Sunday,
April 30, 2006
Vol. III No. 9 |
Sunday,
April 30, 2006
Vol. III No. 9 |
Welcome
to the
Over the
Airwaves
aviation journal. This complimentary bi-weekly e-mailing
is being sent to pilots and aviation enthusiasts around the
world. Its aim
is to promote
flight safety, encourage students and new pilots, and to build
enthusiasm for aviation in general.
Dear Pilots and Aviation Enthusiasts:
If we pilots wanted to specialize in just one aspect of aviation that would have the greatest impact upon our safety, other than simply controlling the aircraft, it would be weather! The simple fact is, weather-related accidents are nearly always fatal - 93.8% to precise, according to the 2005 AOPA Nall Report! If you get tangled up in a weather-related accident, you and your passengers will likely die. Sad but true, weather shows no mercy for the non-weather savvy pilot! This week's issue of Over the Airwaves is devoted to weather factors that take far too many pilot lives. Since this is the beginning of summer, we will be looking specifically at thunderstorms and their associated weather phenomenon. As pilots, we will explore weather assessment, weather avoidance, and weather-related upset recovery techniques. Don't be a weather whimp! One of the most insidious aspects of the "dirty little secret" that nobody in the aviation establishment likes to talk about is the terrible lack of practical weather training primary pilots receive. Like teaching children, the operative word in many flight training establishments is "DON'T."
Flight students who graduate from such training environments eventually encounter the various forms of weather they were admonished never to fly in. Obviously, with little or no serious weather flight training, they bounce around a potentially lethal flight environment like unsupervised children in a big city. They become accidents waiting to happen! Panic first! Suddenly tossed about in severe turbulence or enshrouded in ground obscuring fog, the hapless pilot panics. Frozen in fear of the unfamiliar, what lingering piloting skills he may have suddenly become lost in a mental state of confusion and disorientation. He yearns for the security afforded by the view limiting device that was a large part of his instrument training. He wishes he could stand up and walk away from the stationary flight simulator where he practiced level flight in "turbulent" air! The nation suffered a terrible loss the evening that John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his wife and sister-in-law encountered coastal fog on a flight to Martha's Vineyard in a very well equipped and weather capable Piper Saratoga. Unfortunately, young Mr. Kennedy, an otherwise bright young man, was not up to the simple task of keeping his wings level or even clicking on the autopilot. Curiously, in the typical flight training environment where all he had to do was flip off the foggles or stand up and walk away from the flight simulator, Mr. Kennedy would have likely performed in an acceptable fashion. Unfamiliar with REAL world weather, however, he was left terribly unprepared for the vagaries of coastal weather. Become a weather-savvy pilot!
Do we know which is the safest side of a low pressure area to operate in during the icing season? Do we really understand the three basic meteorological components that contribute to thunderstorm formation? Do we know why the prevailing winds at the equator move from east to west? How about the influence of pressure gradients or the position of the jet stream on winds aloft Even the simple understanding of cloud types, bases, and tops offers enormous advantage to the weather-savvy pilot. It is a brave new world! We pilots have more weather depiction graphics available to us on the Internet and in the cockpit than NASA had the last time the space shuttle flew. Can we go through each of these weather products and accurately predict what the weather will be like along our planned route of flight? Should we ever encounter weather surprises? Should weather factors continue to be responsible for GA accidents? Today's weather-savvy GA pilot has the tools and technology to be the master of his flying environment. There should be no more launches into unknown weather. Equally important, there should be no more flight cancellations due to questionable weather. Instead, we should know precisely what the weather will be doing whenever we fly. And should the
unpredictable happen, we will always be ready with an
immediate back door!
They're back! As the northern portions of North America and Europe emerge from the cold winter months where airframe icing is the greatest weather risk, thunderstorms are about to re-emerge in the daily weather briefing.
