Meteorology and Flight

Aviation Weather 

Weather influences all pilots on every flight. So, there is a serious to all pilots understanding this critical area of Aviation Information. As pilots, how can we be anticipated to develop the needed skill in this area? What is the difference between Weather and Climate?

Weather is a major cause of fatal Aircraft Accidents and has the highest rate of fatalities, over 80%.

Between one-quarter and one-third of fatal GA accidents are weather related.  

FAA (Safer Skies: A Focused Agenda.

What is the difference between weather and climate?

WEATHER: Weather is principally the way the atmosphere is behaving, mainly with respect to its effects.As Pilots we ask what is the weather in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, visibility, wind, and atmospheric pressure, as in high and low pressure etc. In most Countries and places, weather can change from Minute-to-Minute, Hour-to-Hour, Day-to-Day, and Season-to-Season.

CLIMATE: Climate is the report of the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area.

Some meteorological experts define climate as the typical weather for a particular region and time period. When  meteorologists experts  talk about climate, they're looking what that means the terms  of precipitation, temperature, humidity, wind velocity, phenomena such as fog, frost, and hail storms, and other measures of the weather that occur over a long period in a particular place.

According to the NASA.gov information, the difference between weather and climate is the measure of time. Weather is what the conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time and climate is the average weather over a very long period of time.

Keep in mind deeper information of weather also allows you to adjust your flights, and avoid potential weather hazards.

Always Remember Fly Safely, the weather plays a huge part in your flying all the time.

Safety is the First gate to Success / Working without Safety means Failure.

http://aviationweather.gov/

Situational Awareness and Human Factors in Aviation

Situational Awareness and Human Factors in Aviation

I would like to share this interesting issue and my motivation to write these words and, also I hope it is going to help all Pilots flying around the world, to study more how people interact with their environments. Human Factors and Situational Awareness are two important concepts in General Aviation, we need to define what is meant by those concepts , to stay away of incidents and accidents, and the interaction and communication with the other pilots and crews following  my Safety Blog and my encouragement to share  different safety perceptions with the Aviation Community.   

The organized concepts of Situational  Awareness and Human Factors in aviation are essential to flying safely all the time.

Three components of Situation Awareness are: Spatial Awareness, System Awareness, and Task Awareness. Each of these components has real-world implications for the attention to prevent incidents and accidents in General and Commercial Aviation.

What is Situational Awareness?

- To have a correct perception of the situation.

- Be able to rapidly recognize a change in the situation.

- Understanding the impact of any change in the situation.

- Be able to development the situation in the near future to avoid a fatal condition.

Situational Awareness is not a specific behavior. Is the product or result of the attitude, and the behaviors and actions.

Mental discipline is necessary while flying to keep you as a Pilot aware of all factors around you.

Always you need to track of your position, using all your navigation equipment as well your implements that you have in to your cockpit. You must always be vigilant your flight which requires constant discipline.

You must monitor everything and of course also you need to pay attention to your passengers and crew assuring their comfort and safety of the flight.

The moment you lose track of any of these, you have diminished your Situational Awareness.

Remember, this makes you more vulnerable to mistakes, particularly if a situation arises in which you feel pressure or stress, flying bad weather, in any abnormal or emergency situation etc.

What is Human Factor ?

Maybe you have a different concept what that mean Human Factor, the concept Human Factors is about people in their working and living environments , and of course is the relationship with the equipment procedures and the environment . Human Factors involves all the performance of human beings, related in our career as Pilots.

It is very important to understand the concept, to be very objective as Safety and Efficiency in all flights.

As I said Human Factors is the study of how people interact with their environment, is very important to know in the case of General Aviation, to study of how Pilot performance is influenced by such issues in the new generation with the new technology that could be effect of emotions, and the interaction and have a good communication with the other crews to prevent accidents.

Don’t forget the primary cause in the majority of accidents; Pilot Error is an action or decision of the Pilot that if not caught and corrected on time, could contribute to the occurrence of an incident or accident. I want to explain and be emphasizing that the term Pilot Error, does not indicate that all errors are the fault of the Pilot. Occasionally in my experience as an Aviation Accident Investigator, external circumstances are the causes of the fatal occurrence too.

