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Why Talk about This?
Good pilots, careful pilots crash without expecting to. Well, bad ones do, too... Why?
What Clues do We Have Beforehand?
How Can We Preserve our Ability?
Notes:
We call crashes accidents because we never plan to have one. Deliberate crashes are called suicide or terrorism and are the topic of a completely different conversation.
My research indicates that good pilots; well-trained, careful, prudent pilots do have crashes. Yes, incompetent pilots sometimes crash, but excellent, well-trained, experienced pilots crash also. It's unfair to the pilot to assume that something stupid was done just because a crash occurred; and it's dangerous to feel that we aren't likely to crash because we're careful, we've never had one, or we're just a better pilot than the other person.
My research also indicates that there are several pilot physiological factors that can sneak up and bite a pilot without much warning, or with warnings that are likely to be misinterpreted.
Most crashes -- about 90% -- are due to pilot factors, meaning that something went wrong with the pilot, not the airplane.
Most physical impairments bring along some clue -- though often subtle -- that something's awry.
This particular presentation reviews in a simple way the impairments of age and discusses what clues might exist that will let you know that something's going awry, that it might be a good idea not to fly, that there's something you need to adjust to or to correct.