Originally Posted by
JammedStab
Most accidents are preventable by methods other than Megan's resigned view blaming bumps, crosswind, and seat height, and perhaps the will of allah soon.
Apart from the last one I personally would suspect that all of those factors contributed to the accident and don't see that as resignation at all.
I would also add into it the closeness of car parking to the runway, failure to set trim for take-off and distraction (and I also suspect inexperience or lack of recency on type).
They however are not the 'cause' or 'to blame'. They are factors that contributed.
Any one of those factors not being the way it was may have resulted in a different outcome (potentially avoiding the accident from occurring altogether).
To simply say 'the pilot was incompetent' or 'use a checklist' is not really explaining anything and does not really contribute to avoiding future incidents.
I want to know what factors contributed to the accident and how in future I can avoid things like that happening to me (or how I can simulate them with my students to help them avoid them).
Also saying "we should not make mistakes, we should strive to be better" is to me another form of resignation.
I know of few pilots who would have the attitude - "I am not that good but it doesn't matter and I am not really trying to be a better operator" Trying to understand why mistakes happen is what can help to make me a better pilot.
Poo-pooing factors like the above mentioned seat height, mis-set trim, striking a bump etc in favour of saying "pure incompetence" is (in my opinion) not helpful. I have seen how seat height in a tail wheel aircraft can have quite an impact, particularly for people with low recent currency on type or low tailwheel time. When I switch seats from front to back I often get my first landing wrong. A different visual picture due to jacking up the seat, a different stick feel, low recency, distraction, uneven runway in an aircraft with poor forward visibility etc are not excuses, they are factors that I need to be aware of.