Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.")

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

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Aero-Tips 10.08.06

For a few years I was safety director for a highway construction company.  Between business flights I had many other duties, among them working with the company's insurance carriers.  From this I learned of a construction-industry study that has clear implications for aviation safety.

Our insurance agent told me detailed observation of heavy equipment operators showed that, on average, operators perform identifiable unsafe acts an average of 600 times for every time one causes an accident.  Sometimes the "accident" happens on the first occurrence, sometimes it never happens.  An accident might be minor, or it may be deadly.  Often it's impossible to predict the severity of the mishap that results. 

You don't want to have a day when you hit unsafe act number 601.

Consider the operator who habitually jumps down from a motor grader's cab instead of climbing down the ladder-an unsafe act.  Most times he jumps, lands and walks away.  But if he lands wrong he may sprain an ankle or break a leg.  If he falls over on landing he might bang his head on a rock and die.  Minor contributing factors…and sheer luck…can generate the outcome.  

Pilots As Operators

Like skilled equipment operators, pilots use complex equipment for highly technical tasks, often in a demanding environment.  It's not too much of a stretch to infer that pilots, too, perform unsafe acts many, many times before everything comes together to cause an accident.  Mistake or deliberate action, it's often luck that alone determines if and when there's a mishap, and its severity.

Pilots likely make hundreds of mistakes for every time one leads to a mishap.  Sometimes they deliberately do things that are blatantly unsafe and still get away with it.  You definitely don't want to be flying when you reach unsafe act #601. 

Complacency

Further, repeatedly doing something unsafe…and getting away with it unscathed…tends to validate the bad behavior.  For instance, the pilot who nervously scud-runs and makes it to destination anyway may decide it's not that dangerous after all, and fly more and more trips in worse and worse weather because "nothing bad ever happens".  He/she becomes the "Ace of the base", the pilot who can fly through anything.  If the pilot is lucky, this complacency won't kill anyone.  If usual operator patterns exist, however, any one flight could be the pilot's last.

Aero-Tip Of The Day:  Of course a mishap won't happen precisely on the 601st  time you do something.  Bad things may never happen…or they may happen the very first time.  Work to eliminate bad habits before you find yourself on a "Flight #601."

FMI: Aero-Tips