For many flight schools and the students they have taught, the mere mention of thunderstorms anywhere in the METAR/TAF or area forecast becomes an instant "deal killer," and the airplane is rolled back into the hangar. Like the fear of airframe icing, these hapless pilots inherit dramatic but mis-guided stories of how thunderstorms reach out and suddenly destroy little airplanes in flight. The Truth about Thunderstorms Thunderstorms DO kill, but like infectious diseases, they are easily identified and more easily avoided. To remain on the ground with the airplane locked in the hangar anytime the chance of thunderstorms are in the forecast is a terrible waste of time and resources! The key to operating throughout the thunderstorm season is to understand how these beasts are created, where and when they occur, and how best to avoid them. To do this, we need to understand the meteorological factors that cause t-storms. Three Requirements for Thunderstorm Development:
Beware any time the dew point is 70d F or higher! This indicates a high degree of atmospheric moisture that needs very little cooling before it will condense into visible moisture. 2. Heat: The process of water vapor condensation releases latent heat into the atmosphere. The resultant heated parcels of air climb in the atmosphere. This encourages more water vapor condensation and more release of latent heat. Once this heat generating trigger is pulled, the storm becomes self-generating! This runaway heat generating cycle, once ignited, is the birth of a thunderstorm and is characterized by strong updrafts. 3. Lifting Action or Atmospheric Disturbance: Most thunderstorms start out as pretty cumulus clouds. Then some form of atmospheric instability occurs. That is it. Moisture, heat, and atmospheric disturbance are the ingredients of thunderstorm formation. Our jobs as pilots is to understand how these these three ingredients work together to form a thunderstorm. Once we understand this, avoiding getting entangled in one is a simple task.
Let's peer inside a thunderstorm . . . The illustration below depicts the temperature differences inside a developing thunderstorm and its surrounding air. Note that the temperatures are significantly higher inside the cloud than outside! As this warm, moist air rises and mixes with the surrounding cooler air, the process of condensation and vaporization releases enormous amounts of latent heat. This causes the cumulus cloud to rise higher and higher in a self-perpetuating fashion. If you are flying along in and out of clouds, be sure to keep a close eye on your OAT gauge. If you are penetrating clouds whose OATs are warmer than the surrounding clear air, beware!
The resultant cloud begins to look like the photo below.
The cumulonimbus cloud that forms
may extend over 30 000’ or even 60 000’ in the tropics. Once the water droplets, formed by condensation, become too large to be held up by the strong updrafts, they begin to fall as rain or hail. As they do this, the surrounding air cools and begins to form strong down drafts. This leads to windshear and possible microbursts underneath the storm. The cloud may have an anvil shape at the top due to the strength of the upper wind. With warming air going up and cooling air sliding down beside it, strong static charges build up within the clouds. These electrical differentials produce arching currents, e.g., cloud to cloud lightning, along with thunder. Eventually, these differentials become so great, the entire cloud discharges its charge to ground. This produces cloud to ground lightening thus signaling the dissipating stage of the thunderstorm.Hazardous Effects of Thunderstorms
The shearing effects of the up and down moving air currents within a thunderstorm have enough force to cause serious airframe damage. Severe icing: Both airframe and carburetor icing is a distinct possibility in a thunderstorm. Large amounts of super-cooled water are present in a thunderstorm, particularly in the central up drafts. This can lead to very rapid deposits of ice on all aircraft surfaces. Heavy rain and hail: Hailstones of up to five inches in diameter have been recorded, but much smaller hailstones can damage or destroy an aircraft. Hail occurs more often at the edge of thunderstorms, and may fall from an overhanging lobe. Tornados: These are small and localized and can move unpredictably at high speeds. These occur frequently in the central US in summer, and occasionally in Europe, including the UK. They can destroy an aircraft in flight or on the ground, with wind speeds sometimes as high as 200kts. Microbursts: Localized, low level, very intense down drafts from the base of a thunderstorm. When these occur on the approach or departure course of an airport, their consequences can be disastrous.
How do you avoid thunderstorms?
