Accident Prepardness or Not!!!!

If a person knew that sometime today, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they would be involved in a accident what would they do to prepare? Not knowing what, when or where could possibly cause you to jerk and flinch like a butterfly having lost it‘s tail end to a slick lizard.. It could happen in your house, perhaps a slip in the shower hitting your head against a tile wall, maybe tripping over a water hose and falling, hitting your head on a post, the sidewalk or other unforgiving hard place. Then what about driving, isn’t that dangerous? All that mass moving along at a fast pace and if not perfectly guided capable of smashing anything in its path and you along with it. Then there’s the airplane with a propeller that could cut you in half before you could blink an eye. Avoiding the gas powered food processor and getting the thing off the ground you now are subject to wind sheers, down drafts and a plethora of mother natures wrath all wanting to cause your fragile aircraft to break or slam you into the ground. In any case an accident can happen at anytime, any place and being an accident, without warning. So the question is, how do you prepare? By breaking a link in the chain of events leading to unsafe performance. As an example, situational awareness goes a long way in knowing what is around you and by being attentive you avoid slipping, tripping and falling down. While driving you buckle up the proverbial seat belt, never know when you’ll need that, drive the speed limit and obey traffic laws. It becomes more complicated in aviation. Flying is after all three dimensional.

So many things can go wrong with no place to pull over and make it right. Situational awareness can keep you from running over or getting run over while taxing at the airport but how do we mitigate potential accidents while flying? One way is to use check lists ensuring no switch is missed, check weather frequently to ensure you don’t fly into one of mother natures surprise parties, bad weather. Following long established rules, checking and double checking, making sure your choice of personal transportation is working as advertised, and not letting your ego write checks your ability cannot cash. Make a plan, pay attention, don’t lie to yourself and while your accident potential may not be totally abated it will be summarily reduced.