Safety Spotlight: How far we’ve come

Those accidents, all in the 1930s, took the lives of Will Rogers and Wiley Post; Knute Rockne; and Sen. Bronson Cutting of New Mexico. The public demanded answers from the aviation industry. Few were forthcoming and the U.S. government stepped in, creating the Civil Aeronautics Authority with a primary focus on investigating and preventing accidents.

Barely a year after the creation of the CAA (the precursor to the FAA), five airmen realized that commercial and military interests would dominate a new government agency. Private aviation needed a voice or it would never thrive. They established AOPA. We modern aviators owe so much to this visionary group. Safety, affordability, and access were primary focus areas from the beginning and remain guiding principles in our work today.

The estimated accident rate in 1939 was a whopping 120 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours. Today our fatal accident rate is approximately 0.89 per 100,000 flight hours. Chief among the factors leading to this remarkable progress is the relationship between government, business, and pilots represented by influential associations, the most prominent being AOPA.

The U.S. general aviation industry is the envy of the world. Key to our success is encouraging the strengths of these three distinct entities—government, business, and pilots—while permitting none of them autonomy. Each relies on the existence and interdependence of the others. As much as we all love to thump the FAA, and to a lesser extent the NTSB—raises hand sheepishly—they play a vital role in the industry and we are safer because they exist. We tried the unregulated, anything-goes, limited-accountability approach, with dismal results.

We also know that dogmatic, unchecked government regulation strangles innovation, curtails access, increases costs, and even negatively affects safety. Private business brings innovation and an impatience for change and action that successful commerce demands. Associations are the voice of the constituent, demanding to be heard on new ideas and issues that impede access, affordability, and safety. Ultimately, it’s the private pilots—the yoke and stick actuators—who determine the safety of general aviation. Individually, pilots’ voices are overpowered by larger, more powerful influencers, but collectively, their voices are thunderous. Business, government, and private pilots demand mutual accountability. By pushing each other, together we further safety.

The AOPA Air Safety Institute has played a proud role in this aviation ecosystem through the decades, advancing general aviation culture and safety performance. Known originally as the AOPA Foundation and then AOPA Air Safety Foundation, the organization pioneered free on-location safety seminars, taking education and training materials on-site to meet pilots where they were. Although the methods and communication channels have changed, this attitude remains at the heart of the ASI approach: Meet pilots where, when, and how they prefer with entertaining, educational material that influences how they think and fly.

This year, some 300 different types of ASI material will be accessed more than 6 million times. Videos, podcasts, case studies, accident analysis, research reports, and quizzes are some of the materials we produce to help pilots become better, safer. We are on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and we even show up the old-fashioned way—in person. We’ll deliver some 200 seminars at 160 events around the country in 2019. More than 20,000 people will attend, 90 percent of them active, current pilots. And all of it is free, thanks to our donors, who are perhaps the unsung heroes of aviation safety.

It’s hard to know if the five founders in 1939 could have anticipated AOPA’s impact on every aspect of general aviation. I imagine they would be enormously proud and especially pleased with AOPA’s impact on safety, and saving lives. I can also imagine they would nudge us forward, pointing to the 230 lives a year we lose—some 75 percent of them because of pilot error—and then challenge us: “It’s not enough, you’ve got more work to do.” And so we do.

Consider all we’ve accomplished in general aviation, know that you’re a part of it, and go fly in celebration of the fun, rewarding times ahead.

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