ELEVATE Safe Piloting
by Tim Loy
The COPA Pilot Proficiency Program (CPPP) is a world-class training program, but only about 10% of the COPA membership attends annually.
COPA members have stressed that they’d like to see more online training courses. In response, COPA Training LLC has produced a new LMS (Learning Management System) which was soft-launched with 12 short courses and one long course located at learn.cirruspilots.org.
CPPP instructors, all qualified Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilots (CSIPs), were asked to adapt their courses by incorporating green screens, polls and other tools needed to make an online presentation effective. These updated courses have now been uploaded to the LMS.
Underpinning these courses is the brilliant work by Mark Waddell and others to take Flysto (an innovative software tool that transforms log-files from your avionics and apps into knowledge by providing you with valuable insights of your flights) and historical fleet accident data to identify risks and behaviors for each phase of flight enabling us to build courses that prevent the same accidents from recurring.
For example, through fleetwide data, landing accidents continue to be the biggest safety challenge across the fleet, with many of us flying too fast and too flat on landings or not sufficiently stabilized at 500 feet.
Courses that specifically teach pilots how to analyze their flight quality using flysto, emphasizing the gates in the pattern, discussing early missed versus late missed approaches, reinforcing a stabilized approach, and teaching the use of AOA are relevant, potentially life-saving training that the COPA Safety and Education Foundation (SEF) is determined to get into the hands of as many pilots as possible.
SEF and COPA Training LLC have contracted to produce at least six full-length online courses and at least 12 short classes, and they would like to contract to create even more.
Using the Information to Improve
A COPA member posted on the forums how he has used FlySto data to elevate his flying and has seen the improvement.
How many landing accidents and incidents could have been prevented if those pilots had been more disciplined in their landing gates and had chosen to go around rather than save a fast, high or unstabilized approach? Your donation can help us get training into their hands.
Similarly, there have been several weather-related accidents across the fleet. Cirrus aircraft are great travel airplanes and that often means traversing weather systems. Sadly, not everyone takes the time to plan and use the ADM to avoid hazardous weather. We have great CPPP courses on using SKEW-T, Foreflight and other weather tools, and we want to get this into the hands of our community.
Engine management classes at CPPPs are great and are another area in which many of us are insufficiently knowledgeable. Not everyone can attend a CPPP each year; only a third of those attending are taking the engine maintenance track. Many “engine failure” incidents and accidents are related to suboptimal operation, monitoring and engine management techniques. With resources like Paul New and Roger Whittier, we are fortunate to have some leading thinkers on maintaining Continental and Lycoming engines and related systems.
You Can Make a Difference
As a board member of the SEF (responsible for fundraising for the COPA Training LLC), we would like to ask you to help by donating today to our Elevate campaign, enabling the creation of more online courses tailored to our membership utilizing the actual accident, incident and operational data to address challenge areas for our fleet.
Your donation will allow the creation of free online courses to be added to our new LMS. These classes can make you a safer pilot and contribute to your enjoyment of flying and your family’s safety. Your support could save the lives of a fellow pilot and their family. You could help lower Cirrus accident rates and fleet insurance rates. Also, fewer tragic Cirrus accident reports would allow us to lessen the grief and the cognitive dissonance around the risks of our unforgiving hobby and that pit in our stomach that each of us feels when reading another accident analysis on the forum. This is an excellent opportunity to build on our culture of safety.
If you are passionate about safe flying and can help financially, please consider donating today. Our goal is to raise $300,000 by the end of the year, and we will not get there without the generous support of our members. To donate to the Elevate campaign, please visit this page https://donorbox.org/elevate-2024.
An Appeal for Legacy Gifts
On the COPA Safety and Education Foundation website, we have added information on how to make legacy gifts. Whether in lifetime or posthumously, you can make a gift that will support the safety of your friends in aviation. Go to https://cirruspilots.org/donate for more information on this subject.
We’ve not historically done a great job acknowledging the many generous gifts that have gotten COPA training to where we are today. Still, we are committed to establishing a circle of honor to recognize gifts over $5,000 with the donors’ permission and making this campaign the most successful yet.
Donate Now to help COPA Training elevate the safety of our Cirrus community of pilots and families.
Consider what you are comfortable donating, and please act now to help us improve aviation safety.
Tim Loy has been a COPA Safety and Education Foundation trustee since 2023. The position was a perfect fit for him as he owns Mallory Safety, which distributes safety products and provides safety training to other businesses. He took delivery of his SR22T G6 in late 2022 and used it to finish private pilot training and to obtain an instrument rating. Tim resides in Portland, Oregon, and primarily flies his Cirrus for business to visit various locations across the country.