A Passion for Flying...Where are Aviation Safety Ethics Today

Part 5- by Rob Stapleton

Well it seems the NTSBs stats have awakened the aviation training industry to the need for stall, spin training.

This is a topic that Marcus Paine writes about in the Alaska Airmen’s Association quarterly newsletter the Transponder, and has for the many years.

I remember the first meeting with Marcus was at an “alternative CFI meeting” to the FAA’s CFI/DPE meeting in Anchorage some 7 to 8 years ago. While other CFIs were listening to a canned message from the beltway, we were hashing out the meaning of stall recovery and why isn’t it part of flight training for today’s student pilots.

 Paine operates a business part of the year in Anchorage and part of the year in Tucson Arizona called “Unusual Attitudes.” Marcus and I had many an India Pale Ale discussing the need for and a lack of understanding of the concept and need for good stall spin awareness in the primary and flight review syllabus of flight training. Paine's passion is training pilots to be knowledgeable and comfortable with unusual attitude maneuvers and recovery.

Just thumb through any monthly General Aviation News Accident Reports to get the picture. Six out of 11 accident or incident reports are the average for loss of control on landing or takeoff accident reports.

Paine like myself is a disciple of Sammy Mason’s book (and philosophy) Stall, Spins and Safety last published in 1985. 

The loss of control on takeoff and landing in the national statistic has the largest percentage of accidents among Part 91 and Part 135 operators. The reason we concluded was a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of flight and how to control an aircraft while in slow flight, what to look for and to understand the physics of a stall and perhaps an ensuing spin.

It is encouraging that aviation publications the likes of AOPA Pilot who most recently published  in its April 2023 edition in the Proficiency & Efficiency section a story by Dave Hirschman called “The Spin Zone: Confronting aviation’s intimidator,” while I personally am not crazy about the title I applaud AOPA for addressing the topic.

Recently as well the 2013 March/April edition of the Business Aviation Insider published “Flying Fundamentals: Upset Recovery Training” on Page 12 in the NBAA publication, which also printed another article; “Climbing Toward Safer Flying: New Approaches to Resolving Recurring Accident Causes.” OK it looks like the mainstream is now getting the picture that new pilots and old non-proficient pilots are not fully aware of their aircraft’s flight characteristics.

Something has to be done.

This year pilots will see an added effort by the FAA Safety Team to promote the use of Angle of Attack Indicators, thus showing a pilot when they are increasing an aircraft’s angle of attack to the dangerously close, critical angle of attack. Something any pilot can sense by an attitude indicator, or artificial horizon. But what about the airspeed, and weight and balance, or the sudden thermal burst or gust of wind…will these devices be yet another distraction to knowing your aircraft and your limitations?

Going back to the Santa Paula airport and the days of flight instruction and mentoring by our CFIs, the above solution would appear to be a Band-Aid approach to a bigger problem, not knowing your aircraft and your capabilities.

I remember Tony Mason saying,” don’t be afraid if the aircraft ends up in an unusual attitude, focus on knowing and expecting it to do just what you told it to do, now execute your recovery.”

That is exactly what we in the aviation community need to teach, not fear… but knowledge and response.