Why GA Airplanes Crash - The Real Truth and Stats You Need to Know

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Hey guys! I wanted to let you know I just launched an "Insiders" Newsletter where once a week I'm sharing an important lesson I've learned in aviation, links to my latest content so you don't miss out, and links to any other interesting or helpful content I've found. I'm also working on a HUGE project I can't announce yet but I'm going to be sharing more behind the scenes info with Insiders first - Subscribe (it's free) at: airplaneacademy.com/insiders

[@AirSafetyInstitute]

Thank you for covering this, Charlie.

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thanks for your data set and good reporting!

[@RoscoeMcGillicuddy]

This video has got to be one of the best videos on KZbin, and not only for those of us in GA. Your content is crystal clear and informative. Your delivery is masterful, and whoever does your editing is simply fantastic. You, @FlightInsight, and @FlyWithKay comprise my favorite content on this platform. Thank you for all your hard work on these videos. God bless!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you! I really appreciate that and I'm glad you found it useful 👍 Congrats on all of the success on your channel!

[@RoscoeMcGillicuddy]

@@AirplaneAcademy - Thank you! My content is nowhere near as serious as yours. I'm a better pilot because of you!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Means a lot - thank you!

[@newyorkbo1]

Honestly i wanted to fly for years…wasn’t until i started researching crashes that i decided to go for it…something about knowing that freak accidents wont get me but that the majority of things that can happen are on me made me way more comfortable to fly

[@sethm7761]

Just getting into this community -- I appreciate how candid the best content is. So thank you! "Safety Slips in Small Stages" makes a lot of sense. I've spent a lot of time in the backcountry hiking, skiing, and climbing. Many years ago I had an experience trying to summit a mountain with a couple of friends where things got progressively slightly more sketchy/uncomfortable until we hit a very real emergency situation. I remember that moment occurring and realizing that we went from "this is a little bit dangerous" to "we are in over our heads and may not come home". (spoiler: we got out alright, but it forever changed my perception of risk). I reflect on that experience often because emergencies really so often creep up on you and are rarely some out-of-the-blue act of god type of catastrophe. Most of the time, it is a series of little choices that hit a boiling point and things go from "this is ok I think" to "oh sh--" in moments. Anymore, doing whatever fun activity I'm up to I've been playing with the concept of "risk load" where you have to think about the aggregation of risk or uncertainty. Every choice can add or remove risk and thinking about the sum has been useful... I've bailed on projects when things seemed fine but the risk load was growing too quickly. I hope to take that same kind of mentality into my experiences in GA. tl;dr: Emergencies are often an inevitable aggregate of small choices and rarely a completely unexpected and out of the blue occurrence Thanks for reading and producing content :)

[@jamespenn8649]

Great video, I start flying in about 2 weeks for school and I began to worry about the probability of me being in an accident that I had no control over. This helped me a lot, keep up the great work man.

[@bigrich6750]

This was great! As a long time scuba diver, doing the deep stuff for which small mistakes can kill you, it’s always the cascade of small errors that eventually add up to one big thing that gets you.

[@industrieundtechnik1761]

Diving is shit, just for pigs.

[@RedArrow73]

The Swiss Cheese thang.

[@AlphaWhiskeyAviation]

Reddit killed me for saying this much less eloquently. I love this breakdown of the reports though. It’s hard to have this conversation because for a lot of people it’s very personal. But there’s so much more to flying GA than jumping a plane and hoping it doesn’t kill you. Safety is no accident.

[@Zelig2Cents]

