GA Safety Improvement Highlights FAA Summit

October 26, 2017 — The amateur-built aircraft community is among the leaders in the improving safety rate for general aviation, EAA told FAA and GA leaders at the annual FAA GA Safety Summit in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. The Safety Summit brought together FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and his senior staff with leaders of the nation’s top GA organizations.

EAA CEO and Chairman of the Board Jack J. Pelton spoke for the homebuilt community, showcasing a four-year trend of decreasing fatal accident totals while flight hours and the number of completed homebuilts continue to increase. The experimental category fatal accident totals for the 12-month period ending September 30 were 14 below the FAA’s not-to-exceed figure of 59, continuing a four-year trend that has seen ever-improving accident figures. That is an even higher percentage drop than the overall GA fatal accident total, which finished 42 accidents below the FAA not-to-exceed figure.

Sean Elliott, EAA’s vice president of advocacy and safety, also spoke on some of EAA’s work to improve the accident figures, including the innovations presented at the annual Founder’s Innovation Prize competition, the supplemental type certificate (STC) efforts that bring modern low-cost safety equipment into the cockpits of older type-certificated aircraft, and a safety culture that includes regular safety information in EAA’s Sport Aviation magazine and through the Technical Counselor and Flight Advisor programs.

“EAA’s programs are making a positive, effective impact on safety, working in tandem with a safety mindset by  homebuilders and pilots,” Elliott said. “The improvement in safety figures for all of general aviation is wonderful news, and to see the amateur-built community surpass the percentage of improvement for all of GA shows the experimental community is serious about improving safety.”