Safety Training - SM4 Safety Articles & Resources

Train for you!
Hello, summer! With the COVID vaccine now readily available, the demand for travel is bringing back air traffic and the empty skies of 2020 will soon be a piece of aviation history. As we dust off our flight bags or update the iPad applications, be mindful that skill loss, albeit temporary, is a reality we need to contend with.

Pilot Error Accidents: There Is More To the Story
Working directly with an aviation emergency response firm gives me unique insight into the complex and often cascading factors involved in understanding accident causation. Although pilot error is an often-cited root cause, it is easy to see it is rarely, if ever, that simple.

Was There a Decrease in Runway Excursions in 2020?
We now know that a global pandemic affects different industries in different ways. Retail liquor stores, package delivery companies and online meeting software all saw COVID-related bumps in sales. Restaurants, bars and most of aviation have experienced a COVID slump.

2021 Is Here—Are You Ready?
The new year has begun and with it an assortment of resolutions to make ourselves better in one way or another. January is generally the month in which everyone shares those resolutions, and as a flight safety academy, we see numerous pilots interested in additional professional development events and training focused on countering loss of control-inflight (LOC-I). All great news!

The Bedrock of Aviation—Standard Operating Procedures… Consider the Variables!
Aviation is all about standard operating procedures and their more-beloved acronym “SOP.” With the current COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on staffing levels, operators have had to make some hard decisions, whose impact may not be readily apparent. This article illuminates the risk in assuming SOPs are, in fact, standards.

Making your Risk Assessment Tool a STAR
Mention the acronym GUMPS to just about any fixed wing pilot and watch their eyes move upward and to the right. Their neurolinguistics are probably showing you they are visually remembering: gas, undercarriage, mixture, props and safety. It is a tried-and-true mental checklist and litany that has served, and saved, many a pilot

Reinvention Throughout the Pandemic
Opportunity. It is a concept that helps us cope with the constant change and the flexibility required to endure the pandemic. The aviation industry has been hit hard, and everyone associated with it is having to reinvent themselves in one way or another.

The “New Normal” in Aviation Safety
Much is being written these days about the shifting of “normalcy,”’ given the global COVID-19 pandemic. What we have come to understand as “normal” in business aviation today has changed dramatically in just a few short months.

Reimagining Mastery Through Anaheim Peppers
Downtime used to be hard to come by. Remember just a couple of months ago when the pace of operations prevented us from doing all we needed to just to…