Monday, July 14, 2014

TC FREEMAN's WingsOfun.com BLOG #52, July 7, 2014: More on Wake Turbulence (video) and "Solving the Weather Problem..." (article)

WingsOfun.com BLOG #52: July 7, 2014



WELCOME PILOTS~TC Freeman

“Keeping the fun in high performance aviation training.”

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PILOT SAFETY MINUTE VIDEO #52 ~ WAKE TURBULENCE (PART II)



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SOLVING THE WEATHER PROBLEM ~ A LOOK AT HISTORY AND HUMAN NATURE

By TC FREEMAN

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are on a mission to reduce the number of weather-related aviation accidents.* Aviation weather accounted for 42 accidents in 2009 (AOPA Nall Report, 2010) with 26 of the total resulting in fatalities. Oddly enough, I had a difficult time finding more current year data via the NTSB and FAA. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that the numbers were intentionally omitted due to the uninspiring low numbers of these accidents. If the FAA/NTSB were to say, “Weather accidents are killing 200,000 people a year, then you have our attention. Twenty-six, no so much, but I digress. There are still some important points surrounding this topic.

One fact the AOPA Nall Report points out is that the Lethality Index (LI) of weather related accidents is 61.9%. For those uninitiated in statistical verbage, LI is the chance you have dying while doing said activity. To illustrate, a person involved in a weather-related accident has a 61.9% chance of dying from this scenario. If you are not too depressed already, let me try to cheer you up. While landing accidents rank number one as an accident causal factor they have a LI of only 1.7%. Hoorah! Don’t you feel better?

The FAA has developed a series of educational seminars that I have yet to dig into. They are available at; http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/got_weather/. Under its “Most Wanted List,” the NTSB published a document titled, “Identify and Communicate Hazardous Weather,” to educate pilots on the seriousness of the problem.** Personally, I think weather education is worth the fuss because if you ask a diverse range of pilots their primary area of concern in flying and the majority will say “weather.” While any and all education pilots can get is good, a primary obstacle in the application of being weather savvy is time. For example, many pilots who get an online briefing from an approved source are slammed with volumes of information. While the government legal team covers its perceived liability, the pilot stands there bewildered at the mass of information. Actually, most pilot take a quick scan, hit the high spots; like Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs), METARs and TAFs; then go on about their day. Psychologically, there is only so much time a typical pilot will spend on weather. I’m not playing the blame game because both sides could do a better job. Pilots need to spend more time on weather planning and the weather product producers could concentrate more on providing the customer with what he/she wants and actually needs.

It was great speaking recently to retired Raleigh, North Carolina Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) Weather Briefer Jim Dukeman. Being employed by the federal government for 40 years, Jim was reminiscing about his early career as a briefer in New Bern, North Carolina. He fondly stated, “The benefit to having multiple AFSS’s located across the state is that this was a place where pilots could walk in the door and talk with a briefer face-to-face.” You could bet your bottom dollar that this representative knew his or her stuff about local weather patterns!

The modern AFSS is a sharp contrast to the old system. Today’s briefers sit in a windowless cube-jungle in one of the few remaining facilities across in the country that were set up in the name of efficiency through consolidation. Sadly, it takes an appointment to visit an AFSS, and for this reason most pilots don’t bother. While there are still some mighty fine briefers doing the job with cool new technology, it just isn’t the same. Never-the-less, I would encourage anyone to call ahead to arrange for a “plug-in” with a live briefing. This is a great way to increase your weather IQ and to give a briefer some real-life human contact. Otherwise, try to catch one of AFSS’s educational outreach programs in your local area.

To solve the high LI problem I think we need more general weather education followed by areas of emphasis that a flight instructor should integrate into flight training, such as “real-life” pre-flight planning, cloud/low visibility recognition and emergency escape maneuvers from low visibility and instrument flight conditions. All student pilots should experience what it is like to fly in and around clouds with a flight instructor on an Instrument flight plan to gain skills, respect and knowledge for low-visibility conditions.


*Perhaps it’s not aviation weather that accounts for most of the accidents but decision making.

**http://www.ntsb.gov/safety/mwl7_2014.html

About the author:

TC Freeman has been flying since he was a teenager and is now an aviation speaker and author. Being employed as an Aviation Safety Specialist for state government, he has a passion for spreading the thrill of flying just for the fun of it via the website, www.WingsOfun.com.

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(Run time: 34 minutes)

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NEWS FROM THE WEB

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*”FAA considers approving drones for filming movies”



* FAA promotes new weather initiative.


* WingOfun Call to Action: “Senate Acts On Third-Class Medical Exemption” (AvWeb). A quote from the article from Senator Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, "The FAA has had two years to review this request for an exemption.....Let's get this thing moving."
http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Senate-Acts-On-Third-Class-Medical-Exemption221581-1.html

Contact your elected officials in support of the “expansion of the driver’s license medical exemption to more (non-commercial) pilots. To find your senate representatives go to: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

OUR FAVORITE VIDEOS FROM THE WEB ~ 7 Year old in 737 Simulator






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=549oUK_YquA&feature=share&list=PL0D5E87A4EBBD7080&index=111


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