Do not enter IFR conditions when thunderstorms are forecast along your route of flight UNLESS you have reliable spherics equipment on board your aircraft . . . and you know how to use it! Thunderstorm Lines verses Air Mass Thunderstorms typically set up either along lines associated with fronts, e.g., squall lines or they occur spontaneously in random locations, e.g., air mass thunderstorms. Thunderstorms formed along lines or fronts are typically more severe than air mass thunderstorms. Any attempt to maneuver through a line of thunderstorms, even with the best spherics equipment aboard should always be avoided. An area of air mass thunderstorms can be safely transitioned PROVIDED the aircraft is equipped with both spherics and live radar and, of course, the pilot knows how to use and interpret this equipment. Live radar, for example, can be used to measure thunderstorm cloud tops. Those clouds that reach above 25,000' must be given at least a 25 mile birth. A word about uplinked weather . . .
In summary Thunderstorms kill! Our job as pilots is to understand how they are formed, when they occur, and how to see and avoid them. When we do this, thunderstorms are non-events. Like everything in aviation (again), if we know and understand what we are doing, summertime flying, even when "chance of thunderstorms" appears in the forecast is not only possible, it can be very pleasant!
The quickest way to identify a truly proficient pilot is to observe how he or she handles a crosswind takeoff! This observation is also a favorite of designated pilot examiners (DPE's) conducting a flight test!
The Challenges . . . Preventing the Drift: The challenge of any pilot in taking off in a crosswind is to continue tracking directly over the runway immediately after lift off. Drifting to either side of the runway is simply bad form. Doing so will guarantee a loss of points on the check ride. For experienced pilots, it exhibits a basic lack of pilot proficiency. Flying Coordinated: Rule #1 in any flight
attitude (other than a deliberate slip) is to fly coordinated.
This means keeping the ball centered in the inclinometer.
Doing so in a crosswind takeoff while tracking over the
Avoid the best runway when training or practicing: There is only ONE way to become proficient in crosswind takeoffs. You have to make many crosswind takeoffs. This is where pilots training a larger airports have the advantage. There is nearly always at least one runway that is NOT aligned with the prevailing wind. Proficient pilots are always looking for ways to exercise their piloting skills. They search out airports that have runways running perpendicular to prevailing winds. That's where they spend their training and practice time!
Jo is definitely NOT a little airplane person. But offer her a weekend in New York City with a Broadway show, dinner, and plenty of time to shop, she suddenly transforms herself into a full-fledged first officer! This ritual of airplane courtship takes place frequently throughout the year in the Miller family. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago are just a few of the destinations my wife loves to visit. Yes, these trips can be expensive, but they are an excellent way to keep the reluctant spouse interested and involved in flying and helping to pay the costs of our little airplanes! Remember, a happy spouse is worth the cost of a good annual, and many tanks of 100LL! It's the destination, not the journey, stupid! Seldom does a day go by where a colleague pilot does not say to me, "Bob, I wish I could get my wife interested in my flying." I always reply, "Offer to take her to a place she wants to go!" Strange and as unbelievable as it sounds, many spouses simply do not like to fly in little airplanes. They find them hard to get into, they cannot get up and move around the cabin, and they do not have those private little rooms where they can go when the need arises. BUT, if you make the destination worthwhile, they just might overlook those little inconveniences and become an enthusiastic traveling companion in your little airplane! New York City, for example! New York City from Buffalo, NY is a quick 1.5 to 2.0 hour flight in the T-210. Teterboro Airport, located just eight miles west of the City, is the preferred landing airport. And of the five FBOs that serve KTEB, Millionaire is currently the best deal. They waive overnight parking if you purchase fuel ($5.50/gal this past weekend). The Westchester/White Plaines Airport is another option, but ground transportation via the railroad takes a wee bit longer (about 45 minutes) that from Teterboro.
