Mark,
Yes.
Also I really liked your guest article in the last AOPA magazine.
Can you post it here?
Mike
At 10:42 AM 3/3/2016, you wrote:
On Mar 3, 2016, at 8:44 AM, Peter (PCS3)
<<mailto:p...@internode.on.net>p...@internode.on.net> wrote:
As an L2 instructor, I teach that glider pilots
have to be flexible and not fixate on landing
on the RWY they took off on. I also quote that
we had a spin in and death at our airfield of a
pilot who was flying with RAA. His beautiful
self constructed glider had a motor in it and
he flew low past one runway to join the duty
runway and spun in on joining downwind. :-( :-(
Flexibility is part of it, decision-making is
another. And it isnât even cockpit decision-making.
Aviation in small airplanes has an accident rate
roughly equivalent to motorcycle riding.
To my mind (which could be very wrong),
thereâs a difference between riding motorbikes
and flying, in that I think motorcyclists have
less agency, which means theyâre more
susceptible to accidents that they donât
contribute to. That is: you can be the best
motorcyclist in the world and still get randomly
run off the road by a B-double, but aircraft
accidents tend to result from the actions,
inactions, and decision-making chains of aircrew.
So I look at the categorizations of aircraft
accident data, and I make decisions from my
lounge room which affect my risk exposure, and
the tradeoffs Iâm willing to make.
For example:
Thereâs a disproportionate number of aircraft
accidents resulting from low-flying; I choose not to do that.
VFR into IMC has always been a problem; so Iâm
conservative about weather, I bought an
autopilot, and I undertook additional instrument
flying training so that if I end up in IMC
itâs an inconvenience rather than a loss-of-control event.
There appears to be a peak of âlosing control
on the runwayâ accidents; so Iâm probably
one of the few non-trainee licensed pilots who
goes out for sessions of circuit bashing, to
maintain proficiency by doing 30 landings in a
month instead of the 6 or 8 Iâd otherwise
typically do in a month of weekends.
Losing control in flight is another one; I went
out and got an aerobatics rating, and do recurrent training there too.
In gliders, the risk of a midair collision is
significantly higher in comps; so I chose not to fly comps.
The general idea is that I can understand that
flying is risky, but make decisions about which
risk factors Iâll expose myself to. As I gain
knowledge of risks and/or apply countermeasures,
my willingness to expose myself to them can (and does) change.
Some of those involve tradeoffs: For instance,
the specific type of instrument flying training
I undertook was a night VFR rating.
Single-engine night VFR comes with its own
risks, which I can judge with my eyes open, and
mitigate appropriately (the decision to acquire
the autopilot came part-way through the training
as a mitigator for the risk of perceptual
illusions). Time will tell if my tradeoffs are good ones.
Will I have an accident? No idea, I really hope
not. But if I do, I know thereâs a 100% chance
that it wonât be due to low flying, or loss of
control in cloud, or mishandling of a crosswind
on landing, or inadvertent spinning. Iâve made
specific decisions to exclude myself from those.
Maybe Iâll be surprised by something else, but
the residual risk in aviation in small planes
looks significantly safer than the baseline once
those classes of accident are eliminated from the stats.
Hope thatâs useful to someone.
- mark
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
Aus-soaring@lists.base64.com.au
http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring
Borgelt Instruments - design & manufacture of
quality soaring instrumentation since 1978
www.borgeltinstruments.com
tel: 07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784
mob: 042835 5784 : int+61-42835 5784
P O Box 4607, Toowoomba East, QLD 4350, Australia
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
Aus-soaring@lists.base64.com.au
http://lists.base64.com.au/listinfo/aus-soaring
