RAFFCA AND AVIATION SAFETY

There is no shortage of 'wise sayings' in aviation..."There are old pilots & bold pilots..but there are no old. bold pilots" etc etc. Although UK General Aviation enjoys a good safety record, the very nature of aviation is such that there are plenty of ways to get yourself into trouble - with varying degrees of severity. As we fly more hours we gain 'experience'. This term is often used as a euphemism for 'making mistakes'. There are just not enough flying hours in the average recreational pilot's active years for any of us to make all the mistakes ourselves. This means that we must pool resources and learn from each others experiences.

There are, as we all know, formal mechanisms for this. All accidents, and certain other occurrences such as AIRPROX, must be reported and the outcomes of investigations into these formal occurrences are published for wider readership. The aviation magazines are full of accident reports from which we can all learn. What about the non-accidents? These are the occasions where something happened which could have resulted in an accident - but didn't. It could be, for example, that adherence to a club rule or practicing a procedure you had been taught prevented a safety problem from becoming an accident. How good are we at learning from those?

These occurrences are often described using the 'iceberg' diagram below. The formally reportable stuff is very visible 'above the surface'. However, below the surface is a much greater number of close calls and near-misses from which safety lessons could be learned and yet often go unreported, These are the ones which safety management systems try to catch because they are 'free lessons'. One of those wise aviation sayings is "whenever something goes wrong, there is always someone who knew it would". I think we have all encountered that at some time or another. The safety occurrences at the base of the triangle can also be seen as 'tomorrow’s accidents' - the ones which have not happened yet, but have come close.

What this is all leading to - is an initiative to encourage members of RAFFCA Clubs to report these safety occurrences openly so that we can all share this information. RAFFCA Safety Occurrence Report forms are being distributed to all Clubs and the Association is keen to foster an 'open and learning' approach to safety through their wide use.

Nothing in this is designed to detract from the existing formal safety reporting systems which must continue to be used.

This initiative is designed to capture the lessons which would otherwise go unreported.

The forms are simple to use and just require a few lines of free text. Those submitting reports have the option to do so anonymously, although we hope that Club members will let us know who they are so we can follow up with any queries subsequently. Information from this system will be shared with other aviation bodies but will be 'disidentified' so that neither the name of the submitter nor the club appear on the report.

The top copy is forwarded in the envelope provided to the RAFFCA Aviation Safety Member - a photocopy goes to the club CFI so that any remedial action which is appropriate can be taken locally wherever possible. The CFI can also add information on such local action or give a club view on the bottom of his copy before forwarding it to the RAFFCA Aviation Safety Member also.

The reports received from all RAFFCA Clubs will be collated centrally and lessons shared around via a safety newsletter. Two or 3 times each year a RAFFCA Aviation Safety Newsletter will be circulated to all Clubs. Each edition will contain safety articles and information from safety reports.

As you will be well aware, there is no shortage of flight safety information around in the GA press – mostly in the form of accident summaries. It is not our intention merely to reproduce more of the same. Each RAFFCA Safety Newsletter will have a theme focusing on a specific safety aspect - such as particular type of accident risk or a specific type of recreational flight. The aim is to produce something which is directly relevant to the type of flying carried out at our clubs and which will provide information of lasting value.

RAFFCA Safety Member

Wing Commander Gary Coleman
RAFFCA Aviation Safety Member
ISTAR Air
HQ 2Gp
RAF High Wycombe
95221 5679
+44(0)1494 495697
gary.coleman499@mod.uk

SAFETY NEWS LETTER - SPRING/SUMMER 2008

Download the spring/summer 2008 safety news letter.

SAFETY NEWS LETTER - WINTER/SPRING 2008

Download the winter/spring 2008 safety news letter.

SAFETY NEWS LETTER - SPRING/SUMMER 2007

Download the spring/summer 2007 safety news letter.