Fly Me Friendly

Seems a couple of light aircraft have gone down in Australia this Christmas. Both involved C172 aircraft, the first one carrying two men and reports say low cloud & rain may have contributed. The second one had a single pilot on board who hit powerlines and crashed.

While these reports are from general media and may not have all the facts, initial review leads to speculation that the first may have been “scud running” due to “press-on-itis” and the second may have been due to low flying. If so, it makes these accidents doubly tragic as they could have been avoided.

It’s important to read and learn from the ATSB safety reports as well as those from the FAA. Typically in aviation you don’t get a chance to learn from your mistakes (many being fatal) so it’s important to learn from the mistakes of others.

I’m counting on good flight training (practical & theoretical), learning from studying accident reports and generally asking myself “How will this look in the news?” to help me learn good judgment when flying. Of course, I’m really safe in my flying at the moment – I haven’t got the time or money to go flying – small consolation…