Aspen Accident

There were many factors that contributed to this accident; all of them were human error.  The first mistake made was that the Pilot and Co Pilot decided to fly to Aspen when they were already running late, and knew the weather was not great.  This started the error chain, because the crew had a rushed attitude and were already irritated by the passanger wanting them to get there on time.  Another error was that neither them nor the Tower knew about the published NOTAMS that there should not be any circle to land or straight in approaches at night, so the controller never should have cleared them to land.  The airplane was also configured wrong, which contributed to the fast descent rate (way faster than the published descent rate of 400 f.p.m.).  The crew were experiencing a bit of vertigo, because they thought they saw the runway lights on the wrong side than where they really were, and reported runway in sight.  They should have looked at and trusted what their instruments said, which is one of the number one rules to follow when flying in IFR conditions.  If this were me, I would have never taken off in the first place, or diverted to the other airport after hearing that numerous planes were going around and that I was past the night landing cut-off time for noise abatement. 

Single Pilot IFR

The Single Pilot IFR article was very informative as to how to safely fly in IFR conditions.  The main things that I got from this article are that it is imperative that you feel very comfortable in IFR conditions before flying them solo, and to always stay ahead of everything you are doing during flight.  This means to be organized; have charts tabbed at exactly where you need to go when referencing them, knowing all weather phenomenon you will be encountering, having all available information on airspace and airports beforehand, and much more.  It is best to always stay two minutes ahead of what you are doing.  For example, know when you will be reaching your next fix (distance, time, etc.), weather at that fix (through frequencies), and what you will be encountering afterwards.  The biggest problem for IFR pilots is running into a problem or emergency during flight and getting too overloaded with tasks.  The average person can handle approx. three tasks at once, so if you are getting weather, figuring out where you are at, talking to ATC, and briefing an approach and you have an instrument failure, you are immediately overloaded with tasks.  This is why it is important to stay ahead.

I do not think I would be comfortable flying single pilot IFR as of now.  I have .2 hours of flight time in actual IFR conditions, and have not been practicing IFR flying for the past few months (other than some approaches and holds).  I would like to get more experience in actual conditions with another pilot with me, so that I can increase my knowledge and comfort level.

Blog #2

I really enjoyed having the safety brief to read to learn more about in-flight electrical fires.  Sometimes reading checklists or reading out of the PIM gets boring, and may not be fully understood why we do what we do in case of emergencies.  This brief helped outline different kinds of electrical fires and how to look out for them.

A short circuit means that electricity is flowing alont a different path than the one intended.  Electric current is constantly trying to find the easiest way back to its source.  The current will take any opportunity it has, which can mean arcing between an exposed or damaged wire and a different circuit, or directly to a ground source like the aircraft structure.  This can cause extreme damage.

Our procedure in the Seminole outlines what should be turned off and when, and which circuit breakers to pull in a certain order.  It goes on to shot a checklist of what to do if electrical power is needed for continuation of the flight (attempting to reenergize the system).  The safety brief is more general.  It says to advise ATC first, turn off electrical switches, pull circuit breakers of affected components that aren't essential to flight, DO NOT reset non essential circuit breakers, and use fire extinguisher as needed.  The brief is more of a "test everything to see what the culprit is" as opposed to our checklist, which is specific and to the point.

In the future, if I have an electrical fire, I will first fly the plane, advise ATC, and go through our checklist.  During this time, I will try and determine what the source is, but if it is not obvious, I will stick with the checklist and land as soon as possible.  I will use the fire extinguisher if I have to.