Flight training has leapfrogged on safety

In a recent report credited to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Air Safety Institute, it was revealed that fatal flight training accidents were cut in half between 2000 and 2019. Andrew Walton, the director of safety at Liberty University, is quoted as saying: “The good news is that flight training is getting safer.” He was further quoted as having said: “Sustained efforts by the FAA, NTSB, manufacturers, and the flight training community have resulted in a fatal accident rate that is now roughly half of what it was at the start of the century.”

The report titled “The Fatal Flight Training Accident Report 2000 – 2019”, which was done as a collaboration between the Air Safety Institute and the Liberty University School of Aeronautics revealed that loss of control accounts for 54 percent of all fatal instructional accidents, with the vast majority being stall/spin related. Stating further, Andrew Walton said: “From 2000 to 2004, the fatal accident rate averaged 0.49 per 100,000 hours and decreased to 0.26 in the last five years of the study.” And, “However, there remains plenty of work to do, particularly in mitigating the risk of loss of control in flight.” Loss of control in flight was reported as the leading cause of fatal instructional accidents, followed by midair collisions, and controlled flight into terrain. Aviation has always been improving continually and as noted by the report, though there has been a substantial improvement in safety over the last 20 years, there is still room for improvement.

The recommendations by the report were that: “It is imperative that flight instructors teach stall/spin awareness correctly.” This is as a result of the fact that loss control constitutes the largest accident category and most of those accidents are stall/spin related.

Other recommendations are that there should be specialised training in upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT). This training is a combined theoretical and practical training given to aircraft pilots so that the pilot can prevent, recognize and recover from unusual attitudes and unexpected situations. It is a comprehensive mitigation of Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I). This training arms pilots with the knowledge, skill, and resilience to recognize, prevent, and recover from aeroplane upset.

The study further noted that a majority of instructional midair collisions occurred at VFR/IFR cruise altitudes, though pilots can manoeuvre any altitude when below 3000 feet AGL. The report stated: “It seems that instructors select a target altitude such as 2500 feet MSL or 3000 level MSL, where an analog altimeter needle would point straight up or straight down. A simple training mitigation may be to select a less congested altitude such as 2700 feet MSL, which deconflicts from IFR and VFR cruising flights.”

Flying under VFR, pilots operate based on visual references as well as maintain their own separation from other aircraft. For flights operating at more than 3,000 feet Above Ground Level (AGL), designated cruising altitudes apply. However, flying VFR at 3, 000 feet AGL or below, there is no specific requirement for a particular cruising altitude.

On the other hand, IFR flights operate based on instruments and rely on air traffic control ( ATC) for separation. 

MSL is an acronym that stands for mean sea level. It is used by both aircraft pilots and drone pilots alike as one of many determinants of altitude. However, it is not a measurement that describes the space above the ground and below the pilot. That data point is called AGL, which is short for above ground level. AGL references how far the surface below a pilot is, which is often thousands of feet above the mean sea level or MSL.

Another recommendation is that pilots be encouraged to use all available tools to enhance traffic awareness, including ADS-B in an ATC flight following service. Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) is an aviation surveillance technology that enables aircraft to determine their position via satellite navigation or other sensors. Periodically, an aircraft broadcasts its position and related data, allowing it to be tracked. Unlike traditional radar, ADS-B doesn’t require an interrogation signal from the ground or other aircraft to activate its transmissions.

In its final recommendation, it says, “Instructors should continue to emphasise the fundamentals of see and avoid.” So, despite the good use of technology the basics of airmanship are still very relevant.

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