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understand and operate the advanced avionics, not because of their stick and rudder skills.”
“The technologies today require that you know whatever systems you have in the airplane 100 percent,” Laird added. “When things happen, they happen quickly. And you need to know what to do fast. If you’re not multiple steps ahead of the systems, you are lightyears behind the air- plane.”
He points to many contributing factors to pilots “getting behind the airplane,” including lack of familiar- ity, complacency, distraction, and the overall dulling of basic stick-and-rud- der skills.
“Also, the lack of tactile feedback from the controls can contribute to a loss of situational awareness,” Laird said. “For example, some new f ly- by-wire systems require no throttle management after takeoff. Set it and forget it. It’s easy to overlook these systems and their correct operation
until you have an emergency situa- tion. Then it’s often too late.”
Additional Tools to Help Manage Risk
While it may seem that risk man- agement/mitigation is a reasonably new effort, it’s not. Larsen explained that for over a decade, NBAA has had a dedicated Single-Pilot Safety Work- ing Group that is part of the NBAA Safety Committee. The group’s sole focus is on addressing identified safe- ty issues in a way that’s appropriate for the single-pilot business aviation environment.
“That group, in conjunction with the broader NBAA Safety Commit- tee, creates resources published on the NBAA website that single-pilot operators can use to strengthen the safety posture of their f lights,” he said. “In addition, pilots can attend the annual NBAA Single-Pilot Safety Standdown that is held in conjunction with NBAA-BACE each year.”
To complement those events, Larsen said that NBAA has a host of single-pilot-focused safety resources on its website at nbaa.org/aircraft- operations/safety/single-pilot-oper- ations/. In an ongoing effort to ex- pand its reach, NBAA regularly works with single-pilot aircraft type clubs and leads an owner-pilot coalition of those associations to collaborate on issues relevant to the single-pilot community, including safety, insur- ance, and operational best practices, among other topics.
An example of that outreach is the NBAA’s recent announcement regard- ing the formation of its Owner Pilot Association Coalition (NBAA OPAC). This dedicated group has been created to bring together leaders of business aircraft owner-pilot organizations in a “collaborative effort to tackle top concerns for business aviation.”
The announcement release went on to say, “This new, grassroots coali- tion will connect the best thinking
12 • TWIN & TURBINE / August 2022