Introducing the Online Safety Center
The Online Safety Center offers a wide variety of spectacularly interactive online courses, informative publications, and other useful resources for pilots of all levels.
I'm as impressed by the technology that goes into the Online Safety Center's free online courses as I am by the information that they contain. The flagship course, Runway Safety, is designed to help you avoid and prevent runway incursions; take this course before you fly to an unfamiliar tower-controlled airport. It's sponsored by the FAA's Office of Runway Safety--and is so well done that the Air Line Pilots Association is modifying it for use by professional airline pilots.
Other courses are equally relevant to you as a student pilot. Know Before You Go explains temporary flight restrictions, air defense identification zones (see "Evolving Airspace," p. 42), and other potential obstructions that are part of today's changing airspace; take it before your next flight. Mission: Possible will teach you about military lights-out training, something that's now being conducted in specific military operations areas (MOAs) across the country; take it before your next night flight. Say Intentions... will teach you how an air traffic controller can help you with any number of in-flight problems; take it before your next cross-country. Mountain Flying emphasizes the challenges of flying in high density altitudes; take it before you venture from the flatlands. SkySpotter will teach you what's required to make a good pilot report and remove your apprehensions about this valuable service you can provide to other pilots--take it now!
New to the Online Safety Center are minicourses, which focus on a narrow topic to provide more details in a short, four- to 15-minute period. Minicourse topics include the new laser warning system around the Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), thunderstorm avoidance, and VFR use of the Garmin 430/530 GPS navigator--a very sophisticated unit that is increasingly found in the cockpits of rental aircraft.
Of course, the site still features the Air Safety Foundation's high-quality print publications. ASF's hallmark Safety Advisors address many subjects critically important to student pilots, including takeoffs and landings, weather, airspace, fuel awareness, collision avoidance, and operations at both tower-controlled and nontowered airports. You'll also find downloadable publications to accompany almost all of the online courses.
For a quick, easy way to interactively assess and expand your aeronautical knowledge, take a Sporty's Safety Quiz. A new quiz is added every two weeks, and some two dozen are now available. Take a quiz and earn a chance to win a Sporty's Air-Scan V aviation radio/scanner--listening to aviation frequencies is a great way to improve your own radio communication skills.
This expanded online emphasis complements the foundation's legendary safety seminars--they're made possible by donations from pilot and student-pilot donors. Nearly 2,000 pilots have already attended the newest seminar, "The Last Five Miles," which focuses on the approach segment of a flight. Pilots who attend will learn how to safely handle traffic pattern conflicts, when a straight-in approach can be safe and legal, and more. This free seminar will be on the road through January 2006; see the full schedule at the AOPA Online Safety Center.
Flight instructors, are you maximizing your use of these powerful teaching tools? Integrate these free seminars and the online courses mentioned above into your lesson plans, and assign your students to take them at appropriate points in your curriculum. Safety Advisors and other publications make great supplemental reading, and explain subjects with a depth that isn't found in flight-training manuals. Have you taken any of these courses?
It has never been truer that a good pilot is always learning--and a great pilot keeps up with the latest materials at the AOPA Online Safety Center.
Related Articles
