Safety Archives - Page 23 of 31 - Golf Hotel Whiskey

Guarding the throttle

The Aviation Weblog has recently reposted an old entry that mentioned a good tip from the AOPA’s flight website about “guarding the throttle” during take-offs, landings and important maneuvers. In case you are not familiar with the term, guarding the throttle refers to the throttlelocking mechanism to prevent it from slipping. It also refers to keeping one hand on the throttle during any phase of the flight that is considered critical.

In addition, the Aviation Weblogger mentioned:

I developed a habit of routinely keeping one hand on the throttle, though when at altitude I do relax. It’s a good habit to get into, because having that airplane under your complete control, particularly at critical phases of flight, is an absolute must.

The entry concluded by saying that a pilot should guard the throttle as if their life depended on it because it does. Definitely advice worth repeating.

What are your personal operating procedures?

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are common place in both commercial aviation and in many other industries. However, the Fly With Blake blog has noted that the Aviation Safety Letter published by Transport Canada has an interesting article about so-called “Personal Operating Procedures.” This article took the same principles for SOPs and applied them to general aviation.

With the article in mind, Blake decided to come up with his own personal operating procedures which would include the following:

Sterile Cockpit procedures.
Weather Minima.
Weight and Balance.
Stable Approach criteria.
Passenger Limitations.
Flight Maneuvers.
Night Ops.
Multi-Engine Ops.
Lost Procedures.

Blake briefly goes into detail about each of his personal operating procedures and further wrote that he plans to put together a more formal document in the coming weeks which he will hopefully share on his blog. Hence and we would like to ask our readers: Are there any additional personal operating procedures not mentioned by Blake that you follow when flying?

Accidents involving homebuilt aircraft rise sharply

Scott Spangler on the Jetwhine blog has recently noted an interesting statistic: According to the results of the 2009 Nall Report published by the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, there has been a sharp increase in the number of accidents involving amateur-built experimental aircraft. The study, which analyzed general aviation accidents in 2008 to identify accident trends, found that if the fatality numbers for homebuilt aircraft had been removed from the overall statistics, GA would have had a much safer year. In fact, the study found that:

Per 100,000 flight hours, the homebuilt accident rate was 5x higher than store-bought airplanes while the fatal rate was 7x higher.
Many homebuilt accidents were caused by mechanical problems and other causes that often start with a sudden loss of power.

Scott then noted that from his first-hand experience, he knows that amateur aircraft builders “have a lot of questions that usually start with How do I…? How do these parts…? And, Is this right?” However, he further noted that:

Today, it seems to me, most of these questions are broadcast online, often accompanied with digital photos. The answers come from the other members of these online communities of builders. Certainly, this is a good thing, but it shouldn’t be the only thing. Builders need to get face-to-face with their peers and old hands, preferably in the shop.

Scott then concluded by saying that:

Regulating safety is only effective after the fact. Prevention is the ultimate, effective remedy, but it depends on a human trait often in short supply: personal responsibility. And that’s something you cannot get online.

In other words, building an aircraft is just like learning how to properly fly one: There is no substitute for hands-on training and experience.

NTSB study: Glass cockpits do not make planes safer

Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) unveiled a study that concluded that single-engine airplanes equipped with glass cockpits do not have any better overall safety record than airplanes with conventional instrumentation. According to the study, which had looked at the accident rates of more than 8,000 small piston-powered airplanes that were manufactured between 2002 and 2006, airplanes that had glass cockpits actually had a HIGHER fatal accident rate then similar aircraft with conventional instruments.

The conclusion: Glass cockpits are complex and vary from aircraft to aircraft and while they can increase safety when used properly, pilots are not always provided with all of the information that they need in order to understand all of the instruments they are dealing with. No real surprise here.

According to the NTSB Chairman:

“Training is clearly one of the key components to reducing the accident rate of light planes equipped with glass cockpits, and this study clearly demonstrates the life and death importance of appropriate training on these complex systems. We know that while many pilots have thousands of hours of experience with conventional flight instruments, that alone is just not enough to prepare them to safely operate airplanes equipped with these glass cockpit features.”

Meanwhile and in a detailed post about the study results on his blog, Max Trescott commented that “at the same time we’re trying to attract more people to aviation, the learning curve for becoming proficient with glass cockpits is getting steeper.” Max concluded that if you are going to fly an aircraft with a glass cockpits, you must invest both the time and money to get the best possible training available. After all, flying an aircraft in the real world is NOT like flying an aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator!

Fire in the cockpit simulator video

A fire in the cockpit can have serious consequences – especially if a pilot panics and turns off the engine when its not an engine fire but a cabin or electrical fire. Moreover, the smoke alone can obscure a pilot’s vision, impact his or her lungs and be a HUGE distraction away from flying the aircraft.

Hence, the Flight Academy has recently posted a video where they simulated a cockpit fire about 2 minutes after take-off. In the video, the pilot performed all the proper procedures which included:

Shutting off the electricity.
Grabbing the fire extinguiser and discharging it underneath the dash in an attempt to put out the fire.
Opening the door a little to let out the smoke.
Look for the nearest airport (in this case, one where he could not communicate with the tower).
Keep an eye out for other traffic.
Come in for a landing.

Again though, the key point to remember is not to panic and turn off the engines when they aren’t the source of the fire. Turning off the engines when the fire is an electrical fire will only make your situation worst and have potentially fatal consequences.

Flying after the age of 50

General Aviation News has recently posted an article about a subject that often does not come up in aviation blogs: Flying after 50 (especially the possible health considerations). The article quoted Dr. Jack Hastings, a member of the EAA’s Aeromedical Advisory Council, as saying that about 27% of all pilots are over the age of 50. Moreover and as we age:

Acuity decreases, while pupils get smaller and reaction slows. Our lenses become more rigid, which results in decreased contrast sensitivity. Hearing also is affected, with a loss in the higher frequencies. Impaired speech discrimination makes it hard to hear one voice in a crowded room. We begin losing muscle strength at 50, with an average loss of 33% by the age of 80, Hastings said. “Speed and coordination also decrease,” he added. Intellectually, there’s isn’t much decline until the late 60s or so.

However, it was noted that experience compensates for these losses and the secret to staying in the pilot’s seat is simple: Take care of yourself!

Taking care of yourself is not only important for older pilots, its important for younger pilots as well because altitude can effect people in poor health even more. In fact, Dr. Hastings told the story about a couple who were overtaken by hypoxia — the wife passed out at 33,000 feet while the husband passed out at 22,000 because of his health issues.

So if you want to safely stay in the pilot’s seat at any age – Take care of yourself!