Over the Airwaves
Hands down . . . the United States has the safest air transportation system in the world. It is also the most pilot-friendly nation on the globe. We have more licensed pilots and registered aircraft per capita than anywhere else and it costs less to fly in the USA than anywhere else in the world! But the road to these remarkable achievements has not been easy. Decades of rule-making, compromise, industry promotion, and tragic lessons learned brought all of this about. People, organizations, and government worked together, sometimes contentiously, to create a public aviation system that operates with remarkable efficiency. This proves, of course, that democracy is hard, but it is far better than any other form of government.
But the process is not done yet . . .
Despite these remarkable achievements, airline flights still run late and oppressive security measures and tightly packed cabins make airline travel a chore. On the general aviation side, our chronic fatal accident rate, despite aggressive safety efforts, remains significantly unchanged. That's the bad news. The good news is, we are striving to improve. Everybody from the FAA, to the big membership organizations, to aircraft manufacturers, right down to the guys and girls behind the yoke or stick is working hard to make things better and safer. The FAA, for example, is forthrightly attacking inherent weaknesses in the regional air carrier industry. H.R. 3371, the "Airline Safety and Pilot Training Improvement Act of 2009," which recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, will require that all pilots, captains and first officers alike, hold an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate and have at least 1,500 hours of flight time to fly FAA Part 121 commercial aircraft. No more flight school mill graduates with a commercial ticket and just 50 hours of cross-country time and precious little real world experience will be occupying the right front seat of airliners. That's a good thing.
Another is the grown-up behavior of AOPA and EAA, GA's largest membership organizations who, for decades, have jealously protected their own respective turfs, are now making signs of working together to make GA better. This, too, is a good thing.
As for aircraft manufacturers, Cessna's new on-line flight training program, which incorporates the FITS (FAA/Industry Training Standards) model, scenario-based training, and learner-centered grading, is arguably the most significant improvement in flight training in over 60 years! Now for the guys and girls behind the yoke and sticks. Many of us pilots take our flight training and proficiency very seriously. We seek and accept only the best flight instructors. We're enrolled in the FAA WINGS program. We fly frequently and we practice aggressively. We're on the numbers, every time . . . all the time. But sadly . . . major gaps remain throughout our industry. Many of the FARs, particularly those found in 14 CFR Part 61 are so desperately out of date as to be laughable. We still have no objective basis for determining how many hours we GA pilots fly - thus making our fatal accident rate only an estimate, at best.
Did you know that every public school bus driver in NY State is required by law to receive 8 hours of ground instruction and pass two driving performance tests every year to retain their driving certificates, yet we GA pilots can get by with one hour of flight and one hour of ground review every two years? Our membership organizations, particularly AOPA and its Air Safety Foundation. . . for all the genuine good they do, aggressively play down our fatal accident rate, insisting that we pilots are good and getting better! The sad truth is, we're not. If somebody suggested that an annual flight review be required of all GA pilots, AOPA would likely be first in line to oppose it.
So where does all of this leave us?
Yes . . . we are the best in the world but, like the best horse in the glue factory, that's not saying much. General aviation is in deep trouble. Aside from the enormous economic pressures we're feeling, over 300 communities a year are turned off to little airplanes because of a fatal airplane crash in their back yards. Do we see AOPA or EAA exhibiting any outrage over this sad fact?
Equally perplexing is the fact that only one out of every two new flight students ever make it to checkride. Bad instruction, poor flight school practices, crummy airplanes, and antiquated training curricula are to blame. So where is the outrage? Rather than biting the proverbial bullet and raising the standards, our GA industry is going in the WRONG direction. Want proof? History has shown that it takes a minimum of 40 hours to learn to fly a Piper Cub safely.
Today, the FAA requires only 20 hours under the sport pilot program. It normally takes 3,000 hours of on-the-job training or several years of trade school work to become an airframe and power plant (A&P) mechanic. Today, you can become a sport pilot A&P with just 150 hours of training! This reckless relaxation of the rules is not happening in the air carrier industry . . . which is our safest component. As noted above, airline cockpit crew requirements are being stiffened dramatically. Zero-tolerance for errors under Part 121 operations is the rule. Compare that with what we observe happening in general aviation and we can quickly see why we have over 300 fatal crashes every year and over 40 percent of all new flight students quit before check ride.
Yes, we are the best in the world. But so was the American automobile industry and the American steel industry. Today, nearly all of the over 100 makes and models of new light sport aircraft are manufactured in Europe and China. Yes . . . GA as we know it is in a steep descent.
This means you and me . . .
While the big GA alphabet organizations struggle to keep GA alive, there is something each of us pilots can be doing. First, we have to put an end to careless pilot errors that result in senseless accidents. We do this through recurrent training, heads-up flying, and simply paying attention to the numbers . . . . which include, of course, the number of gallons of fuel remaining in our tanks! Participating in the FAA WINGS program is another good way to start.
Second, we MUST put an end to second-class flight instruction and the bottom-feeding flight schools and inexperienced CFIs who place more value on profits and logbook hours than on turning out safe pilots.
These two efforts alone, if successful, will do more to advance the state of general aviation than everything else being done by our big GA organizations. If successful, we will continue to be the best in the world!
Fly safe, fly smart.