows that 33% of all accidents
happened during the Landing phase of flight. And that's in aircraft
with engines that can "go around"! We don't have that luxury - we all
know that landing skills are even more critical for the average glider
pilot. Furthermore it is worth noting that gusts, crosswinds, and
stall/hard-landings were the cause of the vast majority of landing
accidents. These are all things that gliders are susceptible to -
especially crosswinds and gusts!
I'm not trying to scare anyone, or argue for any new rules & regs...
I just want people to realize how much control they have over their
own safety, and the safety of others. Its not that hard to be a safe
pilot before, during, and after every flight. Please - take it
seriously!
At the risk of stating the obvious, here are a few things that I know
I can improve on (and I suspect others can, too)... in order to be a
better and safer pilot:
1) Check FAA NOTAMs (& TFRs) before every flight. We all check the
weather (or get second-hand reports from others) before we fly... but
how often to we skip the NOTAMs because we tend to fly in
uncomplicated / unpopulated airspace? The airspace and lack of
traffic is a poor excuse for not doing this. Although its not the
official source, the AOPA has a great webpage for major NOTAMs and
TFRs: http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/notams.html
An official FAA page is here: https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/PilotWeb/
(easiest thing to do is a "Radius search" using "AWO" as the location)
And www.runwayfinder.com does a good job of showing current TFRs, too.
2) Remind ourselves in the air to keep up our visual scan. This is
necessary during _all_ phases of flight (even the aerotow, as the
recent Boulder midair showed). Its easy to get focused on clouds or
goals or other gliders. Don't get tunnel vision, keep up that scan!
I personally fall victim to this alot on long flights, and am making a
concerted effort to change my behavior this year.
3) Get recurrent training to keep our skills sharp. We all know that
it can be tough to get a volunteer CFIG - but most are accommodating
if you actually call/email them directly. A BFR is the *legal
minimum* amount of recurrent training that we must do. Is it really
safe to rely on the minimums? Isn't the cost of an extra tow or even
an hour of instructor's time every 6 - 12 months small potatoes, when
you compare it against the cost of a sailplane repair, an insurance
deductible, a hospital bill, or a lawsuit? And for non-BFR flights
you can always take up a non-CFIG with you for a bit of "peer review";
that's still better than nothing! Refusing to take off 1 or 2 days a
year from "normal" flights in order to do this training is a sign of a
bad attitude.
4) Practice landings. Practice them a lot. Practice *precision*
landings (as many people these days preach, but few actually
practice). Don't get lulled into the exact same approach every time.
Train yourself to look at the windsock and check AWOS/ASOS in your
approach to landing. Practice things like slips and S-turns so that
you can counteract crosswinds and adjust your altitude during your
approach. The flight does not end when the aircraft enters the
pattern - do not relax or let your guard down at that point! The
flight continues until the aircraft comes to a complete stop - keep
thinking and "flying" all the way until it stops!
Thanks for reading,
--Noel