March 2005-
January 20, 2005 was a watershed day in aviation if you happened to be a turbojet operator. On that day, domestic RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums) went into effect.
RVSM allows the use of more airspace above Flight Level 280, reducing the required separation between aircraft to 1,000 feet vs. the 2,000 feet used previously. The cost to “play” in RVSM airspace varies from aircraft to aircraft but typically, it requires a low six figure investment to equip the aircraft and train the crews to fly RVSM airspace.
For most of the GA fleet, this event passed unnoticed. But it does signify the FAA’s move toward conformation with international standards for flight.
March 29 represents the next benchmark, and that is the deadline for TAWS. TAWS, which stands for Terrain Awareness and Warning System will become mandatory on all Part 121 and Part 135 aircraft with 10 or more passenger seats, (TAWS A) and all turboprop and turbojet aircraft operated under Part 91 or Part 135 with six to nine passenger seats (TAWS B).
Though there is a difference in the equipment required; TAWS A and TAWS B represent the next step in conformation with international flight standards. To U.S.-based operators, TAWS is indeed the next big thing.
Now while the FAA has mandated this equipment for commercial operations and private turboprop and turbojet operators, the genesis for the requirement of this equipment has particular significance to the general aviation community—not because the FAA will at some point require it in your Skyhawk; that is not likely to ever happen.
But the problem the FAA is addressing with TAWS is as common if not more common in the GA fleet as in the commercial environment in which it has been implemented. The problem is CFIT—Controlled Flight into Terrain. CFIT accidents cause far more fatalities annually then midair collisions.
CFIT accidents are not new. Possibly the most famous CFIT accident in commercial aviation history was the Eastern Airlines L-1011 that descended into the Everglades while en route to Miami International Airport in 1974. In that accident all three crewmen were engaged in troubleshooting a failed landing gear indicator light as the autopilot flew the aircraft into the ground.
From that incident, the first generation of TAWS was developed and you would recognize it when you hear it. It’s that mechanical voice that says “PULL UP! PULL UP!” that you hear emanating from the cockpit of a commercial airliner.
But NTSB records are full of CFIT accidents in General Aviation airplanes that would likely have had a different outcome had there been some form of TAWS in the aircraft. When I was a student pilot at Morristown, N.J. in the early 1980s, a doctor in a Mooney spent the night in his aircraft with two broken legs after he ducked below the glideslope and crashed in the swamp short of the airport.
Years later a similar fate befell another Mooney pilot going onto Leesburg, Va. during an NDB approach on a 700 and 1 1/2 night. Miraculously, both of those pilots survived.
The Cessna 172 pilot who flew into the side of a mountain just 50 feet from the summit in Lompoc, Calif. and the Cherokee Six pilot who hit a guy wire on a 1,795-foot-tall tower on a CAVU day, were not so lucky.
While night, mountainous terrain and poor weather are contributing factors in many CFIT accidents, low-level operations like banner towing, pipeline patrol and scud running also present a pilot with the opportunity to fly into terrain.
Not all CFIT accidents happen at night or in poor weather. The risk is real and if you read the NTSB files on these accidents you will see that they happen to pilots of all experience levels flying all kinds of equipment in all kinds of weather.
Here in South Florida tall antenna farms have sprung up all along the coast, many near the very airports I transit in and out of every day. On a typical day, I depart my home airport, which has an antenna farm just four miles to the north that features two towers of 1,195 feet.
Two miles due west, another antenna tops out at 1,549 feet. That antenna projects up through the floor of the overlying Class C airspace.
Just north of the same Class C airspace is another cluster of antennae also about 1,500 feet high. About 12 miles to the north and west of these antennae stand a pair of antennae nearly 2,000 feet tall.
All of these lie between my home base and the airport where our company is based, so I am forced to fly past them virtually every single day. Just because I know they are there doesn’t make them any easier to see in limited viability and impossible to avoid visually while IMC.
A few weeks ago, while shooting an instrument approach at night into my company’s base airport, the approach controller turned us directly into some of the 1,500-foot tall monsters.
When he realized his error he immediately commanded a climb, but we already knew what he had done because the Avidyne™ EX 500 in the panel was set up to display ground obstructions on the moving map overlay. As we over flew the antenna site, we could clearly see the beacon atop the undercast, right where the Avidyne said it should be.
CFIT training has crept into most commercial training syllabuses and it is a topic of discussion at most major flight academies, but what about the private pilot and aircraft owner?
Fortunately, electronic technology has gotten cheaper with time, and many of the panel-mounted MFDs offer some form of TAWS. The very popular Garmin™ 530 now has a pseudo-TAWS display as part of its software package. So does the King 850 and the above mentioned Avidyne EX500.
While these systems do not provide any audio warnings like the certified TAWS A and TAWS B systems, they do render a great visual representation of the terrain, elevations relative to your aircraft position and altitude. They are color coded and simple to understand.
Perhaps the best bang for the TAWS buck is the Garmin 296. This handheld GPS/moving map features all of the typical things you find in a late model handheld, plus terrain warning feature that would likely have alerted the pilots of many of the aircraft involved in a typical CFIT accident to the impending danger with more than enough time to react to the threat. The cost? About $1,700.
So while the typical General Aviation pilot will not have any need to equip his or her aircraft with any type of terrain avoidance gear anytime soon, the reality is that the threat is real and a viable solution is less than a few thousand dollars. A bargain compared to the cost to install TAWS A or TAWS B, but priceless should it enable you to avoid one single CFIT incident.
Michael Leighton is a 3,300 + CFIIMEI/ATP as well as an A&P mechanic and former FAA Accident Prevention Counselor. He operates an air charter company in South Florida. You can reach him via email at av8tor0414@aol.com.
