Off topic but this came through on the canard forum, highly relevant I
thought, test flying a mono without training on type is a good way of
needing a new prop !;-)
Mark Zeitling flies an EZ and works for Rutan, probably on the next
space ship, he hasn't told us.
Graham
Technical Counselor Newsletter from EAA
Posted by: "Marc J. Zeitlin" marc_zeitlin@alum.mit.edu zeitlinm
Sun Apr 22, 2007 3:33 pm (PST)
Folks:
As a Technical Counselor for the EAA, I get a newsletter (brand new,
apparently - this is Volume 1, Issue 1) call "Safety Wire". It's for
Flight Advisors too. I'm guessing that a number of you out there have
received this by now.
It was a bit thin, being brand new, but there was an interesting set
of statistics regarding Experimental Amateur Built aircraft.
Apparently, 6% of all exp. am-built fatal accidents occur on the first
or second flight of the aircraft. This is an AMAZINGLY high
percentage - it means 1/16th of all fatal accidents occur in the first
two flights - evened out, it would mean that an Exp. am-built aircraft
would have a lifetime of 32 flights. Obviously, this isn't correct,
so it shows that the dangers of the first couple of flights is WAY
higher than subsequent flights. I suppose that this seems intuitively
obvious, but this puts some quantitative value to the difference in
danger.
What's this mean? For those of you building, USE the TC program, and
even more importantly, USE the Flight Advisor program. Get a LOT of
review of your aircraft, and get a LOT of review of YOUR capabilities
before taking that first flight. Be current, and be current in many
different types of aircraft, or at LEAST in the type of aircraft that
you're going to fly. Transition training is critical to reducing the
danger of the first flight.
Be safe.....
--
Marc J. Zeitlin mailto:marc_zeitlin@alum.mit.edu
http://www.cozybuilders.org/
|