Why does a VFR pilot fly into the clouds only to lose his way
in the soft bitter blindness of grey? To be a little considerate of this poor
bloke, let us look at how that is possible. Given the mind’s judicious use of
fuzzy logic to plant an image where one does not exist, is one way. As the
visibility lowers in haze, the mind continues to fool the decision maker into
thinking that the buildings he was seeing are still there albeit a little hazy.
He soldiers on, only to suddenly realize that the there is not there and panic
sets in. I remember flying in a flight of two on a summers day with a VFR-only
pilot and his companion. As the visibility lowered and my eyes diverted to the
instruments, I realized that the other pilot did not have the same capability.
I asked the Air Traffic Control to tell my “company aircraft” to reverse course
back to our departure airfield. Upon landing, we checked the weather and
further west of our 180-degree site had gone IFR.
Preflight is another big bugaboo. Multi-hundred-hour pilots
will treat flight as if it is riding a bicycle. They will assuredly “kick the
tire and light the fire” and off they go, as if they are exempt from the rigors
of human fallacies. Most times it is okay, but then there is that one in
thousand NTSB report that makes your heart sink. How could he? Why do we ignore
a good and thorough preflight? Mostly because, a) we expect it to be okay, b)
it is a time drain and delays our ultimate thrill to be up in the air, c) heuristics
of laziness d) all others you can conjure up. But preflight is when you find
all sorts of things that can go wrong: a) contaminated fuel, b) a broken spring
on the landing gear, c) cowl plugs plugged in deep, d) a bird-nest e) open
baggage compartment door, f) a fouled plug or a broken ceramic spark plug, g)
low oil, h) a flat spot on the tire ready to go, i) a blocked pitot tube and
myriad other potential maladies that can lead to those lamentable tragedies.
The pilot is the Commander of his aircraft. No one has the
authority other than when he or she delegates to a flight instructor or another
pilot in the right seat. One of the mainstays of safety is never ever to
abrogate one’s authority to fly the aircraft. You are the boss. You make the
decisions (you may elect to recognize other’s opinion especially if it is a
contrary opinion for inclusion sake) but the ultimate responsibility still
weighs heavily on the pilot. You decide if the rudder or your authority is breached
in a crosswind landing. You decide on an alternate airport as the weather
deteriorates. You decide on the weight and balance. You decide what is the
safest and most favorable approach to a safe arrival at your destination. You are
it. You are the Big Cheese! Take that responsibility seriously but with a dose
of humility.
Above it all, as a pilot you must learn to respect two very
important things: 1. The Aerodynamic limits of the airfoil and 2. Your own
Experiential Limits. Never let the latter exceed the former and never let
yourself be seduced into trying to find the edge of the aerodynamic envelope
without first experiencing it with a more experienced and knowledgeable
instructor.
In the end, then, all lamentable tragedies are a learning
experience. They titillate the journalists into writing hyperboles but at the
very core, these disasters are learning experiences. Unfortunately, others have
shed blood and bent aluminum not to be rendered as a “stupid mistake” or an act
of “incoherent idiocy” or be subject to the glowering mean judgmental eye, but they
are to be used as a mechanism to learn from and avoid similar errors. Safety is
like climbing on the shoulders of others and seeing what they have seen and
learning to avoid where they might have erred.
To Err is Human
Did you make a mistake today? If you said no. I would beg to
differ. We make tiny errors in our daily lives that go unnoticed because they
are isolated mostly and of little consequence. The adage is “To err is human.
To err is universal. To err is inevitable.” But here is the question, “Is To
err a bad thing?”
To answer that question, we may have to ride the train
backwards in time. During WWII planes were falling from the sky. More lives
were lost from mistakes than from enemy aircraft shoot-downs.
We obviously learnt from those mistakes. The fatal aircraft
accident rate in the United States gradually declined dramatically. From 1959
when the fatal accident rate was 1 in 100,000. A remarkable feat from just 7
years before. As 2016 became history the fatal commercial aircraft accident
rate declined to an astonishingly low rate of 1 per 10 million flights. Imagine
the log reduction in loss of life! A proof worth hanging your hat on. Education
about Loss of Control, Fuel Management, Decision Making and Judgement were the
mainstay to bring the number down. Yet if we were to look at airline safety data
from 2009 (without jinxing anything) there has been a zero-accident rate in the
seven-year period. That is incredible.
The General Aviation Accident Rate per year however is a
different story. It is presented below and is based on the NTSB data available
to date. The higher rate of fatal accidents in the general Aviation Community
is partly because of lack of professionalism, single pilot operations and the
“bold pilot” mode of thinking.
YEARS
|
GA Accident Rate/100,000
|
GA Fatal Accidents
|
GA Fatalities
|
FY10
|
1.1
|
272
|
471
|
FY11
|
1.12
|
278
|
469
|
FY12
|
1.09
|
267
|
442
|
FY13
|
1.11
|
259
|
449
|
FY14
|
1.09
|
252
|
435
|
FY15
|
0.99
|
238
|
384
|
FY16
|
0.91
|
219
|
413
|
So, let me get back to the issue of is “To Err” a bad thing?
The answer is a qualified NO. However, with a caveat, to repeat
an error made by others, which has been used as learning event, is definitely a
bad thing. It is important to know that the NTSB data was created out of bent
metal and loss of life. Errors made by expanding the envelope of flight teach
us what not to do. The FAA rules are created based on the NTSB information for
pilot’s personal and his or her passenger’s safety and based mostly on the
erroneous adventures of others.
The FAA has in place a NASA form just for this purpose. If
you make a mistake or believe you might have, it is important to fill out the
form and send it along for record keeping. The form is evaluated based on ATC
tracking data and if no accidental errors were made, the pilot receives a
response in kind. If however, there was an error committed, the pilot has
protection by self-reporting of the error. A pilot is forgiven for any errors
committed over a three-year period. A continuous flow of errors however point
to the pilot’s competency and decision making that might require a
rehabilitation and remediation strategy.
ASRS Form available below
Assuming you are in a hurry and wish to fly for a $100
hamburger with impatient passengers tapping their toes. Allowing them to
influence your preflight decisions to not drain the fuel or check the oil
content, hazards will loom in that flight. These risks may remain only as risks
and not bite you or your passengers, but the “kick the tire and light the fire”
does have adverse consequences if repeated. And one day, when all the gremlins
go for their “Labor Day vacation” watchout!
Based on the FAA…
The Top 10 Leading Causes of Fatal General Aviation Accidents 2001-2013:
1. Loss of Control Inflight
2. Controlled Flight into Terrain
3. System Component Failure – Powerplant
4. Fuel Related – contamination, starvation or exhaustion
5. Unknown or Undetermined
6. System Component Failure – Non-Powerplant
7. Unintended Flight in IMC
8. Midair Collisions Low
9. Altitude Operations
10. Other
Aviation Safety is no accident!
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