Safety in General Aviation

During this aviation Safety course I have done much research and talked to many pilots. I have asked the pilots about how the feel about Aviation Safety as it affects them. During this process I have found that many pilots are concerned about aviation safety, but are not willing to do anything about it outside of doing what they feel is a good preflight before their flight.

As I stated in my previous paper on Safety Seminars, the Federal Aviation Administration has designed a program to help pilots and other persons interested in Aviation with some form of follow up training. They have found that pilots lose about 80% of their initial knowledge after they receive their qualifications. This fact does not really seem to concern many pilots. This is very disturbing as many of these pilots are going on to become Instructors or to work for the airlines. One example that I noticed was many pilots look at the safety wire on the rudder of a Cessna and check to make sure that it is there and/or that it isn’t broke, but how many pilots actually know if the safety wire is twisted the correct way or wound the correct way on the nut or bolt. This may be a very small thing and most pilots figure that it’s the

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Once the CFI’s at these schools hit 500 hours they start applying at the regional airlines, they still are CFI’s but don’t have the general aviation experience, they may have only flown 4 different aircraft mainly those in that the school uses. When he switched the gas tanks he actually switched the lever passed the detent and forced it into the off setting, there be cutting off the fuel supply to the engine.

Being that this is the number one safety topic with the FAA I found it quite unusual that even in my recent commercial check ride the examiner didn’t ask one thing about it or even mention a thing about runway safety even considering the fact that we were using parallel runways. We are responsible to get the appropriate weather brief. Personally I would like to have the pilot in the cockpit have a little more experience than just instructing. Many feel that they only have to worry about things that the Nation Transportation Safety Board has identified as problem area. They generally handle the bigger more significant problems that affect all pilots.

Recently the Federal Aviation Administration has decided the biggest problem in Aviation Safety is runway safety. The airlines seem to be having a big problem with there aircraft exiting on the high-speed turnoffs and not stopping prior to crossing the parallel runway even though the airlines provide more than enough training in this. We can’t just blame and Aircraft Company or the Federal Aviation Administration for not making the appropriate changes. Since this is the case the NTSB generally doesn’t make recommendations on pilot error safety problems. A lot of people would argue that that is why we have the annual flight reviews by a qualified instructor is to bring us up to speed on the latest rules and regulations and to ensure we are safe. This year so far there has been 321 accidents through March, not much of a change considering that everybody is suppose to be pushing aviation safety. They feel the all the recommendations that the National Transportation Board makes are not generally adhered to or even that people have to die before the Federal Aviation Administration will do anything about them. These meetings are held weekly/monthly at the FBO’s serving the airport, which is closest to the FSDO office.

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