McLean Richard wrote:
I came back to
gliding 6 years ago & have since been alarmed at the
lack of 'safety consciousness' there is in gliding ops
compared to other forms of aviation that I have
experienced (GA & military). I think a large part of
that is due to the fact that we no longer read regular
accident & incident reports.
One more note that I forgot to reply to:
For example, you can pick the clubs that haven't had an aircraft blow-over
for ten years or so, because they leave their gliders hanging around
at the launchpoint without so much as a weight on the wingtip. Clubs
which have had blowovers in recent memory obsessively babysit any glider
that isn't tied-down.
Safety culture is very much an awareness thing. Awareness can be
maintained using all kinds of methods -- Club discipline/culture, good
examples from experienced members flowing down to less experienced
members, lessons learned from recent events, and consumption of
safety literature.
Another thing that creates awareness is an accident. If your club has
an accident, its members will remember it and it'll affect their operation
for the next five years or so. After that time there'll have been enough
turnover in membership that those who learned the lessons won't be
around anymore; and enough time without an accident for complacency
to drift in, and standards will therefore relax and an accident will
become more likely. Having an accident is a hell of a way to learn
about safety, though, so that's why we have systems, checklists, and
mantras like, "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" (which was recently
described as "A saying that has blood on it," by a commentator I was
discussing aviation safety with)
The clubs I see which maintain an awareness of safety (particularly
concentrating on -why- they've arrived at the rules they have instead
of simply insisting that people follow them unknowingly) "feel" safer
to me than the clubs which are running on their own momentum without
really putting in the safety effort. And there are plenty of both
types of clubs in Australia.
Every pilot bears the responsibility to improve upon that situation.
GFA can't help, CASA can't help, it's a self-regulatory system and
it's all down to us.
- mark
--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
but it hurt when I walked. Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 -----
_______________________________________________
Aus-soaring mailing list
[email protected]
To check or change subscription details, visit:
http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
