Aviation Safety - April 2001

April 2001

The Skeptic’s Eye
Much as some people say they like winter flying, there’s no way around the fact that, for most pilots, winter only seems to muck things up. Hangar flying replaces cross country flying and a whole lot of airplanes have just had an annual inspection done. With spring comes a new commitment to flying, new chances to spread our wings and the reaffirmation of why we took this thing up in the first place. It’s easy to get distracted by the prospects of a season full of new adventures and fresh challenges. Maybe a new airplane or another rating is in the works, maybe not. Regardless, this is the time of year to take stock of your flying, yes, but also your attitudes toward flying. The ASF’s...

Rust Removal
An occasional layoff from flying isn’t that uncommon for most general aviation pilots. There are many possible reasons: weather, workload, a family or personal emergency, a job change or move from one part of the country to another, illness, or a host of other reasons beyond your control. A layoff from VFR flying isn’t the end of the world, although your skills can certainly get rusty. A layoff from flying IFR, however, can result in a fairly rapid decline in important skills you’ll need to stay ahead of the airplane during poor weather. What’s most important – regardless of how you got here – is recognizing that you’ve been out of the IFR cockpit for too long and want to get back. If...

Rubber and Runways
The moment of truth often comes at the end of a flight, when the rubber reaches for the runway for the first time. All too often, that’s when the ride begins. Watch the traffic at any airport for any length of time and you’re sure to see ballooning and bouncing – control errors when the airplane is in its most vulnerable state. Ballooning and bouncing are related in that they are both caused by over-controlling or misjudging the descent rate. They can happen in a hurry. Lower the flaps too late or flare before lift has decreased enough and you balloon upward. Similarly, you can expect a bounce if you flare too late or otherwise hit the runway with too much energy. Each problem has a solut...

Strike One, You’re Out
Airplanes share the air with birds and the ground with animals. Unfortunately, bird strikes and animal strikes are a serious economic and safety problem. Researchers estimate that wildlife strikes have cost the civil aviation industry more than $300 million a year every year for the last decade. Add in the cost to military aircraft, and the costs resulting from wildlife strikes likely exceed $500 million a year in North America alone. The cost isn’t just financial, either. More than 300 people have been killed worldwide from bird strikes. Many airports are located close to water and have large expanses of grass – both of which are attractive to birds and other wildlife. Many times the...

Spinning a Tangled Web
• Myth number 1: If you encounter an accidental spin, unload angle of attack and hold the control wheel/stick full forward. • Myth number 2: If you snap out of control accidentally, hold full throttle to keep the air flowing over the tail and drive it out with power. • Myth number 3: Weight and balance is not a problem as long as only one or two people are aboard. • Myth number 4: I know the airplane is not certified for spins but I spin mine all the time so it must be safe. • Myth number 5: In an accidental spin, use standard light plane spin recovery procedures.
Myth numbers 1 and 2 are alive and well. Consider the following mishaps: Th...

Demon Speeds
Judging from the NTSB’s files, more than a few pilots have had the misfortune of encountering flutter. Whether induced by the pilot’s actions or by improper maintenance procedures, flutter is a very serious problem that requires instant corrective action in flight. The stakes are high. Flutter can disfigure your airframe or even rip it apart. I personally encountered flutter in flight a few years ago – and at a speed that greatly surprised me because it was relatively low. I was in a sailplane working an afternoon thermal with my wife in the front seat. I was circling in the thermal at about 55 knots when the wing started to vibrate. It was enough that we definitely felt it in the coc...

The IPC From Hell
I figured, what can be so hard about an IPC? I had 30 hours of hard IMC flight in the past 180 days and 34 approaches. I didn’t even need the check ride to stay legal – all I was missing was a hold. However, good sense says that a semiannual check is a good idea, even if you don’t technically need it. I made a date with my local DPE and occasional instructor. I told him I wanted an informal but demanding couple of hours, doing things that I wouldn’t normally do. The morning dawned with low IMC but VFR conditions were forecast for the afternoon when we were meeting. As a precaution, I filed IFR sequentially to two local airports, and then back home. “Ah, you’ve filed – we might as well...

NTSB Preliminary Reports
The following briefs were selected from the 112 preliminary reports filed with the NTSB in January 2001. Statements in quotes were taken directly from the NTSB documents. The information is subject to change as the investigations are completed. Click here to view "Accident Totals, January." ---------- Jan. 1, Placerville, Calif.
Rotorway Exec
At 15:29 Pacific time, an amateur-built Rotorway Exec helicopter rolled over from a hover at a private airstrip near Placerville. The student pilot, who had just completed building the aircraft, was not injured. The pilot told a deputy sheriff this was the helicopter’s “maiden voyage” a...

Beware Fat Gasket
The following information is derived from the FAA’s Service Difficulty Reports and Aviation Maintenance Alerts. Click here to view "Airworthiness Directives." ---------- Every Champion CF0100 and CF0101 oil filter is packaged with a gasket kit that contains a copper gasket, a square rubber gasket and a flat rubber gasket – all of which are used to prevent the oil filter housing assembly from leaking. Some of the square gaskets may have been manufactured thicker than called for in the manufacturer’s specifications. The square gasket, supplied in the kit, should be 0.180 inch thick. Some gaskets were found with a thickness of 0.25-inch. The manuf...

Youthful Peril
I read the angry letter “Young & In Charge” from CFI Ben Wielenga [Unicom, February]. He clearly has a point about the error of stereotyping all young CFIs as lacking certain training qualities, but your editor’s comments are right on point in indicating the excessive increase in the fatal accident rate while the age and experience of the flight instructors has decreased. I am a 1000-hour, instrument-rated pilot and former owner of a very nice 1981 Cessna 210. I have read your newsletter for many years and passed archive copies on to two of my younger brothers as they became interested in learning to fly. Unfortunately for my youngest brother Steve, who had approximately 200 hours and an...