Other ground transportation options, ranging from high to
low in price, is a limo ($112), a taxi ($75 with tip), and
bus ($3.50/person). If you are traveling during rush
hour, Monday
Hotels: Good hotels in Manhattan are numerous and relatively expensive ($295 and up per night). We like the Marriott Marquis on Time Square because of its location and room size. We paid $395/night for a room with a view. Clicking on http://www.orbitz.com is a good way to find and book the hotel of your choice.
Broadway Shows: As for Broadway shows, http://www.ticketmaster.com is the best place to find tickets. In fact, this is where our entire trip planning begins. We log on, select our desired show(s) then choose a date around when the best seats are available. Depending upon the show, it may take as long as six months to get the best seats, but the value in return is always worth the wait! Shopping: 
Jo and my 16 year old daughter, Erica, have two favorite shopping haunts. On the high price end is Bloomingdales on Lexington and 58th Street. The best deals, however, are found at Filene's Basement on Union Square at Broadway and 14th Street. Of course, there the hundreds of quaint little shops throughout the city. If you can't find it there, it's not available anywhere! And what's in it for you? Flying into the New York TRACON is always a heady experience for me. It is equivalent to playing in the major leagues of the national airspace system. Naturally, you have to be good, not perfect, but good. ATC instructions come at machine-gun pace and the controllers take no prisoners. Play right or go away! In truth, the controllers are very friendly! But you must be proficient!
These guys trashed an OTA article I wrote several months back about one of my training flights involving flight through freezing clouds. So enraged, these critics acting as Internet Police dragged the matter before the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) and to the FAA in an attempt to have me banished to a warmer climate! There is no legal definition of "Known Ice" . . . yet! Not wishing to come into another icing season in fear that my propensity to conduct IFR instruction in real wintertime (sub-freezing) clouds will come under attack by the Internet Police, I fired off a letter to the FAA requesting a legal opinion from their Office of General Counsel in Washington, DC regarding the definition of known ice. A copy of this letter is shown below
Serious Ramifications . . . For decades, the matter of what constitutes "known" ice has been regarded like President Clinton's gays in the military policy, e.g., "Don't ask, don't tell." In other words, the FAA has been deliberately imprecise in attempting to define "known" ice. This impreciseness left the matter entirely in the hands of the hapless pilot. If he or she encounters icing in a non-known ice certificated airplane and handles it okay, no problem. The FAA looks the other way. If, however, this same hapless pilot encounters the very same icing conditions and declares an emergency and/or has an accident as a result, the FAA will likely tag him with violations of FAR 91.9(a), 91.13, and 91.103! Flight Training Suffers as a Result! Because of the lack of a clear definition of "known" ice, many in the flight training community here in the north refuse to conduct IFR training in actual conditions between the months of November and April. We call these CFIIs "strict legalists." They fear that because the clouds are below 32d F, they will be in violation of FAR 91.9(a) - Compliance with Aircraft Certification Requirements. Thus, all winter IFR training is performed by them under a hood and/or in a simulator - and never in the clouds where it needs to be conducted! The FAA Moves Slowly . . . I requested a similar letter of determination on a different subject from the FAA HQ Office of General Counsel several years ago. They answered with their ruling about 9 months later. So, I do not expect a quick answer, but when it does come, it could change the face of general aviation! Standby (for about 9 months) for further information.
Why we continue to see this kind of accident at all is a big
mystery! Sadly, continued VMC flight
Regrettably, weather-related accidents are on the increase with 2004 recording more weather-related accidents than in the previous six years, according to the AOPA's Nall Report. Two Fatal, Two Serious . . . Last month, for example, a non-instrument rated pilot with 1,657 hours took-off in a Piper PA-34-200T from North Myrtle Beach, SC and headed northeast to Old Bridge Airport in NJ. Weather at Old Bridge was not good. Reported winds were from 280 degrees at 4 knots with an overcast ceiling at 100 feet and less than 1/4 mile visibility. So what does a non-instrument rated pilot do? One might reasonably suspect that any non-instrument rated pilot encountering declining weather would do the logical thing and reverse course. Weather, however, often acts unpredictably. Perhaps this pilot found himself suddenly surrounded in fog resulting from an unpredicted drop in temperature. Since the flight was conducted at night, maybe he simply failed to notice an insidious loss of visibility. Whatever the reason, this pilot found himself in a bad place with no apparent back door. He located the airport but somehow became disoriented and lost control. That was the end. Witness statements below:
The airplane came to rest in a wooded area, about 1/2 mile
northwest of the airport. The initial impact point was a large
tree, about 50 feet tall. The wreckage path was about 350 feet
long, and oriented in a direction of 040 degrees magnetic.
