Fishing for college help

I am currently taking classes towards a Master of Aeronautical Science degree at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University. As part of this degree program, I am required to complete a 'Graduate Research Project'. Here's my dilema...I'm not real interested in Major Airports or 121 commercial ops. I love flying part 91/GA planes, and Alaskan flying and floats planes are my real passion. I need to come up with a topic for a research project, either a hypothesis or a research question, in the area of Aviation Safety. Anybody have any ideas of something they'd like researched? I'm at a loss for a topic. I had thought about studying Part 91 Business accidents vs. 91 Personal Use, or even 91 Public Use vs. 91 Personal Use. Thought about the full aircraft recovery chute that Cirrus uses, but from what I can find there is not much information on those. Only 4 accidents where they were deployed, and everyone is still alive. I guess they have a 100% survival rate, but they havn't been around long enough to substantiate that. What does everybody else think? I'm just fishing for ideas. Thanks for all your help, and expect more questions in the future.

How about a study on maintenance related accidents in General Aviation? Or a comparrison of flight hours per accident in the lower 48 compared to AK.

There's a lot you could do with the topic by expanding out some.

Hypothesis: Sat phone equipped aircraft are recovered faster than traditional radio/ELT equipped aircraft. Gather the data and either prove or disprove the hypothesis.

Along the way you could address military monitoring via satelites, number of aircraft with working ELT's post crash, avg. times to rescue for non flight-plan a/c in Alaska, etc., etc.

Good luck!

fishing for college help

another project could be into the safety setbacks of not being able to get field appovals from the feds,even though they have been appoved in the past.for cub rebuilding this is getting to be a serious problem,when a safety improvement can not be preformed,without mega dollar engineering exspense,just a thought,good luck.

jr.

How about hours worked and pay scale 91 verssus 121? The pay should be done according to amount of years.

delete

There are lots of topics.

Ameteur built experimental vs. certificated aircraft safety.

Does GPS enhance safe navigation or does it lower the weather threshold that pilots are willing to fly into?

Closure of manned FSS's in favor of remote radio forwarding to Kenai.

The impact of remote webcams.

Is the rising cost of airplane ops taking money from the maintenance budget?

How about a study on aircraft accidents vs. insurance rates? Are rate increases similar between private and commercial? Part 91 and part 121?

SB

I guess a study about maintenance related accidents in the GA would be really a good idea

How about comparison between CAR 3 & 4 certified aircraft compared to Pt 23 certified. Are the new & improved certification methods really contributing to a safer aircraft? Perfect for the Supercub VS Husky arguement. Mechanically anyways.
(Piper tomahawk comes to mind)

From personal experience, remember that a good research topic is not always in the best interest of you completing your degree. Pick a project that assures completion from the beginning and is compatible with the person or comitee who's final approval is needed. It is about the process as much or more than it is about progress!
In other words, although it may be cool to land an overloaded plane on a remote strip in a x-wind. That challenge should not be the goal when you start.

-12

A pertinent topic up here might be the use of single engine aircraft in 135 operations, and their requirements for staying VFR. Over the years, there have been lots of pilots (and their passengers) killed while trying to stay VFR, rather than going IFR. Naturally there are plenty of risks of going IFR or known icing, etc, but in many cases it is the best decesion (other than staying on the ground). Not part 91, but relevent to AK.

Good luck

Bill

There is a big study in progress about putting a state airport in Port Alsworth AK. Right now we have two strips in PA. 23 left and right. Glen Asslworth owns 23 right and Dave Wilder/Joel Natwick 23 left. another private strip - Reed /Randolph sets about half a mile from the entrance to 5 left. Hardenburg bay is on the east end of both strips and handles heavy float traffic during the summer season. The Keys point strip is about 5 miles south west..

The current preferred position for the state runway would be just to the SW of the two private strips. Frankly folks would still use all the private strips for most of their business. FAA and a private company are just starting to gather info relative to the state strip.

You can not find a more interresting GA site than Port Alsworth , AK!

The studies are just starting.

I can get you the internet sites for info if you wish to consider a real remote bush site for your work.

GR

Thanks for all the brainstorming...All good things to think about. Ground Loop, thanks for the wisdom. Please continue with the topics, and I'll continue to entertain each one. I've already learned alot from just the few replies already. Thanks again for all your help!

Hey -12 Flyer-

I am working on mine right now. I did it on vortex generators. I have been working on a comparison of when vortex generators were introduced into general aviation. I am trying to find out if there is a decreasing accident trend since the widespread use of vortex generators ( specifically on a few models of light twins). With VMC being lowered on most twin applications I am hoping to see a decrease in loss of control accidents. Arghh I hate papers!


Tim

p.s. what is your undergrad in?

Hello,

I hate to say it but Groundloop is absolutely correct. The topic of the paper is almost irrelevant. The purpose of writing the paper is to demonstrate your analytical abilities in relation to a thought or idea of some sort. just try to demonstrate that objective. You will have plenty of time to learn interesting things in due time.

Okay that stated here are some questions I have that might serve as topics.

1)Aircrew duty times. Why does Alaska still have different limitations?
2)The GPS question as mentioned earlier. Does all the technology just allow you to push harder in the weather?
3)What factor is the FAA in contributing to safety? Is there a animosity between FAA Flight Standards and most comm. operations?

There are so many more, but remember the paper is the assignment not the topic of paper. Kind of bites huh?

Seven years of "higher ed." and I just said my peace.

I understand what groundloop is saying, and I can't agree more. However, if I'm putting all this time and effort into a paper, why not learn something, or study something I'm passionate about? I don't want to re-invent the wheel, but I don't want to do something that has already been beat to death.

Why do we still have weather-related accidents? Do pilots ignore the weather briefing they get because they want to go anyway? Are the briefings way off (and if they are, why?)? Do pilots forget to get a briefing, and just look out the window (can they see their destination from their window?)? What can we do to better understand weather-related accidents?

IFR and VFR, private and commercial, Alaska and the Lower 48, new pilots and seasoned ones: the weather affects us all, but some get in trouble, and others don't.

Good luck!

Anne.

-12,

A very functional, and possibly fun, discussion could be on the difference between ACUTAL weather and reported at a station.

A simple way to find out is talk to the old weather observers and ask them to give some reports to you at the same time as these faa machines give you weather.

A more fun way would be fly to a bunch of areas and look them over!

More than once I have been at a machine and had it tell me I could not see, even in clear weather....

I used to work for the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center for the lower 48. In my duties there over a 4 year period I personally coordinated many aircraft searches. In 4 years of work I coordinated only one aircraft search that did not involve adverse weather conditions. You could do your work on that. I think the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center releases details if requested on aircraft searches. That might be an interesting angle for you. The NTSB and FAA have good data on this also. Good luck.