Remember we as a Human being everybody make mistakes , nobody is perfect , we are humans, but the most important is to recognize on time that error, and understand due to human error are often the result of a series of events which lead to an accident if we don’t broke that  link of the chain .

Always Follow the procedures, keep Safety in Mind

What is CFIT? Controlled Flight into Terrain

What is CFIT?

Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT) occurs when an airplane under the control of a pilot is inadvertently flown into terrain, water, or an obstacle with inadequate awareness on the part of the pilot of the coming disaster.

CFIT Accidents occur most frequently in GA operations, comprising 4.7% of all GA accidents and 32% of GA accidents in IMC. On average there are 1.4 fatalities per CFIT accident, versus 0.33 fatalities per GA accident overall.

Aircraft Accidents caused by CFIT (Controlled Flight into Terrain), are one of the accidents affecting the world in general aviation, usually is as a result of flying into IMC, on or a visual flight (VFR).

According to the statistics, 80% of all CFIT Accidents are involved in general aviation aircraft, with a fatal consequence in 75% of cases.

Generally there are two major accidents profiles after the Pilot get in to inadvertent entrance into IMC on VFR flight.

• Loss of Control: the loss of the spatial orientation by the pilot after inadvertently entering into clouds. Disoriented without visual references and inexperienced in instrument flight, lose control during the flight.

• Final Unexpected: the pilot inadvertently enters into clouds without following an instrument flight plan, usually after trying to maintain visual below the ceiling until the increasing and the pilot try to stay below the layer cloud. The pilot tries to reach an area with higher ceilings regardless of the terrain ahead and just colliding with the mountain in a level flight attitude and high speed.

               17% of all GA fatalities are due to CFIT.

                CFIT accidents are fatal 58% of the time.

                CFIT accidents occur 64% of the time in daytime and 36% at night.

                51% of CFIT accidents occur in IMC, 48% in VMC and 1% unknown.

                Impacted terrain was flat 45% and mountainous 55%.

My best advice to all pilots, be alert when transition from VFR to IFR safety; and avoid equipment problems, air controller error, or your own complacency.

Constantly use all the most effective aviation safety tools available inside the cockpit, also always controlling Pilot Error" , the causes of up to 80 % of aviation accidents – are pilot mistakes.

Read and study related CFIT Accidents, respected "Save Yourself" techniques and safety tips; and clear and stay away and be concise as a Safety Pilot all the time.

Keep in mind, most CFIT accidents occur under or adjacent to the intermediate or final approach path.

The importance of GPWS and MSAWS (Minimum Safe Altitude Warning Systems) needs to be clarified. Both systems have been designed to provide alerts and warnings.

Training in procedures that include all appropriate points described above will help promote a healthy ‘CFIT Avoidance’ attitude.

Good Crew Co-Operation and development and excellent (CRM) Crew Resource Management.

 Crews must then be trained in their use and understand the concept of CFIT.

CFIT Accidents and Incidents that might have turned into CFIT accidents continue to occur and remain a cause for concern. Always fly safely your airplane.

The risk of CFIT cannot be left to back-up systems such as GPWS and MSAWS to solve the problem , but it can be reduced if all flight crew members are given well thought out the procedures to pay the attention needed , are properly trained in their use, and apply them carefully.

Pilots and Operators are refreshed to review their procedures for ‘CFIT Avoidance’ content and explanation  as  I described above writing this words to share with the community   and to make sure that, once established as appropriate and review , they are applied in all operations to fly safely all the time , particularly Crews who fly in to terrain conditions.(Example South American Region etc.)

My personal observation in this post is only issued for information and the prevention of incidents and accidents in General and Commercial Aviation, leadership it is very important during your flight.

Be Safe all the time, and Do it safely

The Pilot and the Leadership Command

The Pilot and the Leadership Command

Being a good leader as an Airmen or any other profession is very important.

Being a good leader involves many factor as such working with a good team, also deal with a difficult situation that are existing to us in any situation during the flight and of course to handling of any event during an emergency situation, the most important is the safety of the passengers and all the entire crew when you as a pilot in command have the responsibility to fly and valuable aircraft.

