Aviation News Talk Podcast

Max talks with Mark Waddell of the Cirrus Owner and Pilots Association (COPA) about how Cirrus pilots can reduce accidents by focusing on the places where the accident chain most often begins: unstable approaches, indecisive go-arounds, and delayed choices during power-loss events. They discuss what pilots are doing in the cockpit that turns routine flights into incidents, and what specific habits and training standards reduce that risk. Mark explains that 2025 included eight fatal Cirrus accidents and twelve CAPS saves. Mark argues that the big safety wins come from addressing repeatable patterns: how pilots manage energy on final, how quickly they reject a bad approach, and how early they commit to the safest outcome when the engine isn't reliable. A major theme is decisiveness in abnormal situations, especially anything involving power. Mark walks through how power-loss or engine-roughness events can seduce pilots into flying a normal pattern and hoping things stabilize. That often burns altitude an