SC Aviation Safety Council Safer Pilots, Safer Skies

The Safety Council was pleased to help sponsor the FAA Safety Team’s 2012 Safety Standdown, at the Runway Cafe / KGMU. This FREE safety event focused on loss of control, a leading cause of fatal general aviation accidents (there were 450 GA fatalities in 2010 alone). Stay tuned to our “events” page for more information about other safety seminars coming soon.

Today’s Safety Fly-In at the Columbia Downtown Airport was a big success, with about 80 people in attendance. The day began with a complimentary lunch, courtesy of our hosts Eagle Aviation and the Jim Hamilton – LB Owens Airport. Former Coast Guard Captain and aviator Paul Ratte, currently Director of Safety Programs for USAIG, provided an outstanding presentation on GA professionalism. Michele Rash of Airwolf Aviation reviewed top ten pilot errors and Keven Kenison gave an interesting safety perspective by discussing airman enforcement actions. As a bonus, Larry Lambert from the FAA’s Office of Runway Safety gave us practical tips for avoiding runway incursions. Stay tuned for our next safety event coming soon!

Safety Council member Chris Eversmann’s white paper on FOD Prevention was recently published in Palmetto Aviation, the South Carolina Aviation Association’s quarterly magazine. Chris will also be a featured presenter at this week’s 2012 SCAA Conference in Myrtle Beach where he will provide details on how to develop an effective airport FOD prevention program.

Our focus in the August issue of Safety Update! is complacency. Complacency has been identified as one of the human factors most often cited by reporters or inferred by analysis in NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) reports. At the NBAA / Cessna 2011 Single-Pilot Safety Standdown in October, human factors expert Dr. Tony Kern commented that, “we live in a world where you can often get by with a ’50′ but you never know what day you’re going to need to shoot a ’99′ or die.” The message: Stay sharp!

I spoke with a claims adjuster recently who said he was busier than ever. When asked with what, he replied, “botched landings.” It seems springtime winds, among other factors, were more than some pilots bargained for and thus they ended up off the sides or end of a runway with a cracked up airplane to prove it. Our June edition of Safety Update! highlights that runway excursions are a major safety issue. We are also pleased to help spread the word about two great seminars coming up this summer that focus on stabilized approaches and landings. Plus, read about calculating and using Visual Descent Points as a way of helping fly safer, more stabilized approaches.