Articles for category Safety
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Sep
26
2016
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Posted by Admin
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A few months ago I was visiting a large helicopter flight school. While touring the school, I had the opportunity to sit in on a ground school class. The students were training toward their helicopter instrument rating, so the material being presented was on that topic. My initial impression was very positive. I thought: Wow, these young aviators are getting a great education in a highly standardized, quality-based training environment.
The portion of the course I was observing was covering takeoff considerations during IMC conditions and the regulatory requirements identified in Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) 91.175. All was going well ... and then I heard these words: “An instrument takeoff (ITO) is nothing more than a maximum performance takeoff into IMC.” Initially I thought I misheard the instructor, but it became quickly apparent that I had indeed heard correctly.
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Categories:
Career Development
Training
Safety
Regulatory
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Aug
29
2016
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Posted by Admin
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The United States Helicopter Safety Team is offering a supportive voice to recent changes made by the Federal Aviation Administration in its Practical Test Standards (PTS) for helicopter instructors. (https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/test_standards/media/FAA-S-8081-7B.pdf)
“The revision provides examiners a path to mitigate some risks associated with the Flight Instructor PTS requirements to demonstrate proficiency in the touchdown portion of an autorotation,” explains Raj Helweg, USHST industry co-chairman and chief pilot of Air Methods. “If a CFI applicant has proven competence with this touchdown portion of an autorotation prior to the evaluation, these revised test standards offer flexibility and a greater margin of safety by eliminating the requirement to repeat these maneuvers during the practical test.”
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Categories:
Safety
Training
Regulatory
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Aug
08
2016
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Posted by Admin
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Decision-making is a frequent occurrence in our daily lives. As aviation professionals, the choices that we make can certainly have critical implications on the outcome of a flight or maintenance activity. When selecting between several options or different courses of actions we often do so unconsciously, without reference to the influences that might drive our decision. We often do not realize that there is underlying stimulus that can motivate our choices. Studies have shown that there is a definitive relationship between culture and decision-making strategies. We belong to what Allan Stewart describes as “high-reliability organizations.” Due to the catastrophic potential of our work, it is critical that safety culture and decision-making align to enable the best choices.
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Categories:
Safety
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Aug
01
2016
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Posted by Admin
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The United States Helicopter Safety Team (www.ushst.org) will focus major attention during the next four years on reducing fatal accidents within the U.S. civil helicopter community.
The industry-government partnership is targeting a reduction to 0.61 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours, which is 20 percent less than the average since 2009. For a baseline comparison, the USHST is using a fatal accident rate of 0.76. This is the average fatal accident rate for the prior five years that have final and reliable data (2009-10 and 2012-14) derived from the FAA General Aviation Survey.
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Categories:
Safety
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Aug
01
2016
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Posted by Admin
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Modern airborne video surveillance systems enable mission teams to search for objects of interest and observe unfolding events (either overtly or covertly) while recording and reporting what’s being observed. Improvements to a helicopter’s video surveillance system can significantly improve mission effectiveness. Ways to improve the system include:
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Categories:
Training
Safety
Regulatory
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Jul
18
2016
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Posted by Admin
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In the 1960s and ‘70s a disease seemed to strike the airline industry that caused airliners to crash for no known reason. NASA called a “Resource Management on the Flight Deck” workshop that identified human error as the main cause of several high-profile accidents. NASA’s research uncovered that from 1968 to 1976 there were 60 airliners that crashed due to elements of human error. Researching back further through the Boeing archives to 1940, NASA discovered that four out of five accidents—80 percent—had an element of human error. Since that workshop, six generations of CRM have emerged.
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Categories:
Safety
Training
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May
16
2016
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Posted by Admin
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It certainly wasn’t my intention to be on drugs when I addressed FAA regulators at the “Meet the FAA Regulators” session at HAI Heli-Expo 2014. Two hours prior to that talk, I literally couldn’t walk. My back suddenly went out causing excruciating lower back pain, something that occurs every three years or so due to years of competitive tennis and decades in the cockpit. Still, I needed to tell the regulators that they missed a real opportunity to draft meaningful new rules to stop the unacceptable HEMS accident rate. Throwing a mix of over-the-counter painkillers down my throat, I gingerly made my way to the convention center.
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Categories:
Safety
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Mar
14
2016
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Posted by Admin
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I’m going to give you a simple mental tool to keep you safe: Risk Resource Management (RRM). It’s a tool Chesley Sullenberger used for 14 years before he famously landed his Airbus A320 in the Hudson River. It’s also a tool he instructed his students to use when he taught crew resource management at US Airways. It’s a tool you can use in your helicopter to make better decisions, whether you’re flying single-pilot or multicrew.
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Categories:
Training
Safety
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Mar
09
2016
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Posted by Admin
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I love helicopters!
I have a great appreciation for the training and skill it takes to fly a helicopter. Rotorcraft are vital to our transportation system; they have remarkable agility and go where no other transport vehicles can go. They often serve the common good and help our economy by providing medical care, fighting fires, assisting law enforcement, serving as “aerial cranes” in construction, transporting workers to inaccessible locations, and generally doing work that no other vehicles can do.
Helicopters have personal significance for me, too. Before I was born, an American-trained Choctaw CH-34 pilot saved my parents and three older brothers by flying them to safety during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. One of those brothers, now a surgeon, has been able to help traffic crash victims, thanks to the emergency medical helicopters that transport him to those who are injured far from his Level 1 trauma center.
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Categories:
Safety
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Oct
20
2015
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Posted by Admin
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It’s known as The Graveyard of the Pacific and the infamous name fits. Since records have been kept, its treacherous waves, winds, fog, and currents have claimed more than 2,000 ships and 700 lives. It is where a river intent on disgorging its contents clashes with a massive ocean determined not to yield to the lesser water. A titanic fight ensues in never-ending combat: The river spews out water and sediments while the ocean lashes back, trying to invade the river with a fury that belies its tranquil name. It’s the Columbia River Bar, and it takes a special breed of not only boat pilots—but also helicopter pilots—to safely navigate through this natural war.
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Categories:
Company Profiles
Training
Safety
Helicopter Sectors