While fatal accident totals in amateur-built aircraft remain\nat historic lows, a slight increase in the total for the last 12-month\nreporting period shows the continuing necessity for dedicated educational\nefforts to push the total even lower, according to the Experimental Aircraft\nAssociation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Federal Aviation Administration reports that for the\n12-month period from October 1, 2018, to September 30, 2019, fatal accident\ntotals for the experimental category overall, including amateur-built aircraft,\nracing aircraft, those used for exhibit only, research-and-development, and\nsome types of light-sport aircraft, rose to 52 \u2013 five above the FAA\u2019s \u201cnot to\nexceed\u201d goal of 47 for the period. Of that total, 39 fatal accidents were in\namateur-built aircraft, an increase of four from the previous reporting period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAA measures accident totals on an October-through-September\nannual basis to coincide with the federal government\u2019s fiscal year. In\naddition, the National Transportation Safety Board earlier this month noted\nthat fatal accidents in all categories of general aviation increased in\ncalendar year 2018 after several years of decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat this increase tells us is that enhancing safety is not\nsimply a target number to be reached, but a continual effort to build on the\npositive foundation we have already established,\u201d said Sean Elliott, EAA\u2019s vice\npresident of advocacy and safety. \u201cWe are pleased that the accident totals\nremain below the challenge goal FAA issued to us in 2010, when the agency asked\nus to reduce the accident rate by 10 percent over the ensuing decade. It is not\nenough to simply reach a number, however; we must keep a steady focus on making\nimprovements, especially as the number of general aviation flight hours have\nincreased over the past several years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elliott noted that the overall fatal accident numbers for\nexperimental category aircraft remain much lower than other recreational\npursuits, such as boating, skiing and snowboarding, and driving all-terrain\nvehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
EAA has worked closely with the FAA and NTSB on\nrecommendations to reduce fatal accidents, including through participation in\nthe FAA General Aviation Joint Steering Committee that EAA has co-chaired for\nthe past three years. Efforts have also included more than 2,500 copies of the\none-year old EAA Flight Test Manual now in the hands of amateur-built aircraft\nowners and the increasing use of an additional safety pilot during initial\nflight testing in amateur-built aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith already very small numbers involved, a few additional\naccidents can create a percentage-rate anomaly, so it\u2019s important to focus on\ndriving the overall accident numbers lower,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cWe must focus on\ntraining, situational awareness, and good pilot skills to complement the\never-improving technology that is part of today\u2019s aircraft cockpits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While fatal accident totals in amateur-built aircraft remain at historic lows, a slight increase in the total for the last 12-month reporting period shows the continuing necessity for dedicated educational efforts to push the total even lower, according to the Experimental Aircraft Association. The Federal Aviation Administration reports that for the 12-month period from October […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14342,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341\/revisions\/14342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}