Monday, July 16, 2007

Waking them up...

Over the weekend, a Piper crashed in the mountains east of San Diego. As reported, the first indication of the accident was when a Sheriff's helicopter on routine patrol saw the wreckage. Although the plane probably crashed Friday, it wasn't spotted until Saturday and it made the local news Saturday night without identifying the type of airplane or the victims.

By Sunday night, the story was running on the national wires identifying that two Navy personnel had been killed in a Piper after departing MYF. My heart goes out to the families of the two victims. Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

This one hit a little close to home. When I first heard about a plane going down, my primary concern was for the members of my clubs, hoping it wasn't one of them. Once the national story hit, the only thing I could think is that my wife and/or parents would hear about it on the news and be out of their minds before they could reach me. I put in a few phone calls at midnight east coast time to let them know about the accident and that I was safe on deck. An ounce of prevention and all that.

The accident aircraft was not a part of either of my flying clubs.

When I first started flying, I filed a VFR flight plan for every flight, including local hops. As I have become more comfortable flying, I've stopped doing this, only filing for cross country over the mountains or when flying out of one club that requires it. The VFR flight plan, like flight following, is an insurance policy. It's free (for now) and may make the difference between being rescued or not. I think it's time I rededicate myself to filing on every flight. It can't hurt.

I also think this is a good chance to plug support for AOPA (and every other aviation alphabet group except the ATA) in the fight against user fees. If I try to file and/or use flight following on every flight for safety, how differently will I and other pilots feel about it if we have to give up our AMEX number just to talk to a controller?

Six days and a wakeup and I'm home.

1 Comments:

Blogger Anthony Frost said...

If you are injured in a private plane crash, or someone you love has been injured or killed, you have the right to speak with a private plane crash lawyer to determine if you should be compensated. Victims of airplane crashes can suffer devastating injuries and should be compensated for their pain and suffering.

12:26 PM  

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