As part of its #FlySafe national safety campaign, which aims to educate the GA community on how to prevent Loss of Control (LOC) accidents this flying season, the FAA has released information on its latest topic: Enhanced vision systems.
WHAT IS LOC?
According to the FAA, a Loss of Control (LOC) accident involves an unintended departure of an aircraft from controlled flight.
LOC can happen because the aircraft enters a flight regime that is outside its normal flight envelope and may quickly develop into a stall or spin. It can introduce an element of surprise for the pilot.
Contributing factors may include: Poor judgment/aeronautical decision making, failure to recognize an aerodynamic stall or spin and execute corrective action, intentional regulatory non-compliance, low pilot time in aircraft make and model, lack of piloting ability, failure to maintain airspeed, failure to follow procedure, pilot inexperience and proficiency, or the use of over-the-counter drugs that impact pilot performance.
ENHANCED VISION SYSTEMS
Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS) fall into two main categories: Enhanced Vision and Synthetic Vision.
Both can help reduce GA accidents involving reduced visibility. Weather, night, smoke and other obstructions to vision can compromise safety, especially when flying close to the ground. Although EVS technologies can help improve safety in these situations, it does take time for pilots to become proficient in their use.
Enhanced Vision often uses infrared cameras to display runway obstructions and terrain in bad weather or on a dark night. You know that the sensors on your airplane are giving you the latest information, so you can use it tactically.
Synthetic Vision combines imagery from sensors and navigation systems with your own natural vision. It uses information from navigation databases to create a picture of the flight environment and overlays that picture with aircraft instrumentation and weather information to create a single image.
Keep in mind that weather information depicted by a synthetic vision system can be five or more minutes old. So, it’s best to use this technology strategically, especially in convective weather.
TIPS FOR PILOTS
You can reduce training time and make time in the aircraft more productive if you log time on an avionics simulator, FAA officials note.
- Expect that the transition to Enhanced or Synthetic Vision technology may take longer if the airplane you train in has unfamiliar glass cockpit instrumentation.
- Most manufacturers have personal computer-based simulations for their products.
- Keep your software and databases updated.
- Maintain your proficiency and train with a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) who is proficient on the equipment in your airplane.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Approximately 450 people are killed each year in GA accidents.
- Loss of Control is the number one cause of these accidents.
- Loss of Control happens in all phases of flight. It can happen anywhere and at any time.
- There is one fatal accident involving LOC every four days.
LEARN MORE
AC 90-106 Enhanced Flight Vision Systems
Brushing Back the Dark, FAA Safety Briefing
AOPA Live NASA Enhanced Vision video.
AOPA Margins of Safety videos on AOA.
The FAASafety.gov website has Notices, FAAST Blasts, online courses, webinars and more on key general aviation safety topics.
Check out the 2015 GA Safety Enhancements (SEs) fact sheets on the main FAA Safety Briefing website, including Flight Risk Assessment Tools.
The WINGS Pilot Proficiency Program helps pilots build an educational curriculum suitable for their unique flight requirements. It is based on the premise that pilots who maintain currency and proficiency in the basics of flight will enjoy a safer and more stress-free flying experience.
The General Aviation Joint Steering Committee (GAJSC) is comprised of government and industry experts who work together to use data to identify risk, pinpoint trends through root cause analysis, and develop safety strategies to reduce the risk of accidents in GA.
An FAA fact sheet outlines GA safety improvements and initiatives.
There are excellent Syn Vision systems out there with hundreds of thousands of hours of actual use like Dynon Skyview. If the FAA were truly serious about bringing high tech to improve safety to GA they would significantly streamline the approval process. There are various systems being used extensively by the homebuilt/experimental market that would financially be in reach of many GA pilots if allowed providing huge safety enhancements. PFDs, MFDs and autopilots in the homebuilt market have been very innovative over the years while certified systems are extensively handicapped to bring improvements to market.
Flight simulators for use at home.
I am a CFII with somewhere over 10,000 hours of instruction given. One of my biggest fears is that one of my graduated instrument students will let his competency lapse, and for some reason decide to fly actual IFR without getting his competency back up to snuff. I don’t mean proficiency, I mean competency. And confidence.
Instrument flying is simple, and not at all really challenging when you are competent and confident. There are times, of course, that things can change, and those are the specific times that your competency had BETTER be up to par.
But I am getting a little too specific. There are ALWAYS times when your competency had better be there. Not only in instrument work, not only in day-to-day flying, but in the barest minimum of everyday activity. Just flying in the traffic pattern requires that you be both competent, and proficient.
How many of you, in today’s economic environment, do that by actually flying? I would be willing to bet that MOST of you haven’t maintained that talent. Not to the levels you would be happy with.
How do you correct that situation? By going out, SOLO, and getting your competency back? What happens if something pops up that challenges your competency before you are ready while you are actually in the plane?
Now finally to my point. There is an easy and cheap way of maintaining at least your mental competency. It is called your home computer. With a flight simulator, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator added.
Yeah, Yeah, I know. THE FAA DOESN’T RECOGNIZE THE HOME COMPUTER FLIGHT SIMULATOR AS BEING “ADEQUATE FOR USE IN MAINTAINING FLIGHT COMPETENCY”.
B period S. I don’t give a flying #$%# what the FAA says about it, I don’t CARE if I can log the home simulator time. What I do care about is being able to practice my procedures, my competency,and its INADEQUACY
I am going to really tweak some noses. An Airplane is a LOUSY training environment. It is just about the worst possible place to LEARN anything about flying. ALL LEARNING SHOULD TAKE PLACE ON THE GROUND, where there is time, ability, and help in that learning. Then you PRACTICE what you have learned in the plane. If you are not doing this, you are just plain wasting money.
And the home simulator is just plain a magnificent learning tool. With it, you can do every single thing that is possible with a plane, (including learning how to fly low-level, INVERTED, if you want to!) with the simulator. You can put yourself in MANY completely unsurvivable situations, AND SIMULATE DYING! But more importantly, you can do all this, stop everything in place and evaluate, and immediately go back and practice it all over again.
At any airport in the world, any weather conditions, any equipment failure scenarios, any normal or completely un-normal situations you desire. You can also do a magnificent job of practicing traffic pattern procedures. You instrument pilots, how many times have you flown in strong turbulence and winds, absolute minimums, with equipment failures, going into Hong Kong International Airport? For the first time? In a plane completely new to you, and far above your actual qualifications?
The only thing the home simulator does not do well is a good job of takeoffs and landings. But that is the real fun in actually flying, anyway. I don’t want to simulate THAT. All the rest of flying is just motoring along. It is takeoffs and landings that are fun.
Point, guys, Get you a flight simulator for your computer. Just a simple toy joystick is fully adequate for the basics, you don’t need a full-force hardware cockpit, tho if you really want to play——
And practice your flying techniques. Even if you are one of the lucky ones and can fly every day, there is no way you can stay proficient in all situations in a plane. Practice those things you won’t dare practice in the actual plane.
And stay COMPETENT in being a safe pilot. Who cares whether the FAA “approves” of the home simulator or not?
Hello Lee
Agree 100%
Please call cellortext 813-784-4669
I am developing K-12+++ STEM Pilot Wings programs and would like to discuss Desktop Sims …