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 Safety is Everybody's Business

by Jim Rice
If you are an AMA member, you need to be concerned with safety at your flying field. It is easier to take the heat from a fellow club member for correcting him or her for a safety violation than it is to take that same person to the hospital or the morgue.
 

I own a hobby shop and it used to worry me to stop people and correct them on safety issues but one day it dawned on me that if one person creates a serious enough safety incident it could cost us a field, which would really hurt my business. If that person maimed or killed another good customer/friend, I would be out a customer anyway. If they did any of that without me trying to intercede and make a difference, then I would probably never forgive myself.
 

So, the result has been that I take safety to heart every day at every field and I am as gentlemanly and tactful as I can possibly be so as not to aggravate a customer while at the same time fixing a problem at the field. Generally it is not necessary to scream at or humiliate a person who is violating safety rules, a gentle reminder can usually do the trick.
 

However, if it is really serious and a nudge doesn’t do the trick, it may be necessary to take a more forceful approach or even call in assistance from your club’s board of directors.
 

It is important that we all have the opportunity to fly in a safe environment. I have seen pilots land, pack, and go home to avoid flying with or being around a pilot who is dangerous or drinking and flying. That only allows the standard to be lowered.
 

I worked for a really smart Major General once who drilled into all of us the fact that if you walked past a problem and didn’t correct it, you set a new standard and it was lower.
 

That same philosophy applies to our flying fields. If any of us observes a problem and doesn’t try to fix it, we have told the perpetrator that what they are doing is okay with us.
 

Complaining to each other about the problem without confronting it only aggravates you and your friends while appearing to condone the activity. Find a way to bring it up or get someone else to do it but don’t wait until the next club meeting or tattle to the Safety Officer. It really needs to be fixed at the time of occurrence so it can be discussed, if necessary, between all parties present at the time.
 

Every accident involving safety should be drilled into your mind and reviewed from every aspect to ensure that you know what caused it, what should have been done to avoid it and what you will do in the future to prevent recurrence.
 

I had a friend hit in the face with a Taurus and it buried the Enya .60 in his cheek all the way to the carburetor. As it turned out, the injured guy had gone dead stick and was walking across the runway to retrieve his airplane and the other guy was making a low, fast flyby. He was turned toward his airplane and could not see the first guy walking onto the runway behind him. He saw him only as his airplane collided with him.
 

It was all avoidable! Simple communication between pilots would have prevented the incident. I make sure I loudly call out “On the field” and make sure everyone in the air at the time acknowledges before I walk across the dead line and then yell “Clear” when they can use the runway again.
 

A second incident involved a man starting a G-62 with a starter and the assistant holding the large aircraft by standing in front of the horizontal stabilizer. As the starter was pressed against the spinner, the airplane moved backward between the holder’s feet and simultaneously the engine started. As the man with the starter looked down to put the starter down, the airplane at a high idle moved back forward until it came to rest on the holder’s ankles.
 

The man starting the engine just saw the airplane moving and thought his friend had released the airplane so he tried to reach over the propeller and grab the fuselage to stop the airplane. In the process, he got his forearm in the propeller and got several deep cuts in his arm requiring a trip to the emergency room and several stitches.
 

I reviewed the incident with an eye toward ensuring it never occurred when I was holding an airplane. The best answer is to kneel or crouch down and hold the airplane with your hands, however many of us are older, heavier, and lazier than others.
 

What I do now is stand over the airplane with the leading edge of the stabilizer against one ankle and then I place the other foot forward so that the trailing edge of the wing is against the shin. That way, the airplane cannot move back as the starter is applied and cannot move forward when it starts.
 

If the airplane is big enough or is a biplane, I can stand with the stabilizer against both ankles then bend at the waist and hold the canopy or top wing to stop the airplane from moving to the rear. Restraints are good but they do not stop the airplane from moving back when the starter is applied.
 

Try to make something good come from every accident. Learn what caused it then plan to prevent it and educate others at the same time. Q