The pilot and front seat passenger were killed. Two
passengers in the back received serious injuries.
What would you do as a non-instrument rated pilot when caught in IFR conditions? Would you continue descending, hoping to find VFR conditions, then poke around close to the ground looking for a place to land? Or would you return to the nearest known VFR conditions? Fighting Human Nature! Without adequate real ACTUAL IFR training, the VFR-only pilot stooging around in IFR conditions often follows his instinct and desire to get on the ground as soon as possible. He descends in a vain attempt to find VFR conditions below. Spotting the ground, he begins to relax as he scud runs around possible obstacles. The VFR-only pilot with even minimal actual IFR experience has more options. If he can keep the wings level or safely make simple turns, he might be inclined to climb UP to VFR conditions or make a bolt to known VFR conditions somewhere else. Some might say, naively, that he should not have departed in the face of declining weather ahead. This conclusion presupposes the fact that all forecasts are entirely accurate. In truth, what is often forecast as VFR or even MVFR can suddenly deteriorate with little or no advance warning. Such an easy decision to make while sitting safely on the ground. Why can't we make the same decision when aloft, shrouded in clouds? Tragically, far too many non-instrument rated (and instrument rated, too) pilots come to an untimely end by carving out an irrational decision in the air! Always have a Back Door! We grow tired of hearing this solution to every in-flight scenario, but its logic is iron-clad. If every pilot ALWAYS had a solid gold back door at each stage of flight, our dismal fatal accident rate would tumble and this particular pilot and deceased passenger would likely be alive today! The back door in this case would be the VFR conditions from
which our hapless pilot recently departed. A more
permanent back door, of course, would have been an IFR rating
WITH current IFR proficiency.
Thanks to OTA reader Keith Harlock for sharing this with us.
Remember, you can now open the most recent issue of "Over the Airwaves" simply by typing "overtheairwaves.com" in your internet browser! If you have not as yet signed up for your free subscription, click Free Sign Up
Click HERE (turn on your sound) to view what an airplane can REALLY do in the hands of a skilled pilot. And you thought Bob Hoover was good! Thanks to Paul Pedersen, VP EAA Chapter 46 in Buffalo, NY for sharing this video with us.
You can find this site by clicking Quick Weather Links. This same link has been added to the in the banner section at the top of each issue of Over the Airwaves.
If you want to go out and have some real fun, learn the fine art of light sport plane flying! This is what John Chapman (pictured left with me) from Holland, NY did recently. We are standing in front of an Allegro 2000. This Czech Republic built aircraft is one of many various makes and models of new light sport aircraft appearing on the market. Powered by an 80 hp, Rotex 912 engine, this fun little airplane cruises at 95 to 100 knots and has a whopping full fuel (14 gal) payload of 500 pounds . . . which is a good thing when you look at the two of us pictured in front of it! John Chapman is one of three owners of this Allegro 2000. They have two more shares at $10,400 each available for pilots in the Buffalo, NY area. If interested, contact Thom Riddle at jtriddle@adelphia.net For more information on the Light Sport Aviation program including applicable rules and regulations, click HERE.
Right . . . he'll likely die! This hapless pilot took off in PA 28-180 from the the Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia on April 2, 2004. He and his passenger flew north to the Adirondack Regional Airport near Saranac Lake (SLK) in Upstate New York. An employee at the SLK airport received a radio
transmission from the accident airplane, requesting a current
altimeter setting. The employee replied back with the current
altimeter setting. Moments later, the employee heard a
transmission from the airplane that it was on a 4 mile final for
the ILS runway 23 approach. No further transmissions were
received from the airplane.
