Originally Posted by
Hawkerdriver1
The minimum visibility criteria, for category “”C” & “D” aircraft, needs to be increased.. The speeds these aircraft are operating at, in marginal visibilities, are compelling pilot deviations from SOP’s: ( Bank angles being exceeded.)
In San Diego. A Lear 35A killing 4. (Fog)
In Truckee. A Challenger 605 killing 6. (Smoke)
In Chicago (PDK) A Lear 35 killing 2 (Clouds)
In Truckee. A Lear 35A killing 2 (Clouds)
It doesn’t help that the older Lears are not the most forgiving aircraft either. I flew all the models myself from the 23, 24,25, 35A, 36, 40, 45 & 55. The 30 series alone has “7” different wings. The Challenger was once a Lear design purchased by Bombardier too.
Someone, in a different forum, mentioned how the industry is getting these people killed. That, since there is not enough of a speed margin, above a stall, the solution is simply to increase the margin an additional 10 knots. Ridiculous, in my humble opinion. Imposing a “band aid” solution since pilots can’t help themselves from deviating from SOP’s when conditions warrant it. Really?
HD
The industry is experiencing a crisis of pilot experience, and perhaps even quality. You cannot deny that 91/135 pilots have unprecedented opportunities in 121 right now.
Airlines see it too, and all have made a variety of systemic adaptions in training and line ops in recent years. 121 as a whole and most individual airlines have a large enough data set (which they actually collect and analyze routinely) to spot trends and react.
Most 91/135 operators are too small to benefit much from a data-driven approach at the level of individual operators... the three near-misses that occurred prior to the smoking hole happened at other operators so the accident operator had little visibility other than waiting for the NTSB. IIRC alphabet groups like NBAA do share some data, but maybe the FAA does need to weigh in... the system has changed and it's not reverting to how it used to be for many years, so it's reasonable that some adjustment needs to happen.