"Richard Kaplan" wrote
Well airbags in seatbelts are one nice up and coming possibility for a
safety improvement.

Why go so far? The reality is that a huge chunk of the fleet is still
flying around without shoulder harnesses. Ever wonder why? I don't.
I've installed two sets. Both were ridiculously expensive and poorly
designed. Why? FAA.

Perhaps terrain avoidance systems can help prevent CFIT accidents, but is
that an airplane improvement or a pilot improvement?

It's an airplane improvement. While it's always the pilot's
responsibility to avoid terrain, the truth is that no pilot (suicides
excepted) ever intentionally pointed his airplane at terrain. The
easier it is to maintain situational awareness, the less likely the
pilot is to do it.

In fact, I believe the whole issue of workload deserves a lot more
consideration. The more a pilot has to do, the more likely he is to
make a mistake. Do you realize that every car sold in the past 10
years has highly reliable, very efficient FADEC with single-lever
control? Why are they a rartiy on airplanes? FAA.

Perhaps weather datalink can help reduce weather accidents, but really that
is providing info to the pilot, not improving the airplane per se.

But it is improving the airplane. Pilots do not intentionally fly
into weather they can't handle. They fly into weather they think they
can handle, and they are wrong - IMO usually about the weather, not
their capabilities. The more accurate, timely, and user-friendly the
weather-update system becomes, the less likely pilots will be to make
these mistakes.

In any event, it will take a really long time for this to trickle down to
the majority of the GA fleet... airplanes have a much longer average useful
life than cars.

Why? FAA.

Economics has a lot to do with this of course... there is no doubt in my
mind that adding TKS to all GA airplanes would significantly reduce icing
accidents... but that is not practical.

Why not? Frankly, there's just not that much to the system. Most of
the system cost is regulatory compliance. In other words, FAA.

So I do think focusing on pilots is more important than focusing on
airplanes.

No, I think that's the wrong focus. If we're going to make a major
effort to address a systemic problem, it should be the correct
systemic problem. The FAA.

Michael