by Mark Baker
AOPA President & CEO
Published in Midwest Flyer Magazine October/November 2023 Digital Issue
I can’t think of a worse day than when I get a call telling me that we have lost a friend, a fellow aviator. That recently happened to me and it hit hard. Ours is a tight-knit community. Everybody seems to know everybody, and when one of us grieves, we all do.
But even the most experienced, proficient and current pilots run a risk every time they take flight. Mind you, it’s a significantly low risk as we are in the midst of the safest era for GA ever.
After I got over the shock and disbelief, my mind naturally went to: what happened, where did he go wrong (if he did go wrong at all), and what can we learn from such incidents? I try to separate my personal loss from my professional education. It can be a challenge, but pilots are learners and we look for every instance to keep filling our mental sponge of information. That’s how we stay safe.
As we enter into the fall season, millions of young (and not-so-young) adults are headed back to school, continuing their education and staying on the path to success. For we pilots, school is always in session. We rarely take time off from our own education – and when we do have some down time, it’s usually spent in the air, sharpening our skills and discovering wonderful new destinations. GA pilots are hungry for knowledge – we’re curious, we’re diligent, and we never settle for average.
It’s no wonder that GA is safer than ever. Since 1950, the general aviation accident rate has decreased by 90 percent. It’s also no coincidence that’s the same year the AOPA Air Safety Institute began creating safety programs for the pilot community.
Under the leadership of Richard McSpadden, the Air Safety Institute has a single-minded focus on reducing general aviation accidents and reinforcing a culture of safety in GA. The ASI team takes great responsibility in fostering an overall safety culture in general aviation by educating and inspiring the entire GA community – pilots and aircraft owners, instructors, and policy makers.
If you have heard Richard give one of his excellent presentations on safety, you know that safe GA operations are based on five core principles: knowledgeable people, who are trained well, kept proficient, placed in reliable equipment, and surrounded in a culture that enables good decision-making. We’ve made progress across all five of those metrics through the last 25 years; and it shows in the numbers and culture.
Just look at the fact that the valuable content that our AOPA Air Safety Institute puts out is consumed more than 10 million times per year – engaging videos, podcasts, newsletters, articles, online courses, insightful accident analysis reports, and its recently updated Focused Flight Review program with six different custom profiles tailored to meet your proficiency goals. The content is designed for the way we consume information today – engaging and to the point. And may I add that most ASI content is free at the ASI page on AOPA’s website.
For starters, you probably have seen the very well-received Early Analysis series that the team started in 2021. Through these videos, the ASI team addresses a recent aviation accident, makes a preliminary assessment of the overall event and notable portions, and highlights areas the NTSB will likely investigate to determine a probable cause. These videos are solely intended to give pilots some real-world application and learning, so they can apply them to their own flying. We have heard from many pilots that the Early Analysis videos have given tremendous and practical insights. Please take a look.
If you go to the ASI website, you will see a lot of other engaging content to make you a smarter, safer and more proficient pilot.
This includes our Accident Case Studies, exploring why pilots ignored the warning signs and pressed on under adverse circumstances; Real Pilot Stories, in which aviators share their mistakes so you can learn from their slip-ups while comfortable on the ground; Beyond Proficient, an inspiring series that helps pilots fly safely while operating in unique and challenging real-world situations; and the ‘There I was…’ podcast, which invites you into the cockpit to encounter unpredictable scenarios and gain knowledge from how pilots were able to fly safely out of them.
I often say that safety is in AOPA’s DNA. Our team is fiercely passionate and committed to helping you be a safer pilot each day and every flight. AOPA pilots earn a diploma in safety every day.
Blue skies!
