Agency Gives Free Safety DVDs to Pilots

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March 13 —The FAA is stepping up its runway safety efforts by giving away free safety DVDs in a couple of America’s most popular flying magazines. The April editions of AOPA Pilot and Flight Training magazines will feature instructional videos aimed at helping pilots enhance their safety skills on the runway. The DVD collection includes four videos covering different aspects of runway safety: Heads Up, Hold Short, Fly Right; Was That For Us?; Listen Up, Read Back, Fly Right; and Face to Face, Eye to Eye.

The magazines also will include a comprehensive runway safety brochure, A Pilot's Guide to Safe Surface Operations.

AOPA Pilot reaches 400,000 AOPA members, and Flight Training goes to 92,000 flight instructors, pilots and students.

The effort is designed specifically with the pilot in mind.

"Two-thirds of runway incursions are the result of pilot deviations," explained Wes Timmons, director of FAA's Runway Safety Program. "And most of those errors are caused by general aviation pilots. We hope that by reaching out with these messages we’ll begin to see improvements in pilot deviation numbers for incursions."

Timmons added that similar partnerships and initiatives are being developed with other aviation organizations including the National Association of Flight Instructors, the National Business Aviation Association and the Air Line Pilots Association.

The FAA tallies runway safety data according to a fiscal year calendar, which runs from October through September. Since last October 1, there has been only one serious runway incursion, a 93 percent decrease compared to the same period in Fiscal Year 2008. Overall, total runway incursions are down 3 percent from last year.

• FAA's runway safety program