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When invited to Germany to speak at the Baden-Baden CPPP, I took a pilgrimage to the site of the fatal Cirrus accident at Zurich Airport. It wasn't a planned trip. But it was an impactful one. Coming almost half-way around the world for this CPPP motivated me to spend some extra time here. And Baden...
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As 2008 ends, we see some good news. Fewer fatal accidents, more CAPS saves and a decline in the fatal accident rate. The final quarter of 2008 had fewer fatal accidents than same dark months of Oct-Dec in 2007 or 2006 (3 vs 5 or 5 respectively). The last three months also had three CAPS activations...
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A couple of recent threads have highlighted the recent upsurge in Cirrus fatal accidents. To help visualize what has been happening, let me post updates to the charts that I prepare for the plenary session of CPPP that discusses General Aviation and Cirrus accident statistics. Cirrus Fatal Accidents...
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The Tallahassee fatal accident raises some interesting and challenging scenarios. Let me share some reactions if I were flying a similar scenario. Note, this is not speculating what happened to the accident pilot, but placing myself in similar circumstances. We simply do not know enough to judge this...
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Four seconds before impact, the passenger in N91MB pulled the CAPS handle and three people survived although the pilot perished. Four seconds earlier and maybe all would have survived! The NTSB investigators reconstructed the flight profile of N91MB and detailed the last moments of Bob Edesses and his...
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The public release of the NSTB probable cause report on the Indianapolis, IN, fatal accident caught a lot of COPA members by surprise. Intense discussion on the COPA forum in the thread "Autopilot induced stall" explored many aspects of this report and the underlying accident. The completeness...
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As of Sept 30, 2008: Fatal accidents 41 fatal accidents 82 fatalities 10 survivors (all seriously injured) Fatal accident rate: 1.42 fatal accidents per 100,000 year-to-date 1.76 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours in past 12 months 1.54 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours in past 36 months...
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How did a newbie pilot become so passionate about safety and Cirrus accidents? When I picked up my SR22 in 2001 as a VFR-only pilot with just 65 hours total-time, I was fascinated by the human factors of operating such a technologically advanced aircraft. Having a career in computer graphics research...
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Pull Early, Pull Often! That's the phrase that I posted for the first time on March 31, 2006. I encouraged Cirrus pilots to consider using the airframe parachute system, CAPS, earlier in the accident chain and more often in difficult situations. Every Cirrus aircraft has one. Yet, people were dying...