Over the Airwaves

To me, a day aloft in a small aircraft is one of life's ultimate rewards.  To soar effortlessly between and among thermals, free of the bonds of earth, is the ultimate manifestation of true happiness.  It is a special privilege that precious few people ever experience.

Sadly, however, far too many of us GA pilots manage to screw things up for ourselves.  We skip a step in the pre-flight process.  We launch into questionable weather.  We fail to maintain airspeed.  We mess up a crosswind landing.  We duck below minimums on the approach.  We become too complacent or too bold

Over the Airwaves is not intended to be your typical training, official news, or club-type social journal.  Instead, its intent is to stimulate thought, enhance aviation critical thinking skills, to encourage the strong pilot, and to disturb the weaker pilot.

Link: Over the Airwaves

:: OTA is a bi-weekly email newsletter written for pilots who want to maintain proficiency. It's like The Sentinal for non-CAP pilots.

I came across it this week listening to Bob Miller's interview on the  ANN Podcast.

CAP has a very strong safety culture, our pilots are required to adhear to a couple of Miller's pet peeves for maintaining real proficiency.

• We're required to ready CAP's Safety Newsletter, The Sentinal which is published monthly.
• Every year we subject ourselves to participate in an annual standardization flight with an Check Pilot to confirm our proficiency.  I consider this to be some of the cheapest life insurance  around.

Miller has a few other pet peeves that I tend to agree with:

• He takes issue with flight schools where yesterday's graduates are teaching today's students.  Science long ago proved the deleterious effects of genetic inbreeding of farm animals.
• The FAA sees fit to qualify CFII's (instrument instructors) who have never once flown in actual clouds. (Yikes!)
• Most  General Aviation pilots average less than 50 flight hours a year.  Yet they scoff at meaningful recurrent training.
• It is little wonder why GA flying remains statistically 100 times riskier, hour for hour, than airline flight!

So while all this may be good for CAP's job security in the Search & Rescue business, it's a good idea to sign up and add Over The Airways to your inbox.