I would like to add a few thoughts that I believe will be nice supplements to your excellent video. You did a great job in many respects. #1 Material covered was comprehensive and presented in a very understandable way. #2 You organized and categorized the material very well, which also helps with understanding and retention. #3 There were 2 comments in particular that were the biggest takeaways and those were:" Safety slips in small stages" and "Statistically, I (as the pilot) am the biggest risk factor. #4 Video and audio quality were stellar! Now, as to what I wanted to add, there are 2 additional topics that I believe are worth adding to the categories you covered. In a way, they fit into your categories, but because these mistakes are so insidious, tempting, and are mistakes that occur even with the most conscientious of pilots; I believe they merit extra mention. I would maybe entitle them, "The Impossible Turn: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" and the other would be "AQP (Advanced Qualification Program) NOT Maneuvers Training (Is more likely to save your life, aka DMMS and Stall & Spin AVOIDANCE... NOT Recovery). AQP Training is the way airline pilots are trained, that is, practicing proper aircraft handling with real-world emergency situations and also training to avoid those situations in the first place. I don't want to make this comment overly long, so I can't go too far down this path, but for now I'll just say that several years ago a CFII was sickened by one too many student pilots he had met that died in a death spiral on final. That fact coupled with the huge safety discrepancy between commercial aviation and general aviation (yes, as good as GA is, it's poor compared to commercial air travel) he had a hunch that the problem lay with the fact that the typical pilot training for GA pilots focuses on practicing maneuvers rather than studying and training based on real scenarios that account for the majority of fatalities in GA. On a hunch he did an informal survey based around one question. He posed it to both GA pilots and airline pilots. The question was, "What's more important, avoiding stalls and spins or practicing stall and spin recovery." The majority of GA pilots felt that recovery skills were more important, while the airline pilots all firmly believed that knowing your Vref and DMMS speeds... and never busting them, was more important. So, one simple example of where AQP training is lacking is with respect to these accidents in GA where pilots fail to prioritize NEVER busting DMMS, especially when turning base or on final. Two simple techniques to avoid that are: #1: Putting 2 little stickers as a speed bugs, one that is placed at Vref (Stall speed x 1.3) and another at a DMMS with a buffer (DMMS x 1.404). I'll leave my comments with that for the moment, but I HIGHLY recommend that all pilots watch a video that was posted a few years back on the channel FlightChops, which really digs into this nicely. It's a wonderful supplement to this excellent video that Charlie has posted. That FlightChops video is just under 26 minutes long, but do yourselves a favor and watch the whole thing. It is time well spent. It is entitled "Fatal Loss of Control plane crash? Every 4 days! Airliner differences + GA’s 4 big Failures". God bless and safe skies to you all!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thanks for the comment and kind words. Good advice in here for sure. I appreciate it!

[@GitaBrown]

Thanks for the Flight Chops video recommendation! Excellent resource and some key ideas and training concepts in that vid; lifesaving stuff.

[@geekygardener1730]

I thought he was wearing a hospital gown since he was talking about accidents, BUT THEN I realized it was a hoodie-type shirt

[@Cloudrunner1]

Yeah it’s a fishing shirt. Those things are awesome

[@jamesromanow5905]

Lol, same . I thought he walked out with the barbers apron.

[@bobsgmail4]

Barbers apron was the first thing I thought of.

[@chrisa9159]

Ha, that is some funny stuff right there! I thought the same thing a hospital gown...

[@jt_lancer]

Ditto

[@ranjrog]

Excellent discussion on an important topic that affects all of us! Thank you for digging into the details!!

[@louislandi938]

Charlie, I’m a former private pilot who got priced out of aviation. I enjoy reading and hearing about aviation safety. You have a very interesting channel.

[@Logan4661]

Have you considered Part 103 aviation?

[@RaceMentally]

No you got behind the money curve. Kinda like getting behind the plane. Step it up kid.

[@Nemesisnxt]

Me too! It’s gotten ridiculous, a Cessna I sold in 2011 for $10k is now selling for $25k with 250 more hours and the engine timed out! Geez!

[@Nemesisnxt]

@@Logan4661This issue with 103 is the aircraft storage. It doesn’t make since to pay $800/month in hangar rent to store a $10k airplane. Maybe a Kolb with folding wings? That and I’m a big guy.

[@Logan4661]

@@Nemesisnxt PPG, problems solved. You're welcome.

[@traumamed9449]

Great analysis. The safety of GA has always been one of those hot-button topics. It is such a niche activity, with such imprecise and incomplete data sets, that it is easy to draw any conclusion from "it's more dangerous than driving a motorcycle drunk at 2am in a rainstorm" to "I am at higher risk in my car on the way to the airport." However, those sorts of comparisons are not productive, and almost feed into the hazardous attitude of resignation. We have a significant amount of control over our own safety in GA, if we'll just take ownership of that fact. Make good decisions, maintain proficiency, keep learning, and maintain your equipment. It makes a huge difference.

[@TeachAManToAngle]

Glad you made this video. I love all the other channels that analyze crashes, but I think your hunch may be correct in that such ubiquitous analysis, along with so many cameras, capturing the rare moments, people think it happens more often than it really does. Thanks again.

[@ukulelebrowne5351]

I like videos like this and Mentor Pilot vids. No sensationalism, just opportunities to learn.

[@Jetstreamjockey-mn8np]

Great subject and video. Totally agree. Something that often gets overlooked when we talk about GA plane crashes is; how much harder it is for general aviation (GA) pilots compared to the ones flying commercial. In GA, the pilot's got a ton on their plate. They're responsible for everything from figuring out the weather and planning their route to making sure they've got enough fuel and W & B. Plus, the equipment they're working with isn't nearly as reliable as what you'd find on a commercial flight. And unlike commercial pilots who have each other to double-check things, GA pilots are on their own. In commercial flying, there's a whole team working together, so the pilot isn't carrying the whole load by themselves. Also, autopilots, auto land and backup systems . That means even though a commercial pilot might have tons of flying hours under their belt, they're not spending nearly as much time actually flying the plane. It's a world away from the solo challenges faced by GA pilots, where every decision is on their shoulders without anyone else to back them up. I'll probably get flamed for this but go for it.

