Flight Safety Foundation
Admiral Luis de Florez Flight Safety Award

is presented to

Gerald Pilj
U.S. Federal Aviation Adminstration

For years, during preflight planning, pilots have used a laminated paper checklist produced by Flight Safety Foundation to ascertain the CFIT risk of the flight. Although pilots have found the checklist an immensely valuable tool, it requires handwritten data entry and numerical scoring by the pilot.

Aviation safety engineer Gerald Pilj, along with his FAA colleague, flight safety inspector William L. McNease, devised a digital CFIT worksheet that allows pilots to make simple choices and yes/no entries in a Microsoft Excel version of the checklist. Rather than the pilot having to add and subtract numbers based on various factors, the digital application automatically calculates the CFIT risk. Pilots can use the Excel checklist on laptop computers, “smart” phones or personal digital assistants.

McNease and Pilj have provided their work to Flight Safety Foundation, which has made the tool available to the aviation industry as a free download from its Web site.

Flight Safety Foundation is pleased to recognize Gerald Pilj for his contribution to reducing CFIT risk.

FSF 60th annual International Air Safety Seminar
Seoul, Korea
October 3, 2007

William R. Voss
President and CEO
Flight Safety Foundation

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