Violation of FAR Part 61.57 - Instrument Currency Requirements It goes without saying that, in the hands of a nonproficient pilot, general aviation is inherently dangerous. This fatal accident is proof positive of this fact. As always in such cases, it is difficult to determine precisely where the pilot wrong on the approach. In this case, however, his failure to have the pitot heat on in snow and near freezing conditions could easily have led to his demise. The instrument pilot proficiency requirements set forth in FAR Part 61.57 are laughably inadequate to ensure safe IFR operations. But when we pilots "stretch" these requirements beyond what is required, the result is an accident waiting to happen. Below is a review of FAR Part 61.57
If we think of weather fronts as clashing air masses, it is easy to see why flying through them can be challenging. Suddenly differing temperatures, moisture, advection, wind direction, dew point, and cloud cover, both horizontally and vertically, can turn a routine flight into a turbulent ride in minutes.
Cold fronts: Cold fronts occur when a colder air mass approaches a warmer air mass. The colder air, being denser, flows under the less dense warmer air, lifting it and finally overtaking it. Cold fronts move quickly. Strong cold fronts can trigger atmospheric disturbances including thunderstorms, squall lines, tornadoes, high winds and snowstorms . Depending on the time of year and geographic location, cold fronts can come in succession every 5 to 7 days. Warm fronts: Warm fronts occur when a warmer air mass approaches a colder air mass. The warmer air lifts and rises over the colder air. Warm fronts move more slowly than cold fronts, and are associated with less severe weather. Warm fronts bring steadier, lighter rain or snow in front of them, which can last from a few hours to several days, and warmer, drier air as the warm front passes. Occluded fronts: Occluded fronts form where a slower moving warm front is followed by a more rapidly moving cold front. The wedge shaped cold front eventually overtakes the warm front and pushes it aloft. The two fronts continue to move in tandem, with the line between them being the occluded front. As with stationary fronts, a wide variety of weather can occur along an occluded front, but usually they are associated with stratus cloud and light precipitation. Occluded fronts usually form around low pressure areas and usually when the low pressure area is weakening. It is also known as a trough of Warm air Aloft. Stationary front: A stationary front is a boundary between two different air masses, neither of which is strong enough to replace the other. A wide variety of weather can be found along a stationary front, but usually clouds and prolonged precipitation are found there. Stationary fronts will either dissipate after several days, or change into a cold or warm front. Stationary fronts are more numerous in the summer months. Prolonged precipitation associated with stationary fronts are often responsible for flooding rainfalls during the summer months.
How it all looks on a Surface Analysis chart . . .
Having the big weather picture is the best thing we can have before commencing a cross-country flight. A quick reference to the Surface Analysis Chart (pictured above) shows the location of any frontal activity along your route of flight. You can find the most recent Surface Analysis Chart by clicking HERE.
Your flight bag, charts, and pencils and unsecured passengers are being tossed around the cabin like ice cubes in a blender. What do you do first? It goes without saying that "panic" must be avoided! Instead, pull your power to idle, keep the wings level, and use pitch to reduce your airspeed to at or below maneuvering speed (Va) without stalling. Accept whatever altitude your airplane wants. Press the Mike Button!
Never hesitate to issue an immediate emergency call ANYTIME control of your airplane is lost, even temporally. This gives ATC the necessary heads up to immediately re-route nearby traffic. It only takes a minute or two to prevent a disaster! That's all there is to it! Your only hope for survival is to preserve the physical integrity of your aircraft structure by preventing an overspeed (Vne) situation and loss of pitch control by being turned inverted. Keep your eye on the airspeed and attitude indicators. Again, power to idle.