[@dade8881]

Great job framing the data and discussion in a useful manner. I pour over accident reports and videos to learn what I can, but it does exactly what you have stated - makes it appear to my family as if an accident is always happening and always just around the corner.

[@manifestgtr]

I had a “safety slips in small stages” episode this morning that *really* sobered me up and got me watching videos like this. Two little things distracted me during preflight…we were installing winterization baffles due to cold weather and I noticed my oil was a little low, so I added oil. Two things early in the walk-around that distracted me JUST ENOUGH that checking fuel quantity somehow got lost in the mix, even though I was still going down my checklist. I didn’t notice that I only had 6 gallons of fuel until I was already at the threshold, doing my before takeoff (4 gallons is considered unusable in the RV-12 for Vx climb reasons). There are gauges, there are warnings and I always monitor all of that stuff but I started playing out scenarios in my head where I got about an hour into my flight and all of the sudden BLAMMO. Or even worse, I’m climbing out for a touch and go and the engine starts sputtering. At any rate…these things can sneak up in ways that you never imagined. We all need redundancy, man. You can’t ever let your guard down. I’m VERY thorough and yet that got past me until I was just getting ready to go…

[@SeannBogguess-qe4dy]

This is EXACTLY the info I was seeking to appease my anxiety. Thank you Charlie for this breakdown.

[@jarrettleto]

Agree with what you said. The number of 1 fatality per 100,000 hours is very reassuring especially considering what you said about how most things are preventable. I'll give a breakdown of my thoughts about what people can do 1) Do a good preflight and runup on every flight. Its that one time you don't sump the fuel or forget to do a controls free and clear check that could haunt you. Don't be afraid to cancel a flight for maintenance even though its hard. 2) Pre flight planning - weather, fuel, performance. Be conservative. Doing this prevents a lot of incidents. I know personally in many planes you can't rely on the fuel gauges 100%. Check your fuel and again be conservative about your fuel burn. Same with weather, Use circling minimums for IMC decisions. Personally I avoid bad weather in general because I prefer flying on nice, smooth days. Know how to avoid icing; even if your plane is FIKI I consider that a "oh crap I need to turn on all my anti-ice and get out of this." I think people overestimate FIKI abilities a lot in small planes. Unless its a jet with bleed air heated leading edges, your anti-ice is mediocre at best. Have a good planning routine. Know your air ports, your obstacles, terrain, etc. Weight and balance, same thing, use an EFB to quickly calculate it, it honestly only takes a minute. 3) Know a maneuvering speed for your aircraft in the traffic pattern and stick to that until on final. These speeds aren't published but ask other owners what they do and make a conservative speed for yourself. In twin engines its fairly easy since this number is usually Vyse or slightly above. Don't exceed 30 degrees bank below 4,000 feet AGL. 4) USE ADS-B! This is may a pet peeve of mine, but this helps avoid a lot of traffic issues. When people can see you and you can see them on the panel its a big help. There are cheap ADS-B outs that can be installed in a light fixture now. See and avoid only goes so far as we've seen from several crashes. Having ADS-B could have prevented many mid-airs. I think these are some things that are maybe loosely taught in pilot training but are honestly the most important things you can learn as a GA pilot. In the airlines its different, they are doing your W&B and flight planning. You have TCAS and planes without ADS-B or transponders aren't really allowed too near you.

[@AirmanBrown]

Very well said

[@rickdecastro4584]

Airplanes (GA, Mil, airline) crash because gravity overcomes intellect

[@TecTrends]

Well, 80%, probably. But i have alot of respect of a collision.... Having ADSB-IN and Flarm-IN as well as always listening and using either the airport or FIR coms, i am wondering how to avoid a Transponder Mode S or lower target which is not on frequency and comes at me at a bad angle or from the direction of the sun (When its not summer, in Germany the sun can be really in your vision after 4pm)

[@jamild]

It’s better to frame it as “it can happen to anyone”, regardless of how smart you are. The SVP of the AOPA Air Safety institute died in a GA crash just last year. Intellect matters a lot less than following checklists, recurrent training like WINGS, and avoiding risk-taking. The great culture that aviation has fostered makes sure to humble us, and to *not* to have a superior attitude to others. Just learn from mistakes, encourage safe practices, and recognize it *can* happen to you.

