Professional Air Show Pilot Skip Stewart Shares His Thoughts

It's summer, a time when air shows abound. Did you ever experience a hint of anxiety as those airplanes fly overhead?

Skip Stewart of Cordova, TN addressed some of those concerns in a column in Sunday's Tennessean, in which he asserted that the air show industry is no different from other aspects of aviation, which all focus on safety.

Stewart is not only a FedEx DC-10 crewmember, but he is an award-winning air show pilot, delighting crowds for the past six year. With nearly 8000 hours flying, he is an ATP CFI, has owned and operated an aerobatic flight school, competed in regional aerobatic competitions, and worked as a Chief Pilot for a Fortune 100 company. He has won several Gold Medals in regional competitions and lays claim to two Pitts Trophies.

So, yes, you could call him an expert in regard to air show safety.

Okay, he admits that the safety for public exceeds that for the pilot, noting in particular that US air show spectators have been protected by rules established well before the 1988 Ramstein, Germany, accident in which a military jet crashed into the spectator area after being struck by another aircraft.

The FAA maintains requirements for minimum distances from the spectator area, with three categories defined by the speed of the aircraft; slower aircraft may get as close as 500 feet, while faster military jets are required to be three times that distance, said Stewart.

In addition to the distance requirement, there is a rule that limits the aircraft's energy vector from causing a trajectory towards spectators. Should a pilot lose control of the aircraft or the aircraft experience a mechanical malfunction, the resulting flight path must not allow the craft to head towards the spectator area.

The individual responsible for monitoring all thes rules is the "air boss," as well as others, at each air show. Because safety is the primary concern of air bosses, if they see something that may be a safety hazard, they immediately radio the pilot.

Not Every Pilot Can Be An Air Show Pilot

In addition to FAA rules, the regulation of the air show pilots themselves is the responsibility of the International Council of Air Shows (ICAS). The FAA granted ICAS the authority to regulate how air show pilots acquire a "statement of acrobatic competency" - the license to fly in an air show.

A string of air show pilot deaths in the late 1980s raised questions as to how air show pilots were regulated. With the establishment of ICAS, the money and training required to ensure that FAA inspectors were educated about the intricacies of air show issues was reduced, and, not surprisingly, there was an immediate increase in air-show pilot safety as a result of the shift in responsibility. This, asserts Stewart, is primarily due to the industry being regulated by a peer group sensitive to the issues.

How safe Are US Air Shows?

There has not been a single spectator death in well over 50 years, said Stewart.

"You are more likely to be injured by a baseball or hockey puck than by an airplane at an air show. I used to say that the safest bet was not to leave your living room, until I recently read of a woman killed by a car when it lost control and entered her house."

"For me," said Stewart, "there is no better pure family entertainment than a good, old-fashioned day at the air show!"

FMI: www.airshows.org, www.faa.gov/airports_airtraffic/airports/airport_safety/airshows, www.skipstewartairshows.com