Common Cause
More Money, Same Cake
With all the hype about how great the Light Sport Aircraft are, how many choices we have now, and how easy they are to fly, one would think that we in general Aviation are saved. The biggest selling point is that they are new, and, therefore, somehow, safer. But wait, there’s more: they cost more than you can imagine, and their accident rate is equally impressive. What happened? After all, some models can be had with tens of thousands of dollars of avionics to help the pilot.
The LSAs were aimed for the younger pilot candidates, with the hope that they were more affordable, and therefore, more likely to be used as initial trainers, and then purchased by newly minted pilots as a way to enter the aircraft ownership ranks. Instead, the older pilots sold their bigger, more complex planes and moved down the capability ladder, with their impending medical limitations clearly in sight. The more affordable price of the LSAs never materialized, since the old guys had money from their recently sold machines. But the most amazing thing happened during the transition: the older pilots were crashing the newer planes just like before; no improvement, and in many cases, things got worse.
Turns out that the skills one has honed over the years in the legacy GA aircraft don’t quite translate directly into safer LSA flight. Seems the lighter wing loading might be a factor, as is the susceptibility to wind gusts. The sight picture is substantially different, and maybe the need to actually use the rudder pedals for landing control is a surprise to many. And, oh my gosh, $20K of flat panel avionic displays don’t help at all in controlling the plane. And, gee, we don’t have hundreds of horsepower to pull us out of a jam.
What conclusions can you draw from the accident/incidents listed on the FAA website every day? It’s all about the pilot, not the planes, not the engines, not even the avionics.
Same pilots, same accident causes, but now, with less performance margins than in the older, larger planes, there are more accidents. Look for yourself. Go take a flight in a LSA and experience the thrills yourself. Then write us.
Common Cause: But there is more here than meets the eye, or that can be easily explained. As the experimental aircraft population increases, we are seeing a disturbing accident trend develop, again with allegedly experienced pilots at the stick. Even harder to fathom is the very embarrassing accident rate associated with the SR22 TAA models. These planes are the best of our state-of-the-art: best composite airframes, best avionics, best engines, and yet they too are crashing every other day. So the same pilots are having the same problems flying new instead of old planes, yet the new planes cost five to ten times more. The insurance company guys might want to take a look, and take an aspirin.
Let’s hear from you. What’s your experience? What can be done?
Mike Sullivan
COM SMEL, CFI, MEI, INSTRI
C177pilot@live.com KHEF