[@EllipsisAircraft]

Stop trying to fly too slow. And stop pulling back on the controls.

[@TecTrends]

@@EllipsisAircraft How does flying fast and not pulling back on the Yoke prevent a collision? As a new Pilot with 100 hours in GA i am not smart enough to understand how you prevent collisions with your tip.

[@StratMatt777]

GA Airplanes crash when the wing exceeds its critical angle of attack or a non-instrument rated pilot continues VFR flight into IMC.

[@quantumjim45]

Excellent educational vid! Thanks. I just watched an excellent Pilot Debrief where the fatal accident began with essentially no pre-flight planning - including not finding out about the dubious weather among other things.

[@MrUnterhugel]

In my former job, the company I worked for was exceptionally safety focused not only on the product side, but all aspects of employment (except, perhaps stress management). Not only was it required to report an accident, we were highly motivated to report any near misses - and this is important - without dire repercussions. Mistakes can still happen and it’s not a perfect solution, but if you’ve said “Wow, that was a close one!” very often, it’s only a matter of time…

[@Logan4661]

They expected employees to report near misses so they could find a solution before someone was hurt? That sounds great! At my former employer, job #1 was figuring out who to blame, job #2 was blaming that person, and job #3 was congratulating each other for getting jobs 1 and 2 done before lunch.

[@RedArrow73]

The analysis graphs omit Preparation (Flight Planning, submitting the flight plan, Wx briefings, Weight / Balance comps, and more). Preparation, actually omission of, caused 2 Pilatus accidents recently.

[@jorgeetrevino6790]

Charlie, As always, excellent video with awesome commentary. Thank you for all your insight.

[@permanentek3407]

Great contents backed by data. Addressed my concern for safety in getting into this.

[@josephstephen4295]

So. I am a sub 300 hr pilot. I fly from kono, kman, and kboi. Most of my flights are idaho mountains. I firmly believe most flight accidents come down to pilot *even mechanical CAN fall here* planing, especially mountain flying, is crucial. I have gone 20-30 min out of my way to make sure I was in gliding distance of a safe place to land. Proper planing, paired with a proper preflight and briefing, and a good understanding of numbers as well as situational awareness can prevent 95% of these. The James reasons Swiss cheese model stands strong. Hopefully I'll see you at 3u2 someday brother. Fly safe.

[@markwilliams974]

I got another cause which has dogged me for 10 years: lazy and cavalier AP’s not doing a thorough annual inspection. 1. Disconnected electrical wiring between generator and battery (2 incidents, one of which caused my main gear to not fully lock and resulted in a belly landing). 2. Tilted horizontal stabilizer and elevators (new install) which caused two near departure stalls with a 60 bank at 300’ (yes I recovered). 3. Main gear hydraulic pump not checked (2 incidents) requiring manual gear lowering 4. Failure to connect nose gear cable causing a taxiing incident into a ditch Anyway, you get my drift.

[@dyske-]

Very informative and well put together to the point using good statistics! Thank you for making this video!

[@mustardseedsociety]

Charlie - Brian from Euless here - yea I appreciate you showing the flipped over aircraft because on a forced landing, there's always a high chance of flipover - we've seen it over and over which is one reason I'll never fly in a low wing bubble canopy aircraft {unless it has BRS}. Me being a "nobody", I have raised this issue many times and got no response, so I thought I was the only person on the planet who felt this way about low wing bubble canopied aircraft until about a month ago I actually found an online discussion from 2013 on this very topic and MANY people we're even more outspoken than I was - AND many of these people were a whole lot "smarter" and more accomplished than myself. So that being said, I think we should take this more seriously instead of the usual flippant attitude. Look, I know people love their bubble canopies, but they are a death trap. If you flip over, you can't escape unless you get rescued. What if there's a fire ?? My solution is either get BRS installed, and/or put airbags in the tops of the wings. That way if you flip over, you deploy the airbags, and it raises the upside down wing and allows you to open the canopy. One GREAT reason to fly high wingers like the C-182, because on a high winger you can escape if it's upright or upside down. And here's another thing, if you're upside down hanging by your seatbelt, that ALONE is going to make things difficult. It's going to take some effort to do things upside down, then add a pinned canopy to the equation ?? I've got more ideas on aviation safety, but that's enough to ponder on for now.

[@StanfordJohnsey]

You should probably stick to 150s and 172s.

[@dennisnbrown]

Great Video. You hit the points perfectly. Small slips in what is acceptable from a safety and planning standpoint lead to reduced perception of risk.

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Agreed. Thank you!

