The thrill of it… Don’t let spring bring unwanted excitement

by Mark Baker
AOPA President and CEO
Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine – Print & Online April/May 2021 issue

Have you ever passed a highway accident and felt compelled to look? Call it a primal instinct, but many of us are intrigued by danger. Crashes, sirens, and flashing lights attract us like moths to a flame. 

We see this in many of our favorite sports and activities—hockey fights rile up the crowd, NASCAR wrecks add an element of excitement to the race, and every year, around 1 million spectators flock to Spain for Running of the Bulls, one of the most dangerous events in modern (or any) time. 

Researchers say that much of the stimulation we feel toward these activities has to do with our own fight-or-flight characteristics. Situations we see, whether in person, in a movie, book, or on the news, trigger our survival instincts and make us think about how we would react and handle a potential disaster. We often think, “If that were me, what would I do?”

Take AOPA’s Air Safety Institute’s long-running and invaluable series Accident Case Studies—an in-depth analysis that dissects fatal aircraft crashes and the events leading up to them. The Accident Case Studies videos are some of the most popular, albeit sobering, content from ASI that teach us the lessons learned from others’ mistakes. 

1. While flying, like virtually any other pursuit, has its risks, the accidents featured in ASI’s safety videos represent the relatively few flights that went wrong. And while the videos are tragic, they remind us that we are not invincible. Things can quickly escalate in the cockpit and we must be proactive in our decision making as anything can go awry—from system failures to miscommunications, and especially weather changes. 

With the onset of spring, many of us are looking to dust off our wings, get back into the sky, and meet our buddies for $100 hamburgers. If you—or your aircraft—have been grounded during the winter months, there are many obvious yet often forgotten things to take into account.

According to the Weather Channel, meteorological spring—the period between March 1 to May 31—is the most dynamic time for weather with major temperature swings, wind events, and variety of extreme conditions. While emerging weather tools and new technology continue to be introduced, pilots need to have a general understanding of weather conditions, and act as amateur meteorologists. 

As temperatures begin to fluctuate, pilots should always anticipate the possibility of fog. Inadvertent flight into instrument conditions is one of the most common aviation accident occurrences, accounting for more than 25 percent of all fatalities in GA flying, according to AOPA’s most recent Nall Report. 

While winter isn’t conducive to flying for every GA pilot, we should still strive to stay current, even if that means brushing up on our skills on a simulator or through ground school. As it turns out, even professional pilots have reported feeling rusty following long leaves of absences during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, many have reported making minor mistakes such as forgetting to turn on anti-ice systems, failing to obtain landing clearances, and even incorrectly programing flight management systems. 

The best thing we can do to stay sharp is to fly often. However, that doesn’t mean getting complacent. Just because we’ve made a flight a million times doesn’t mean it will always go smoothly. We have to ensure we abide by our own personal limitations.

As we’ve seen many times over, an aviation disaster is often the result of a chain of bad decisions that begins with a simple mistake. With spring approaching, there’s no doubt many of us are beginning to get back in the air, so let’s not forget to do our homework. Flight plan, anticipate weather changes, and never be afraid to ask for help. We all fly to feed a passion, but none of us wants to be another statistic or featured in the next case study. Let’s keep proving to the world we can and have made aviation safer.

www.aopa.org        800-872-2672

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