How to Conduct a Safety Briefing - The topic for this month's safety briefing is "How to do a Safety Briefing". Seems to be a simple enough procedure. The mechanics are very simple. Select the subject, (probably what you had on your yearly schedule) and present it. Well, maybe a little more work is involved. Your selected subject should relate to your unit activity or the safety of an activity. Do some research on the subject. The internet has a large volume of related safety information. Or use the resources already available to you in your unit. For example, if your unit is based at an airport, a CFI or even one of the unit pilots could give a "Safety around an Airport" briefing. As soon as possible, enter the information from the sign in sheet and information about the presentation in e-services. Once that is done, you have completed the unit's requirement.

Some other points concerning the briefing are that the briefing needs to be at least 15 minutes long. How you perform the safety briefing is up to the unit safety officer. It could be a lecture type, a power-point presentation, a video or a hands on exercise. The choice is up to the safety officer or the presenter.

A safety briefing at an activity should follow the ORM of identifying risks and how to mitigate the risks. Identify any unusual procedures that non-local personnel may not be aware of and demonstrate or explain procedures used at that location. And input your briefing into e-services.

Safety Information Files -Every unit should have a Safety Information File available for unit members to read. Flying Magazine and AOPA Pilot Magazine have excellent articles available each month for pilots and various insurance companies have a wealth of information available on request.  

Operation CAPSafe - Operation CAPSafe is now on-line.  Go to e-services and click on CAP Safety Suggestions on the left-hand menu.  This should make entries easier for your Safety Suggestions as well as giving the Safety Team tracking capabilities for Operation CAPSafe entries.

 

Safety Courses - The Basic, Senior and Master Safety Courses have now been on line for a long time and many of our members (not just safety officers and commanders) have taken the course. Every member should take the Basic course, the senior should be taken by anyone in a duty position and the Master by command staff. These courses are very informative and do not take a long time to take. The course is well written and has been tested for over a years in several wings with excellent results. After successful completion of the test you will be able to print a certificate and your records will automatically be updated to show the course.

ORM On-line Course - Another course is the ORM on-line course. This course covers the ORM theories and also includes a test and a certificate. Each member should take the Basic and consider the Senior and master course for those members in duty positions and command staff. At this time Unit commanders and Unit Safety officers should take the course, but I'm recommending that all members consider taking this course. It is an on-line course and should take less than 30 minutes.

Other Items

The following is from Gene Benson, Vectors for Safety. If you don't subscribe to his newsletters you are missing some good information. Gene also does outstanding Webinars. You can subscribe at http://www.genebenson.com/newsletter/.

This accident illustrates the importance of preflight planning that includes becoming familiar with the layout of unfamiliar airports and using the airport diagram for taxi operations, especially at night. The accident happened at the conclusion of an Angel Flight about thirty minutes after sunset at Charlottesville, Virginia in September of 2009. Fortunately, neither the pilot nor the passenger was injured.

The NTSB report states, "The pilot performed a successful landing, about 30 minutes after sunset at the destination airport. He taxied off the runway onto a perpendicular taxiway, and was instructed by the ground controller to "taxi to the ramp." The pilot stated he was "unable to make out any features on the ground," due to the darkness. He observed the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) directly in front of him and proceeded straight ahead, not realizing there was a strip of grass separating the taxiway and the FBO. The airplane exited the taxiway and continued down a grassy slope between the ramp and taxiway. During the excursion from the taxiway, the propeller and the tail of the airplane struck the ground, resulting in substantial damage. The pilot did not report any mechanical malfunctions with the airplane. He said that the accident could have been prevented if he had studied the airport diagram more closely and noticed the grass strip."

The NTSB probable cause finding states, "The pilot's inadequate preflight planning and lack of familiarity with the airport diagram, which resulted in a runway excursion onto a grassy area." That pretty well says it all.

Click here to read the full accident report on the NTSB website.

AOPA Safety Resources
A host of Web resources to make you a safer pilot - For those unit safety officers looking for alternate means for pilots who miss their monthly safety meetings, try these from AOPA.

SAFETY - Everyone is a Safety Officer!