[@idsawtooth]

Great video, both in content and production! Keep up the great work!

[@themaverickproject4577]

I've shared this video - a lot. Probably one of the most important videos you've done.

[@ClydeSnapper]

Great video! I really like the way you put everything together and your delivery is excellent.

[@monkeymalletsvideos]

This is really well thought out and really well articulated. Thanks!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you!

[@wickedcabinboy]

I've been thinking of taking flight training since I retired. I'm 69 and in relatively good health. I was talking to my good friend who just got promoted to Captain in a major U.S. carrier, about this topic just today. I have a real fear of crashing. But I've come to the conclusion that given the vast number of commercial pilots, it has to be possible to learn to fly without dying. He told me that most of the crashes are the result of pilot error. And this video supports that assertion. There are numerous videos on stall/spin accidents, another fear. But again, I have come to believe most pilots effectively deal with these. Still scared. I'm likely to start training sometime March or April.

[@AirplaneAcademy]

I don't want to invalidate your fears... having a healthy respect for something that can hurt you is totally appropriate. I just wanted to shed some light on the fact that statistically the biggest danger to you, is you. I think recognizing and owning that will make you a safer pilot.

[@wickedcabinboy]

@@AirplaneAcademy - Thanks, I very much appreciate your response.

[@domcp711]

Thank you for the great video. Really interesting topic. There is also the Aviation Safety Network where there is a lot of background information or reports about the incidents. If you read through it you will notice that the majority of incidents is due to wrong decision making.

[@mktwatcher]

Nice review of controllable GA Accident Data. You should do a individual videos on the individual sub-sections of data example: Pilot Errors on Approach and Landings etc. Thank you

[@TDJOHANNSEN]

Awesome take on ADM and Risk Management - Maintenance perspective decisions. Keep the videos coming ….

[@Crawdad_Nick]

Love this video! I'm a new pilot and was looking for this information and found your channel. Thanks!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you! 6:35 was Indian Creek in Idaho. 6:37 is Sulphur Creek in Idaho.

[@bertschb]

Very well done - especially the graphics for the statistics. That was excellent!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you!

[@PiReP58]

Thank you for taking the time to make this video.

[@rickdc3]

Key to help surviving the mechanical over which you have no control, is not flying at night (especially in the mountains) with a single engine piston. And of course, not flying in bad weather if you aren't IFR, and not playing with ice if your airplane isn't FIKI equipped.

[@Redbaron_sites]

Best GA safety lecture I have heard ❤! Great job ❤❤❤❤❤. One may also apply this to many aspects of life and career,thanks.

[@CaptMoo]

Great video. My instructor always use to say: Mejor cobarde vivo que valiente muerto: Better alive and coward than brave and dead

[@kirkbymr]

I'm a PP, but I watch a TON of commercial aviation accident videos. The big takeaway I get from there is neglect of CRM, crew resource management. While we are usually a crew of 1, or at best some passengers, we all need to remember WE are the Pilot in Command, and as such need to set the tone for safety and our own Cabin Management. While we may not have CRM, we have CSM, Cabin Safety Management. 😊

[@JackLukeRyan]

Excellent information and discussion

[@Yachtnerd]

Great video! I like your thought process and the way you explained it.

[@KevinSmithAviation]

100% Charlie. Thank you for a great discussion on this topic. Safe skies my friend 🇺🇸🛩️

[@dansullivan3515]

A typo on the Hazardous Attitude table - Resignation: I CAN'T do it Nice coverage, and honest coverage, of a topic we should be thinking about more. IMO 99% of accidents have a root cause of lack of knowledge. I do like 'safety slips in small stages' - will add that when teaching, since we often start a line of questioning with a simple concept and expand from there. So, safety slips in small stages. The progression of questions with the (NOT UNUSUAL) situation of progressive guessing - an excellent time to make the 'safety slips in small stages' point. To show that if you keep digging the hole you will only get deeper into the hole. What the mind does not know the eye cannot see; and ... In an emergency the answer is not in a multiple choice selection. You have to know the answer.

[@bobdobalina838]

5:12 Wouldn't an example of resignation be "I can't do it" instead of "I can do it"?

[@GreenBlueWalkthrough]

Great video and I agree when I crash in sims I know what I did wrong and it's usually pushing the airframe and myself far beyond the operating envelope... Which in my virtual experience GA is far more insideus that flying in combat when it comkes to safety you say safety slips in small stages while in air combat it's much bigger and more sudden and perposfull...

