Hans Mathews

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• December 11, 2010, on General Aviation Safety:

  I like the article. As a low time private pilot (<200 hours) with 2 young kids and a wife who depends on me, I have spent quite some time reading the NTSB reports. I focus on the deadly accidents and the accidents for the airplanes I fly or aspire to own. The goal is to learn about why and then eliminate those risks that I can from my flying. What I see is: Stay out of light helicopters - These are 20% of the fatal accidents in a given month - I don't know the ratio of fixed wing to rotor wing pilots but am sure it is much higher than 5:1. Stay out of high performance Home Builts - These are also about 20% of the fatal accidents in any givng month - lots of landing accidents. Continued VFR flight into IFR is fully 60% of the fatal airplane accidents. Running out of fuel or fuel contamination accounts for 20% of the fatal airplane accidents. The remaining 20% are a smattering of various mechanical failures and other things. The way I see it, if I stay in factory built cer...

• February 24, 2011, on General Aviation Safety:

  Hi Phil, In January I lost a friend in an accident that arose from the loss of power on take off http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20110105X25845&key=1 He was an ex-boyfriend of my youngest sister. He was quite accomplished for a private pilot, 3000 hours or so of time. My friend lost an engine shortly after takeoff. He was leaving a pilot community and there were multiple witnesses. One interviewed on TV said he made 300 ft or so, the NTSB say 100. Shortly after the loss of power the plane turned left and crashed. As I think back on my own training, I clearly recall the instructor pulling power at just a hundred feet or so of altitude after take off and flying ahead to the cow pasture that was at the end of the runway (we never landed - but we got within just a few feet of doing so - the cow pasture belonged to the airport owner). However, 15 years and at least 2 BFR's later (I quit flying for a while), I have only had discussions, no practice. There is an excellen...