Myth of Small Planes
By Pierre A. Kandorfer
California City – “I am afraid of flying, especially in a small plane….” Who did not hear such a statement yet? This is a two-part problem. Of course, there are people who ride eighty miles per hour on a wet and slippery freeway in the middle of the night, but they would never fly in any kind of a plane. And, there is a question Michelle Nolting of California City used to have for years: Is flying really so dangerous? Even more dangerous than other means of transportation?
There is an interesting analogy many professional pilots and flight instructors like Eli Lamers of Lancaster love to tell to anybody questioning the “safety” of an airplane ride. Let’s assume you travel with your car just about ten miles to the next airport, Fox Field as an example. There, you enter a plane, and fly across the continent - and fly back to Lancaster. Five thousand miles approximately. Fact is that that the chance to be involved in an accident on your five miles car trip to and from the airport is ten times higher than to experience an airplane accident while flying round-trip across America….
Surprised? You shouldn’t be! First of all, the aviation safety in the US is and remains weigh above the average in the rest of the world. This is true for airliners, military planes, and general aviation flyers.
Secondly, the aviation safety has dramatically increased since Wright brothers first attempts of a real human flight. All early planes were not safe at all, airplane crashes and accidents of all kind were more a routine than an exception. Since that time, almost everything changed. New, non-burning materials replaced the wooden planes. Extremely reliable engines were used instead of fragile, dangerously overheating old power plants. While generations of early planes used close to no instruments of any kind at all, modern “flying machines” offer almost anything aircraft owners can buy: From the best basic flight attitude instruments - to super accurate communication and navigation devices, including state-of-the-art aviation GPS units, almost eliminating the problem of “getting lost” in the thin air.
Furthermore, most people don’t know that the aviation safety regulations belong to the most stringent anywhere. You may drive your car as long as you want without any inspection, service, or repair (with the exception of a smog test) – as long as the car still moves. Then, a red light shows up in the dash board, and we call a towing service to haul us to the next repair show. The rest is up to them and your pocket book.
Not so in the aviation! Even the smallest general aviation production one-seater must be put through an “annual inspection” every twelve months whether you use the plane or not. And this is not just a “check” whether the engine is still running okay and whether all controls still work. Pilot Ron Steele (Rosamond):”It’s expensive and a pain in a neck but necessary for my and my passengers safety…”
The “annual inspection” on an airplane is the most thorough inspection you can imagine. Everything must be checked. Everything. For example, even the latest model best running airplane engine must undergo a brutal compression test. Every bolt, every screw, every little knob must be checked, tested and found “airworthy”. This cannot be done by the pilot, the aircraft owner, or any “mechanic”. This must be done by a FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) certified aircraft mechanic who must log everything in the log books of each plane. Of course, this is not a cheap thing to do but it’s worth the price. In the aviation safety, there are no short-cuts.
What most people can’t image is that you can find thousands of fifty years or even older planes in a pristine, like-new condition. This is the result of the FAA regulation that all not perfectly functioning plane parts, especially wear-and-tear items, must be replaced at specific intervals. Most small plane engines must be replaced or totally overhauled between one and two thousand running hours.
Talking about inspections? You can’t just get into a plane, start the engine and fly. A thorough “preflight inspection” must be done first. Up to fifty or more items in, on and around the plane must be checked carefully before you may taxi to the runway. Here, the so-called “pre-takeoff inspection” begins. Dozens of items to be checked again. The engine function, instruments, flight controls - just to name a few.
Now, you may take off and enjoy the flight if you checked the weather, made a decent route or flight plan, have all the necessary information about the flight, including the length of the runway you want to use for landing, an “alternate airport” if you can’t continue the flight as intended, etc. The list goes on and on….
Of course, not to mention the actual flight training you need just to get your license. There is a minimum of fifty to one hundred hours of “cockpit time” for a private pilot, thousands of hours for a commercial pilot.
The biggest myth of small planes is that “big planes are safer than small planes…”. Of course, this topic is extremely complex, and you cannot easily compare apples and oranges. However, there is one example which impresses most people: What happens if there is a total power loss in a big airliner? Let’s assume that the extensive restart procedures by the pilot do not work. Result: The plane is “gliding” down and losing altitude very fast.
In the vicinity of a big airport or not, the emergency landing must be made at a very high speed. Mostly between one and two hundred miles per hour. At this speed, the chances of crashing without any substantial plane damage are extremely slim. Of course, a power-off landing on a big enough airport runway decreases the chances of crashing the plane.
In a small plane, let’s assume in a Cessna 150, this is a very different situation. With flaps extended, the pilot can slow the approach speed down to about forty miles per hour. Assuming all the emergency procedures have been done, and there are not major obstacles for the plane “landing” in the field, most small plane emergency landings can be managed without major harm to passengers and the plane! Considering such an scenario, flying a small plane is safer than flying – or better - emergency landing a Jumbo jet….