As There Haven't Been Any Earth Shaking Stories......

There haven’t been any earth shaking stories to discuss so I am going to just deal with the “everyday mundane” issues out there.

Some of what follows will be rather a bit of rehash. Recently as well as in the past I have written about mundane things as gear up landings, taxiing off the runway or crashing for no apparent reason. I don’t mean to be blasé about accidents, people getting hurt, even dying. But, It seems that all I am reading on the FAA Preliminary Accident and Incident Reports is just about all of the above. Just look at the data presented on 4/22/14.

Don’t believe me? Here goes a synopsis from today’s FAA report:

            C-172 lands short in the grass and flips over

            Cirrus SR-20 Landing at Sanford Int’l Apt went off side of runway and through a ditch

C-210 Struck the prop on landing (we’ve discussed that too)

            Pa-18 On landing went off the runway into the trees at smaller county airport

            Champion –on landing went off the runway and gear collapsed

            Pa-24 Gear up landing and struck prop    

I don’t remember ever having trouble keeping the plane on the taxiway or runway. Now in a high wind, especially a cross wind, while piloting a light plane like a Pa-!8 or a Cessna 150, one might get challenged. We’ve discussed gear up landings, and how best to avoid them several times. Still it seems to be one of the main errors occurring every week. Please don’t think I am trying to make light of serious problems that occur, such as icing, engine failure, heavy IFR etc.

So what’s the answer to all these rather senseless and probably avoidable accidents? The principle one is to have had good instruction and to pay attention to what you are doing and Practice, Practice and Practice.

Till next time.