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So mark your calendar and watch for the FAASAFETY.GOV Notice for Saturday morning, March 23rd, starting at 8:30AM over at the ASU Williams-Gateway campus in Picacho Hall 150. Seating for 150 folks, and we'd like you to fill up every seat, because it is important you be part of the solution to the fatal accident rate, not part of the statistics.
2013 is already off to a very bad start - a terrible crash at Casa Grande involving a King Air BE-90 practicing takeoffs and landings. Look like a "Loss of Control" during a Vmc single-engine out go-around - (my opinion only), resulting in 2 fatalities, and down at Ryan Field, a C150 "Loss of Control" stall/spin during the downwind-to-Base turn - (again, my opinion only), with 1 fatality.
As you read in last month's issue, there were 12 fatal accidents within the state of Arizona, and 3 out-of-state fatal accidents involving Arizona-based pilots. All told, 29 people perished as a result of those accidents. That is a significant increase over 2011, and we, as fellow pilots and human beings, need to do something to reduce that terrible figure. Not all of the pilots involved in those in-state crashes were Arizona based pilots, thus we recognize that any program we do in Arizona would not have reached them, but maybe some one in their home state would have liked our program(s) and possibly emulated them. Any effort that reduces the fatality rate overall is worth it.
Interestingly enough, Alaska had fewer fatal accidents that the state of Arizona - and, in fact had approximately 50% fewer fatalities (11) in those accidents than Arizona (21) - a sad state of affairs that we need to fix!! Especially when you consider the our weather and the terrain, we should be significantly safer than flying in Alaska!
We have been able to break the fatal accidents down into about 5 general categories that we can readily analyze, such as -
- Approach to landing - 4
SR22 @ SDL
CJ6 IN COLORADO
COZY @ INW
Rans S-12 @ FFZ - Controlled Flight into Terrain - 4
PA-28 by Strawberry
PA-28 by Marana
C182 by Yucca
Lancair IV-P in California - VFR into IMC - 2
C206 at Show Low
PA-31 by Payson - LOSS of CONTROL - Maintenance - 3
RV-7 @ Glendale
MUSTANG II @ San Manuel
POWERED PARACHUTE by Safford - LOW FLYING - wire strikes - 2
EC-350 HELICOPTER @ Camp Verde
C182 in Mexico
You will hear a presentation on each one of these categories, with some interesting insights. Unfortunately, the NTSB final reports for these accidents are not yet available, so what you will hear is only APA/ASAG's opinion of what happened. But there are some things that never change -
1. DO NOT TRY TO MAKE THE 180 DEGREE TURN BACK TO THE AIRPORT IF YOU LOSE THE ENGING ON DEPARTURE!!!
2. SPEED IS LIFE - IF YOU MAINTAIN 1.3 Vso ON YOUR ENTIRE APPROACH, YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE A LOSS OF CONTROL STALL/SPIN IN THE PATTERN!!
3. DON'T PUT YOUR STUDENT INTO A DANGEROUS SITUATION
4. VFR INTO IMC STILL KILLS PILOTS EVERY YEAR.....DON'T WE EVER LEARN??
5. DENSITY ALTITUDE EXISTS - YOUR AIRPLANE KNOWS IT EVEN IF YOU DON'T!
6. AIRPLANE ENGINES DO NOT RUN WITH AIR IN THE TANKS!!
7. FLYING DOWN LOW IS DANGEROUS!
We intend to take a very hard, in-depth look at each fatal accident within the state of Arizona, as well as any fatal accident out of state involving an Arizona-based pilot in an effort to understand as much of the circumstances leading up to or causing that accident in an effort to identify anything we, as the Arizona Pilots Association, and its related safety programs, can or could do to prevent similar accidents in the future. That process is not nearly as easy as you would think. There may be several mitigating or circumstantial inputs/decisions etc that led up to the actual accident, in which any different decision or action could have prevented or at least lessened the severity of the outcome.
GAARMS 2013 will be a 1/2-day event on Saturday, March 23, 2013, at the ASU campus - Picacho Hall 150 - over at the Williams-Gateway Airport. Last years program was a 2-day event with national speakers, sort of a state-wide kick-off effort. This years event will be more localized, delving into the specific accidents that have occurred during 2012, and will include several presentations on both analysis and proposals for reducing the accident rate for 2013 and on. Any one interested in helping or participating in the GAARMS effort should contact me, Fred Gibbs, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 928-266-0112 (h) or my cell at 410-206-3753.
Attendance to the GAARMS Symposium is free, part of the FAA's WINGS program, and all the specifics will be advertised under the FAASAFETY.GOV process, in our next newsletter, and on the APA website. Watch your email for the SPANS announcement around the 1st week of March, 2013. Plenty of seating is available, but we hope to fill up the approximately 150 seats, so think about registering early. You can also just show up at the door at 8:30AM on March 23rd and register then.
Until then, Safety programs coming up in 2013 are -
April 20TH - MULTIPLE LOCATIONS STATE-WIDE - SAFETY STANDDOWN
TUCSON
DEER VALLEY
COTTONWOOD
FLAGSTAFF
FALCON FIELD
GLENDALE
MAY (date TBD) - Sedona - program TBD
JUNE (date TBD) - Flagstaff - EFB Workshop
Should you desire a safety program at your local airport, simply contact APA via our web site or call our Safety Program director, Craig Albright, at 480-776-9358, or me, Fred Gibbs at 410-206-3753 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
WINGMAN Program - Try NOT to come to a safety program by yourself. But don't just bring your buddy who always comes with you, bring some one new, and get your BFF to also bring some one new. We need you to help us expand our audience, to expand our reach, and to expand our ocean of faces. Statistics show that the folks having accidents are the ones who don't participate in the WINGS or safety programs, so help us reach out to those folks and pull them in. I never complain when a program runs out of chairs!!!