I was proudly watching my grandson demonstrate his newly-acquired skill at riding a bicycle devoid of training wheels. He was navigating the front lawn of his parent's house quite confidently. That is until the next door neighbor stepped outside, waved, and yelled, "Hello!" Our young bike rider looked back over his shoulder toward the neighbor and promptly peddled directly into a bush. The rear of the bike rose up launching number one grandson into a suborbital trajectory with a splashdown on the lawn about six feet ahead of the bush. Thanks to his mom's insistence on a helmet, kneepads, and elbow pads, the only serious injury was to his pride. For not paying attention while riding, his mom enforced a mandatory safety stand down, otherwise know as a timeout. The GBSB (Grandpa Bicycle Safety Board) determined the probable cause of the accident as follows: Collision with a bush resulting from loss of situational awareness by the rider which was caused by a distraction. Contributing to the accident was the bush.

Distractions continue to result in accidents of all kinds. But our topic this month is how to help avoid aviation accidents caused by distractions. The young bike rider's mom told him that he needed to pay attention to what he was doing. Of course that's right, but it's often easier said than done, especially when flying an airplane. We can't eliminate distractions, but we can do some things to help prevent the distraction from becoming a catastrophe.

Distractions can occur both prior to aircraft movement and while in motion. We should take steps to avoid these distractions. This would include doing preflight planning in a quiet environment rather than at the counter in the airport coffee shop. It would include doing the preflight inspection before passengers arrive and begin asking questions. It also means briefing passengers on "sterile cockpit" (no unnecessary conversation during critical operations) before the doors are closed. We must complete the programming of the GPS before we begin to taxi. And the granddaddy of all distractions can largely be avoided by making sure all latches on doors, luggage compartments, and cowlings are secure. And, of course, a well-maintained airplane is less likely to present distractions such as alternators dropping off line or landing gear malfunctions.

But some distractions are likely to present themselves even with our best efforts at avoidance. So we must also be prepared to mitigate the effects of the distraction when it occurs.

Prior-to-movement distractions can be just as dangerous as the ones that happen while in flight if they cause something to be skipped during an inspection or while running a checklist. As a general rule, if distracted during a procedure, go back three steps from where the distraction occurred.

The old advice of "aviate, navigate, communicate" continues to be valid while in motion. Aviate means to fly or taxi the airplane. That must be first in our priorities. We must discipline ourselves to maintain aircraft control and keep the airplane clear of obstacles and terrain (if in flight) regardless of what else is happening. If ATC calls with the IFR clearance while we are taxiing, we must tell them to standby till we are stopped. The call from ATC is the distraction but our response is the mitigation. A passenger becoming ill during flight is a distraction but our request for another passenger to assist the sick person is our mitigation. In the absence of another passenger to help, our seemingly heartless response that we will help by landing at the nearest suitable airport rather than trying to deal with the sick person is our mitigation. Then there is that unlatched door. There are very few airplanes that won't keep flying with a passenger door, baggage door, or cowling unlatched. The sound of rushing wind or the sight of an access door flapping in the breeze is a distraction to be sure. Our quick analysis that the airplane is still flying and controllable and our resolve to maintain focus on aircraft control and terrain avoidance is our mitigation.

Pilots flying into bushes while distracted is generally more damaging than grandchildren running bikes into bushes, even if mom makes us wear our protective gear when we fly.

This is a very recent example of a distraction unnecessarily causing an accident. On May 20, 2011, this Cessna 150 crashed shortly after takeoff. According to a local news source, isurfmuhlenberg.com, "(the pilot) was alone in his single engine Cessna 150 when he was preparing for take off. After the plane left the ground, (the pilot) soon realized that the passenger seat belt was caught in the passenger door and was hitting the underside of the plane. He reached over to open the passenger door to attempt to get the belt out of the door and lost control of the plane. The plane took a nose dive onto the airstrip and then flipped over into the field beside the strip."

Photo courtesy of isurfmuhlenberg.com

The pilot suffered only minor injuries but a witness who attempted to assist the pilot suffered a laceration and was transported to a local hospital.

The seat belt beating against the underside of the airplane would certainly fall into the risk factor category "distraction by a flight related item." But this accident goes beyond the initial distraction. The pilot apparently identified the problem and made a conscious decision to open the passenger door and reel in the belt. Without going too deeply into aeronautical decision making, he probably took that action for economic rather than aerodynamic reasons. Since the airplane became airborne and was climbing, there isn't a reason to believe that a circuit of the traffic pattern couldn't have been completed. But perhaps the pilot was concerned with damage to the airplane and ensuing financial responsibility. From the picture above, I think it is safe to assume that the seatbelt induced damage would have been less costly to repair than the result of attempting to deal with the flailing buckle.

