SAFTY TOC
Runway Incursion Prevention
 FAA Runway Safety Tests
Provides 4 important training packages:
- Situational Awareness Through Airfield Signs & Air Traffic Control Instructions
This animation allows pilots to assess their knowledge of some of the airfield markings and signs, as well as air traffic control instructions that they may encounter while taxing.
- Airport Taxiway Marking Review
This exercise allows pilots to assess their knowledge of some of the markings that they may encounter on the airfield while taxiing.
- Taxi Instruction Self-Assessment
This exercise allows pilots to assess their understanding of "taxi to" instructions from air traffic control.
- Situational Awareness
This asks the pilot four questions about various aspects of situational awareness. Explanations are provided and reference materials are cited.
Also, see the following FAA Advisory Circulars.
AC 90-42 – Traffic advisory practices at airports without operating control towers.
AC 90-66 – Recommended standard traffic patterns and practices for aeronautical operations at airports without operating control towers.
AC 120-74 – Parts 91, 121, 125, and 135 Flightcrew Procedures during Taxi Operations.
AC 91-73 – Part 91 and Part 135 Single-Pilot Procedures during Taxi Operations.
AOPA Air Safety Foundation Online Courses
AOPA has a series of online course for you to take at http://www.aopa.org/asf/online_courses.
Courses include
- Know Before You Go: Navigating Today’s Airspace
- GPS for VFR Operations
- GPS for IFR Operations
- Weather Wise Ceiling and Visibility
- Weather Wise: Thunderstorms and ATC
- SkySpotter: Pireps Made Easy
- Single-Pilot IFR
- IFR Adventure
- Runway Safety
- Mountain Flying
- Engine and Propeller
- Aging Aircraft
- Say Intentions: When You Need ATC’s Help...
- Mission: Possible—Navigating Today's Special-Use Airspace
- IFR Chart Challenge: VOR Approach
- IFR Chart Challenge: RNAV Approach
- Datalink
- Pneumatic Systems
- VFR GPS Guide: Garmin 430/530
- Visual Warning System
Please email our safety officer, Pierre Huggins indicating which of these courses you have taken.
The Sentinel Newsletter
Official Safety Newsletter of the Civil Air Patrol
Monday, February 18, 2008, Presidents Day
It’s February, and while the weather hasn’t been sooo bad, it is definitely wintery. I was out at the airport today, giving the Bluebird a long overdue scrubbing, and got to witness the frontal passage out on the ramp. I got there at about 0900 and the winds were from about 250 at 10 or so. The runway at Manassas is 16/34, so I thought it was best I just work on the paint job instead of the crosswind landings. I laid into the left wing, and the horizontal stab, and then the dreaded belly. This was the second pass there, so it wasn’t terrible, but this time I applied buffing compound to get the deep grime off and get it ready for waxing.
Anyhow, I was watching some landings in my mini-breaks, and this nice Mooney departs but returns within half an hour, and they were using 16L, since the winds were still slightly favoring it. The clouds were popping more and more as the day went on. Mr. Mooney finally returned, and then did a touch and go, and then landed a good deal long, and stopped.
And then I was surprised to be standing there next to the truck and feeling the temperature drop a good 10 degrees and the wind swung from being a crosswind to being from the north, just like the book says it does when a front passes. Now the wind was lined up nicely with 34, and Mr. Mooney turned around for a departure on 34. I still had a lot of work to do so I still only was pondering the touch and go landings I wanted to do.
The wind picked up to 12 – 16, gusting to 20+. Then it started to shower, and I realized that these clouds were the warm and moist air that had been popping the cumulus clouds now forming into a big stratus layer. It was still gusty by the time I called it quits, and it was still raining; and my fingers were numb from scrubbing around rivet heads. All in all, I felt satisfied to sit in the cockpit and watch the small amount of traffic listening to the tower direct them on radio. I came home, ready for another day.
I was reviewing an old copy of Aviation Safety, November 2007. There was a good article on “Improving GA Safety” where the editor interviewed the NTSB’s newest member, Robert Sumwalt. I am proud to say I know him personally, as I worked at ALPA while he was a US Airways pilot. I had been reading about contaminated runway operations and recalled I needed to send out my monthly missive to you, so let’s see what the Honorable Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) had to say about General Aviation safety. That seems right on target for our work, right?
Before I go and quote from the article, I will note that Robert Sumwalt was instrumental in changing the lingo used in two person crews from having one pilot flying and the other the “non-flying pilot.” He advocated calling the pilot not flying the “pilot monitoring.” This was to emphasize that even if they aren’t at the controls, they need to be keenly watching and checking that the pilot flying is doing their job right. There are still some places where they haven’t switched to this more apt terminology. Robert Sumwalt was very much a human factors expert.
The issue of safety culture also was developed during his safety work at ALPA. I don’t claim he invented it though. But he is championing it. In the current article, he points out that “a safety culture can be applied to one- or two-person operations.” Then he follows that saying, “When we boil it down, I look at a safety culture as ‘doing the right things even when no one is watching.’”
I liked seeing Robert’s invention of an alternative definition for the NTSB. He said:
“To help pilots understand the serious consequences of aviation, I like to translate the letters N-T-S-B. For example, ‘N’ could stand for ‘Negative publicity avoidance.’ How is this going to look in the headlines? I was an airline pilot for 24 years and I used to thing that if I go out and do this, how’s that going to look.
“‘T’ means, ‘Take the most conservative approach.’ For example, when preparing for a flight we often ask ourselves, ‘Should I add more fuel or not add more fuel? Should I de-ice the airplane and get rid of that frost on the wings or should I just assume it’ll be okay?’ Don’t worry about those things. When you’re faced with a decision like that, take the most conservative approach.
“The ‘S’ in NTSB means, ‘Standard operating procedure (SOP) adherence:’ Sticking to those procedures that have been developed is so important. We found in airline flying that, when crews start deviating from the SOPs, they are about three times more likely to commit another error that has consequential results.
“Finally, the ‘B’ in NTSB stands for ‘Be a professional.’ It doesn’t necessarily mean you get paid to fly. Professionalism, the way I look at it, is a mindset; it’s the way we do things. It’s precise checklist usage, it’s precise callouts, it’s precise compliance with those standard operating procedures and regulations.
“That’s what I think the letters N-T-S-B stand for as far as it relates to trying to keep us all out of trouble and keeping us from meeting the NTSB on a professional basis.”
It is getting late. I will just add one last point he makes. The editor points out that the accident rate for GA remains awfully high; there was an increase in 2006 from 2005 for GA fatalities going from 617 to 779. The editor asks if the NTSB is doing any studies that will recommend ways to raise awareness of the ways to avoid being a statistic. Robert Sumwalt replied that “we as an industry just haven’t been able to figure out how we can actually improve judgment and decision making. Good aeronautical decision-making training, over the years, has been proven to improve decisions made by pilots. So, we have shown that proper training can lead to better decisions.” I think that this is our mission. We need to work within our organization on practicing good decision making.
That is where I will be focusing our work over the next year. I will be working with AOPA on getting us through all their courses that put you in the decision making position. Those are great. Let’s all do them and paper the whole wall with our certificates. That will be a great accomplishment, especially if it keeps us accident-free.
AV Web Podcast Index - Search for “Sumwalt” You will get even more of his interview if you want. It runs about 17 minutes.
Until next time,
Pierre Huggins
Leesburg Composite Squadron Safety Officer
prockhuggins@verizon.net
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