Time in Type Requirements

Started by RiverAux, January 15, 2007, 08:11:49 PM

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RiverAux

It is pretty clear from various safety reports (AOPA Safety Foundation) that pilot time in a particular type of aircraft has a significant bearing on accident rates.  Most accidents occur when the pilot has less than 200 hours PIC time in the type of plane in which the accident occurred. 

While there are a few parts of CAP's aviation program where time-in-type is taken into consideration as a general rule it isn't.  For example, to become a qualified SAR/DR Pilot you just need 200 hours PIC time with at least 50 hours of it being cross country time. 

So, we have a situation where we can (and do) get commercial jet pilots with thousands of hours of time coming into CAP with almost no experience in C-172 or C182s and if they can pass a form 5 in them, they can fairly quickly become mission pilots. 

Should we institute a requirement that CAP mission pilots have a certain minimum amount of time in 172s or 182s?  If so, should that go along with a requirement that the time have been obtained relatively recently (in last 5 years) to account for those who may not have flown small planes in 20-30 years?  The AOPA Safety Foundation recommends at least 30 hours time-in-type for volunteer pilots.  Is that enough?  Should it be more?

Thoughts?

Eclipse

Exactly how many CAP aircraft accidents involved low-time pilots as PIC?

Last year? 

Last 5 years?

Where I see the issue is arrogant pilots who forgo checklists and/ or common sense.

"That Others May Zoom"

RiverAux

Overall low-time pilots aren't really the issue I was bringing up.  I'm talking about people who may have thousands of flight hours but very little time in the planes we fly. 

I actually suspect that the low-time pilots probably have done most of their flying in CAP-type planes and might have more time-in-type than the retired jet jockeys.   

JohnKachenmeister

There is something to be said about, for example, airline pilots with thousands of hours in jets suddenly flying the Skyhawk.  I knew one once who had actually forgotten how to read a sectional chart... he kept trying to call a tower at a magenta-colored airport.

The flight environment of airliners is completely different from the low-and-slow crowd. 

But since everybody started out is Skyhawks or Cherokees or similar airplanes, I don't see a real big issue about returning to them.  Not enough of a problem to require 200 hours time in type.  Maybe just some extra flying with another pilot who is familiar with the environment and the aircraft.  I don't even think it has to be an instructor.

There was a CAP pilot in Ohio who was rated in gliders, but hadn't flown a glider in something like 12 years.  Our CFIG was busy with cadets, so I went up with him.  (I was current in gliders then).  I was officially the PIC, but he could also log the time as PIC as sole manipulator of the controls.  We made about 5 flights, until he got his confidence back.

That's really all that I think is necessary. 
Another former CAP officer

bosshawk

i would suggest that the key to answering this question lies not in the time in type, but in the Form 5 Check Pilot and the Form 91 Mission Check Pilot.  I am one of the latter and I recently flew with a pilot who had no 206 time, but lots of 182 time.  He flew better than standards after only about one hour in the 206: to be honest, I suggested that he get a couple more hours in the beast and then take his Form 5.  He did and passed it with flying colors(HUH???) Seriously, setting hard and fast rules really doesn't help much: being sensible goes much further.  That said, one of the scariest rides I ever had in my 47 years of flying was with an airline pilot who was looking at buying my 172.  He flared about 50 feet in the air when attempting a landing.  We had a little discussion about that.
Paul M. Reed
Col, USA(ret)
Former CAP Lt Col
Wilson #2777

aveighter

Col. Reed is exactly right. 

I had the opportunity to watch a C-141 pilot re-learn to fly the 172 in a mission profile environment.  Whole different ball game.  But thats what the check pilot is there for doing a form 5 and 91.  System has all the required elements and doesn't need a fix.

Professionalizing the people is the challenge but that is true always and everywhere.

RiverAux

I don't think its just a matter of being able to pass a check ride.  Heck, people solo with 10 or so hours of PIC time and get their license with not a lot more than that.  I'm fairly confident that all our pilots can perform the basics in our planes.   

If you look at the 2006 Nall report you'll find that time-in-type seems to be a more important factor in accidents than total stick time.  About 35% of accidents happen to pilots with less than 500 hours PIC time.  But, 43% of accidents happen to pilots with less than 100 hours of time in the type of aircraft involved in the accident and about 75% with less than 500 time-in-type. 

The AOPA is gathering additional data in this area to account for some related factors. 

RiverAux

Speaking of check rides....have any of you gone into WMIRS and looked at the check ride analysis reports?  It looks like the percentage failing check rides is extremely small (about 1 or 2% if I remember correctly).  I'm not sure if this is a good thing because all our pilots are so good or whether it might mean that our check rides are too easy.  After all, how many tests are there out there where 98%+ of the people pass them? 

aveighter

But that is the point.  A Form 5 check ride and most certainly a Form 91 should be something more than a standard check ride at the local plane rental.  If its not, fix that, don't worry about statistics.

If there are unsafe pilots flying missions it is a function of an inadequate check pilot  program that lets them through in the first place.

Again, Col. Reed (a pilot his-own-self) speaks with insight on the matter and is correct.

smj58501

http://level2.cap.gov/documents/2006_National_Board_Safety_Update.ppt

Check out the link posted above.... it provides some good trend analysis on our accident history (especially in the areas of hours, age, and CAP Professional Development).
Sean M. Johnson
Lt Col, CAP
Chief of Staff
ND Wing CAP

lordmonar

Quote from: RiverAux on January 16, 2007, 12:41:54 AM
Speaking of check rides....have any of you gone into WMIRS and looked at the check ride analysis reports?  It looks like the percentage failing check rides is extremely small (about 1 or 2% if I remember correctly).  I'm not sure if this is a good thing because all our pilots are so good or whether it might mean that our check rides are too easy.  After all, how many tests are there out there where 98%+ of the people pass them? 

