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SINGLE PILOT
TOOLS & TRAINING
It is not a calculated risk if you haven’t calculated it.
- Naved Abdali, Author
by Dale Smith
Year after year single-pilot IFR operations are statistically among the most dangerous types of flying. Fortunately, there are tools and training aids to help minimize and mitigate the risks and make every flight safer.
I’m willing to wager that if Mr. Right Stuff Brigadier General Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager were with us today, he’d agree that single-pilot operations in today’s IFR en- vironment are about the riskiest kind of flying you can do.
Why? Well, airspace is busier, airplanes are more complex, and pilots are often over- whelmed by it all. And it all adds up to some unfortunate statistics. In fact, according to a report by Robert E. Breiling Associates, a single-pilot operator was between 1.2 and 1.5 times more likely to be involved in an accident than a dual-pilot operator.
September 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 9