Feb 3rd was the annual AOPA Safety Seminar put together by Pascal Kremer. Every year it just gets better and better – the speakers, the topics, the ambiance! It was an amazing day sharing knowledge and experience.
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Jean-Claude Petesch from the DAC returned again this year to provide us with the Annual Safety Review – all the stats and figures at ELLX – always neatly presented and explained.
This year he stressed how important it is to report occurrences. 2022, the latest year of figures, was the first year ELLX had more than 3,000 reports of occurrences – it is great that people are reporting. To note that these are single events, since the DAC takes the time to merge reports submitted by various people for one event (ie: the pilot, tower and runway maintenance might each submit a report for a single event).
Occurrence report handling at the DAC changed in 2023 in order to comply with a standardized European format ERCS. This past fall, the DAC received new software too, ECCAIRS2. Reporting will become automated for operators while still manual for GA pilots via a portal. The website is: www.aviationreporting.eu
You can submit a report without creating a user however the advantage of creating a user is that you can see a listing of the reports you have submitted.
Within the system you can save and work on a draft that no one else has access to and when it’s ready, you can submit it. Once the document is submitted you can no longer make changes to it and the DAC can see it.
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Ralf Hubo from the Deutscher Aeroclub talked about flight safety at club level. He was with us to present their newest endeavor – flight safety training for clubs, launched this year. They can train club safety managers thus ensuring that safety is top of mind at club level. He also invited everyone to fly to his home airfield Marpingen EDRC for the upcoming events in 2024.
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Roland Kaps-Becker from AOPA Switzerland, no stranger to our Safety Seminars, spoke about the impossible turn. He reminded us that engine failure at take-off is the most dangerous as we might still be quite low to the ground and risk loss of control. His message was clear – this is not a black or white issue – it all depends on your plane, on the weather conditions, on your own experience, on the configuration…..it all depends. He reminded us to practice in the safety of the simulator.
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Wendell Lynch from EASA in Cologne turned our safety talks upside down, asking us to focus on the positives, on what we are doing right rather than highlighting the negatives, what we should avoid.
He pointed out that an estimated 0.069% of the EU population are GA Pilots based on licenses issued within the EU – that makes us an elite group of people. We should seek to master our craft, continuous training and learning, honing our skills and to do so mindfully, deliberately. He stressed the importance of knowing your equipment, being really familiar with it, so that if something goes wrong, you are not fumbling around with it.
He challenged us to not just accumulate flight hours but to fly with intention – even if you are flying a circuit, focus on something – like landing without flaps and work on that during your circuit practice. Pick something to work on actively and to feel it, improve on it.
He encouraged us to prepare and write out our own checklists, our own Standard Operating Procedures – to share these with other pilots.
Here’s a website he suggested to check out www.flysto.net for pilot stories and perspectives.
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Jan Hendricks from DFS-FIS explained the role of Flight Information when contacted by pilots flying in marginal weather conditions. No matter the situation, FIS staff will always try to help the pilot make safe decisions and keep calm. He stated that VFR in IMC is always an emergency and they will to their utmost to assist. Most importantly, good flight preparation is key to avoid critical situations. He reminded us that the DFS has training videos on youtube: DFS-VFR-Tutorials – YouTube.
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Marc Frank from Luxair introduced us to their TEM machine – Threat and Error Management. Threats are not a danger perse but increase operational complexity. If not properly handled and without any correction they may develop into something dangerous. Error tools to resist are systematic counter measures that are already present such as equipment, software, SOP’s, checklists and Error tools to resolve are human skills that you bring to the situation such as knowledge and experience. He asked us to think about this:
- Threats come at the crew and require predicting the future
- Errors come from the crew and require dealing with the past
- Undesired aircraft states require managing the present
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Thank you to everyone who helped organize this wonderful event! See you next year!