Founder’s Innovation Prize, Additional Pilot Program, Safety Pledge, And Flight Advisors Highlighted

EAA tells us that their Vice President of Advocacy and Safety, Sean Elliott, joined other industry and FAA experts as part of a forum discussing loss of control, which is the number one cause of general aviation accidents. NTSB Board Member Earl Weener (a Bonanza owner and pilot as well as a regular attendee of AirVenture) moderated the forum at NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., joined by several NTSB staff members. Each panel of experts made presentations, followed by questions from the NTSB that probed the issues surrounding loss of control accidents and what’s being done by industry to improve that record.

Elliott shared the latest on the new EAA Founder’s Innovation Prize, an EAA initiative to engage with the Experimental community to innovate ways to significantly reduce loss-of-control accidents. EAA was also noted for such safety and cultural enhancements like its current member safety pledge around AOA systems and fuel flow testing prior to first flights, as well as its long standing Flight Advisor program designed to improve the process of Phase I flight testing. EAA’s longstanding Flight Advisor program was also highlighted, enhanced by the new FAA policy (developed with EAA) that allows for an additional qualified pilot to accompany the builder during Phase I flight testing.

NTSB recognized that EAA has a long history of its members taking action toward significant safety enhancements through the innovation prevalent in the Experimental world. This week’s participation at this NTSB forum publicly reinforced with federal policymakers what EAA and its members are doing to address the top safety issues in general aviation.

In another report, EAA said they completed their annual tracking of experimental category fatal accidents. Experimental aircraft were involved in 60 fatal accidents during fiscal year 2015 (statistics always run a year behind), with amateur-built aircraft accounting for roughly two-thirds of those accidents. Keep in mind there are nine categories of experimental aircraft of which amateur-built is one.

 Experimental fatal accidents saw a decrease of more than 11 percent over fiscal year 2014 data.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov