Many accidents seem to be along the lines of familiarity breeding contempt (as evidenced by experienced pilots being involved in serious accidents).
When you look through the accident synopses, a common thread is a cutting of corners or not following accepted practice or procedure (i.e. Mt Hotham chieftan crash, Lockhart River). Or doing something that you have not been adequately trained and briefed in. I would have to check, but it seems that instructors are over represented in Gliding accidents. This may be in part that they do more flying, and are exposed to the higher risk phases (i.e. take-off landing) of flight more often (number of take-offs and landings) than non-instructors. Talking from experience, things can go awry quickly because you may be underloaded and then overloaded. As instructors (and as non-instructors) expect and plan for emergencies always. I am sure no-one ever deliberately goes out to have an accident, but lapses of judgement do occur. When these do occur, there needs to be mature reflection with a no blame approach (hence to foster a reporting culture of near misses so we can all learn). It is up to us as pilots to have good self-checks in place as well as redundancy. And as instructors to impress upon our students and other pilots to have good inflight discipline and to foster a safety culture. For example, when I fly power, I do a downwind check (e.g. Brakes, Undercarriage (three greens), Mixture, Fuel Tanks and Pumps On, ?Cowl Flaps set as required, Flaps set appropriately, All Harnesses secured) Then on final I do a PUFFC check (Props set full fine, Undercarriage locked down (three greens), Landing Flaps, Cowl Flaps, Clearance to land received) So you can see some duplication here, may seem silly, but less expensive than a wheels up. So could there be merit in a FUST check on final as well as downwind? Just thinking out aloud. M.T. _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list Aus-soaring@lists.internode.on.net To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