This accident reminds me of a story recently shared with me by a pilot who took off with an unsecured fuel cap and was so concerned about the cost of the fuel he was losing that he hurried back around the pattern and forgot to extend the landing gear in his Bonanza. Damage ran into six figures. Even at present fuel costs, that wasn't a good trade off. That pilot willingly shared his story and obviously learned an expensive lesson, as this Cessna 150 pilot probably did as well. Both pilots lived to fly another day but many pilots aren't that lucky when they allow a distraction to affect their decision making. We need to fly the airplane regardless of what else is going on around us.

Gear-up landings are not uncommon and rarely result in injury, but this one was pressing the envelope when the airplane caught fire and was consumed.

The pilot reported that during departure on a local night flight, the airplane's door popped open. He turned to downwind and attempted to close the door. While on downwind, the airport's pilot activated runway lights turned off. The pilot then had to reactivate the runway lights and he landed the airplane without extending the landing gear. Subsequently, the airplane caught fire and was consumed.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows: The pilot's failure to extend the landing gear for landing. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's diverted attention due to an open door and the airport's pilot activated runway lights turning off.

The accident pilot was faced with two distractions, the open door and the deactivation of the runway lights. Neither issue necessitated getting back on the runway immediately. We should resolve to never land the airplane (unless maybe it's on fire) without completing a before landing checklist.

Click here to read the full accident report.

It's not quite so lonely in my world anymore. I've spent the last twenty or so years beating the drums and trying to convince anyone who would listen that there are far too many general aviation accidents and that most of the accidents are preventable. But many of the largest stakeholders either turned a deaf ear or made only a token effort at improving safety. But money not only talks but it yells loudly when business falls off. So over the past couple of years the devastating decline in general aviation has spurred some stakeholders to action. To that, I say, "Welcome!" It is truly refreshing to see so many people and organizations working to improve safety.

But we must keep in mind that this is a complex problem without one simple solution. Much of the new effort is being directed toward improving flight training. I can attest that after many years in the flight training world, there is plenty of room for improvement. But I think three points should be understood.

First, let's cut the hypocrisy. We have a large pilot organization (of which many of us are members) that claims to promote safety and claims to favor improvement to pilot training. Unfortunately that organization talks the talk without walking the walk. This was clearly illustrated a couple of months ago when the FAA changed some questions on a knowledge exam and didn't provide any advance notice. Failure rates went up and our organization, along with others, cried foul. Enough pressure was brought to bear that the FAA in effect, promised never to do that again. Are we as pilots so stupid that we can't pass a test without having someone provide us with the questions in advance? I'm sure glad the medical schools and engineering schools actually make the students know something and not just allow them to study questions and answers from a red book. That is just one example. Nearly every effort to reform the regulations relating to pilot training and recent experience requirements has been successfully opposed by the affected alphabet group over the years.

The second point is that flight training can't have effective change without regulatory reform. The various alphabet groups must be responsive to their members and the majority of their members will be vocal in their opposition to anything that will increase costs. Therefore meaningful regulatory reform is unlikely. So, we can make all the improvements we want to syllabi, training scenarios, and the like, but the pilot looking for the cheapest way to a pilot certificate won't see any of it if it isn't mandated.

The third, final, and perhaps most important point is that even if a magic wand could be raised and training would suddenly become perfect, it wouldn't solve our problem. At least it wouldn't solve the problem for many years yet to come. The number of new pilots presently being trained is so low compared to the pilot population that it would take a generation before we would see significant improvement. That isn't to say improvement in training shouldn't be pursued. But if we only seek to make the training of new pilots better and not address recurrent training, we are not going to see substantial, near-term success. And without significant improvement soon in our accident rate, GA as we know it will cease to exist.

So bravo to those newly converted to safety awareness. And bravo to those who seek to improve training. But any real reduction in our abysmal general aviation accident rate will have to come from a grassroots effort. That means us. We must be diligent in pursuing excellence in our own flying by striving to improve our knowledge and our skills. We must also become "safety evangelists" in encouraging our fellow pilots to be safe. We must point out risky behavior, deficient skills, or obvious maintenance discrepancies. We should all participate in the FAA Wings program and encourage other pilots to do so also. Why not invite a fellow pilot to accompany us to a safety seminar or join us to participate in a webinar? We can never know if our actions helped to prevent an accident. But if we all encourage a culture of safety, we can most certainly make a difference.