Being a good  leader however, means sharing the responsibility to work together to get a common goal as a team, sharing all that information in your cockpit, evaluating any risk that it may be present during any phase of your flight and  management of all the resources in the cabin are principal task .

The good administration of an excellent CRM: This is the most important section for the prevention of accidents.

Leadership is the skill of making a person to do something you want and done because he wants to do and much better, so it should know you as a pilot in command, must lead and always keep your cockpit open for any concern, a good communication will avoid a difficult situation that if not fixed on  time it can contribute  to an incident or accident at any phase of the flight .

Like a good airmen leader, you have to guarantee that everything is running efficiently inside the cockpit, make sure that your team works with you and always are happy and motivated, if something bothers them, or if they have other things to tell you in which not are agree with you, always try to express in a good manner and  their flights must be  always safer, the good leader is the one who shares his knowledge with his team, there is no better thing to share what has been learned in our  of life experience and understanding that we shared, everyone in this profession as pilots we  have learned from fatal accidents , Leadership and Learning are always indispensable.

 If you as a pilot has accumulated many flight hours and many years in this profession, this does not mean you are perfect and cannot be involved in an emergency situation, maybe one day you can be involve in any one, a good leader always learns from their students , coworkers and also from the mistakes of the past fatal incidents and accidents, maybe you as a pilot in command  have more experience and a lot of accumulated  flying hours  more than your colleagues in aviation , but never think and assume you know everything.

Each day of our life brings a new experiences to all of us, and remember always every flight that has been done is different from the last flight we done already.

As pilots we constantly learn new things in our profession. Always learn from the mistakes of the fatal accidents and consequences in the past, those accidents teach us that we must never lose the track that accidents can be avoided.

To be a great leader Airmen, always must be interconnecting and working together inside the cockpit, and maintain a good environment with your team and managing all these resources we have inside the cockpit to flying safely all the time.

It is good to learning the past fatal accidents in general and commercial aviation , this will teach you much more in this profession as pilots , leadership is an action not a position, most things in our life are difficult before they become easy, always fly with safety and  thanks all the time  because you have a good luck to be a good airline pilot  and be grateful to have  that position where you are in the present  ,  it is important  to have a good luck , but do not think you have a good luck in case of an emergency, the pilot leader must always be prepare and be  trained for the unexpected in any difficult situation that is present inside your cockpit at any time.

Always test your crew to maintain a high standard for all its flights and of course you as you as a good leader too.

Always listen and keep your cockpit open for any information, always remember that it is better to reach our destination late but safely.

Always is a good time to remember the right things and follow the rules to fly conservative, if you fly with a respectable safety you can get it and never be involved in any badly situation , make sure always that flying  is very  safely, air safety is the  principal commitment to all Pilots Leaders  .

Learn from others mistakes; don't have others learn from you/ Safety is the best way to work.

Always Fly Safely.

Prevention of Accidents: CRM

CREW RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

"The Learning method in our every day job functions every day is a constant process that never ends.

As a professional in our particular duties as Pilots, Flight Attendants, Maintenance etc., we must be constantly able to work together in a safety environment. This is even more important when you consider that this efficiency may depend our lives and the lives of others when we flying an airplane.

Being updated every day as a Crew implies learning.

Today the constant development of aviation brings several extremely high loads of new responsibilities and tasks for those directly involved in the operation of an aircraft from the crew on board and ground maintenance personnel to air traffic controllers, to many others.

Aviation is not just boarding a plane, but also is to understand the principles that allow an aircraft to fly, but do safely. It is very important to understand the ability to understand the knowledge, as an airmen, why your aircraft fly, this emphasize how important it is that flight crews receive proper training and appropriate, not only to fly the aircraft correctly it is also to be prepare for any situation you will expect and resolve in any abnormal situation or circumstances that we can have during the flight.

From the beginning CRM, initially recognized as a Cockpit Resource Management.

These concepts after some years become much wider doctrine, being known until today as Crew Resource Management.

The CRM emphasizes the importance of using all available resources effectively to achieve air operations safer and more efficient. The goal of CRM is to improve every day the ability of the crew in a decision-making, administration and management of the resources available and have a good communication with the rest of the crew and other elements involved in the safest operation of the aircraft.

But CRM does not end here, because the operation is more deeply involved with two other important aspects in the training of flight crews, human factors and the organizational culture ,it is very important issues.

Statistically, the vast majority of air accidents occurring at present point one of the main cause are 80 % sometimes described as a Pilot Error. All of us in the aviation environment related or not specifically, when a plane crash we wonder many things and questions, when we read in the newspapers or listen to reports on the media the phrase that summarizes what happened when an airplane crashed we think was a pilot error????? . Not necessarily incompetence or lack of experience. Some factors influencing a decision-making, that overload the workload and that in many cases inevitably lead to the accident.

In the meantime the organizational culture, which reflects the regular of social and intellectual expression of a group or organization that determines the assertiveness of all the members working together to prevent incidents or accidents. We need to focus and have a good safety business plan in the organization, defining a good Safety Program and the Safety Management 

System that includes the safety policies and objectives, Safety Promotions, Safety Assurance, and Safety Risk Management.

A change in the attitude of the group is reflected in a change in the attitude of the individual.

Today all this reflects that CRM tries to change the attitude in making decisions based on custom and culture, emphasizing the importance of knowing how to handle the resources and skills of the crew.

Today I am sharing this article and this reading to know a little more of this doctrine, to understand more deeply the importance of constant training and updated and motivated me to write these words, which targets to encourage everyone to read and share with others in the aviation community to learn to do the same. To be UPDATE, implies learning, Aviation Safety is a commitment. Safety First.

Eliminate cultural barriers it is very important for crews and safety, also establishing the importance of everyone’s contributions. Creating a spirit of shared commitment recognizing cultural differences and reinforcing a positive safe behavior. Remember always, upon you think you do not learn more of aviation, it's the time to retire because you're about to make the big mistake of your life."

Never Forget About Safety.   Safety Means Zero Accident.

Aeronautical Lighting and other Airport Visual Aids for a Safe Landing

Aeronautical Lighting and other Airport Visual Aids for a Safe Landing

Precision and Nonprecision Configurations

Are you a Safety Pilot?  You remember how important are the Aeronautical Lighting and other Airport Visual Aids for a Safe Landing? Also the Airport Marking Aids and Signs of course are so important.

If you have these concepts clear all the time, you can make a Safe Landing normally, the most important thing is to UNDERSTAND and care to know about airport Lights, Signs, and Markings.

The Light Systems used for airports, runways, obstructions, and other visual aids at night are other important aspects of night flying to prevent incidents and accidents too . Keep in mind that flying during the day is totally different to flying at night.

Always be a Safety Pilot. Learn from others mistakes; don't have others learn from you.

Always talks about Safety before you Start Working. Do it Safely!!!!

Approach Light Systems (ALS)





    

Runway End Identifier Lights (REIL) / Runway Edge Light Systems 

Human Factors In Serious Aircraft Accidents

Human Factors In Serious Aircraft Accidents

Human Factors in Serious Accidents. Data are still revealing with respect to aircraft operations today.

The same Human Factors in serious aircraft accidents have perhaps existed since the first powered aircraft flights in Aviation History.

The main percentage of the accidents occurred in General Aviation flights and specific were in single engine airplanes.

Automated aids and decision support tools are rapidly becoming indispensable tools in high-technology cockpits and are assuming increasing control of “cognitive" flight tasks, such as calculating fuel-efficient routes, navigating, or detecting and diagnosing system malfunctions and abnormalities.

A New Approach to Aviation Accident/Incident Prevention/Mitigation is one of the most important part to work together to avoid future accidents.

Good Strategies "to enable the goal to include identification of causes of past accidents; and  use a more proactive analytically approach, with new data sources, to identify key risk factors and intervene to prevent potential causes of future accidents ,always focus Human Factors research , development and based on detailed causal analysis and share with all crews , contribute to Aviation Safety by developing policies, standards, programs, and systems to reduce the number of aviation accidents and incidents related to human factors , always fly SOP and follow the rules this is the Key to have a good  Performance Plan when flying.

Always Fly Safely and Always think Safety before you work. Remember Always this word SAFETY! You family is waiting for you at home. Pilots never forget about Safety.