News

WHERE DO STALL/SPIN ACCIDENTS HAPPEN THE MOST?

Nobody thinks it will happen to them. But before you know it, there you are. Low, slow, and approaching a stall.

And how well you react in those few seconds makes all the difference in the world. Often times, it’s the difference between a safe recovery and a fatal crash.

WHERE DO STALL/SPIN ACCIDENTS HAPPEN THE MOST?

The Air Safety Foundation conducted a study of 450 stall/spin accidents from 1993 to 2001 to see where they happened, and how they compared to other types of accidents. And to keep the focus on GA, they only looked at accidents where aircraft weighed less than 12,500 pounds.

So where did the accidents happen? At least 80% of them started from an altitude of less than 1000′ AGL. What’s the significance of 1000′ AGL? It’s the traffic pattern altitude at most airports.

HOW SIMPLE PRACTICE ON YOUR NEXT FLIGHT COULD PREVENT AN ACCIDENT

When you’re training for a new certificate or rating, you practice. A lot. And whether that practice is short-field landings for your private pilot checkride, or full-procedure ILS approaches for your instrument rating, you usually get to point where you feel like you can do them in your sleep.

But after you pass your checkride, how often do you practice maneuvers and procedures? The reality for most pilots is “rarely”. That’s not to say you aren’t learning when you fly. Flying cross-countries and taking passengers on flights from A to B is always a learning process. But those raw stick-and-rudder and procedural skills fade over time without practice.

When you look at accidents in general aviation (GA), it’s often the basics that get pilots into trouble. And when you look at the stats, a higher-than-normal crosswind on landing is often times all it takes to cause problems.

What You Need To Know About Your Magnetic Compass

If You’re A Pilot, This Is What You Need To Know About Your Magnetic Compass

Since the beginning of flight, pilots have been using the magnetic compass for navigation. It doesn’t matter if you’re flying a Piper Cub or a Boeing 747, you’ll find a magnetic compass in the cockpits of almost any aircraft. That is, unless you’re flying the latest, most technologically advanced glass cockpits, which we’ll cover in a separate article.

So here’s what you need to know about an instrument that’s been in aircraft cockpits for over 110 years, and the errors associated with it.

HOW THEY’RE MADE

Magnets in a compass make it align with the magnetic North Pole. In airplanes, your compass is almost always set on top of the dash or hung from the top of the windshield frame, in order to keep it as far away from electrical gear as possible to reduce magnetic deviation (more on this later).

Back in the days before kerosene filled the inside of a magnetic compass, alcohol was used as the primary lubricant and non-freezing liquid… Hence the nickname a “whiskey compass.” Rumor has it that some pilots broke into their whiskey compasses on long layovers…but that’s another story.

How A Go-Around Can Lead To An Accident

Go-arounds are in the news again. The latest accident being an Emirates Boeing 777 that crash-landed with its gear up after attempting a go-around.

And it doesn’t matter if you’re flying a Boeing 777 or a single-engine piston, there’s no shortage of go-around accident reports in the NTSB database.

So what goes wrong during go-arounds? There isn’t one single factor, but it often comes down to distractions and not flying your airplane throughout the entire go-around.

WHEN TO GO-AROUND

There’s no “right time” to go around, but in almost all cases, the earlier you go-around, the better.

That’s because when you get close the runway and the obstacles that are around it, your chances of things going wrong increases.

6 Tips You Can Learn From Student Pilots For Your Everyday Flying

As pilots, there’s a lot we were taught during training that applies to us each and every day we fly. But there are some things you probably had to do as a student pilot that flew to the wayside. Here are a few habits good student pilots have that you should consider for yourself…

1) FLIGHT PLANNING THE NIGHT BEFORE.

Remember waiting for that solo cross country and looking at weather forecasts hoping for clear skies? Looking at forecast charts might change your decision to depart a day early if things aren’t shaping up for the next day. Don’t put yourself in a “get-there-itis” situation when you could’ve left the day before in good skies.

2) WEIGHT AND BALANCE.