General Aviation

General Aviation Consisting of all flights other than military and scheduled airline flights, general aviation is a huge part of all our lives. It provides us with recreation in the form of sight seeing tours and gives private pilots the freedom of the skies. It is used in public safety whether helping law enforcement track a suspect or reporting the up-to-date traffic report. The medical community uses general aviation in various emergencies, and the business community finds the convenience invaluable.

We count on general aviation in almost every area of our everyday lives, yet it is much riskier than commercial aviation and has numerous serious safety concerns. In highlighting these concerns, it is our hope that General Aviation will receive the attention and safety changes it deserves.

VTOL Electronic aircraft being developed in Germany

May 13, 2016

Just when we thought that we had a problem with drones, now Engineering and Technology Magazine reports that a German start-up is developing a personal electric plane that can take off and land vertically in a small area without the need for complex infrastructure. Lilium, the firm behind the concept, described the plane as combining […]

Continue reading →

Criminalization of Aviation: Does It Enhance Safety?

May 30, 2012

Now comes an announcement from Greece that a licensed aircraft maintenance engineer has received a ten-year prison sentence for allegedly not re-setting a cockpit switch on a Helios Airways 737-300 which crashed in 2005 after its oxygen supply ran out and the pilots and many passengers fell unconscious. The criminal sentence is made even more […]

Continue reading →

FAA Launches General Aviation Safety Program

March 28, 2011

FAA safety teams will visit close to 100 GA events beginning April 2, beginning with the annual Sun ‘n Fun gathering in Lakeland, FL., in an effort to engage pilots in safety and awareness programs and discussions with the goal of bringing fatal accident rates for general aviation down another 10 per cent in the […]

Continue reading →

Mentally Behind the Power Curve

January 27, 2011

“Bonanza 47S, following your turn to 270°, you will be cleared to descend to 4,500 feet and commence the back course ILS for landing runway 27L.  Call the outer marker inbound commencing.  Switch to tower frequency 237.50.  Traffic will be a Cessna crossing right to left, co-altitude.  Skies are partially obscured, 3/4 mile visibility with […]

Continue reading →

Technology When is More Less? The Modern Cockpit

January 3, 2011

The aircraft cockpit has progressed from round-dial steam gauges that supplied basic information to iterative multi-color, multi-function displays capable of giving the aircrew more information than they can absorb.  What are the implications of this technology when considering causation factors? Round dials had two restrictions:  they could display only  limited information and, whether the information […]

Continue reading →

Criminalization of Aviation Accidents

December 10, 2010

The announcement by the court in France of criminal convictions for the United States’ Continental Air Lines and one of its mechanics in the aftermath of the Concorde crash on July 25, 2000 sent shivers down the spines of all who care about aviation safety.  As we discuss in this post, criminalizing non-intentional careless conduct—ordinary […]

Continue reading →

How Much Flight Time Is Enough?

December 6, 2010

I sold my trusty Bonanza.  Guess that’s it.  First, I couldn’t justify the expense.  But more importantly, I would get in the air and say, “Geez, I forgot to …. (fill in the blank).” Seems that I’m investigating an increasing number of aviation crashes where the pilot at the controls had minimum (a) experience, (b) […]

Continue reading →

Helicopter & GA Pilots: Plan the flight…fly the plan

November 29, 2010

I’ve come to believe that most accidents occur when the pilot decides to do something, anything, that was not in the original plan for that flight. When I think back on the times that I’ve tried hardest to kill myself, it was generally because of that fact.

Continue reading →

General Aviation Plane Crashes

November 1, 2010

According to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, general aviation flights account for most of the crashes, injuries, and deaths in U.S. aviation.  In fact, the risk is 82 times greater than for major airlines.  General aviation flights include small private planes and business jets including use for recreation, emergency medical services, fire-fighting, sight-seeing, traffic reporting […]

Continue reading →