Hobby Aftermath

Accident Chain: Unfamiliar Airport Long Flight (3hrs stuck in a small airplane) Get-there-itis (visiting sick father-in-law, and delivering her two passengers to the destination) Disregarded requirement for a Flight Review No spin recovery training Flustered by ATC Accepting clearances from ATC that put the airplane into undesired states Failed to be assertive with ATC to… Continue reading Hobby Aftermath

Hobby Flight

The Flight After being airborne for nearly 3 hours, N4252G approached the Class B airspace of Houston Hobby Airport.  Given the large speed difference between a SR20 and a Boeing 737 on approach, the approach controller had told 52G to maintain maximum forward speed if possible just before being handed off to tower.  Once on… Continue reading Hobby Flight

Hobby Accident Background

Flight Background On June 9th, 2016, Cirrus N4252G departed KOUN for KHOU about 350nm away.  On board was the pilot (Dana), her husband (Tony), and brother-in-law (Jerry).  The flight was to take them to the Houston area to see Tony and Jerry’s father, who was receiving cancer treatment at the Anderson Cancer Center.  Obviously, they… Continue reading Hobby Accident Background

Transponders

MODE C Transponders Well first, what is a transponder?  A transponder is a little box mounted in the panel of your airplane where you can set a 4 digit code that ATC assigns to you.  The purpose of this box is to tell ATC where you are and how high you are.  Transponders are also… Continue reading Transponders

Graphic Forecast Area

Graphic Forecast Area Tool We used to have something called “area forecasts”.  Don’t worry, you’re not missing out on much.  They were several pages long of coded information you had to try and decipher to figure what kind of weather there was out there and where it was (imagine a METAR or TAF that was… Continue reading Graphic Forecast Area

Airport Diagrams

No Google Maps at Your Destination Airport Unfortunately, you will not have google maps on your cell phone to guide you around the taxiways and other movement and non-movement areas at your destination airport.  An essential part of your preflight planning needs to include becoming familiar with not only the runway information and layout at… Continue reading Airport Diagrams

Spatial Disorientation

Spatial disorientation Spatial disorientation results from the brain not properly interpreting the signals it is receiving from the rest of the body.  Remember, flying is not natural for humans, this is partly what makes it so great! The body uses three integrated systems that work together to ascertain orientation and movement in space. Vestibular system—organs… Continue reading Spatial Disorientation

Risk Matrix / Hazardous Attitudes

Avoiding Risk… In this topic we’ll talk about two different ways to avoid risk.  The first is using the risk assessment matrix as described in the video above.  The second is avoiding hazardous attitudes and being able to recognize and remedy them when they appear! Risk Matrix The video above does a good job explaining… Continue reading Risk Matrix / Hazardous Attitudes