Great remarks on this subject by Charlie Kohler, Brent Regan (BTW who g= ot me confused with somemone else arguing the other side of this point) and=20= now Ted Stanley. As an aircraft accident investigator and CFI. I am cal= led upon quite fequently to testify in many of these matters that come to li= tigation. It is surprising to me to see the number of parties who argue that= the pilot is not responsible for their own action. FAR 91.3 clearly make th= e PIC responsible for the safety of flight-- not the factory, not the manufa= cturer, no one else. Of course that does not absolve, in court, anyone else'= s negligence, BUT the FAR's make clear who is in charge of the flying.

I curnently have a matter in which a pilot claims that she should have=20= recieved instruction in how to use an autopilot and electric trim before bei= ng allowed to rent an aircraft. She also claims not to know how to use the G= PS which was installed. She admits she did not read the POH and further asse= rts the manufacturer and flight school are responsble for her lack of=20= knowledge in these areas. Pretty much the same arguments in the thread we ha= ve been discussing. She took the aircraft up flightseeing and crashed it aft= er the auropilot became engaged. and she could not turn it off-- this is in=20= a Cessna 172. The information about the autopilot, of course, is contained i= n the supplemental section of the POH. Her argument is without basis in the=20= regulations and yet I see the same comments from pilots in this forum. Where= / how did this belief that we as pilots are not responsible for ensuring the= safety of the flight creep into our aviation world?

There is no regulation, Advisory Circular or other policy or guidance m= aterial I am aware of that states the pilot is not repsponsible for his or h= er own skill and knowledge level. As a flight instructor, I can help you to=20= improve your level of skill and knowledge but what you do with it after the=20= lesson is entirely up to YOU. Part 91 makes no else responible for your trai= ning but YOU. If you fly Part 135 or Part 121 you may be provided training b= y your employer, but as most of us already know, training in the GA environm= ent is on your own nickle.

Many of the aciddents in Moondog's database are LOC or loss of control-= - ie stall/spin. These are almost always coded PILOT ERROR by the NTSB. Whet= her or not an aircraft has good or bad stall characteristics is beside the p= oint IMHO-- you shouldn't be that close to the stall to begin with. Get Jim=20= Frantz's AOA device if you have difficulty knowing how close you are to the=20= stall AOA.

Flying is like rock climbing-- if you don't have the skill, you sholdn'= t be on the mountain.

Jeff Edwards

LIVP (CFII, MEI)

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