Thu Aug 23, 2018 3:01 pm
#1633153
I had an accident at the weekend; I am a forum regular, and at some point I'll feel sufficiently emotionally "over it" to talk about it openly. For now however, I'm alive, my pax is alive, injuries restricted to cuts and bruises, and if anybody ever wants to know this - leylandii is really really good at taking the energy out of an aeroplane. It was an engine failure in a bad spot. But, I don't want to talk about those aspects.
I want to talk about something else. The aftermath, and the things we may, or may not, be prepared for. A few things are giving me trouble right now, and I think would give anybody trouble.
- Being a follower of rules, I told my AME. They informed me that until they'd established that I was definitely fit to fly again, my medical was suspended. I was in A&E for a couple of hours and they were ultra cautious - blood and urine tests, finger tip examination, x-rays. Conclusion - no serious injury, no head injury. Problem is, I am now finding it impossible to get the A&E department to send my AME the "casualty card" without which they feel unable to reach a conclusion. For various reasons, this looks likely to cost me at least a month's flying, the bruises being totally gone after about 4 days.
- My significant other describes themselves as "rattled": one can hardly blame them. I've explained - missing out the fine detail (and, frankly, quite how close I was to dying, which is very) most of what happened to them, and asked - as they aren't aviation people and it will just add stress without understanding we don't talk about this with the rest of the family. I respect their sensitivities, and they respect my desire not to scare the rest of the family. But they have said, very reasonably - if not able to talk to family about this, and not being close to any of my family friends, where is their support structure. to whom can they talk about worries, concerns, their own stresses - or worse still turn to for understanding if I was hospitalised or worse.
- By the way, if you phone AAIB now to report an accident, you get a complete halfwit on the phone. Clearly somebody with a checklist on a government switchboard nowhere near Farnborough. Knew nothing about aviation, couldn't do phonetics, no access to aviation charts to allow me to describe the location, no ability to even check my name and address were correct - it was a miracle that the forms eventually reached me after nearly a week, as virtually nothing pre-filled-in is correct. This actually distressed me quite a lot, whilst trying to make an immediate report from the accident site before being driven to A&E, anticipating five minutes then go and get checked over - I was on the phone for 20 minutes to pass nothing more than my name, address and the aeroplane registration in the end: two of the three of which he still transcribed wrongly. My advice to anybody after that experience would be to scribble down basic details, and to hand them to somebody else who wasn't in the accident with instructions to make the phone call.
I am pretty much better, the aeroplane's a write-off, but I am feeling at the moment that there is a lot there where I and others were not adequately placed to deal with the aftermath of the accident and in GA we perhaps need to get our support structure a lot better than it is.
I want to talk about something else. The aftermath, and the things we may, or may not, be prepared for. A few things are giving me trouble right now, and I think would give anybody trouble.
- Being a follower of rules, I told my AME. They informed me that until they'd established that I was definitely fit to fly again, my medical was suspended. I was in A&E for a couple of hours and they were ultra cautious - blood and urine tests, finger tip examination, x-rays. Conclusion - no serious injury, no head injury. Problem is, I am now finding it impossible to get the A&E department to send my AME the "casualty card" without which they feel unable to reach a conclusion. For various reasons, this looks likely to cost me at least a month's flying, the bruises being totally gone after about 4 days.
- My significant other describes themselves as "rattled": one can hardly blame them. I've explained - missing out the fine detail (and, frankly, quite how close I was to dying, which is very) most of what happened to them, and asked - as they aren't aviation people and it will just add stress without understanding we don't talk about this with the rest of the family. I respect their sensitivities, and they respect my desire not to scare the rest of the family. But they have said, very reasonably - if not able to talk to family about this, and not being close to any of my family friends, where is their support structure. to whom can they talk about worries, concerns, their own stresses - or worse still turn to for understanding if I was hospitalised or worse.
- By the way, if you phone AAIB now to report an accident, you get a complete halfwit on the phone. Clearly somebody with a checklist on a government switchboard nowhere near Farnborough. Knew nothing about aviation, couldn't do phonetics, no access to aviation charts to allow me to describe the location, no ability to even check my name and address were correct - it was a miracle that the forms eventually reached me after nearly a week, as virtually nothing pre-filled-in is correct. This actually distressed me quite a lot, whilst trying to make an immediate report from the accident site before being driven to A&E, anticipating five minutes then go and get checked over - I was on the phone for 20 minutes to pass nothing more than my name, address and the aeroplane registration in the end: two of the three of which he still transcribed wrongly. My advice to anybody after that experience would be to scribble down basic details, and to hand them to somebody else who wasn't in the accident with instructions to make the phone call.
I am pretty much better, the aeroplane's a write-off, but I am feeling at the moment that there is a lot there where I and others were not adequately placed to deal with the aftermath of the accident and in GA we perhaps need to get our support structure a lot better than it is.
Morten liked this
FLYER Club Member
