what is the next big problem in aviation?

[protectthehornet]

I'm asking the pilots of the world, what the next big thing affecting the safety of airline flying in the world?

this is only to spur discussion to possibly prevent something happening in the future...through education and fore knowledge.

if this is the wrong place, I apologize.

[Ballymoss]

Tomorrow............and the next day, adinfin!

Rgds
The Moss:ok:

[grumpyoldgeek]

Explain AF447 first, then look for other problems.

[fireflybob]

Or you could ask what are the next opportunities in aviation?

Is your glass half full or half empty?

[vapilot2004]

Overreaching technology and terrorism.

[protectthehornet]

grumpyoldgeek makes a fine point...I hope they do find out what happened...

[Piltdown Man]

It all depends on who is asking the question. If you are an airline, you'd say that your costs are already too high and are continuing to grow. If you asked a Greeny, they'd say that there is already too much aviation. Ask DTV airport and they'd say there isn't enough and nobody loves them. A wannabe F/O would say that nobody is recruiting. And so on... The trouble is, they are all probably right.

PM

[D O Guerrero]

Mutant ducks?

[kennedy]

Fatigue!

But as the airlines want to make money, that's never going to be sorted!

[fireflybob]

Peak oil - escalating fuel prices - just a matter of time but when is anyone's guess.

Solution - new form of propulsion.

Increasing mindless bureaucratic nonsense.

Solution - peaceful revolution.

[Huck]

The decline of hand-flying skills. Q.E.D.

[p51guy]

Airlines using pilots paying money to get ratings to fly at minimum experience at minimum pay in the US as some other countries do now.

[glad rag]

The continuing rise of techs rote trained to pass license exams but without either the experience or knowledge to avoid the pitfalls once away from the learning environment.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Pilots becoming disconnected from the rest of humanity due to their language being indecipherable to the rest of society with the ever expanding use of acronyms and feel good descriptions of how to think that for the rest of society is just using common sense.

[p51guy]

The minimum pay is now with the regionals but I can see it creaping up into Legacy carriers too. I have flown with a few of these guys and the captain job gets a lot harder. You would like to be single pilot sometimes.

[Sir Niall Dementia]

P51guy;

You are absolutely right, but I can remember similar statements being made when we were newly fledged.

FireflyBob: sod peaceful revolution, I'd like to go through the CAA here like Rambo in a temper!

SND

[Wyle E Coyote]

what is the next big problem in aviation?

These damn lefty laws, meaning we can't get rid of all the 60 year old hosties hobbling down the isles of aircraft until they actually fall over a break a hip.

Watching granny struggling with the drinks cart is a pitiful sight. Watching some nice 20 year old doing the same is a joy that makes the hours fly by.

The US is already screwed, the UK isn't far behind. It seems Asia is the last bastion of the hot hostie.

It's a sad day for aviation.

[Tee Emm]

While sophisticated automation is responsible for lowering the accident rate it comes with a cost. Blind reliance on automation and the inevitable degradation of pure flying skills needs to be addressed during training and not just lip service as shown by the occasional hand flown instrument approach. There are often opportunities available during routine line flying to switch off the automatic pilot and flight director and allow the pilots to hand fly. The problem is that the automatics have caused the pilots to be lazy and this in turn leads to an aversion to hand flying. Piloting skills go downhill from that point. Loss of control is now the most significant cause of fatal accidents. But airlines and regulators put that in the too hard basket. Not in my backyard they say. I doubt that trend will ever be reversed.

[low n' slow]

The next big problem in aviation is maintaining the previously set safety standard.

What used to be an industry where those with the proper personal characteristics were picked for the job and given the adequate training is now an industry where the wannabe with the most cash buys his own training and makes himself the cheaper option for the airline.

It's about airline managements understanding what the costs for operating an airline actually are and it's about educating the whole companies in CRM and the underlying factors of aviation safety, not only pilots and techs.

It is about airlines actually living up to the priority of safety first.

/LnS

[sprocky_ger]

Wait until one of those new plastic bombers (e.g. B787) will fall from the sky. While metal (mainly aluminum) does not leave toxic gases upon burning this new carbon fiber-reinforced polymer stuff will. :ugh: Unconcious after emergency landing for a minute? If this bird starts to burn you'll stay that way until your death.

[flash8]

p2f....
over-automation ("George" knows best).

[Miserlou]

More passengers who think anything more than less than the service costs is too much and...
The department which puts these tickets on sale.

If you can't make money getting people to buy a product for more than it costs you are doomed to failure. That is fairly obvious to most children.

[potkettleblack]

It has to be fatigue. Salaries are screwed down so low now that the next step will be to get us working even longer hours in order to reduce the effective hourly rate. I would suspect that the 900hrs limit would come under pressure to be pushed out by airline managers. They will quote the relatively low and constantly reducing incident rates as evidence of how safe the industry is and push for flight time extensions.

Then comes the vicious circle. Earlies to lates to earlies. Longer days. Lack of rest on your days off due to your body not knowing which time zone its in which leads to even greater use of automation which erodes raw data flying skills even more.