As a pilot I like to make sure that I brief myself as thoroughly as possible before each and every flight. Even during my down time I like to read up on aviation statistics and occasionally accident reports to figure out the how and why, as well as do some chair flying and think what I would do in that circumstance. Its a great use of leisure time for myself! Recently I was on the NTSB's website looking at flying statistics and of 472 aviation accidents this past year, 450 of them came from general aviation. This number is phenomenal to me, and somewhat disconcerting as well. As I read through the files of accident reports I noticed that the majority of the accidents were a loss of directional control after flying into instrument conditions.
There are two types of flying conditions, visual(VFR), when the weather is clear, or instrument(IFR), when the weather is poor. Air carriers are required to fly under IFR no matter what the weather is and as a result go through more rigorous training. However, general aviation pilots can stop their training after earning their private license and fly under only VFR conditions. The private license training rubric requires only 3 hours of simulated instrument training, while to earn a rating to fly under IFR, the pilot must log 40 additional instrument training flight hours. The reasoning behind this additional training for IFR is due to the ease of disorientation and loss of situational awareness while flying in the clouds.
Airplanes are sophisticated machines, and the instrumentation in them reflects such. Most general aviation aircraft are equipped with what are known as steam gauges, the round dial gauges. However, some are equipped with glass panels, essentially a computer monitor that tracks your flight path, aircraft attitude and speed all in one easy to read panel. An article in Flying Magazine stated the steep learning curve required to learn to fly glass panel aircraft, but also depicted safer flying from those who learn. The article also shared a story of a pilot, having logged over 700 IFR hours if my memory is correct, flying an unfamiliar glass panel aircraft into IFR conditions and crashing while enroute due to lack of familiarity with the system. The military uses glass panel instrumentation in their initial trainer, the T-6, and boasts an incredibly high safety record, much higher than airlines even.
The airplane that I learned to fly in had steam gauges, and I consider myself a safe pilot and feel that my instrumentation equips me well for the VFR flying that I conduct. However, recently I began flying a C-172XP with a glass panel and have become spoiled with all the gizmos that come along with it. I have had to spend many hours re-learning the instrumentation and switch-ology of the system, to feel confident flying the plane as I did in the plane with steam gauges. I can attest to the difficulty of learning the glass panel as I go through this transitional training. In addition I love the situational awareness increase that comes from the glass panel. Now instead of logging locations on a paper map, I can look directly in front of me and see exactly where I am and know my fuel burn, and remaining flight time. Much as computers have infiltrated our home lives it seems they are creeping into the cockpit as well. But this time around I welcome the computer and its added safety benefits!
Interesting. So the smaller planes don't fly themselves like we would tend to think they do from watching tv/movies? Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteWell the short answer is they do and they dont. Some of the planes have an auto-pilot that will hold altitude, while others will do everything but land for you. However, the majority of the smaller planes you have to fly by hand as theyre not real sophisticated. But the airliners, such as the new Aribus A-380 will do everything from takeoff to landing, it even has an autoland system which makes the pilot more of a computer operator than a pilot. Arguments have been made that systems like these are pretty dangerous as you lose your piloting skills from letting the computer do all the work.
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