GENERAL AVIATION PREFLIGHT PLANNING TO REDUCE ACCIDENTS

Abstract : Accident analysis reveals that preflight planning is often inadequate or entirely ignored. This report addresses the question, 'How can the FAA empower the General Aviation (GA) community to minimize the number of accidents resulting from inadequate preflight planning and preparation?' In answering this question, a key issue is how best to provide the preflight services needed by GA and how best to encourage a greater percentage of pilots to do adequate preflight preparation. There have been major changes in the preflight/weather briefing market over the last decade. There is a need for a fundamental reexamination of the preflight/weather briefing market and of the roles and responsibilities of the various players: federal, state, commercial vendors, and pilots. Such a reexamination would provide the FAA with a better understanding of the consequence of agency decisions. Thus, it would allow the FAA to take these consequences into account in the agency decision making process.