As temperatures drop and precipitation falls, pilots have to face new challenges. To help, the FAA has put together a list of top tips for pilots operating in winter weather. So before your next flight, check out the list here: bit.ly/3ye3rc7. Among the items covered are researching runway and weather conditions for your arrival airport, understanding the potential for icing conditions, and maintaining situational awareness in the airport environment, especially when snow could obscure some signage or markings. The list also contains links to several videos, articles, and other winter resources you can use to stay safe.
FlySafe — Aircraft Performance Monitoring
Pilots continue to have unreasonable expectations of their own personal performance, and the performance of their aircraft, which has contributed to fatal general aviation (GA) accidents.
The General Aviation Joint Steering Committee’s (GAJSC) working group on system/component failure (powerplant) suggests that reasonable performance expectations, based on realistic data from flight data monitors, can help forecast system/component problems before they reach the point of failure, resulting in safer flight operations. Read more about this important topic on our blog and check out a video presentation here.
Picking Up STEAM
In the FAA Safety Briefing article “Picking Up STEAM,” author Susan K. Parson describes the kind of open communication and collaboration that has proven critical to keeping FAA training and testing materials relevant — and real — to everyone who operates in the National Airspace System (NAS). That includes efforts to create the Airman Certification Standards (ACS), a fundamentally enhanced version of the Practical Test Standards. ACS integrates the standards for what an applicant needs to know, consider, and do to pass both the knowledge test and the practical test for a certificate or rating and operate safely in the NAS. Read more about the FAA’s collaborative efforts with industry to improve training here:https://medium.com/faa/picking-up-steam-4be51814aaee. To view our entire new issue on STEM, go to medium.com/faa/pipelines-pathways-partnerships-a4280b08cc85 or www.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing.