Midwest Flyer Magazine

State Aviation Conferences
Brian Addis of Lake
& Air at South St. Paul
Municipal Airport was a
featured speaker. Addis has a
background in teaching flying
and psychology, and prior to
joining Lake & Air, he flew
for Hubbard Broadcasting and
worked for Northwest Airlines.
Addis has studied “human
factors” and has done testing
Brian Addis
on a new audio warning
system for amphibian float
systems. The greatest fear among amphibian floatplane pilots
is leaving their gear in the down position when landing on
water. There is a high probability that the aircraft will flip
over, and a 50/50 chance that the pilot will be injured and
subsequently, drown.
Gear-down landing accidents involve pilot “distractions,”
says Addis. “Airline and corporate pilots do not land gear
down (in floatplanes) because they use written checklists
and procedures, while most (other) pilots resort to memory
checklists because written checklists tend to be too long.”
Addis noted three domains of learning and understanding:
cognitive or thinking about doing something, psychomotor or
actually doing something, and affective or how you feel about
a certain topic or action.
Confirmation bias is when you come to a solution to avoid
a gear-down water landing. The airlines are too structured to
allow for confirmation bias problem solving, said Addis.
Addis contrasted the *entropy of flying seaplanes with
flying for the airlines, with flying seaplanes having a high
degree of entropy, and flying for the airlines, a very low
degree of entropy because there is more order involved…strict
procedures.
Dave Weiman
“Don’t give up your procedures,” said Addis, “but use a
checklist that is usable.”
Addis advocates creating “quick reference checklists” to
cure the problem of wheels-down water landings. He suggests
taking a checklist and highlighting procedures for landing at
airports in “green,” and highlighting procedures for landing
on water in “blue.”
“Most pilots use visual signals and not audio signals, so an
audio system may be ineffective,” said Addis. He described a
new laser system that senses the surface one is flying over as
a possible solution to the problem. “If it says anything, it is a
signal for an automatic go-around.”
Addis noted that when flying a floatplane, the pilot has to
take the place of the airport engineer in making sure there are
proper clearances from trees and other obstacles.
Thirty to 40 percent of seaplane accidents involve wind,
said Addis. The stronger the wind, the faster the pilot
must react, and control inputs are different in strong wind
conditions than in weak wind conditions.
The questions pilots must ask themselves is how much
wind can the airplane handle, and how much wind can they
handle. “If you cannot answer these questions, limit your
flying to wind under 20 kts,” said Addis (www.lakeandair.
com).
Each of the float manufacturers in attendance gave
participants an update on their products including Brian
Huberty of Clamar Floats of Hastings, Minn.; Jeff Voigt of
Park Rapids Aviation, representing Aerocet Floats; and Bob
Wiplinger of Wipaire, Inc., South St. Paul.
There’s a lot of competition among small single-engine
aircraft float manufacturers, but not so much in the larger
floats, where Wipaire dominates the market.
Wipaire is moving forward with its 1450 floats for
Light Sport Aircraft and other small aircraft. The company
is awaiting its TSO for the Composite 3000 floats for
Lots
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• Paved 2800 x 75 ft. Runway
• Privately Owned Airpark Association
* New Paved Access Road
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Lots 2, 4, 5, & 8 Vacant 180’ x 190’ Lot 12 SOLD Vacant 184’ x 174’
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Lot 13 House & Hangar
Lot 10 SOLD Vacant 230’ x 180’
Lot 14 Vacant 212’ x 400’
Contact Joe: 715-218-8140
or Chuck: 715-277-3828
26 JUNE/JULY 2013 MIDWEST FLYER MAGAZINE
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3/8/12 6:37 AM