[@ChrisWinnPortland]

Nice to provide an alternative perspective vs other youtube channels 👍

[@Stumpchunkman226]

This is a really good video. My impression is that poor decision making is what leads to situations that become unrecoverable. For example, overestimating instrument proficiency when entering IMC. Sure, the ultimate cause of an incident may be flying an approach incorrectly, but it’s the decision to be there in the first place that is the primary precipitator. Btw - on your hazardous attitudes table, I think “I can do it” in the Resignation row should be “I can’t do it.” Thanks for the video!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you! I appreciate it

[@georgetown8986]

Great review and very true. However, I must ask why you are wearing a hospital gown while talking about general aviation crashes? 😀

[@kmg501]

I was gonna say, that is the oddest looking shirt.

[@Kiwi0Six]

LOL. I recognize that as an Orvis sun protection hoodie. A good thing for us red headed blue eyed beings in sunny states 😂

[@seaskimmer9071]

Hahahaha! That's EXACTLY what I was going to ask! No offense, Charlie. Great vid but pls rethink your on-camera wardrobe.

[@RaceMentally]

Sir, McSpadden died. Nothing else matters. He was safety Dick. We’re all not safe.

[@clamboni9]

He's not saying it can't happen to a pilot that hasn't made a mistake. He's saying that that's relatively rare and that being unsafe and making bad decisions is far more likely to kill you than a mechanical failure or weather event that couldn't have been forseen.

[@geekygardener1730]

I hope the “safety slips in small stages” catches on. It’s a life-saving reminder.

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you - I didn't mean for it to have alliteration but it's memorable for sure.

[@alexsze5455]

Another great video!! But why it looks like ur wearing ur barber’s cape???😂

[@paulgarcia1699]

Ok. I love your channel and watch your pops leave regularly when I’m at the airport but I couldn’t help but think you’re doing this video in a “Onesie PJ”. Lol. Love your vids tho

[@fridaybiz]

Such an concise and informative video. Thank you.

[@cherriedee31]

This is a fantastic video. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@JennaHartDemon]

I think aviation is going to be the first transportation sector to have full autonomy. The mechanics of flight are well known, best glide is known, the full glass panels are amazing and pretty much easier to fly than vfr. Unlike roads, there are no known obstacles like people or, animals (excluding birds), etc. The location of planes are known by ATC. The planes can also know what planes are around it. The vectors are predictable. And the regulation makes it top down enough to have centralized decisions for the planes regarding heading/vectors. It's not like in automotive space where everything else is unknown and dynamic and the driver agent has to figure out what to do with the open door, or these new lines, or cones and construction. It's a simpler problem despite the greater degrees of freedom. And the accident recovery, you can simulate a trajectory under no engine power. So best location to crash or land can be calculated. You could even train that with Reinforcement Learning in a simulation and embody the agent in the aircraft. There are very compelling papers on the subject.

[@EllipsisAircraft]

This does nothing to prevent people from easing back on the controls. And applying boot when there shouldn't be any.

[@Logan4661]

@@EllipsisAircraft Full autonomy, what controls would people be pulling back on or putting the boot to?

[@deardaughter]

Good video. Thank you. A series of small bad decisions...like that fish hoodie. ;-)

[@jewelmock4946]

Well said! Read it over and over again

[@earnedwings5206]

100% the truth my friend! Thank you for putting this together 👍

[@Shaneepe1]

Great video Charlie I appreciate the perspective.

[@etienne8576]

Excellent video. Thank you Charlie!

[@DidiGrooves]

Encouraging. I started the theory but all I am getting in my feed is accident after accident after accident after accident ........ so essentially, I have thrown in the towel, to an extent. I really needed to hear this and stop awfulizing 24/7.

[@clickster1883]

This is a phenomenal video. Very well done.

[@AirplaneAcademy]

thank you!

[@cherylolwell953]

On point, Charlie. We are our own biggest hazards.

[@bayridge99]

Excellent video. I learned to fly here in the UK and had to practice stalls and spins which , I believe, should be mandatory. Talking about mandates, another potential cause must be medical problems caused by, err, medicines, particularly injected ones in the last couple of years. An elephant in the room? Subscribed.

[@kiltedpiper98]

Please add the corresponding video links in the description, they don’t show up on mobile.

[@AirplaneAcademy]

That's weird. Here ya go: Link to McSpadden / Nall Report: www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute/accident-analysis/richard-g-mcspadden-report Link to AVWeb video about why aircraft engines quit: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o6jTq4ekgahreLs

[@oxxnarrdflame8865]

Excellent presentation.

[@arthurbrumagem3844]

This guy is a good speaker. My pet peeve are speakers who can’t get thru a sentence without “um’s and uh’s)

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Nice of you to say. Thanks!