Obviously, we cannot practice real thunderstorm escapes, but we can master extreme upsets. Regardless of the flight attitude created by a flight instructor, any reasonably competent pilot should be able to safely recover the aircraft without overspeed and excessive bank angle . . . while under the hood or in actual IFR conditions. If the thought of this exercise makes you uncomfortable, then you should go out and practice it.
Flight instructors often spend so much time admonishing their students to fly within the Practical Test Standards (PTS) limits, e.g., airspeed +/-10 knots, altitude +/-100', and heading +/-10 degrees, that almost no time is spent looking out the window for other aircraft! In other cases, pilots are simply not paying attention. It is little wonder why we continue to see mid-air collisions, particularly in and around the airport traffic pattern.
Heads Buried in the Cockpit In my many rides with pilots trained elsewhere, I marvel at how little time they spend looking out the window for other traffic. It would seem as if these pilots spent all of their time in some ATC monitored practice area where they assume no need to be vigilant for other traffic! As you can see from graphic (left), taken from the Airplane Handbook (FAA-H-8083), pilots should spend 90 percent of their time looking outside the cockpit! The remaining 10% of the time should be devoted to a quick scan of the instruments. It happened again last Sunday! Officials report that no one survived a midair collision last
Sunday involving two Cessna aircraft about 20 miles north of
Anchorage, AK. A Cessna 170B with an Alaska Airlines pilot
and his three young children onboard and a
Cessna 172 collided at an altitude of approximately 500-800
feet.
The tragic death this past week of Scott Crossfield, first man to fly faster than twice the speed of sound, offers opportunity to again examine why people die in airplanes. While the details of Crossfield's fatal airplane accident remain sketchy, there is enough evidence to suggest that Crossfield encountered severe thunderstorms and was possibly struck by lightning. With crash debris falling in three different areas over 1/4 mile wide area, an inflight breakup, for whatever reason, is quite likely. The questions will flow
We will likely never know for certain, but the circumstances around this accident suggest that a serious judgment error put Crossfield at the wrong place at the wrong time. Thunderstorms are deadly to large and small aircraft alike. Like swimming with sharks, if you are anywhere around them, you'd better know what you are doing! Poor aeronautical decision making is at the root cause of nearly 3/4ths of all fatal GA accidents. The pilot simply did the wrong thing. A decision to launch; a decision to divert (or not divert). Whatever it is, a poor ADM decision often leads to tragedy. Poor Decision Making Most pilots make poor decisions because they were seldom taught to make correct decisions.
This process is little more than the same process we parents use to teach our young children how to ride bicycles. In the process, we instruct them where to ride, when to ride, and to obey all traffic devices. Today, parents also teach their children to wear helmets when they ride their bicycles. Our children become skilled at bicycle riding, but where or when they learn good bicycle riding judgment? The same can be asked of primary and instrument flight students. Following the Civil Air Patrol's Example
Unlike reading typically dull and unrealistic training manuals, OTA exposes future pilots to actual flight scenarios they may likely one day encounter. OTA makes no pretense of offering the correct solution for every scenario all of the time. It does, however, present such scenarios in ways that stimulate thought and discussion. Flight instructors . . . do your students a favor. Introduce each of them to "Over the Airwaves." Encourage them to read, consider, and discuss the contents of each issue. Pilots do likewise . . . forward OTA to each of your pilot friends. Print and hang an OTA POSTER in your FBO or training classroom.
Modern day aviation pioneer Dick Rutan recently signed on to
"Over the Airwaves." He certainly knows the
importance of sound aeronautical decision making and the
need to continually remind ourselves of our own
vulnerability!
Upstate New York Pilots . . . don't miss this year's Rochester Wings Aviation Expo and Fly-in on Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6, at the Greater Rochester International Airport. Click HERE for more information.
Don't miss this 16th annual event! You'll be immersed in more WWII activity in a single day than you ever thought possible! Not even Oshkosh's AirVenture or Sun 'n Fun comes close to replicating what goes on here . . . . Click HERE for details.
Click HERE to view what other readers have had to say about "Over the Airwaves."
