Why do we suck at being safe?
Check out their line of headsets, camera cables, and LED lighting today!
I wrote a recent article for AirFactsJournal.com that highlights what I feel is the larger issue around light aircraft safety. It has very little to do with inadequate training or marginal equipment or antiquated regulations. I think the current training programs are fine (could always be better), the equipment very safe, and our FARs exist mostly from prior mistakes (we earned them).
The article talks through the major cause of accidents (pilot error), and dives into Human Factors and behavior. The thrust is, what we can all do collectively to help the issue. A point I didn’t belabor in the article but bears repeating is, “if we don’t improve our safety stats in general aviation, the government will.” I hope that statement chills you like it does me.
If you are a student of accident statistics, you’ll recognize that we haven’t really gotten worse, we just haven’t improved like other segments of aviation safety. So now we are the target – related article here: NTSB Safety Alerts: General aviation is on the radar and not in a good way!
I think we are all aware that our freedoms are “conditional” in this day and age. If we give regulators a reason, they will have no problem striping away the privileges that we enjoy today.
The article doesn’t hold all the answers, or even most of them, but I would encourage you to read it and share it with others. I believe it is imperative that we “move the meter” a little on our safety metrics and show everyone that we don’t need anyone “helping us” manage our industry.
VISIT OUR SPONSOR for Training DVD's, affordable headsets, cable adapters, headset parts, LED strobes and lights, and more! They cover ALL EXPENSES for iFLYblog.com to keep it coming FREE to you FOREVER!
Subscribe to the iFlyBLOG Mailing List to get the latest blog posts and news to your E-Mail instantly! PLUS TWO FREE eBooks!
Oh good lord do I ever agree! I teach my students from the get-go that they are the only ones who can keep themselves safe. I make them make decisions that will affect safety of flight from day 1 (or at least day 2)… go / no-go decisions, weather factors, airspace decisions, NOTAMs, TFRs, etc.
And I get really hard on the students who seem to have judgement trouble… I make it clear that I can teach them the mechanics and procedures, but THEY have to follow the procedures and SHOW ME that they have good judgement before I will even consider signing them off for a checkride or even solo them (depending on the issue).
This is one reason why I think that scenario training is one of the best ways to teach, because judgement is baked in to the training – at least it is far easier to find deficiencies in judgement – when the student has to make decisions and judgement calls throughout the training, instead of just learning the maneuvers and then getting thrown into the system without ever having to really make a decision on their own.
Andrew,
Thanks for sharing that insight. As an instructor you are in a great position to positively influence safety. I love hearing how you have taken it beyond just stick-and-rudder skills.
Brent, this post really hit home and inspired a great discussion on my 13.5 hour drive yesterday. Yes… we discussed the differences between general aviation and commercial carriers and CRM. Wednesday post is on this subject. Keeping the skies safe is all about the individual! And such a challenge with our personality traits.
Thanks Karlene! You and I in this business, we deal with it daily; it is interesting.
I wish I would have majored in psychology!
Brent