Icarus was so enchanted by flight that he failed to heed his father’s warnings and crashed into the sea. He became hypnotized; drunken by his senses. He flew too close to the sun and melted his wings.   How many of us have found ourselves in this state? So enthused by the gift of flight…

I am not a doctor or a scientist, but in doing some research for another project I learned some interesting things about the brain that translates to this grand endeavor we call flying. The Cerebral Cortex, the largest area of the brain, is where most thinking functions occur. The cortex consists of four lobes: – The Frontal Lobe…

Recency of experience is one of the major safety challenges that we face in general aviation. Although it doesn’t seem to get a lot of direct press, it’s lurking just under the surface in many accidents.  It’s one of the less tangible causations which push investigators to dig deep for answers that almost never materialize,…

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…

The concept of Situational Awareness (SA), goes back as far as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, but where it really starts to show up in America is in the military, during WWI. For most of us, Situational Awareness was attached to human factors work being conducted in the 1990s, and it is still pervasive today…

We are going to explore a few commonsense ways to stay out of trouble out there. The headline is a bit of a “grabber”, the point remains that flying is unforgiving. It can be extremely safe, but we can’t take that for granted. Keep flying the airplane. This is a huge issue. Flying in this…

I penned an article for General Aviation News this week about a Human Factors condition known as Plan Continuation Bias, we know it as “get-there-itis.” I thought folks that come here would enjoy it as well.  Without giving it away, I will say that this human condition is in all of us and I have…

[pullquote]I will go ahead and state for the record, and in spite of my safety-promotional-ways, that I am not opposed to this type of flying, but…[/pullquote]

Safety vs. Risk Management I am starting to loath the word safety. This term has been carelessly bandied around for years. Talk long enough to a fellow pilot or group of pilots and inevitably it will come up.  The Internet is particularly riff with declarations of safety. Even I admit to hippocratic overuse of the word…

You’ve lost your engine, now what? What to do in the case of an engine failure? As aviators we know our airplanes are very capable of flying with an engine failure. You will obviously be descending, some airplanes faster than others, but it still flies just fine. What will you do if this fateful day…