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Vol. 2, No. 4 Winter 2025
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Welcome to the latest edition of the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee's (GAJSC) quarterly newsletter, the FlySafe Flyer! This newsletter is intended to keep you apprised of GAJSC-related news and updates, as well as relevant safety information that impacts the general aviation community. The FlySafe Flyer also aims to convey the GAJSC's purpose and collaborative role in advancing aviation safety. We encourage you to read and share this content with your fellow airmen. Please copy the link here to share. For a list of previous newsletters, go to gajsc.org/newsletter.
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Safety is a Team Effort!
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A Welcome Message from Sean Elliott, EAA Vice President of Advocacy and Safety and GAJSC Co-Chair
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Greetings GAJSC members and GA stakeholders! I am very honored to be serving as your industry co-chair for the GAJSC. AOPA’s Mike Ginter and I tag team the industry leader side of the committee and we work closely with Kim Pyle and her team on the FAA side of the equation. The leadership reflects the body of GAJSC in that it is very much a team effort with all hands pulling on an oar!
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A little bit about me. I have been the EAA Vice President of Advocacy and Safety and a member of EAA’s Senior Leadership team since 2010. Prior to that I was the EAA Director of Aircraft Operations and President of the National Association of Flight Instructors during the late 1990s and 2000s. Coming from a flight instructor/examiner background, I am still an active instructor in vintage and warbird aircraft as well as a Specialty Aircraft Examiner with authorizations in the B-17, B-25, and B-29. I am also one of five PICs in the B-29 Doc based in Wichita. Being part of the GAJSC has been a natural fit as I have championed many safety initiatives in the Warbird/LHFE arena and helped EAA become one of the first adapters of SMS for its Warbird and Vintage operations.
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The GAJSC has collectively made a significant impact on GA safety since its reboot in 2011. I was there and serving on the steering committee when the then FAA Co-chair Tony Fazio shared the plans to rework the structure to become a mirror image of how the Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) was functioning at the time with a data driven approach to risk mitigations. It has been truly exciting to see the results of that significant shift and subsequent Safety Enhancements that have resulted since that time. The data driven approach with a focus on fatal accidents has proven to achieve results with roughly a 30% reduction in the actual number of fatal accidents in all of GA, and roughly a 50% reduction in fatal accidents in Experimental/Amateur Built aircraft over the period from 2009 to 2023 (most recent closed out year).
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From my perspective, the two most important elements that GAJSC brings to the GA community is enhanced/unified communications about what matters from a safety perspective, and a strong unified reflection of the needed community culture that improves safety and thus decreases accidents. By no means is the GAJSC the sole driver of these significant strides in aviation safety, but it is perhaps the only collective whole of each facet of the GA community that provides a shared platform for pushing safety enhancements. Every member of the GAJSC has a bully pulpit with their respective memberships and thus can be highly effective at reaching many, if not all of the GA community.
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The GAJSC is a team, with all hands pulling on an oar and Safety Enhancements are the rudder! Thank you for being “in the boat” with us!
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Sean Elliott – GAJSC Co-Chair
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General Aviation Safety Performance Update
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Here's a look at the GA fatal accident rate for fiscal year (FY) 2025. As you can see in the chart here, the estimated GA fatal accident rate is at 0.52 accidents per 100,000 flight hours (as Jan 14, 2025), well below the yearly target of 0.92. You can also see the total GA fatal accidents broken out by month in FY25 here.
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For more details, see the Pareto chart on general aviation fatal accidents, which can be customized to display a specific date range of accident data and sort results by aircraft classification, FAR part, operational category, and accident category.
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Recent Fly Safe Topics Cover Vestibular Illusions, Overreliance on Automation, Flight Data Monitoring, and Safety Culture
October 2024's Fly Safe topic of month covers the dangers of vestibular illusions (e.g., graveyard spiral) and best practices for coping with them.
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Do you use the National General Aviation Flight Information Database (NGAFID) to share and analyze your flight data? Learn how using tools like NGAFID can help you forecast and resolve aircraft performance issues before flying in the December Fly Safe topic.
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A strong safety culture is key to managing risk in aviation. By better understanding human factors, we can enhance decision-making, improve safety protocols, and reduce errors. Learn more by reading the January Fly Safe topic.
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FlySafe topics are monthly outreach focus areas designed to support and promote the GAJSC's data-driven safety mitigation strategies, or Safety Enhancements.
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- February — Survival: Understanding the benefits of survival knowledge, skill, equipage, and planning to GA operations.
- March — Risk-based Flight Reviews and WINGS: Learn how a risk-based flight review can identify hazards and risks with pilot operations and help eliminate or mitigate those risks.
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New Rotorcraft Collective Video Covers the Pitfalls of PED Use
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Portable electronic devices can help you navigate, but they also can distract enough to negate the safety awareness they’re supposed to enhance. Watch the latest Rotorcraft Collective video for tips on using these devices safely.
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New Online Aviation Meteorology Reference Now Available
To help pilots and industry professionals improve weather decision-making and better their understanding of aviation weather terms, Canada's air navigation service provider, in partnership with experts from across Canada's aviation community, created a new and free online resource called the NAV CANADA Aviation Meteorology Reference (AVMET). In addition to providing users with meteorological explanations curated for the aviation industry, each weather term ties back to the resultant impacts experienced by various operational users.
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“We explain the science behind the weather, tie it back to historical events through the use of past forecast products, what ended up being observed, and discuss potential impacts on everything from a Cessna to a Boeing 777 and beyond,” explains Sophie Splawinski, NAV CANADA’s Manager of Network Aviation Weather and project lead. Read more about AVMET on the blog post here.
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Safety Enhancement Spotlight — Safety Culture
The GAJSC analyzes general aviation (GA) safety data to develop intervention strategies to prevent or mitigate problems associated with accident causes, called Safety Enhancements (SE). These SEs may include procedures, training, and equipment installations that, when implemented, may reduce the likelihood of accidents in the future.
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In this issue of FlySafe Flyer, we'd like to introduce SE 33 - Safety Culture.
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Among the objectives with this SE is to help improve safety culture in general aviation and help foster an environment of education and mentoring for pilots. Here are a few good resources that emphasize the importance of safety culture:
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Please see the GAJSC SE page here for more information.
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GAJSC Member Profile — EAA
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Founded on January 26, 1953 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a local club for those who built and restored their own aircraft, the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) quickly grew to become a vibrant and growing aviation community that includes all who enjoy flying for recreation and welcomes all aviation enthusiasts to participate. Today, EAA is headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with 300,000 members in more than 100 countries.
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EAA’s mission is dedicated to growing participation in aviation and strives to make aviation easier, more accessible, more rewarding, and more fun – igniting and nurturing interest by embracing "The Spirit of Aviation" in all that we do.
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See the EAA website for more information. See here for a list of all GAJSC partners.
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Thanks for reading and #FlySafe!
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Partners in Aviation Safety
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We need your feedback! Please tell us what you think.
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