When you match that up with our accident rate...you have to conclude that we are doing a good job of insuring that our pilots are safe.  And that is our bottom line.  Accident rates.....if we had only a 2% failure rate on our CAPF 5 checks AND a high accident rate, then I would be worried that the system was failing.
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP

RiverAux

Actually that presentation may support my argument.  If in fact over 85% of our accidents involve pilots with >300 hours PIC time there must be something going on.  Why are these experienced pilots having accidents more often than other GA pilots in their experience bracket?  Could it be that most of their flying time is in other models and that their time in CAP-type aircraft is extremely limited? 

It looks like our long-term accident rate has more or less leveled off at between 2-5/100K hours where it has stayed (with various small ups and downs) for the last 15 years. 

I really wish we had those accident rates based on time-in-type rather than total time.  If we were to find that time-in-type wasn't a significant factor in CAP accidents, I'll change my tune.  But, based on general GA trends I think it is something to think about.

smj58501

I don't know if the presentation does or doesn't support your argument. There is a trend relating to hours that spikes in two places, but.... There is also a trend tied to age, and one tied to CAP Professional Development. How do we address those factors?

The only way we would be able to make decisions based in facts is to have NHQ track accidents-by-type so we have some type of hard data (maybe you want to suggest that as they capture data for the FY 2007 report). Even if this info shows such a trend, and we decide we need to initiate some type of intervention, would we want to be so specific that time in Cessna's ONLY counts, or do we consider time in other SEL aircraft (including low winged ones)?

I bring this up not to start an argument, but to get the awareness generated on future worms that may spring out of the can that gets opened. We can't be afraid to open the can if there indeed is the causal relationship you hypothosize below, but if there isn't one, our interventions may lead us away from the true problem.
Sean M. Johnson
Lt Col, CAP
Chief of Staff
ND Wing CAP

lordmonar

Quote from: RiverAux on January 16, 2007, 10:32:25 PM
Actually that presentation may support my argument.  If in fact over 85% of our accidents involve pilots with >300 hours PIC time there must be something going on. 
Maybe what is going on....is that over 85% of our missions are being flown by people with >300 hours. 

You have to be careful with raw numbers like that.  You can expect your largest population to have the largest raw number of accidents.  What we need to see is the accident rate of this population...that is the number hours flown by the various hours groups vs. the number of accidents.  So if we see that if those with more than 300 hours flew at least 85% of the flying hours...we will see that their accident rate may not be any higher than the lower flight hours.
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP

RiverAux

Oh, I understand the limitations of the data and like I said, the AOPA report says they are going to look at some of these facts. 

RiverAux

Proving yet again that I've got too much time on my hands I went delving into the NTSB database for 2003 accidents and incidents involving Cessna 182s to see what the actual data shows.

There were 37 cases, 26 of which (70%) involved pilots with over 500 hours total PIC.  For these 35% of cases had pilots with less than 200 hours time in make.  So, even pilots that have passed the 500 hour "danger point" seem to carry higher risk when they don't have a lot of experience in the make they are flying.   

For the 30% of cases involving pilots with less than 500 hours total PIC, 64% of cases had less than 100 hours time in type, 9% had 101-200 hours time in type, and 27% had 201-500 hours time in type.   This seems to reflect the standard risks involved with low-time pilots. 

To me this data says that time-in-type could be an important enough factor that we may want to consider it.  If we could cut our accidents by as much as a third by not giving Mission Pilot status to someone until they have 200 hours time-in-type that is something worth thinking about.

Obviously we would want to look at CAP data and expand the analysis of GA accidents to include the 172, but I'm satisfied that there is something to my point.   

bosshawk

Folks: my old gray head hasn' t much time nor tolerance for statistics, so I will stay out of that argument.  I have flown enough years and hours and been in CAP long enough to believe that a huge percentage of GA crashes(they usually aren't accidents) occur due to bad judgement.  Unfortunately, statistics don't count judgement.  I know of two fatal crashes in CAP 182s: I knew all five people involved and had flown with the two pilots.  In both cases, the crashes occured because of lousy decision making.  I believe,that in both cases, a Check Pilot could not and would not have failed the pilot on a 91.  That said, they both died because they made bad choices.
Paul M. Reed
Col, USA(ret)
Former CAP Lt Col
Wilson #2777

lordmonar

Not being a pilot but being a safety monitor many times...I know that you have to be very careful with your statistics. 

And bad judgment is always a bugger.  No matter how much training, how well you QC your training, monitory your people.  Once they are in the air on their own, it is their judgment that rules the day.

A minor problem plus questionable judgment equals a fatal accident.

So....do we need more time in type or better CAPF 5 rides?  Maybe.  By the basic number I have seen in the breifing...I don't think so.  A 2.5 accident rate seems pretty good to me.  Our trends shows us that we are getting better at what we are doing.  That says to me that we are doing it right.

We will never be 100% safe.  Murphy will always make a bad judgment call into an accident.  We have to weight the possible benefit of more controls verses the costs to operations.

This is why we hire safety experts.
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP

RiverAux

I don't think our numbers are getting all that much better.  The presentation previously posted showed that for the last 10 years our numbers have been bouncing around between about 2.5-7/100K flight hours with no consistent trend.  Between 1972 and 1994 the accident rate fell steeply, but it seems as if we've reached a sort of plateau at a level slightly lower than the GA accident rate.     

lordmonar

And again...I got to say if our safety trends are less then the general populace then we are doing pretty good.  We must be doing something right.

Sometimes River...you just got to leave well enough alone. :)
PATRICK M. HARRIS, SMSgt, CAP