Regional Affairs

Safety seminar to pull lessons from the headlines

By Sarah Brown

Pilots in the Gaithersburg, Md., area can get an extra dose of real-world lessons at the AOPA Air Safety Foundation’s GPS seminar on Wednesday, March 25. The foundation will use the first half hour of its upcoming seminar “GPS From The Ground Up” to discuss lessons that can be learned from the recent Cirrus accident in Gaithersburg, Md.

The seminar, which will be from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Hilton Gaithersburg, will show pilots how to safely and proficiently use GPS for navigation. If you’re just punching “direct” and following the magenta line, you should attend this free seminar.

But safe flying also means learning from other people’s experiences, so the foundation will start off the night with a review of lessons learned from an accident that made headlines just this week. A Cirrus SR-22 went down shortly after takeoff from Montgomery County Airpark in Gaithersburg on March 15. According to local news reports, the pilot deployed the aircraft’s emergency parachute before landing on a road near the airport. The airplane was substantially damaged, but no injuries were reported.

Air Safety Foundation management and representatives from the airport will be at the seminar.

March 19, 2009