[@arthurbrumagem3844]

@@AirplaneAcademy 👍

[@djytonly5653]

Thanks a lot. That is a very interesting thing for upcoming private pilots like me. What would be interesting furthermore: What do those statistics look like in business aviation, in car traffic and what's the difference between standard GA aircraft and ultralights.

[@ikkinwithattitude]

To the best of my knowledge: - Business aviation tends to get lumped into Part 91 with the rest of GA, so it's hard to split out and compare safety stats with private GA. - Cars have become incredibly safe compared to everything other than airline travel. GA looks bad in comparison, but that has a lot to do with the risk of driving having dropped precipitously. (Stick and Rudder, an aviation book from the mid-40s, reported an aviation risk of 1 death per 10k hours and a driving risk of 1 death per 100k hours. The current aviation risk is slightly better than the mid-40s driving risk... but driving became 25x safer in the meantime!) - Ultralights are much more dangerous than standard GA aircraft.

[@djytonly5653]

​@@ikkinwithattitude I also heard ultralights were much more dangerous. But I couldn't find any convincing evidence so far. Anyways, I've never been keen on ultralight flying. For my taste, our Piper is just small enough.

[@ikkinwithattitude]

@@djytonly5653 I suspect that the lack of regulation of ultralights means a lack of proper record-keeping. But they seem to have a significantly higher risk of engine-out emergencies and a culture that tends more to the cowboy side than the GA culture does, and I can't imagine that's good for the statistics. I'm learning to fly a light-sport airplane, which is definitely lighter than a Piper but has some risk-avoidance benefits of its own (like a nice power-to-weight ratio, a parachute, and a 15:1 glide ratio). ;) Overall risk for light-sport seems to have come down pretty close to GA as of late, so it seems like more of a trade-off than anything.

[@MidnightCamomile]

Subbed. Amazing channel ❤

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Awesome, thanks so much! Glad to have you and welcome to the channel!

[@marcseal]

Great video! Nice work...

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@arthurbrumagem3844]

AOPA did an article about older pilots being safer when it comes to fuel exhaustion. It seems our bladders fill up before our tanks empty. I can attest to that.

[@ytuser0449]

I don’t understand how the US doesn’t do spin training as part of the PPL/CPL. It makes so much sense considering the amount of fatalities. That and a spin in a 172 is so benign that you can just let go of the controls and it will recover

[@andrebello4191]

I agree they should require spin training. I understand the importance. However I am not looking forward to doing spin training. I dread having to do it. Just want to get it over with. One reason I want to go to the US to do it instead of Canada.

[@djytonly5653]

That is indeed concerning me as a cadet for the private licence. One of the first things I noticed in our Pa-28 was the sign "Spins not allowed". That tells me it might not even be a problem of the training, but rather of the training airplanes themselves. So, I wonder how anyone can practice spins, if they are not allowed on one of the most popular GA airplanes of all the time.

[@danielhoulihan7769]

As in most bad outcome situations, it’s not the last decision that gets you in trouble it’s a decision you made early on. Usually the last decision was inevitable!

[@ginger-viking]

Nice video dude

[@Eric-mr4yf]

Hey Charlie, the hospital needs their gown back.😁😁 I'm just kidding. I enjoy your videos. I'm not a pilot, but your videos are entertaining and educational.

[@kazsmaz]

Maybe I should add a checklist before my preflight. I have a tendency to be delayed, then end up rushing something.

[@kaasmeester5903]

Someone in another channel suggested just that. And as a student pilot I started one. Some common sense items that (going by videos like these) are easily forgotten sometimes. Some items I can think of: - are you feeling ok, fit for the flight? - weather checked? Given the weather report, if there is a chance your destination won’t have VFR conditions, will your alternate airfield be ok? - tablet charged? (if you use one). Got a backup if it fails? (Charts, frequencies, airfield plates etc)

[@josephroberts6865]

It’s interesting that loss of power contributed to zero fatality accidents. This means the NTSB is saying that pilot’s failure to respond correctly to loss of power resulted in either a stall/spin or collision. I think they’re intentionally skewing the results to keep mechanical malfunction as the cause of fatalities as low as possible. But we know engine failure on climb out over a forest is likely to result in a fatality collision with trees and the engine failure caused the aircraft to go down. The truth of the matter is that the accident sequence or chain of events begins before the pilot ever leaves the ground. How many VFR pilots pre-flight plan to include establishing a route that avoids restricted/prohibited airspace, high density air traffic areas, ensures terrain and obstacles are properly highlighted as well as other hazards to flight, selects appropriate altitudes that avoids hazards, remains within the requirements of the class of airspace for the route, and identifies airports for potential diversions, check departure, enroute and arrival notams, check weather using an aviation weather reporting source for departure, enroute, and arrival weather, and preflight inspect the airplane according to the checklist before every flight, does all the runup checks per the checklist and cancels the flight if runup parameters are not met. I’d say in general aviation it’s rare at best that pilots follow this prescription for flight preparation. Obviously for traffic pattern work all these steps are not required. But for cross country flights these steps are absolutely essential for consistent successful outcomes. But, too many treat it as a car and just hop in and go. Takeoffs are optional. Landings are mandatory!

