By Fred Gibbs
As of my last query on March 27th into the NTSB database, there have been NO fatal accidents in Arizona since January 1st of this year. That is a great statistic, and one worth stating loudly! Hopefully we will finish out the 1st quarter of 2023 with no fatal accidents. Now, Mother Nature has not been very nice to us the past month or so, not only for us here in northern Arizona, but especially across all of California. The atmospheric river phenomenon has wreaked havoc on California, and up here in Northern Arizona we have had more snow than you can imagine. We have/had huge mountains of snow piled up off the runways and taxiways here in Flag, and supposedly the 2nd largest snowfall in 100 years. Oh, by the way, as I write this, IT IS SNOWING OUTSIDE - AGAIN!!!!!
Anyway, if you have been following the news, there have been a LOT of, ummmm, runway incursions, near misses and some on-the-ground taxiing mishaps. So much so, the FAA established a special panel to investigate what is causing all this, and what steps to take to resolve these occurrences. Fortunately (for us GA folks), almost all involved air carrier ops, NOT general aviation. The question is – are we doing a good job or are we just lucky? I will always take the latter, but we need to strive for the former. As spring and summer approach, so do Mother Nature’s winds and monsoon season, so we need to become more aware of what is happening at our destination airports. As I have always said in many of my articles, 100 miles from Phoenix to Flag can be filled with all kinds of gotchas, with significant differences in the weather environment. Here in Flag, winds of 30-plus knots are not unusual, Low Level Wind Shear (LLWS) is a common occurrence on approach, and crosswinds up to 25 kts on landings are certainly a common occurrence. And then of course, come summer, Density Altitude becomes an issue, as well as daily monsoonal thunderstorms and an occasional microburst! WELCOME TO FLAGSTAFF, FLIGHT TRAINING HEAVEN!
FOR INFORMATION ON ALL ACCIDENTS/INCIDENTS THAT OCCURRED LAST MONTH, REFER TO JIM TIMM’S ACCIDENT SUMMARY HEREIN.