| Glenn Pew Online |
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| Clips -- Excerpts From Published Work |
Debunking The Cirrus Crash Myth
An article recently printed by the Examiner.com takes critical aim at Cirrus Design, picking from a recent NTSB report
regarding the Cory Lidle crash
in New York city and citing crash statistics it says give the SR20 and
SR22 a "spotty record." While the article notes that Lidle had time in
type that most insurers would find anemic and that the NTSB cited he
was not trained by nor was he flying with a Cirrus qualified
instructor, it adds that the SR20 and 22 have suffered "more than 40
incidents [in sum] since 2001." As is often the case in the popular
press, the Examiner’s article fails to put its reporting in
context. Exhaustive research by AVweb sister publications Aviation
Safety and Aviation Consumer found that the Cirrus fleet has a
relatively good overall accident record – 4.1 accidents per
100,000 hours versus 6.2 for the entire GA fleet. The Cirrus fleet
fatal accident rate is 1.4 per 100,000 hours, only slightly higher than
the GA average of 1.2. In its upcoming March 2007 issue, Aviation
Safety reports that the Cirrus fleet accident pattern is quite
different from airplanes of like performance and it also finds that the
Cirrus owners group is having a profound effect on improving training
for new owners.Referencing a recent promotional mailer sent by Cirrus to Maryland residents, the Examiner article also states, "Despite at least 42 deaths involving these planes, the company continues to market the aircraft as if they are as easy to drive as a car." When contacted for comment, Cirrus Vice President of Business Administration Bill King told AVweb, "We have made a business out of designing and manufacturing the safest aircraft in the world in our class. When our aircraft are used in accordance with the proper training and within the design standards, we believe they represent a new standard for efficient and safe flight."
King Air Sheds Parts
A King Air B200 landed Friday at Cape Giardeau, Mo., with a cracked windshield, buckled skins and much
of its horizontal stabilizer gone, but
the beginning of this
story is just as interesting. John Taylor was acting as Flight Nurse
aboard an aeromedical helicopter in the area that day transporting a
specialty team when his pilot said he saw something nearby fall and hit
the ground. Taylor and his pilot looked around and quickly diverted to
avoid falling debris. There was a King
Air almost directly above them,
and it was in trouble. At 27,000 feet, the King Air crew had
experienced windshield failure. Sheldon Stone, the 4,200-hour ATP-rated
pilot at the controls, and copilot Adam Moore donned their oxygen masks
and depressurized the aircraft to prevent the windshield from blowing
out. Stone twisted the valve to begin the flow of oxygen but felt it
wasn't coming. And that's when things got really bad...A Different 9/11
I spent all day -- it was a Monday -- with my plane, poring over each system part and preflight check until I
was satisfied the only tests left were those
that must be answered in the air. It was late when I got home, and at least 1 a.m. before
I finally made it into the shower at my Manhattan apartment to wash
away the day's grime. I'd checked online, and the weather was going to
be excellent. Later that morning, after some sleep, I would very likely
fly my homebuilt -- a five-year project -- for the first time. So
there, in that first hour of Tuesday, with the water washing over me, I
knelt down and prayed the day would see me safe. It turned out to be an
awfully selfish prayer. It was the 11th of September, 2001...The Day I Saw The Light
As we flew upside down, away from the failed loop/Immelman, something really sunk in. This aircraft is
nothing like
the Cessnas,
Pipers and Mooney I'd been flying my whole life (life having begun when
I got my Private). The only real similarities were that they all had
wings and an engine. But those other aircraft don't trust you. They're
built to second-guess your every move and keep you on the straight and
narrow, literally. I used to think that it was bad that
training aircraft didn't do what you told them to do, when you told
them to do it. I've got a different opinion of that, now. These
aircraft will teach you how to use the forces of flight to fly an
airplane conservatively and safely. Plus, if you're trying
to get somewhere in the soup, all of these good-spouse-type habits
(stability, conservatism, and security) are good qualities. But they're
also the kind of qualities that turn what could be an artistic,
free-spirited machine into a horizontal elevator.Any comments on the Extra 300L deserve a separate paragraph. This is a trusting aircraft. It is a capable plane — more capable than you — yet it believes in you with unwavering loyalty. You think; it does. The contract is caged in steel tube and fixed in carbon fiber. The aircraft flies like a physical manifestation of respect for your abilities, which is why it helps to fly with someone deserving of that respect. I was lucky; I was flying with Mike...
So You Want To Build An Airplane...
Of those 537 kits, 498 were listed in the airplane section. Of those, 166 were listed the number flying as
10 or less.
That's exactly
1 out of 3. Ninety-two of those designs listed the number completed as
one or less. That's nearly 1 out of 5. That year, an additional 82 did
not report "number completed" at all — not a good thing. For
that year, there were about 498-166-82=250 (or just about half of those
designs listed) that may have been around long enough to have the major
bugs worked out of them. With those kind of numbers, the trick here
isn't finding a good design. Instead, it's finding a good kit from a
good company.SpaceShipOne "Live" From Mojave
The Paul Allen funded, Burt Rutan designed, Ansari X Prize inspired SpaceShipOne burned rubber (quite
literally -- as a major
component of its fuel) and scrolled through mach numbers most of the
way toward an apogee of roughly 337,500 feet over Mojave, CA (the
altitude yesterday quoted by on-location X Prize judge Gregg Maryniak).
As with June's public launch, the flight might not be described by
anyone as passenger-soothing smooth, and again, both pilot and craft
returned safely and with questions to answer...Flying In A Post-9/11 World
On beyond flight schools: Suicidal jihadians with explosive shoes and armed journalists can still find their
way past airport security and
onto passenger- and fuel-laden aircraft. At the same time, an aged
congressman with a metal hip and an armed Secret Service agent are,
respectively, strip-searched and simply not allowed to board. Anyone
with the intelligence of a 15-year-old child apparently can steal a
light aircraft, fly it through military airspace and slam it into an
office building. Fortunately, nobody's seriously advocating the denial
of our freedoms as a failsafe solution to protect us from ourselves --
at least not yet. Unfortunately, so long as the insane and foolish
continue to kill and die for reasons the rest of us fail to comprehend,
so too will the noble and the brave die to protect us. And those who
belong to neither group will struggle to walk the line between
self-protection and paranoia.| contact Glenn | Home |
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copyright J. Glenn Pew, 2007. Not for use without permission.