By Member Earl Weener
On October 14, 2015, I had the pleasure of presiding over our forum, Humans & Hardware: Preventing General Aviation Inflight Loss of Control.
We structured the forum to bring in expertise from pilots, instructors, general aviation advocacy groups, the Federal Aviation Administration, and manufacturers of potential technological solutions, among others.
Our goal was to take the next step toward solutions to this most deadly problem in general aviation, loss of control crashes. To do so, we needed pilots to understand that they are part of the solution.
Now, just a few days later, two leaders in general aviation safety are doing their part to put ideas into action and to spread the word.
General Aviation News reports that at the forum, Master Instructor Rich Stowell proposed the “Learn to Turn” Initiative. Now he’s reaching out to enlist pilot support.
And Tom Turner, in Flying Lessons Weekly, published this brief roundup of quotes from the forum, promising more outreach in the future.
The video of the full forum is now available via the webcast archive and will be available there for 90 days. We will also post the Forum to NTSB’s YouTube channel in the near future for ease of sharing.
As I said at the forum, the prevention of Loss of Control crashes should be a focus for every aviation type club, pilots association and aircraft related forum – including Twitter feeds, Facebook pages, and any place where pilots gather, face to face or electronically.
I urged forum participants to continue the conversation when the forum ended. Now I’m urging every GA pilot – and those close to GA pilots – to join in.
We’ll be sure to keep sharing any new initiatives from the Humans & Hardware forum. If you’re a GA pilot or if you know a GA pilot, please share along with us.
Earl F. Weener, Ph.D., took the oath of office as a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board on June 30, 2010. Dr. Weener is a licensed pilot and flight instructor who has dedicated his entire career to the field of aviation safety.
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