Safety index (W3C 01/10)

Recreational Aviation Australia Inc home page

Operations

Airmanship and safety tour

Rev. 7 — page content was last changed
April 20, 2007

Recreational Aviation Australia Inc strongly recommends that RA-Aus members, and other recreational flyers, familiarise themselves with the sections of the Flight Theory, Aviation Meteorology, VHF Radiocommunications, Flight Planning, Navigation and Coping with Emergencies guides featured within this web service that focus on airmanship and safety matters.

Airmanship

Good airmanship is that indefinable something that separates the superior airman/airwoman from the average: it is not a measure of skill or technique, rather it is a measure of a person's awareness of the aircraft and its environment and of her/his own capabilities and behavioural characteristics, combined with wise decision making and a high sense of self-discipline.

Airmanship is the cornerstone of pilot competency. Competency has been defined as the combination of knowledge, skills and attitude required to perform a task well – or to operate an aircraft safely and in all foreseeable situations. A flight operation, even in the most basic low momentum ultralight, is a complex interaction of pilot, machine, practical physics, airspace structures, traffic, weather, planning and risk; and when each and every flight is undertaken it is not only the aircraft which should be airworthy, the total environment — airframe, engine, pilot, atmospheric conditions and flight planning — should allow for the safe, successful conclusion of each operation. It is the perception – founded on the acquired underpinning knowledge – of the state of that total environment and its potential risks that provides the basis for good airmanship and safe, efficient flight. Poor perception and poor discipline create an incident prone pilot.

The prime purpose of this web service is to provide knowledge to those who are willing to absorb it. The more you know about the physics of flight, the flight environment, your aircraft structure and its systems, flight planning and flight operations etc the more aware you will be of your own limitations — and the safer you and your passengers will be.

The following sub-sections are those particularly pertinent to safety. They are generally highlighted with the same background tone as the index table and are sequenced using a textual link — at the end of each sub-section — to access the next sub-section in the sequence.

Wing loading, stall speeds and the stall/spin phenomenon

Safety in take-off

Safety in the circuit, approach and landing

Safety hazards: loss of control in low level turns

Safety hazards: flight at excessive speed

Risk management and flight discipline

Atmospheric hazards

Microscale meteorology & atmospheric hazards

Accident reporting

AUF/RA-Aus Accident Investigation reports

In addition to the above it is recommended that you review the complete

Coping with Emergencies Guide

Manuals and Guides

| Aviation Meteorology Guide | Flight Theory Guide | VHF Radiocommunications Guide |

| Learning to Fly Guide | Flight Planning & Navigation Guide | Coping with Emergencies Guide |

| Builders guide to safe aircraft materials | Operations Manual | Technical Manual |

NEWCOMERS GUIDED TOUR [Page 3 of 10]
The next page discusses the more advanced recrational aviation training available. You will note when navigating this site the many links contained within the body text.