Over the Airwaves is not intended to be y |
"Don't" fly when thunderstorms
are in the forecast; "don't" fly when
ceiling and visibility approaches marginal VFR conditions;
"don't" fly when the winds approach the
demonstrated crosswind capability of the training aircraft;
"don't" fly in or near freezing clouds;
"don't" fly when . . . (you fill in the
blank)! 
Sure,
most of us can de-code a METAR/TAF and make some sense out
of a surface analysis chart, but how are we at understanding
nature's underlying weather-making machinery? 
1. Moisture:
Extreme
Turbulence:
The only way to avoid getting entangled in a thunderstorm is
to see and avoid it! In VFR conditions, they are easy to
spot. Thus, when thunderstorms are in the forecast, plan
your flight so as to remain in VFR conditions as long as
possible.
We are hearing a lot of hype about the benefits of having
uplinked weather in the cockpit. Remember, however, the
information received is several minutes old before you receive
it. Similarly, uplinked weather reports cloud to ground
lightning strikes only. This is the dissipating stage of
thunderstorm development. It does not report cloud to
cloud lightning strikes!
runway
can be a daunting task for less than a crosswind proficient
pilot!
Those
who know my wife seldom see her at fly-in breakfasts,
safety seminars, or simply hanging out at the airport with me.
As for tenting at Sun 'n Fun or Oshkosh, well . . . she views
a stay in Motel 6 as a low grade camping experience! 
through
Friday, the bus is the quickest way in because they travel
the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes. You can get a
complimentary ride from the FBO to any of these services.
Dining:
Please
note that you can change the OTA print size on your screen by
going to the top banner on your Internet browser and clicking on
view. From there, you alter the text size to suit your
preference. Remember, however, you may have to experiment
a bit if you wish to print OTA.
Few
aviation topics have been debated as vigorously as the matter of
what constitutes "known ice." It was this very topic that
recently angered a group of online aviation forum "experts."
into
IMC nearly always results in a fatal accident. 
Have
you ever wondered how all those overnight parcels make it to
your home or office the next morning . . . on time? Click
Pilots
are proficient people. They do not like surfing all of the
Internet to find the weather information they need. That
is why I created a single webpage from which pilots can obtain
immediate access to most of the weather information information
they will ever need.
Okay,
the worst has happened. You just penetrated a
thunderstorm! There is no question in your mind that you
have encountered the most violent ride of your life in an
airplane. 
"Mayday,
Mayday, Nxxxx in severe turbulence. Unable to hold altitude!"
Fortunately, most thunderstorms are
far less than one mile wide. If you can hang for just a
minute or two, you'll come out the other side of the
thunderstorm before your passengers can fill their sick sacks.
What
was it about this flight that would cause a veteran pilot to
operate in or around severe thunderstorms? Was it
"complacency" as suggested by Chuck Yeager? Was it a
feeling of invincibility resulting from his years as a
famous test pilot? Or did he simply get "caught" in a
nasty combination of weather factors? Or was there an
aircraft malfunction or perhaps he suffered an acute health
problem?
Most
primary and instrument flight training in the United States
revolves around the FAA's Practical Test Standards (PTS).
The PTS sets forth minimal acceptable pilot performance
standards for a series of exercises and maneuvers.
Flight schools and independent CFIs dutifully prepare their
students to meet these standards.
CAP
units all over the United States are now incorporating
"Over the Airwaves" in their member flight training
program. CAP cadets are given credit for reading and
discussing inflight scenarios published in OTA.
And
veterans like Scott Crossfield and Chuck Yeager . . . We all
lose an ounce of discipline and a measure of good judgment
with each passing year. This makes it doubly important
that we continue to consider on the ground the things that
hurt us in the air. A careful bi-weekly of "Over
the Airwaves" helps us to do this.
Mid-Atlantic
Air Museum's WWII Weekend, June 2-4 at the Reading Regional
Airport, PA.
Sign
Up for "Over the Airwaves" 