Taking Note of GA Safety Enhancements

For the many of us who have non-flying jobs and the usual range of personal obligations, main­taining aviation currency can be a challenge. In my own case, just getting to the airport — an hour’s drive from my home even in light traffic — is not a practical post-work activity and, in view of how tired I usually am after a typical workday, the risk of GA flying would exceed my personal minimums anyway. Of course, I try to fly on weekends, but annoying details like weather, lack of airplane avail­ability, and the press of what a friend deftly calls “life chores” like laundry and grocery shopping further erode currency flying time. If that sounds familiar, you’re certainly not alone.

Noteworthy Notes

Even if you don’t have an airplane handy, you can still keep your head in the game with aviation-related reading, just as you are doing with this publication.

When your time is really short, though, consider the option of working your way through the online library of GA Safety Enhancement Topic Sheets. Developed by the FAA in coordination with aviation community members of the General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC), these bite-sized topic sheets focus each month on a specific safety topic that the GAJSC has identified as one of the “usual suspects” in GA safety mishaps. Topics addressed so far this year include:

Transition Training — June 2018 bit.ly/2GXxDfq

Best Glide Speed and Distance — May 2018 bit.ly/2rfMV9p

Smart Cockpit Technology — April 2018 bit.ly/2pRvYlM

Emergency Procedures Training — March 2018 bit.ly/2GapDc8

Maintenance Placards — February 2018 go.usa.gov/xnsPN

Enhanced Vision Systems — January 2018 bit.ly/2qQQYMn

The GA Safety Enhancement Topic Sheet archives go back to the mid-2013 start of this endeavor. That means that, including the Topic Sheets developed thus far in 2018, you now have 60 Topic Sheets to choose from — but of course, why choose when you can eventu­ally read them all?

Behind the Scenes

A word about the GAJSC: its moniker is a mouth­ful, but this organization has an important role. In a nutshell, the GAJSC is a public-private partnership working to improve general avia­tion safety. The GAJSC’s goal is to reduce the GA fatal accident rate per 100,000 flight hours by 10 percent from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2018, with no more than one fatal accident per 100,000 flight hours by 2018.

To accomplish this goal, the GAJSC uses a data-driven, consensus-based approach to analyzing aviation safety data and developing risk reduction efforts called “safety enhancements.” This method­ology is adapted from the highly-successful method­ology pioneered by the government/industry Civil Aviation Safety Team (CAST), whose work has con­tributed substantially to the U.S. airline industry’s stellar safety record.

In both CAST and the GAJSC, Safety Enhance­ments can include procedures, training, and equip­ment installations that, when implemented, may reduce the likelihood of accidents in the future. The two biggest Safety Enhancement categories right now — both prominently linked to the GAJSC’s home page — are for Loss of Control avoidance, and System/ Component Failure-Powerplant enhancements.  (FAA Safety Briefing– JulAug 2018)