2009 Nall report and Soaring Safety

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 he 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

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:20:31 -0800, noel.wade wrote:

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 he
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.

Even after filtering out far away NOTAMS its not easy to relate them to
the day's planned task (assuming you do plan an XC). I normally use the
excellent NOTAMplot the previous evening when I'm planning a flight. It
downloads all current NOTAMS, optionally filtering them for the date of
the flight, and plots them on a UK map. I have the BGA turnpoint list
loaded into NOTAMplot so I can plot my intended task as well and change
it if I see conflicts.

Does the FAA, AOPA, etc provide a NOTAM data feed and is there an
equivalent program available for the USA? I've never heard one discussed.

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!

To see what can happen if you don't fly a glider until it stops, take a
look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Feb 25, 5:18*pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:20:31 -0800, noel.wade wrote:
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.htmlAn official FAA page is he
https://pilotweb.nas.faa.gov/PilotWeb/(easiest thing to do is a "Radius
search" using "AWO" as the location) Andwww.runwayfinder.comdoes a
good job of showing current TFRs, too.

Even after filtering out far away NOTAMS its not easy to relate them to
the day's planned task (assuming you do plan an XC). I normally use the
excellent NOTAMplot the previous evening when I'm planning a flight. It
downloads all current NOTAMS, optionally filtering them for the date of
the flight, and plots them on a UK map. I have the BGA turnpoint list
loaded into NOTAMplot so I can plot my intended task as well and change
it if I see conflicts.

Does the FAA, AOPA, etc provide a NOTAM data feed and is there an
equivalent program available for the USA? I've never heard one discussed.

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!

To see what can happen if you don't fly a glider until it stops, take a
look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eamnTyfkUBY

--
martin@ * | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org * * * |

There is the DUAT service which I use to obtain a flight briefing
before going to the field and hopefully avoid a blunder with TFR's.
It can be filtered so as not to check the entire US airspace.

Chip F.
YW

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:52:24 -0800, chipsoars wrote:

There is the DUAT service which I use to obtain a flight briefing before
going to the field and hopefully avoid a blunder with TFR's. It can be
filtered so as not to check the entire US airspace.

From a quick glance DUAT does more or less exactly the same as AIS does
over here - lets you select relevant NOTAMS by date/time and location and
presents them as text.

However, we can also get the same information in machine-readable form
and display it on a map, representing NOTAMS by the circles or polygons
used to define the area that's NOTAMed. You click on the map to read the
text for a NOTAM. We can also add a task we're planning for a visual
check on clashes. Is there any move in the USA to support a similar
capability?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Martin (and others) -

For graphical representations, I like www.runwayfinder.com (which
overlays this stuff on top of Google Maps and a sectional-chart view.

I can't say for sure whether it catches ALL NOTAMs, but I know it
catches TFRs very well.

Enjoy,

--Noel

Another site for graphical TFRs.
Jim

http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr_map_ims/html/index.html

On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:00:44 -0800, JS wrote:

I've learnt something from this: NOTAMS aren't nearly as heavily used in
the US as they are here.

I couldn't see how to make www.runwayfinder.com show NOTAMs but
http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr_map_ims/html/index.html works quite nicely (though
won't show a task or flight plan) and does show NOTAMS. The shock was
seeing that it only lists 22 current NOTAMS for the whole USA and only 4
in California!

By contrast today in the UK we have 77 active and applicable below FL070,
another 23 that lack plottable co-ordinates (like many American SECURE
category NOTAMS), and another 60 that were been excluded from by my
filter (inactive today and/or inapplicable below FL070).

http://www.gregorie.org/temp/notams/ contains a NOTAMplot screenshot
showing NOTAMs that apply in East Anglia today below FL070. I also added
a 177 km task to show how it appears.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

Controlled airspace isn't as heavily used as in Europe, either!
Simple NOTAMs such as a closed taxiway, snow on the runway, or a
light not working don't make it on the map. They would be in a
briefing for your route, along with PIREPs etc. Of course, pilot
reports of turbulence are often a good sign for soaring!
Why are security NOTAMs typed "caps lock", which seems a poor way to
communicate? Most people receiving an e-mail typed in caps would hit
the delete button.
Jim

On Feb 26, 6:43*am, Martin Gregorie
wrote:
On Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:00:44 -0800, JS wrote:

I've learnt something from this: NOTAMS aren't nearly as heavily used in
the US as they are here.

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 10:25:43 -0800, JS wrote:

Controlled airspace isn't as heavily used as in Europe, either!
Simple NOTAMs such as a closed taxiway, snow on the runway, or a
light not working don't make it on the map. They would be in a briefing
for your route, along with PIREPs etc. Of course, pilot reports of
turbulence are often a good sign for soaring!

Those were excluded. Sorry, I should have said that my list was purely en-
route NOTAMS.

Anything else is of little interest to UK glider pilots since we don't
usually fly from GA airfields and only talk to ATC if we need to enter
through an ATZ or land out on a GA field.

Why are security NOTAMs typed "caps lock", which seems a poor way to
communicate?

Thats the way they appeared on the NOTAM list.

Most people receiving an e-mail typed in caps would hit the
delete button.

So? That was a single 8 letter upper case word. Who trod on *your* toe?


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

reports of turbulence are often a good sign for soaring!
Why are security NOTAMs typed "caps lock", which seems a poor way to
communicate? Most people receiving an e-mail typed in caps would hit
the delete button.


My guess is, it is a leftover from the days of teletypes that only had
capital letters.


Good points about Notams though, In the US we have gotten some good
resources for quickly identifying TFRS that might affect our flights.
However the Notam system is lagging far behind the TFR System. It is
easy to look at a TFR map and determine all is clear and then find out
the airport in the next town is closed due to an air show.

One of my memorable flights was a Cross country that I got very low on
and was planning on landing in a field. At the last moment I contacted
a very weak thermal and slowly climbed out at about 25-50 ft/min. The
closest airport was closed for resurfacing, but I call Flight Service
anyway and asked about the airports status. The told me it was closed.
When I asked "How closed? i.e. is a taxiway useable?" they said the
only information they had was "it is closed". Fortunately I was able
to climb enough to make it the next airport.