Law: Instrument Proficiency Checks Under The Revised Instrument Practical Test Standards

Instrument Proficiency Checks Under The Revised Instrument Practical Test Standards

Written by Greg Reigel

In April, 2004, repparttar

FAA updated and revised repparttar 119256

Practical Test Standards (“PTS”) for repparttar 119257

Instrument Rating. The new standards went into effect October 1, 2004. Of particular interest to instrument flight instructors (“CFII’s”) and pilots holding instrument ratings is a substantial change in repparttar 119258

requirements for administering an Instrument Proficiency Check (“IPC”).

Prior to October 1, 2004, a CFII had discretion regarding what PTS tasks he or she could require for an instrument rated pilot to demonstrate instrument proficiency. That discretion allowed a CFII to be flexible in order to accommodate/address a pilot's strengths/weaknesses, as well as repparttar 119259 pilot’s aircraft, instrumentation and intended missions. That is, repparttar 119260 CFII was allowed to decide what tasks repparttar 119261 pilot needed to accomplish in order to show repparttar 119262 CFII that repparttar 119263 pilot could competently operate an aircraft solely with reference to repparttar 119264 instruments.

Although this discretion presented repparttar 119265 opportunity for a CFII to conduct an IPC with minimal demonstration of ability by repparttar 119266 pilot, most CFII’s required pilots to demonstrate sufficient skills and competence to show that they could safely fly in instrument meteorological conditions (“IMC”). After all, no responsible CFII wanted to be repparttar 119267 last IPC sign-off in a pilot’s logbook if repparttar 119268 pilot was later in an accident or incident: Too many questions to answer and potential liability for repparttar 119269 CFII.

However, repparttar 119270 revised PTS no longer give repparttar 119271 CFII discretion in how an IPC is to be conducted or repparttar 119272 tasks to be performed. The current PTS now require completion of specific tasks including holds, unusual attitudes, intercepting nav-aids and dme-arcs, precision, non-precision and circling approaches, partial- panel and review of instruments and aircraft equipment.

Unfortunately, repparttar 119273 removal of repparttar 119274 CFII’s discretion seems to convert what used to be a learning experience tailored to a pilot and his or her needs into what is more closely akin to an actual check-ride. Under repparttar 119275 prior PTS, a student and instructor could discuss and determine repparttar 119276 appropriate and/or necessary tasks to ensure that repparttar 119277 pilot could demonstrate repparttar 119278 necessary competency to pass an IPC. This allowed a pilot to use repparttar 119279 IPC as a learning tool by agreeing with repparttar 119280 instructor to review or practice specific tasks on which repparttar 119281 pilot may have felt he or she needed additional practice.

Truck Accident Statistics

Written by Michael Monheit, Esquire, Monheit Law, PC

In 2003, there were 58,512 total vehicle accidents involved in fatal crashes in repparttar

U.S. (NCSA).

4,669 were large trucks involved in fatal truck accidents.

Large trucks are more likely to be involved in a fatal multi-vehicle crash than are passenger vehicles.

Most fatal truck accidents occurred in rural areas (68 percent) during repparttar 119255 daytime (66 percent) and on weekdays (78 percent).

Only 1 percent of fatal truck accidents were DUI-related on repparttar 119256 part of repparttar 119257 truck driver compared to other types of fatal crashes. Higher DUI occurrences are 22 percent for drivers of passenger vehicles and light trucks and 29 percent for motorcyclists.

About 27 percent of all large truck drivers involved in fatal truck accidents had at least one prior speeding conviction compared to 19 percent of repparttar 119258 passenger vehicle drivers involved in fatal crashes.

California had repparttar 119259 most with 5,725 total fatal vehicle crashes but Texas had repparttar 119260 most fatal truck accidents with 438.

Here’s a breakdown of repparttar 119261 top 5 states as to fatal truck accidents in 2003:

State Total Fatal Vehicle Crashes Fatal Truck Accidents California 5,725 332 Texas 5,040 438 Florida 4,432 343 Georgia 2,277 208 Pennsylvania 2,233 213

Compared to a breakdown of repparttar 119262 top 5 states as to fatal truck accidents in 2002:

State Total Fatal Vehicle Crashes Fatal Truck Accidents California 5,544 346 Texas 5,039 401 Florida 4,431 351 Pennsylvania 2,198 174 Georgia 2,188 202

More truck accident statistics from FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System)

Large trucks accounted for 9 percent of repparttar 119263 vehicles in fatal crashes, but only 4 percent of repparttar 119264 vehicles involved in injury and property-damage-only crashes. Of repparttar 119265 4,898 large trucks involved in fatal crashes, 76 percent were combination trucks.

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