Think big
How can we change the status quo?
It’s hard to imagine ice once being a luxury. But until the mid-1860s, ice either had to be shipped in at immense cost or cut from ponds in the winter, then preserved underground. Drinks were served warm and food and medicine preservation weren’t all that effective. Enter the ice machine. Dr. John Gorrie was looking for a way to make his yellow fever patients more comfortable and ended up changing life as we know it when he invented a machine design that would eventually make ice readily accessible to all.
In general aviation, our unfortunate status quo has long been the accident rate. For the past decade, GA in the United States averages around 1,000 accidents a year, with roughly a 10 percent fatality rate. In flight training circles, and certainly in this magazine, we frequently discuss ways to avoid becoming a statistic, but we rarely consider wide-reaching changes that might drop that 1,000 number to say…100. I recently had a phone call from Richard Healing, former NTSB board member and longtime director of safety and survivability for the U.S. Navy. Healing described a project he worked on for a helicopter company that operated in the Gulf of Mexico in support of the oil and gas industry. The company’s accident rate had hovered around 2.2 per 100,000 flying hours, over half of which were fatal. That was similar to other offshore operators in the area, but the company’s new CEO decided to challenge the status quo and hired Healing to advise. Their solution? Put sensitive flight data recorders on every aircraft that monitored speed, bank angle, pitch, and other parameters. Every day, crews uploaded data to a server that checked for flight activity falling outside stable flight. While many pilots would balk at the idea of big brother watching their every move, the initiative operated under a just culture with the former president of the pilot union being the only company person to review the analyzed data. As a result, those pilots became more aware of their tendencies for unsafe flight—for example, a high descent rate or excessive bank below 1,000 feet agl. After less than one year of operating under this system, the company’s accident rate went to zero, where it remained for the next seven years.
Healing’s solution to a plateaued accident rate centered on changing pilot behavior patterns; others have had ideas that center around upgrades to flying navigation apps, i.e. ForeFlight or Garmin Pilot, to warn us when we depart stable flight. Like the technology in jets, the tablet could vibrate or call out an aural warning when bank angle or descent rate becomes excessive. Instead of adding equipment, pilots could operate with equipment they are already using. Tablets currently warn us of traffic or an active runway crossing, so why can’t they help us prevent accidents?
The General Aviation Joint Safety Committee, an FAA and industry collaboration, was set up in 1997 with the goal of reducing the GA accident rate. After years of data collection, they determined the number one reason for loss of life in GA accidents to be loss of control (stalls/spins) during takeoff and landing. Their recommendation? Installing angle of attack indicators in every GA airplane to help make pilots more aware of the energy state of their aircraft. With the support of industry advocates, including AOPA, the FAA then made changes in regulatory pathways to make the installation process simpler and more affordable.
The FAA developed Wings, a training and proficiency program that focuses on reducing the GA accident rate by educating pilots through seminars and webinars. I’m the lead safety representative for this program in my state, and we always give presentations to a packed house. The pilots who attend gain valuable insight in safety and accident mitigation strategies. But the concern has always been that we are preaching to the choir—people who are actively committed to staying proficient are less likely to have accidents. How do you protect those who may not be as motivated?
With ideas like these, why are we still having more than 1,000 accidents a year in GA? Is it the expense of installing new equipment? Probably not. An AOA indicator or flight data recorder is inexpensive compared to the everyday operating costs of fuel and aircraft maintenance. Is it a lack of knowledge or pilot awareness about accident factors or statistics? Doubtful. Not when every checkride has a stall/spin focus item. We can make greater gains in reducing the accident numbers only by refusing to accept them as status quo. The next time you’re drinking an ice-filled glass of tea, consider the possibility that there’s a future that doesn’t look like this one. We could someday be flying in an environment where accidents aren’t commonplace occurrences. What would it take to get us there? How can we be part of the solution?
