Comments on: It Seemed Like A Good Idea

By: Michael Coviello

Michael Coviello — Mon, 28 May 2012 15:08:14 +0000

Stupidity is the number one cause of death and out scores all other causes of death combined.

Regardless of what the NTSB concludes, it appears clear the ATP was overconfident in his abilities and failed to consider all of the risks, not the least of which was probably the effect of a fear inducing maneuver on a passenger who was not “pre-flighted” for the maneuver. I am also willing to bet he uttered to his passenger those famous and most common last words of all: “Watch this!”

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By: Bruce Landsberg

Bruce Landsberg — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:43:37 +0000

Mark….

Good point and you’ll see some online resources for everyone to use on what to say and what not to say to the media after a mishap. Were also putting together a downloadable program that anyone can use to tell what GA is ( and is not).

Reference the article from September above – too many in GA perpetuate the myth that GA as a whole is as safe as the airlines ( most dangerous part of the trip is the drive to and from the airport).

As for calling out stupidity – I think you’ll see the community’s tolerance decreasing on that front. Thanks for the comment.

By: Mark C

Mark C — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:40:28 +0000

Steve makes kind of a good point, but, there are some basic differences between airplane pilots and cycle jocks. The biggest one is, the non-riding public doesn’t have an irrational fear of motorcycles landing on their children’s heads and killing them. When a cycle jock wheelies across the parking lot and eats a pickup truck, the neighbors don’t start a petition to close the parking lot, and every TV station within 100 miles doesn’t send a camera crew to show the crash site, and interview “experts” for days afterward to milk the story for all it’s worth. Recreational pilots can’t afford to just ignore the stupid among us, because non-pilots are just waiting for a chance to jump on an incident. That said, maybe the aviation industry experts should go on TV and just say “you can’t account for stupid”. If nothing else will keep people from doing stupid things with airplanes, maybe the fear of posthumous humiliation will do it.

By: Bruce Landsberg

Bruce Landsberg — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:05:36 +0000

I suspect that some of this comes from constantly trying to equate GA to the airlines. I’ve commented on the futility of that in September. http://www.aopa.org/asf/asfarticles/2011/sp0911.html

Reasonable safety vs. absolute safety is what it’s about and it’s as safe as you – the PIC – choose to make it.

By: Steve Phoenix

Steve Phoenix — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:23:09 +0000

Maybe we worry about it too much. Motorcycle magazines do not have sections dedicated to analyzing guys that wheelie across the parking lot and hit a car and kill themselves. Doesn’t seem to hurt the motorcycle market. But airplane magazines have pages upon pages of hand wringing experts and analysis of stupid pilot tricks. Say, how are those sales?

By: Lee

Lee — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:02:52 +0000

Perhaps other questions to include are:
Does aviation attract risk takers?
Do air shows stimulate stupidity in pilots?
Is there a way to mitigate stupidity in risk takers?

By: John

John — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:27:02 +0000

“…a systemic fault where we, as an industry, failed to advise and educate?”

Seriously? For an ATP? I think that might be a bit of a stretch.

The interesting part (for me) is the statement that “the airplane became inverted and impacted the lake.” So, that would seem to indicate that one of two things happened – either a stall/spin situation (in which, I guess it could be argued that the misjudgment of altitude was a contributing factor, since the pilot may have been able to recover if he had more altitude)… or, what if the passenger was merely trying to brace himself as the plan came out of the hammerhead? I mean, if the plane is pointing straight down, maybe the passenger was bracing himself by pushing on the stick. Even if the pilot was able to yell at the passenger and get him to let go of the stick, they would’ve lost a crucial second or two in the process…

Just speculation, of course.