Wed Feb 06, 2019 9:12 pm
#1672488
There are very few fatal flying accidents in the UK. Those that occur rob families and friends of loved ones.
The safety culture is ingrained in every aviator from the word go and we all take it seriously. That is a given.
The number of people who form an orderly lynch mob when something goes wrong is a disturbing side effect of a culture where a safer than Thou mentality is seen as a good thing. I have safety sense leaflets, Gasco, Safety Spot, Fourier's analyses, Sunny whatsername, The CAA and everybody else pontificating and slicing the world ever finer to save me from myself. Even then, with great coaching, a thousand hours or more and an immaculately looked after aircraft on a fine day, I can still come to grief as many far better pilots than me have done before. Training makes me safe but does clogging my head with more safety briefings and lectures than I can assimilate in a lifetime?
I came this way for pleasure. Last Sunday's sortie over snow was joy. Nobody ever stops learning, if they are wise but If it is considered necessary to ram the safety message down our throats ad nauseam, is it not more likely that many just glaze over and miss important things?
It's getting born what kills you in the end. I have been lucky enough not to lose friends flying but I have lost them to illness, drugs, drink, fags, motor cars, motorbikes, electricity and sheer old age. I miss them and mourn them but I would not sacrifice the invigoration of flying on the altar of safety because so many think it is "the most important thing." There is no gain once it reaches saturation point.
I want a more proportionate debate than "If one life is saved." That way lies well meaning tyranny. Risk assessments that have some basis in actual likelihood would be a start. The culture militates against it. (I used my own tools at work today for half an hour after signing off a six page risk assessment that took two people three days to compile but nobody died so it was well worth it. )
Too many seem to think that safety comes from stuffing the airframe with equipment and completely neglect the very reason why people over the years have studied and paid for the privilege of flight.
I have been taught to fly safely, to maintain the aircraft carefully and to be aware of danger.
Continuous awareness is part of every pilot's mindset. We call it airmanship.
Aviate, navigate and communicate, bretheren.
Flying isn't as safe as sitting in front of the TV.
I get it.
The safety culture is ingrained in every aviator from the word go and we all take it seriously. That is a given.
The number of people who form an orderly lynch mob when something goes wrong is a disturbing side effect of a culture where a safer than Thou mentality is seen as a good thing. I have safety sense leaflets, Gasco, Safety Spot, Fourier's analyses, Sunny whatsername, The CAA and everybody else pontificating and slicing the world ever finer to save me from myself. Even then, with great coaching, a thousand hours or more and an immaculately looked after aircraft on a fine day, I can still come to grief as many far better pilots than me have done before. Training makes me safe but does clogging my head with more safety briefings and lectures than I can assimilate in a lifetime?
I came this way for pleasure. Last Sunday's sortie over snow was joy. Nobody ever stops learning, if they are wise but If it is considered necessary to ram the safety message down our throats ad nauseam, is it not more likely that many just glaze over and miss important things?
It's getting born what kills you in the end. I have been lucky enough not to lose friends flying but I have lost them to illness, drugs, drink, fags, motor cars, motorbikes, electricity and sheer old age. I miss them and mourn them but I would not sacrifice the invigoration of flying on the altar of safety because so many think it is "the most important thing." There is no gain once it reaches saturation point.
I want a more proportionate debate than "If one life is saved." That way lies well meaning tyranny. Risk assessments that have some basis in actual likelihood would be a start. The culture militates against it. (I used my own tools at work today for half an hour after signing off a six page risk assessment that took two people three days to compile but nobody died so it was well worth it. )
Too many seem to think that safety comes from stuffing the airframe with equipment and completely neglect the very reason why people over the years have studied and paid for the privilege of flight.
I have been taught to fly safely, to maintain the aircraft carefully and to be aware of danger.
Continuous awareness is part of every pilot's mindset. We call it airmanship.
Aviate, navigate and communicate, bretheren.
Flying isn't as safe as sitting in front of the TV.
I get it.
FLYER Club Member