[@georgewchilds]

Please stop with the sound effects, but this is really good broad view of GA hazards. We control our aviation issues.

[@jeffkutz4917]

A friend is interested in learning to fly, this is going to be a great video for him to see. This video will fit very well with his conservative nature.

[@OregonBroker]

Great video 👏

[@justingrind1908]

Really good video

[@random_silicates]

The problem with this is that *everyone* makes bad decisions, you as a pilot will eventually make bad decisions, and other pilots with tens of thousands of hours are continuing to get themselves killed from making bad decisions. The insinuation being made here is that people can choose to only make good decisions, but that isn't true in life.

[@terencenxumalo1159]

good work

[@Djamieson713]

I really really want to do fly, but i know myself too well. I will do everything right 99% of the time, but one time i'll be checked out for some dumb reason and get myself killed or seriously injured. I also consider myself to be more disorganized than organized, which doesn't seem to mix well with aviation. Not to mention all of the pilots who seem way smarter/disciplined than I am who have died because they got complement one day and crashed.

[@edcew8236]

My research shows that "stalls on takeoff" is often a catch-all. A major category is failure to achieve sustained flight....

[@Curious_Skeptic]

Looking to hear about engine failure accidents/deaths. Seems recovery chutes should be the hot topic in 2024. The affordability of such, mandate of such is a no brainer. This 17% mechanical? Then why does almost everyone have an engine out story? LOL. This leaves ground avoidance? One might think the earth would be pretty easy to avoid! Spin/Stall? Again, seems an easy thing to update in 2024 to have a better warning system at this point. Training, yes. However, a new pilot might be far safer than an old experienced pilot. They all keep dying via mistakes and engine failures.

[@animula6908]

I’m wandering around this weird rabbit hole since KZbin decided to take my interest in mayday episodes to the next level. I’m not a pilot, and I’ve been reading all these accident video titles and wondering why Georgia is this major Bermuda’s triangle for small aircraft. 🧐 I was today years old when I realized how dumb I am. GA 😂

[@nunyabidness3075]

Good video. I’m late to the party, but if there were a single thing that would save more GA pilots than anything else it would be deleting antique aircraft certification rules, and stop allowing the use of those deathtraps for primary training as well as forcing manufacturers to meet new standards set by someone other than the FAA or similarly corrupt organizations.

[@brucebolla4148]

Well done. You are on target.

[@michaelrhodes7885]

Thanks!

[@AirplaneAcademy]

Thank you! That was nice of you and I appreciate it!

[@CourtlandCTower-td3bm]

Pilot 45 years!You know your stuff

[@olanderdecastro52]

I suppose it depends on what they call an "accident". Are they included bumping wings on the taxiway? Hitting the hangar door? An overshot landing rolling out on the grass? McSpadden had an "accident" and that would be my definition. And, it looks like those are not very survivable.

[@ikkinwithattitude]

Given the 5:1 ratio of accident to fatal accident, I imagine they're using the FAA definition involving severity of injury/amount of financial damage caused. Some survivable accidents involve serious damage to the airframe and primarily differ from their fatal equivalents in that the pilot flew the plane into the crash instead of letting it stall and spin in -- landings into trees, ditchings in water, flip-overs while landing in rough fields, etc. If you only count stall-spins, sure, you're not going to see a good survival ratio. But pilots and passengers can survive a lot of things that break planes as long as the plane doesn't land nose down and doesn't catch on fire with them inside of it.

[@erictaylor5462]

You need to be careful when depending on statistics. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli once said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" Statistics are useful to understand things about systems that are dominated by randomness. But if statics are applied to systems where choices made by an individual dominates the outcome. In many cases, statistics are useful on macroscopic systems, such as airline travel, it can be useful, but on the microscopic scale (an individual airline, or a given individual flight) it becomes problematic. General aviation is one of the places where statics are nearly useless. In general aviation you have a very small number of people responsible for maintaining and flying the plane. It makes a huge difference if you pilot is well trained, has a lot of currant experience,, is sober, well rested, and has maintained the airplane with regular inspections, or if your pilot is drunk, had no sleep, hasn't flown at all over the last 20 years and his airplane has been parked in the ramp since he last flew it (20 years ago)