President's Perspective

Safe flying starts and ends on the ground

When I was a student pilot, I completed my primary flight training at a towered airport with airline service. I often wondered whether this was an advantage or a disadvantage. Long runways, complex taxiways, and delays in getting into the air all contributed to at least two-tenths of an hour of taxi time for every flight. This burned up valuable dollars that I had put aside for flight training. Once I received my pilot certificate, I was somewhat intimidated by nontowered airports, and 3,000 feet in a Cessna 172 felt like a short runway. I was almost jealous of my friends who trained at fields with short runways. Were they better equipped to handle the wide variety of general aviation airports?

As I flew more I came to be comfortable with nontowered facilities and learned that long runways can be used for short-field practice. But there is another issue that, more than 35 years later, makes me glad I learned to fly at a towered airport: airport ground operations and runway incursions.

For many years AOPA and the AOPA Air Safety Foundation (ASF) have been working to reduce runway incursions. I still remember the day in late 1999 when then-FAA Administrator Jane Garvey invited me to a high-level FAA staff meeting and shared shocking data on the subject. ASF analysis showed that entering a runway or taxiway without a clearance accounts for almost two-thirds of all deviations.

Runway incursions have been a persistent problem. During 1999, 321 incursions were reported at towered airports. The number peaked at 431 the following year--but it has averaged about 330 per year for the past four years.

Even professional pilots can make mistakes, as we were tragically reminded in August when the pilots of a Comair regional jet mistakenly took off from a too-short runway in Lexington, Kentucky, and crashed; 49 people died. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating whether recent changes to taxi routes at the airport might have contributed to the accident.

Whether we're students or seasoned pilots, we can better prepare for ground operations at all airports.

If you haven't already taken the Air Safety Foundation's remarkable Runway Safety online course, you should do so as soon as possible. Sponsored by the FAA's Office of Runway Safety, the free course is designed to help pilots avoid and prevent runway incursions by studying the various factors involved. It will take you 30 to 45 minutes to complete the highly informative and interactive program. Runway Safety is so good that the Air Line Pilots Association asked ASF to adapt the course for its member pilots.

For additional review, go to ASF's Safety Hot Spots archive and select Operations at Towered Airports. This online resource gathers several references in one place, including the Operations at Towered Airports Safety Advisor, flash cards on runway signs and markings, and other great learning tools. The Operations at Nontowered Airports Safety Hot Spot contains similar resources specific to operations at airports without an operating air traffic control tower.

My preflight regime includes carefully studying the airport diagram of any facility I plan to use. Taxi diagrams for nearly every towered airport are available online from ASF; when you print these portable document format (PDF) files, you can enlarge them to fill the page--making them even easier to read than the airport diagrams included with instrument approach chart publications. I use a highlighter to mark the area where the FBO or general aviation parking is located.

The forecast winds for the destination airport usually determine which runway will be active. Predicting a touchdown point based on the type of aircraft I am flying, I then determine which taxiway will lead me from the active runway to parking. Unless winds are really a factor, many towers will allow you to request a runway. I always ask for the one with the simplest, shortest taxi route.

My personal philosophy is that aviation can often be more difficult on the ground than it is in the air. Altitude gives you perspective on where you are in relation to where you want to go. Take a night operation at a large towered airport, and from the close-to-the-ground cockpit of today's light airplanes, you lose many of your reference points--so make sure you become familiar with taxiway/runway signage and markings. Airports have spent millions of dollars to equip themselves with simple, readable signs. Learn to use them. Anticipate what the controller will ask you to do. Plan your way to and from the active runway before you enter the cockpit.

Pilots are critical to solving the problem of surface deviations. Let's all do our part to improve our preparation and awareness when taxiing. Start with the ASF Runway Safety online course, one of many resources that AOPA provides its members to help you fly--and taxi--safely.